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Waimea Elementary School Transition Overview

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Aloha everyone Ms. Takaki from Waimea Elementary School. I just wanted to introduce myself, I stepped into the principal role on October 12th and I've just been having an absolutely an amazing time with a staff and meeting some of you parents and students as well when the opportunity has presented itself So I just wanted to say thank you for welcoming me and today what I want to do is share some information with you about our Waimea Elementary School Learning models and transition plan for for how we plan to get students back on to campus when it becomes safe to do so I'm also going to be sharing with you some information about our Semester Two learning options for distance learning and Blended learning and I am also going to go over the actual Opt-in forms with you so that as you make your choices you fully understand what the two different forms are for. We do have a form thatʻs intended for kindergarten and first grade and then a form for everyone else grades 2 through 5. so I just thank you for being with us as we go over these documents and this information and if you have any questions following this please reach out and let us know how we can help you. Be safe, aloha. Aloha and thank you again for allowing me this time to go over to Waimea Elementary School distance learning model and transition plan for school year 20-21. This plan was developed in the month of October and will be in effect for the month of November and for the remainder of the school year. Our Waimea Elementary School Return to Learn Model is a way that we are going to be making decisions based on CDC guidance and risk thresholds. CDC currently uses the number of 100,000 as a basis for their calculations, our island has approximately 200,000 people on it so we do some simple math and double that number and I will show you what that looks like as we go forward and the reason that we use Hawaiʻi Island data as a whole and not our community zip code data or some might call it zip code data is simply because we are a halfway point in the island, many of our teachers and families and visitor go back and forth between Kona and Hilo for basic things, doctors appointment for grocery shopping excetera and those are largely populated areas and where we see higher case count so because we go back and forth and we bring ourselves in and out of these communities we feel that it's safer to look at the island data rather than Community data. Our goal is to really reduce the amount of risk of transmission on campus and this can only be done when everyone is doing their part to keep each other safe and so this plan is intended to keep our students and our staff safe. The CDC as I mentioned, uses 100,000 as their number that they look at for Active cases within the last 14 days and that's their indicator that they used to determine the risk of transmission so what we do like I said simple math, Hawaii Island's population is about 200,000 people we just double it so if you look here at this chart you can see that the lowest risk area is that darker green and that's when we have zero to ten cases over the last 14 days, new cases in last 14 days for our population of 200,000 and then as you can see as you go up the ladder hear the lower risk area in the light green is from 11 to 40 active new cases in the last 14 days, yellow is 41 to 100 New Active cases in the last 14 days and then where we are currently is in this orange higher risk section with a 101 to 400 active new cases in the last 14 days and anything over that puts us in the highest risk category where you might see 401 or more active new cases in the last 14 days and the way that we monitor this data is through an active live data tracker. Now these dates are a little bit old now, we develop this early on November and late October but as an example, basically on the left hand side youʻll see a tracker that's been copied and pasted from the live site that we use to monitor cases and every day's updated and new cases are add to our calculations. so as you can see for an example on November 1st there were 250 active new cases within the last 14 days and that's how we get to the orange higher risk as you can see that numbers 101 to 400 and we were at 250 so we're currently and still are in the orange higher risk category the way that we get down to a lower risk category is when the range of cases active new cases in the last 14 days goes down to where we see the numbers between 41 and 100 for our island. so knowing that on November 1st we had 150 cases we know that we would need to have a hundred and fifty fewer cases to reach that 100 mark if we wanted to transition to a lower risk model. The most conservative way to predict when we could possibly I move down to a lower risk category is by estimating the days of 0 cases and how many days would we need a zero to get us to that lower risk category and so for the current data, this slide actually was developed even even further back in the beginning of October and so back between October 2nd and October 15th we were at 271 cases and so we know that we would need 8 days of 0 cases to indicate a lower risk category okay so let's say we had those eight days of lower risk category and we had a hundred or less we would be moving down to the yellow model and so us currently at Waimea Elementary, weʻre in the orange, we're all learning from home and we have some special cases of vulnerable Learners in groups and or individuals with CAS approval to have on campus for critical services or instruction. Now if we wanted to move down to that yellow model it's not much different most are learning from home and we may start with a blended model with caution and with CAS approval. However, that does not mean that we would be back on the traditional A/B hybrid Blended what that means is that we may have more special cases or populations or groups on campus in a blended fashion with CAS approval. so what does that mean? when we look at our models here we have developed out what each of these color color schemes look like and so Iʻm just going to go through this slide on how we would transition currently we are in orange. how would we transition down to yellow or up to red? So basically we look at that current data and we look at the live tracker everyday keep an eye on those numbers. Now a daily color change would not necessitate an immediate change to the school model however a consistent color change over a two week period Would lead to an announcement for a transition to the next appropriate model and then implementaion of the actual change would take place two weeks after that announcement is made in order to give parents and other critical Services needed for kids at school campuses to take place so I'm going to go over that in a calendar model for you to give you a little bit better look at it so we will keep you informed should any of our numbers or data indicate a need to remain in or change models. so this is an example of how would make that decision, so this is using October's numbers of course but I'm going to walk you through it. Letʻs say on October 16th, it was a Friday, our count is 276 but for the next 8 days remember that was the most conservative way to get to the next lower model right we know that we're probably eight days of zero, it would more likely be maybe 15, 20, 25 days at real low numbers to get down to that 100 or less active new cases but the quickest way we're looking at the fastest way to get there and the most conservative look at this is looking at days at 0 cases so if the 16th we had 276 on Saturday the 17th all the way through Saturday the 24th we have zero cases no new cases that would put us below the 100 threshold of active new cases so what we would need to do is then watch that number, watch that change to make sure it's consistent and it stays 100 or less over the next two weeks so that would take us until November 7th on November 7th if the numbers stay low and it indicated that it was consistent and I would be making an announcement that we are ready to transition to the yellow on our on our transition and our models plan. so November 7th we make that announcement okay everybody get ready we are going to be changing to yellow and this is what yellow looks like we would need to give two weeks notice that, that model was going to be implemented and so we wouldn't actually see a change or difference in students on campus possibly until November 23rd okay so that would be the potential first day of the new model so any move though, remember to understand that any move on these models, cause currently like I mentioned we are in the orange in the higher risk category. Any move whether is to red or to yellow we would have to get CAS approval so there is a process. now this is what red looks like, this is where we were in March before we all came back and so we had everybody at home it was a stay-at-home order everybody's working from home we had grab-and-go meal service you could pick up. Campus was pretty much closed for business except for a essential operations and there were possible state adjustments per Community conditions right we're on standby based on what the state was guiding us towards and the student instruction model was no kids were on campus, all students were learning from home and that were schedules that were previously shared with you. Now this is where we are currently, this is our orange model and so right now we have all employees working from our campus we have grab-and-go meal service and you can drive by and pick that up from 11 to 11:30 outside the cafeteria we also have some in person vulnerable lunch pickups that happen on campus when we have some of those vulnerable Learners here however they do not eat in the cafeteria they take that lunch back to their classroom and eat under the supervision of their teacher. Our office is open for business with an external service window or a by appointment only. And all visitors needs to be approved by Administration we have telework per HIDOE guidelines for teachers who need to telework for things like travel-related quarantine or covid-19 quarantine and that of course we're always on standby to see if the state makes any adjustments. On the student side most of our students are distance learning from home. We do have some targeted vulnerable student learners on campus for support an individualized or group instruction or Services as deemed necessary and we have prioritized our preschool, kindergarten and first grade learner's as well as special needs students when we consider who is vulnerable and who comes to campus for those critical services or instruction. We currently do not have anybody in school on a full-time basis everything is on a blended schedule and only as needed and then we're going to be sharing some calendars and learning schedules with you folks once we're ready to move towards the quarter 3. this is yellow this is where I if we have those cases that go lower than 100 we would be looking at transitioning to Yellow pretty much everything stays the same for our employees and our Personnel that change that you'll see on the student side is that we would have increased targeted vulnerable Learners on campus for individualized or group scheduling so that may mean that we look at our special needs students and we increase their time on campus or we increase those that need to come to Campus based on needs that we see or we may decide a transition in the next lowest grade level as Superintendent Kishimoto as priority is Kinder, first and second so possibly if we got to the yellow model we would look at whether or not it's safe to bring second grade back on a blended model. now when we get to light green this is where we thought we would start our year with that hybrid A/B schedule in all grades where you know half the kids are at home on A day and come to school on B day and vise versa and pretty much our employees would be the same everybody's working. Our office would still be open, external window and by appointment only just to keep our office staff safe and minimize the traffic flow here but pretty much this is where we would have started the year if we didnʻt  go on to a shutdown. so that's where we'd like to be and then when we get back to this dark green model this is this is regular school this is regular business we would be back to our regular bell schedule, all students would come to campus for regular learning. we would have normal cafeteria, normal office, normal transportation and bussing and normal after school programming this is where we were right before covid hit. This is regular school. This is of course where we would like to be soon as long as we are ready for that and safe however we know that we are in a pandemic and getting back to normal has been and will be a journey so we ask for your patience as we we work to these models and I'm going to take a break here and discuss with you next the options for learning in the second semester. Thank you for allowing me this time to go over the distance learning plan options for semester 2 At Waimea Elementary School weʻre dedicated to making sure that parents have clear options that meet the needs of their families best. While we still transition and navigate ourselves through this pandemic with covid-19. We appreciate your flexability and your understanding as we do our best to educate students in models that work for our families. We want to First go over option number one this is the option in the gray section and I'll go through each model one at a time so that you have a good understanding of what these options look like in practice. option number one is going to be a distance learning option we are having two different distance learning options as you'll see in our option 1 and option 2 however option number one in the gray is self-paced and that option you'll be asked to give us a semester 2 commitment and no changes will be allowed for the remainder of the year as we will have students using Acellus for that option number one students will work at their own pace and parents will agree to provide the necessary guidance and oversight of their studies using that program they will also be using i-Ready as an additional resource and Universal screener three times a year is what we normally do for our students so students would be asked to take that diagnostic three times a year. the teacher's role for those Option 1 students in the gray section A teacher will be assigned, it may be a school level counselor, it may be a non classroom teacher or it could be a classroom teacher depending on the numbers that we have that opt-in to this gray option number one. they will be nearly assigning Acellus to each student monitoring their usage and providing guidance to parents an appropriate expectations for the amount of a Acellus assignments to complete for students to maintain appropriate self-directed instruction and learning. Our school schedule is the same for all models, we observe at 8 to 2:15 schedule that's when our faculty is working and available to assist however in option number one in gray parents will direct the students learning schedule the only thing that you need to be mindful of is that attendance need to be taken by 2 p.m. so that the teacher assigned is able to check attendance for that day and log it into our attendance system prior to the end of the day which is at 2:15 so students must log into a Acellus prior to 2pm. don't need to complete all their work prior to 2pm but they do have to log in initially for the day to be counted present for school that day. This model and all of these models are going to be starting for quarter 3 after we return from Christmas break and so for quarters 3 and 4 if you choose option number one in the gray, all core subjects for your grades that will be ELA, Math, social studies and science you will see SC in the comments and you will have the attached acellus report card that will provide grades. based on the overall assessment by the teacher assigned a summative yearly grade will be given for ELA, math, social studies and science. students will be given a self-reflection assignment to complete regarding GLOʻs. the General Learner Outcomes each quarter and the teacher assigned will assign a rating based on those self-assessment for the GLOʻs. That is our option number one that's basically a learn at your own pace using Acellus only. Then option number two is the distance learning option that I think most parents have expressed interest in since I've been on board over however there is interest in in self-paced so decided to have two options for parents when choosing distance learning or full distance learning in the yellow section option 2 semester commitment is asked of you when you choose this model however we will give some flexibility when a change in Model status indicates a move toward Blended learning on that A/B schedule. The curriculum and programming is going to be the same as our Blended Learners, the teachers role will be the same, our school day is the same. Our learning schedules will be the same as Blended Learners, attendance will be taken the same way as Blended Learners and I'll explain this in a minute and report cards will be done the same way as those on Blended learning. So let me go back up here and explain to you options three so right now currently all students are on distance learning with exception of a few vulnerable Learners groups that we have on campus on a modified schedule so basically all student are distance running whether you opted into it at the beginning or not because the state put us on a distance learning plan right before school year started so what that means is that if you choose option 2 or option 3 you'll be learning the same way while we're at distance the only change would be is if we came back in the light green model that I explained prior in our Waimea Elementary school learning models and transition plan the only time that it would change is when we come back to that light green A/B model then the Blended Learners would start coming back to school and the option two distance learners would stay on distance learning. so let me go down, starting at the top for option 3 so this is the Blended learning model this is where if we come back in A/B you choose for your student to come to Campus on the A or B days currently we are in orange status and so we are on distance learning most likely for yellow status we will continue distance learning and it's only when we get to the light green that We will see a change in A/B learning schedules in students on campus as a whole. so we also ask for semester 2 commitment but as well as option two were going to give some flexibility when a change of model is indicated if you have any apprehensions about sending your students to campus we would be happy to shift them over to option 2 at that time so there is some flexibility. you should choose a model based on where your intentions are if things get better and we can continue on the A/B learning schedule as we initially planned. so for either option two or three are school-based curriculum will be used and taught by our Waimea Elementary School teachers. Wonders, Stepping Stones or Ready Math, Second Step is our social emotional curriculum and we will also be using I-ready for our response to intervention /extra help and as well as our three times a year as a universal screener. the teachers roles for blended learning or distance learning while we're all on distance and they will all be providing daily instruction in social emotional learning, ELA which is English language arts and math using our school selected curriculum and this daily instruction could be synchronous which means everyone's online together at the same time it's live or it could be asynchronous where it's a recorded Lesson by the teacher and students are following along at home or asynchronous work where there is a packet or assignments to do and they are working at home So it will be a combination. all other subjects outside of ELA, math and social emotional curriculum will be addressed at the teacher's discretion including RTI supplemental programs to enrich learning, social studies, science those other subjects will be at the discretion of the teacher. what we've committed to is teaching ELA, math and social emotional curriculum really well, making sure that we're going deep with students on ELA and Math so that students are ready to come back as best equipped as possible when we come back to in-person learning. as I said her school day is 8 to 2:15 you're going to see a Daily learning schedule they will be the same while everybody's on distance it will be at school wide learning schedule and a daily learning schedule we are looking at adjusting a little bit to our schedule so our faculty will be working on that prior to the Christmas break there's any changes we will be updating you by the time we get to Christmas break so you have that break to adjust and make any adjustments to your schedules or planning at home. Then attendance will be taken at the first virtual morning meeting or lesson scheduled for the day that will most likely be at 8 a.m. when we start school so students will get into the practice of being at school at 8 a.m. whether that's online or in person and we have decided that we're not going to we're not going to count or record tardies for the second semester because we we understand that there will be some adjustments if we do Transition back at some point in person learning on the A/B schedule we know that there will be adjustments that families are and so teachers are still going to be worried about tardies and attendance and they're still going to be calling you if kids are not logging in on on time or if kids are sneaking out early however we are not going to count the tardies and record them in the system. we just don't feel that that's where our Focus needs to be what we want to do is focus on supporting students to be online be learning and be engaged so we're going to ask that you support us in that and then for those vulnerable learners that do come to campus for services on a modified schedule your attendance will be taken when you arrive to campus on your schedule appointment or day and report cards we will be using our standards-based report card students will be graded on teacher directed assignment using our school selected curriculum as well as considering i-Ready and how they're doing on i-Ready as the universal screener diagnostic results show us and students will be graded for sure on ELA Math and the GLOʻs and as I mentioned all of their subject areas will be created at the discretion of the teacher based on what subjects are able to be address and fairly graded so Acellus will not be used for any grading purposes for either option two or three. teachers will not be teaching or assigning Acellus assignments students do have access to Acellus because everyone has an account from the beginning of the year however we will not be using it for grading purposes. SoI know this is an adjustment something new but I want to make sure that everybody understands that our report cards are real tricky when we look at Acellus because they are standards based report cards which is much different from percentage-based report card so making that shift was a little bit difficult in the first quarter so you may have noticed that your report card looks much different than in the past so we're going to be doing our very best to using our teachers teaching ELA and Math with our curriculum so that they can fairly address standards and grade on a standards-based report cards. okay that is it for our options the next thing I'm going to go over with you is the actual opt-in forms so you have a good understanding of what those are going to look like and how you make your selections. Okay, so lets take a look at our semester two learning options forms there are two one for students in grades 2 through 5 and one for students in Kinder and first grade and I'll explain why there are differences as we go through the form the first thing I wanted to just point out is that there is a return to school office date up in the left-hand corner and that asks you to return it to us by November 25th and that's the last day of our parent-teacher conferences so that's that's why that date was selected so that teachers can remind and and make sure that we get everything in by the 25th we'd like to have that time to plan and go over all of the forms that are received so that we can make necessary adjustments and have that ready prior to the Christmas or winter break so that parents have a plan and have an understanding of how we're going to move forward so if you have a student in grades 2 through 5 you're going to get a white paper in the mail, a white form in the mail, itʻs going to ask you to fill it out and complete it no matter if you're choosing distance or Blended learning so you're going to put in your students first last and middle name, if you don't know their ID number we can add that for you at School your going to put in your address, your phone number and childʻs grade and each child should have their own form so if you have multiple children we will be sending home multiple forms. you'll also get this in email form and you can print it out at home and bring it in at your leisure, but for those of you that don't have access to printers we did make sure that we mailed every family the necessary forms that you need to return to the office. okay so for the second semester we're giving families a few different options as I just explained to meet everyone's needs and we understand that these changes may result in adjustments to homeroom rosters and that's why we want that time to do that between November 25th and December 18th when we go on break so because of the health and safety concerns related to covid-19 pandemic we're going to ask that you choose and request one of these options for your child or children for the second semester so option number one is that gray option, self-paced learning using Acellus and by checking here you understand and agree that your child will learn at home to through Acellus program with a faculty member assigned to monitor their attendance by 2 p.m. each day and you agreed to be the one that directs and manages your child's learning schedule to ensure that they complete the grade-level coursework in Acellus for their grade by May 21st and that gives you about a week before the end of the school year to discuss any concerns with the faculty member assigned to monitor your child or you can choose option number 2 which is the yellow section that I just explained that is distance learning, full distance learning a teacher facilitated so that one you would be understanding and agreeing that your child will learn from home by way of daily schedule synchronous and asynchronous lessons and assignments provided by one of our Waimea Elementary School teachers They will be using Wonders, Stepping Stones or Ready math and second step curriculum there will be a heavy focus on English language arts and math while all of his subjects will be at the discretion of the teacher while in distance learning and daily attendance will be counted at the first synchronous meeting starting at 8 a.m. option three is we're in the same place as option two right now because we are currently in that orange model and we are on distance learning for all so Blended Learners are currently in distance learning, students will not return to campus until we transition to the light green model that I explained when I went over that transitions plan so you would understand and agree that your child will learn at home by way of daily schedule synchronous and asynchronous lessons the same thing as an option two they're going to use our curriculum and heavy focus on ELA and Math and attendance will be taken each morning when sign into their synchronous meeting or lesson at 8 a.m. the only difference is here in the last sentence and that's if our school transitions to the light green model which put this at the lower risk your child would be invited to return to school on that A/B schedule. so you should be selecting a model based on what your intentions are should the numbers of our covid active new cases in a 14-day. period improve where they would put us in that light green. that's what you should select if you are thinking that when things improve your child will come back to school and you should choose up option three. if you're thinking regardless of how things go I still want my students to learn from home for the rest of the year then you should choose option two and if you really just want to do kind of like your own thing or have a self-paced schedule where you can monitor your student learning via Acellus program that we have provided, then you should choose option one but knowing full well that option one will be a semester commitment changes for the rest of the year and option 2 and 3 we do have a little bit more flexibility in whether or not you go from one to the other if we return back to school so there is some flexibility there. we ask that you take a look at the general distance learning expectations and I'm going to kind of go over them briefly. Iʻm not going to read them all word for word but I just want to point out somethings, everybody will agree to following our learning plans that you choose based on the option that you select. Weʻre going to ask that you really keep an eye on your child use of the school issued device we expect them to be using it safely, responsibly an only for learning purposes we have many students who are trying to get on gaming sites, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook all kinds of different sites that we do not use currently for learning purposes and we also have had several damages and lost Chargers or things like that so we ask that you help us with that and help to monitor their use of are school-issued devices. We do not have the ability to repurchase devices at this present time so we need to make sure we're taking care of what we do have. we asked that you be agreeable if we want you to pick up Resources as we try to limit those pickups but we we somehow you have to ask you to come and pick up things for your children to learn at home we ask that you commit to your choice or your option for the semester and know that there are some flexibility for options 2 and 3. We ask you to make sure that you're helping us to make sure that your children are logging in for their daily lessons, staying for the entire lesson and communicating with the teachers when they're not able to. we already know that parents are helping students at home to complete assignments but doing your best to just kind of double check on them I know this virtual learning is a little bit difficult and when things are getting difficult please communicate with the teacher or encourage your student to communicate with a teacher. please work with us for any required assessments that we need to do we have been informed that we will be taking the SBA test this year those tests were not taken last year if you remember due to COVID however, we have been informed by the DOE that we will be taking assessments this year so we're going to have to work on a on how we get children into do that so please work with us when that comes time for that those are going to be students in grades 5 and then you know if your child has a disability when the school environment is determined to be the least restrictive for learning, choosing distance learning in the home environment would mean that you fully understand that the school may not be able to fully implement the child's IEP under the LRE so under the circumstances and Alternative Learning plan would be developed and most students I'm in the situation do in have an alternative learning plan so I encourage you to communicate with your special education teacher or care coordinator if you have any questions about that and also if you have a child that has English language development needs we do our best to service these students and give them Equitable access to school but if you have any questions or concerns about that I encourage you to call in and talk with our EL and migrant Ed coordinator Mrs. Leslie Walker and if your child unable to attend distance learning for the school day we ask that you communicate with the teachers the same way you would call into the office and and let us know your child's absent from school you would call in and or email in and let the teacher know that your child will not be online for the day. If there is any questions please give us a call here in the office and then what you're going to do is scroll down here and you're going to sign whatever parents or Guardians are in the home please have them sign this form and then down here we just included for you a copy of that model transition indicator and where it shows here were in the higher risk right now our numbers falling between 100 and 400 if we get back down here to 41 to 100 we will see a little bit of an increase of vulnerable Learners on campus and where we want to be is in this lower risk where we can start to bring back our students in general for A/B scheduled learning. so what I'm going to show you now it it looks very much the same this is the form for K/1 students okay so it's the exact same thing the only thing you're going to notice is different is in option number three and the reason it's different is because Blended learning for this group is a little bit different at this time so we've started bringing back kindergarten and grade 1 students or in-person learning hubs, they come to campus from 8 to 12 on an A/B schedule so if you want your child to attend this Learning Hub if you're in Kinder or first grade you should be checking option 3 so this may cause a shift in the homeroom teacher if you previously opt-in to distance learning but if you want your child part of this learning hub, itʻs not a full day, it's not regular school, it's not the regular A/B schedule but it is a vulnerable Learners learning hub that addresses the need for Early Childhood learners it don't have much school experience to get the necessary instruction that they need in person on a modified schedule so it is a little bit different from the form that you see for grades 2 through 5. So again if you want learn at your own pace Kinder and first grade you choose option one, if you want option two this is the distance learning, stay at home for the rest of the school year, teacher facilitated, learn from our teachers here at school or option three which is Blended and right now what that looks like is that they're coming in person from 8 to 12 on the A/B schedule and so if we do go back to the light green if we get down to the light green then we would come back on a full day A/B schedule, right now this is where we're at with this modified schedule from 8 to 12 okay so if there are any questions and I'm just going to go over this bottom part for Kinder and first, looks exactly the same so if you have any questions about either of these opt-in forms or the learning plan options document that I discussed prior please give me a call at the school office and I would be happy to give you more information. Have a great day. Aloha

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