Frequently Asked Questions PARENTS 6-8-20 

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The Mark West Union School District is working to develop a safe, engaging, and flexible education plan for the 2020-21 school year for our students and school community. To best serve the needs of our learners, we greatly appreciate your input! Please take a moment to complete the MWUSD: Parent Survey 2020-21 when you receive it. We appreciate your completion of the survey by June 19, 2020.

During these challenging times, we want to communicate information in a timely manner and do our best to answer your questions. Please read the following “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)”:

Procedures

  • What will entry onto campus look like if students return to school? 

○ Although we are still working on the specifics of what this would look like, a few key pieces being considered are:

■ Temperature checks – We are investigating a no touch temperature check system that sits on a table. Students would pass through to be cleared before entering. An employee would be monitoring it without touch.

■ Staggered start/end times – This idea of staggered start/end times is being explored. If we implement staggered start/end times and siblings fall within different end times, the siblings would likely be leaving together at the earlier dismissal.

  • Will parents and visitors be allowed on campus? 

○ In order to minimize contact at school, parents and community members will not be allowed inside the school campus. School gates will be closed. Parents and visitors will be allowed no further than the school office. The particular details on how this will be carried out might vary slightly by school.

  • If some students are off campus part of the week, is lunch still available to them on the days they are not at school? 

○ Yes, students will still have access to lunch. We will organize a process by which they can pick up their lunch at school or take lunches home when they are on campus.

  • Use of the current lunch cards does not seem to be a safe practice at this time. Can we return to the old system of using student IDs? 

○ We will look into the safest format for doing this.

Programs/Schedules 

  • If in-school instruction takes place, will there be a class size limit to help with social distancing? 

○ Class configurations would be developed based on safety/health needs. Currently, the guidance is recommending no more than 12-16 students per class.

  • Is the district exploring a hybrid education model for instruction, such as students attending school for a part of the week and engaging in distance learning for the second part of the week? Will there be less students in the class? 

○ Yes, we are exploring a hybrid education model. Currently, the state guidance is recommending no more than 12-16 students per class.

  • If the school implements a hybrid type of learning program, will siblings all be scheduled on the same days? It could be a hardship for parents with children in different grades to have some at school and some at home while also trying to work. ○ Yes, sibling coordination will be a significant element that will be considered if we

offer a hybrid model of learning.

  • If in-school instruction is offered, will there be staggered instruction times so that custodians can clean between student groupings? 

○ We are waiting on guidance documents to clarify the extent of cleaning needed between student groupings. Given that expected cleaning needs may be extensive, we are not considering an AM/PM education model with two different groups of students in a classroom on the same day.

  • Will the emotional wellbeing of children continue to be addressed in whatever educational model the district develops? 

○ Yes, the social emotional learning component will continue to be offered through our district counseling program, regardless of educational model. Support may include classroom meetings, individual and group counseling, student check-ins, and parent consultations. The counselors will also be available for teacher consultations.

  • Will Extended Child Care (ECC) and Boys & Girls Club be available and aligned with whatever model the district is using? Will they accommodate families? 

○ B&GC and ECC will be following state guidelines for their programs and will be functional. They will do their best to align with our programs.

Technology-related 

  • If a family is unable to respond to the parent survey, will the district reach out to families to ensure their input is considered (some may not have technology access)? 
  • Yes. A survey will be sent out this week. Parents will be informed of the survey by Messenger, school/district websites, and district social media platforms. Deadline to complete it online will be June 19. After that, families that did not respond will be followed up with phone calls to seek their input.
  • Will ALL students have access to direct instruction from teachers and a rich academic program in language arts and math? 

○ This is one of the primary objectives of the re-opening committee which is working this summer – to ensure ALL students have equitable access to a challenging, rich curriculum. The objective is also to provide additional support and interventions to those students who need it, regardless of their mode of instruction.

  • Will the district be offering parents classes or training via Zoom to support distance learning? 

○ Yes, we look forward to offering various training for parents. The parent survey asks parents to share their needs and preferences for training. We will provide the training in Spanish as well. We will make every effort to design classes to meet the needs of our families.