Face coverings, shields, and desk barriers have been proven to be effective mitigation efforts against the spread of COVID-19. South Hardin Schools will be providing 2 cloth face coverings, a face shield, and a portable desk shield for all staff and students.

Face coverings, shields, and desk barriers will be required for all staff and PK-12 students at all times when social distancing of 6 feet or more can't take place. Each school building will be working to design common expectations based on the local context of their buildings and grade levels for the situations when face coverings, shields, and desk barriers need to be used. We will be working to find times throughout the day when students and staff can have a break from wearing a mask or shield by using the desk barriers or practicing social distancing of 6 feet or more.

South Hardin Schools has purchased all three of these items to allow for flexibility, and also understanding that wearing one specific type of covering for the entire day isn't practical or feasible for students and staff. With this process we are seeking to strike a balance between minimizing the spread of COVID-19, and giving students and staff a comfortable environment in which to learn and work.

Families and staff are welcome to provide and use their own appropriate face coverings and shields. Fitted face coverings that fully cover the nose and mouth containing ear loops or tie behind bands are permitted. Neck gaiters are also permitted. Bandanas are not permitted.

For more information about the types of appropriate face coverings, including how to wash and make your own, visit this CDC webpage.

We will be implementing many efforts to socially distance our students as much as possible and as often as possible.

Our efforts will include but are not limited to:

• • Assessing and altering classroom seating arrangements to better utilize the entire classroom and create more space between our students.

  • Reinforcing students using only their own materials.

  • Staggering classroom dismissal times when possible in our individual buildings.

  • Implementing the concept of having teachers or staff change locations while students remain in a specific classroom in certain circumstances and whenever possible in our individual buildings.

  • Altering entrance and exit procedures for classrooms during class time.

  • Altering lunch protocols, including increasing the number of lunch times and periods, expanding locations in which students eat lunch, spreading out lunch tables and limiting seating at lunch tables. We will stagger lunch dismissal times and serving times, and in some unique cases, bag lunches may be brought to the students.

  • Altering school dismissal procedures in our elementary schools, eliminating the need for parents to enter the school buildings.

  • Implementing a block schedule at the high school level to decrease the amount of transitions and interactions during the day.

  • Utilizing face coverings, shields, and portable desk Barriers as a mitigation strategy to help with:

    • Transportation to school.

    • Hallway travel throughout our schools.

    • Standing in lines.

    • Delivering small group and one-on-one instruction.

  • Eliminating large group student assemblies and field trips until further notice.

  • Excluding non-essential visitors, volunteers, and outside groups.

  • Implementing high expectations for students to monitor their own social distancing.

  • Expecting parents to support and reinforce these expectations with their students.

Our efforts include but are not limited to the following:

• • Altering and increasing cleaning schedules and procedures to meet the needs of keeping our classrooms sanitized on a daily basis and as needed.

  • Utilizing newly purchased equipment such as electrostatic sprayers.

  • Providing an abundance of hand sanitizer to students and staff in classrooms, at entrances and throughout our buildings.

  • Implementing protocols of leaving classroom doors open whenever possible to minimize the number of hands touching door handles. Disinfecting wipes will be available to our staff to frequently sanitize door handles.

  • Implementing hand hygiene protocols, including times that will be scheduled for students and staff to wash their hands frequently throughout the school day and at appropriate times.

This remains one of our biggest challenges for a return during the Covid-19 pandemic. In typical situations, we tend to run low on the needed number of bus drivers. It is not feasible to double the size of our transportation team or fleet. In light of these facts, our efforts will include but are not limited to:

• • Encouraging any and all parents who can arrange to transport their children to and from school, to please do so in an effort to diminish the number of students on buses.

  • Providing parents who are willing to provide their own transportation time considerations with getting their children to school.

  • Minimizing the number of students on buses to allow for more social distancing.

  • No longer providing in town shuttle services in Eldora.

  • Expanding the Eldora to Hubbard Middle School bus routes from 3 to 4 buses.

  • Implementing mask utilization for all students on school buses. It will also be the expectation for our transportation staff to utilize masks or shields.

  • Sanitizing our buses with electrostatic sprayers on a daily basis after morning routes, and again in the evening.

  • Implementing student health checks (mentioned below) every morning, prior to leaving their home.

We are putting many efforts and protocols in place to monitor the health of our students and staff. These efforts include but are not limited to:

• • Implementing plans for daily health and symptom checks for students and staff prior to coming to school.

  • Requiring students and staff who show symptoms through their daily health checks not to attend school and to visit with their medical professional before returning symptom free.

  • Reviewing and altering attendance policies, as we know there will be greater attendance issues during this pandemic.

  • Establishing various triage zones so students with minor issues or those needing medication will not be coupled with students showing symptoms such as fevers.

  • Altering our protocols for parents picking up children who become ill, and not requiring them to enter the school buildings.

  • Reporting any known positive cases of COVID-19 immediately to the Hardin County Department of Public Health, and completely following their guidance regarding any needed quarantines and protocols.

We are awaiting more guidance from the State regarding gatherings like sporting events and concerts which tend to fill our venues with little to no room for social distancing. We will communicate this information as we get closer to such events.

Iowa Girls HS Athletic Union (IGHSAU) COVID-19 resources

Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) COVID-19 resource center

We intend to launch our annual online registration platform through JMC on Friday, August 7th. It will be accessible online and parents will be notified as this goes live. We ask families to register on or before August 16th so that appropriate plans can be made to start school on time. Within the registration process, parents will have the ability to notify us of documented health concerns or other extenuating concerns and circumstances. They will be able to register for a completely online learning option for the first semester and/or school year. We cannot express enough that we will be responsive to the needs and concerns of our families, and we will work hard to meet the individual needs of all our students.

At this point, it is our intent to be "In School” for the start of the 2020-2021 School Year beginning August 31, 2020.

With this option students return to the school building for a traditional daily in person learning model with appropriate mitigation strategies in place to support the health, well-being, and learning of our students. This is the model that is recommended by the State of Iowa and the one that a majority of our families are hoping we can provide.

We will do a one week modified schedule to start the school year where students with the last name A-L would come on one day and students with the last name M-Z would come the next day. On days students weren't in school, they would be provided homework and tasks to complete independently. This two weeks of modified schedule will provide time to teach and practice new procedures and mitigation strategies. It will also help us to better monitor and respond to the social, emotional, behavioral health needs of our students coming off an unusually long break and unique set of circumstances never experienced before. This schedule will allow us to more quickly assess students current academic levels and learning needs, and allow us to hit the ground learning in a more effective and efficient way following Labor Day. Finally, practicing this schedule will give up a trial run at implementing a hybrid model with less students in our buildings should it ever become required to switch to this model due to increasing numbers of COVID-19 Cases.

During these first two weeks, daily after school activity shuttles will still be provided for middle and high school students if the IGHSAU & IAHSAA have allowed fall sports to begin during the two weeks of the modified schedule.

We know that this schedule will cause some inconveniences to our families, but feel that two more weeks of inconvenience give us the best opportunity to make the remaining 34 weeks of school be the most successful and increases our likelihood of being able to remain in school for the rest of the school year. This plan will also give us time to work with smaller groups of students on utilizing Google Classroom, Zoom, and other programs so in the event we are required to shutdown we can continue learning as seamlessly as possible the next day.

If families have students with different last names that would require the students in that family to go on different days and you wish to send your on the same days during these first two weeks we are prepared to accommodate that. Please contact your building principals to let them know which alphabetical group you plan to send your household of students with the first two weeks.

Schedule for the First Week of School beginning August 31st:

August 31st: Students with the last name A-L

September 1st: Students with last name M-Z

September 2nd: No School for Students (PD Day for Staff)

September 3rd: Students with the last name A-L

September 4th: Students with the last name M-Z

September 7th: No School Labor Day

***Beginning September 8th all students choosing in-person learning every day.

At South Hardin Schools, we understand that the unique and difficult circumstances we are currently facing make the decision to send our children to school a challenging one. The State of Iowa passed a law that requires districts to provide a complete online learning option to families for the 2020-21 School Year due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

For those families at South Hardin Schools who have determined that for any reason they don't wish to send their child to in-person schooling, a comprehensive online learning platform will be offered. A staff member in our district will be assigned to your family and will help to get your family setup and then check-in regularly on your progress through the classes. We will use a program called Edgenuity, which has modules of learning for each course that are 100% aligned with the Iowa State Standards and provide all the required coursework that is approved by the state of Iowa for granting credit. We currently already use this program for our high school credit recovery and alternative school students. Students and their families can go through the classes at any time of day and on any day of the year at a pace that will work for their families schedule. Students will just have to complete the modules required for the semester or full-year of each course for attendance, grading, and granting of credit. Edgenuity will provide online teacher support for students working from home with fully licensed teachers.

Students who chose this option will also have access to the School Lunch Program and will be able to pickup breakfast and lunch on a daily basis if they so choose. All students will also have access and will be able to use a district computer for the semester to complete their course work. If the student choosing this mode of learning qualifies for free and reduced lunch status and doesn't have internet access at home, arrangements will be made by the district to ensure the student has internet connectivity. Special Education Services will also be provided by the school district for those students with unique learning needs.

Those families wishing to participate in this online program must make that commitment for a semester at a time. The cost of the program, the ability to award credit, the ability to successfully integrate students back into an in-person learning environment in the following semester or school year, and the ability to track attendance requires us to make that semester long commitment.

Families choosing this option will go through the traditional registration process for school but will have the option to select "online learning" as the mode of education for the first semester of the 2020-21 School Year. Prior to the Christmas Break, we will check-in with families to determine their wishes for the 2nd Semester of the 2020-21 School Year.

If the Governor, the Iowa Department of Education, or the Hardin County Department of Public Health determine that a staff member, student, group of students, classroom, grade level, school building, school district, or the entire state school system has to stop in-person learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic, we will be prepared to quickly switch from in-person to an online or hybrid model for the number of days we are told to do so.

All students participating in our in-person learning environment will be taking their computer home with them each night and will be trained from the beginning of the year how to utilize the computer in school and at home to effectively and efficiently continue to learn during the shutdown.

The state has said that learning is no longer optional and that all students must be given access to 1080 instructional hours of learning provided by our public schools and our public tax dollars.

Home Schooling has been an option for families in our districts for a number of years, and is still an option this year. Those families who have traditionally chosen home schooling have done so because of their religious beliefs; they are training for a sport or activity that isn't school sponsored that they compete in at an elite level which requires hours of practice and travel; or a family has a parent or parents who are home to provide the teaching and learning for their kids and want flexibility to provide more hands-on learning, field trips, work experience, and travel.

Home schooling is different than the 100% Online Learning option because the families still have to do much of the teaching, planning, grading, and overall organizing of the learning in the Home School Model. We have a Home School Assistance Program, but this program is only intended to get you setup with the materials you need and to provide unique learning opportunities and collaboration among home schooling families. This person does not do the teaching, planning, grading, and organizing of the curriculum. At the high school level, there also become issues with credits and grades for home school courses. With the online program Edgenuity, all credits and grades are approved and recognized by the state and by the local school district because the curriculum has been vetted and approved by the State of Iowa. The district does not recognize home school credits as credits towards transcription on a South Hardin Schools Transcript.

Students who choose the Home School option also don't automatically have access to the School Lunch Program, Special Education Services, and to participate in activities sponsored by the school. Families who Home School must get approval to participate in these programs from the governing bodies overseeing each of these programs.

Those families who haven't participated in home schooling in the past and are wishing to home school their children for the 2020-21 school year should contact Superintendent, Dr. Adam Zellmer at azellmer@southhardin.org. He will work with you and ensure that the appropriate paperwork is be filled out and on file with the state. Students who participate in home schooling don't go through the normal registration process, but have specialized paperwork that must be completed and approved by the state.

Based upon the language included in the Governor’s recent proclamation, the answer is no. Iowa public schools have been ordered to open for the fall with in-person, on-campus learning. Going forward, the State must approve any district’s request to close their doors based upon Covid-19 concerns.

South Hardin Schools remains committed to our students and families, and we will do our very best to be responsive to individual needs. It is our intent to provide for families who feel it is not in the best interest of their child to come to in-person schooling with a comprehensive online learning system through Edgenuity. Families will be required to make this choice and commit to this choice for a semester at a time when registering their children for the 2020-21 School Year.

August 7th - 16th our online registration system on JMC will be open. Families will be asked to make a choice at the time of registration on their intent to participate in the in-person learning or online learning option for the first semester of the 2020-21 School Year. Multiple notifications will go out to families providing a link to this online process during the registration window.

Yes, even if you start the school year online, you can come back to in-school learning at the end of the first semester (January 14, 2021). For financial, record, academic, attendance, planning and staffing purposes, at this time we are asking that families who choose the online option to commit to that that mode of learning for a semester at a time. If you decided to come back to in-person learning, we ask that you let your child(ren)'s school know by Wednesday, January 6th of your intent to return to in-person learning.

For financial, record, academic, attendance, planning and staffing purposes, at this time we are asking that families who choose the in-person option to commit to that that mode of learning for a semester at a time. If you decided you want to switch to online learning, we ask that you let your child(ren)'s school know by Wednesday, January 6th of your intent to switch to online learning.

• Face coverings, shields, and desk barriers will be required for all staff and PK-12 students at all times when social distancing of 6 feet or more can't take place. Each school building will be working to design common expectations based on the local context of their buildings and grade levels for the situations when face coverings, shields, and desk barriers need to be used. The buildings will be working to find times throughout the day when students and staff can have a break from wearing a mask or shield by using the desk barriers or practicing social distancing of 6 feet or more.

While we will make every effort to socially distance our students, we are not capable of maintaining 6 feet of distance between our students at all times. This has much to do with the requirements that face coverings and shields will be utilized as a mitigation effort, per recommendations from health experts. Please see details about social distancing in the full plan above.

Classrooms will be sanitized with appropriate cleaning materials, including electrostatic disinfectors every day and on an as needed basis during the day. Our buses will be sanitized after the morning routes and again after each evening route.

Due to the size of our fleet and the shortage of bus drivers, we are not able to diminish the number of students on each of our school buses to maintain proper social distancing. As a mitigation effort, we will be expecting that face coverings are utilized by all students and staff. We are also asking parents who are capable of providing their own student transportation to and from school, to do so in an effort to diminish our transportation numbers. We will not be providing in town shuttle transportation for students living in Eldora, and we will be adding an additional bus to travel between Eldora and Hubbard to transport middle school students daily.

Students and staff who have symptoms should not report to school. We will be providing help for self-assessments to be utilized at home by students and staff for health monitoring. Students or staff members who develop symptoms during the day will be sent home and asked to confer with their doctors.

Students who develop symptoms during the school day will be assessed in a different location than students needing other medical attention or daily medications. We will create two different triage zones for managing our students’ medical needs. If a student has Covid-19 symptoms, parents will be notified to pick up their child.

If a staff member has symptoms, they will not report to work and will be asked to consult with their doctor. If it is determined that a Covid-19 test is necessary, the staff member will not return to work until they receive an all clear from a doctor.

If at any time we have a student or staff member who tests positive for Covid-19, we will confer with the Hardin County Department of Public Health. Through their consultation with the student/family or staff member, we will follow their guidance regarding any and all needs for quarantining.

These situations will be handled on a case-by-case basis. All decisions will be made in conjunction with our local public health department. We are still waiting for final state guidance for clarity on this issue, but what we do know is that the more mitigation strategies like social distancing, face coverings, protective barriers, and sanitation efforts that we have in place, the less students and staff who will be impacted by a positive case in our schools.

Yes, guidance and protocols are changing on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. Any time we receive information that is critical to the start of our school year or changes that need to be made during the school year will be communicated to our South Hardin Schools families in a timely manner. We will use JMC e-mail messenger, school building and district social media pages, and the district website to communicate out these changes.