April 4, 2020

Dear North Royalton City Schools’ Community,

I hope that this email finds you and your families doing well during the stay at home order we are under.  As you know from my last correspondence, Governor DeWine stated that schools will remain closed through Friday, May 1, 2020.  He also stated he will re-evaluate the next steps as we get closer to that date. In addition, on Thursday, he also extended the stay at home order until May 1.  While I have lived through a lot of good and bad things in my 30+ years in education, I can never remember having to deal with something like this. However, I know with our strong student body, our wonderful staff, and our supportive parents and community, we will get through this and as we continue to work together, we will be a better community when we do!

Our staff will continue to work to provide lessons and activities that allow for learning to take place this coming week until Thursday, April 9.  Spring break will be from April 10 - 17. During that time, there will be no instructional activities given to students to allow our staff time to refocus and plan for the reminder of the school closure and possibly the rest of the year in the event that schools will not be in session.  When we return on April 20, instructional activities will begin again. During this time, our District and educators will be utilizing a variety of tools for remote/online education. This may look like tele-education, telepractice and/or video conferencing for some services. This will also mean that other students may be on the video conference at the same time as your student accessing their education at the same time. This is no different than what occurs within our school buildings. Further, a student's parents may be supervising their child working on school work, and they may incidentally see some of the group work. Again, given that observations of students can occur in our District pursuant to policy, this is no different than what would be in place during a "typical" school day. However, because we are in an unprecedented time, I wanted to inform you of this so that you are aware of the possibility, and can advise us if you have questions or concerns about the same.

TECHNOLOGY
As we continue through this school closure, if you have a situation where you need internet access, you can use the middle school parking lot (enter driveway #1 and turn immediately right, parallel with Ridge Road.)  Park in one of the spaces facing the building for best reception. You would choose the guest WiFi option and the password is bears123. If you need support with technology, please email HelpDesk@nrapps.org or call 440-237-8800 and leave a message.

FOOD SERVICE
We will continue to offer bagged meals for families affected by the closure on Mondays and Thursdays.  On Monday, three meals will be provided and on Thursday two meals will be provided. This will help both our staff and families to not leave their homes as often.  There will be no food service available during the week of spring break, April 13-17. Meal pickups will resume on April 20. Parents who are interested in receiving meals should complete this electronic form or call 440-582-9041 for each child by 5 p.m. the day before the meal is requested. I want to once again thank our Food Service and Custodial/Maintenance staff for their efforts to help us feed our needy students.

I will continue to update you as information becomes available. If you have any questions regarding your child or their instructional activities, please contact their teacher or building administrator.  I am always available to answer any questions you have. Feel free to email me at greg.gurka@northroyaltonsd.org .

Thank you for your support for our students and staff.

Greg Gurka
Superintendent
North Royalton City Schools