Quad Cities Dispatch/Argus recently issued the following announcement.
The Davenport Community School District is still preparing for some students in the classroom in August, though it intends to ask for a waiver that would allow for a fully virtual start to the school year because of concerns about COVID-19.
On July 17, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Iowa school districts must choose traditional classroom instruction or a mixed online/traditional model with at least 50% classroom instruction when classes resume. The plan has exceptions: Families can choose all-online classes instead, and districts can seek state waivers to the 50% requirement that would be considered if there are local surges in coronavirus cases.
Robert Kobylski, superintendent of Davenport schools, said Thursday he intended to request the waiver based on county health officials' worries about the extent of COVID-19 in Scott County and Davenport but that details of the waiver process had not yet been released by the state.
Without details of the waiver process available, Kobylski said Friday that he plans to send a letter to Reynolds because he cannot wait for those guidelines to be issued.
“August 24th is circled on my calendar, and it’s quickly approaching,” he said.
If the waiver is approved, Kobylski said he hoped the solely virtual teaching would be needed only during the first of the school year.
The hope would be that the number of COVID-19 cases would drop, allowing in-person instruction to begin, he said.
Should the waiver be denied, the district will adopt the mandated hybrid model, Kobylski said.
That hybrid plan will divide students into two cohorts that will attend classes on a 10-day rotation, Kobylski said. The first five days, one group will have in-person classes for three days and the second group, two days. The following five days, that schedule will reverse.
Like the other districts in Scott County, Davenport will implement safety measures to help minimize the impact of the coronavirus.
Measures will include face coverings being issued to students and staff that will be required when social distancing cannot be maintained, Kobylski said.
Furniture and other items not essential to the classroom are being removed to better allow for social distancing, and specific desks will be assigned and color-coded to show the distinction, Kobylski said.
Cleaning will be done nightly out of an abundance of caution, he said.
Before Reynolds' announcement, Davenport and the other districts in the state were preparing plans that included three different options for resuming classes: completely virtual, a mix and completely traditional.
Davenport's plan had all three options on a spectrum and added a second hybrid option that would allow the district to shift as pandemic conditions changed, Kobylski said. The school year would have started with fully virtual instruction, then moved along the scale to 25% in-person teaching, then 50%, then finally having all students physically in a classroom.
Kobylski said he planned to discuss the waiver with the district’s school board during its Monday meeting and, if that went well, submit the letter to the governor Tuesday.
He said he did not know when he might receive the state’s answer to the request.
Original source can be found here.
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