Ray-Pec Community,
Once again, I thank you for your continued support as we work through this latest wave of the pandemic. I apologize for sending so many emails in a short period of time, but the impact of the pandemic on school operations is becoming more challenging. I want you to know about our plans should these challenges continue.
It Is Becoming Increasingly Difficult To Staff Our Schools
Our number one priority is to keep students and staff healthy and for schools to remain open. Our critical component to accomplish that is the availability of teachers, support staff, transportation staff, and others needed to maintain school operations. Given the current trajectory in the number of positive COVID-19 cases and the lack of available staff to backfill key positions, there is the possibility we may be forced to close a classroom or facilities for a temporary period of time. I assure you that this is our last choice to deal with the issue before us, and we will do everything in our power to prevent closures. I do not write this to alarm you, but to be fully transparent about this potential situation and ask you to think about a personal contingency plan should a temporary closure become necessary.
Our Staff Are Performing Herculean Efforts To Keep Schools Open
I want you to know that all Ray-Pec staff have gone to great lengths, and will continue to go to great lengths, to maintain school operations. Not only are our teachers covering for each other during their plan periods, but other staff members are also filling key positions throughout the school day. This includes all of our non-classroom instructional staff, principals and assistant principals, district office staff, as well as many substitute teachers as we can find to help cover classes. On the operations side of the district, custodians and buildings/grounds staff have been working overtime to cover absences for each other to make sure our classrooms are cleaned and the grounds are safe for school. Food and nutrition staff have also been impacted by COVID-related absences and are also experiencing increased pressures in providing daily nutrition to our students. School nurses, building administrative assistants, and many others are trying to provide necessary COVID-related services while experiencing absences among their teams. Our transportation company, our extended day childcare staff, and all other parts of our organization face daily decisions about how to adequately staff key positions. Though we have been able to accomplish the task to this point, it has taken an incredible effort on the part of every staff member in this organization. I am hopeful we can continue to meet this challenge, but each day is becoming increasingly difficult. Please let our staff know how much you appreciate all they are doing, as the last several weeks have been trying.
Our Plan Should Changes Become Necessary
We know that school closings are an interruption for everyone. That is one reason our staff has gone to great lengths to avoid them. However, if school closures become necessary due to staffing availability, we will consider school closures in the following manner, if circumstances allow us to do so.
- Initially, we will move to a short-term virtual learning environment at the secondary school levels (high school first, and then middle schools, if necessary). Doing so will allow us to reallocate some staff members and attempt to keep our elementary schools open for in-person learning as long as possible.
- If we find that critical staffing shortages are still present after our secondary schools have moved to a virtual learning environment, we will then move to a full Early Childhood through 12th-grade (EC-12) short-term virtual learning environment.
Both of these plans are predicated on the fact that our transportation system or other key operational systems are able to maintain service requirements. Should that not be the case, then we may be forced to move to a full EC-12 temporary virtual learning environment as a first response.
Individual building closures are also possible due to student absentee rates.
As a proactive measure, starting today, our elementary schools will send devices home each day with students. If a closure must be implemented with short notice, students will already have their devices at home and be prepared for virtual instruction.
As you can see, there are a lot of proverbial “moving parts” in our situation right now. We will keep you informed of any changes to our school day through our website and emails sent directly to you. We will also use our social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter as a supplemental means of communication.
Your Assistance Is Still Greatly Needed
It is important that we remain vigilant for symptoms of COVID-19. If your child has a fever, fatigue, muscle aches, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, or any other symptom listed here, please keep her/him at home. This is critical to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread in our classrooms.
Face coverings continue to be highly recommended by everyone when physical distancing cannot be achieved.
Additionally, I encourage you to talk to your healthcare provider about vaccinations to see if they are right for your child.
COVID-19 Case Information
We made the commitment since the beginning of this pandemic to share with our parent and staff communities information of each positive COVID-19 case among students and staff within 24 hours of the District’s director of human resources being notified by the Cass County Health Department (CCHD). If you would like to be on the notification list for this information, please register here if you have not done so already. Additionally, the daily number of new positive cases of COVID-19 can be found on our website dashboard.
Last week, we made the change to notify entire classes of a positive COVID-19 case in a classroom, instead of contact tracing each student occurrence. While I know this has resulted in many emails coming to parents, we believe that parents want to know if there is a case in a classroom whereby their children could have been exposed to the virus. Given the current prevalence of this latest wave in the community, this approach is a more complete way to alert parents about potential exposure in the classroom. We will re-evaluate this approach once our positive COVID-19 cases decline to a more manageable level.
The Board of Education and I thank you for your continued support and understanding of changes that need to be made as we navigate this current wave of the pandemic.
Thank you for entrusting your children to the Ray-Pec School District.
Mike Slagle
