November 13, 2020

Dear Parent/Guardian,

As we begin the second nine weeks, we wanted to communicate a few items from the district with regards to our daily processes. We are continuing to utilize two-hour delays through December 18, 2020. Once we hit Christmas break, we will communicate our plan moving forward before the start of the new year.

In listening to Governor DeWine this week, he gave us some indication of his thoughts in relation to our current situation with the virus in Ohio. Almost all counties in Ohio are now Red on the color-coding map and the number of positive cases continue to rise at record levels. A reminder that even if we move to Purple we will stay in school and not automatically move to remote learning. The governor gave indications that if the spread continues at this rate, he will consider shutting down places again. He did not reference schools in the same light. However, he did state that community spread could result in making schools shift to remote learning as staffing could become an issue. Currently, our COVID numbers in school have been relatively low when comparing us to other parts of the state. We will only look to move to remote learning if the number of positive cases in our district get to such a level that we cannot effectively function as a district or an order from the Governor or Ohio Department of Health/Allen County Health Department dictates that we close. We will do everything in our power to maintain our current schedule to keep kids in school every day. However, we know that some things are out of our control and we will need to be able to enact an alternate plan should this happen.

One type of alternate plan that many schools have already implemented, besides going full remote, would be to move to a hybrid plan. The rationale behind enacting this type of plan would be to try and curtail the spread of the virus within the buildings by only allowing half the student population into the buildings on a given day. Unlike remote learning, the hybrid model will allow our teachers to see students at least twice a week in an alternating day format. More specifics on this plan will be sent by the building principals by next week. We will make every attempt to make this type of change to our daily routines with plenty of foresight, but ultimately, that may not be able to happen in a convenient timeframe because of the unpredictability of the virus. Again, this plan will only be put in place if we see our number of positive cases and/or quarantines get to a level that dictates our need to implement. Details on transportation and meals will also be communicated to you prior to us moving to a hybrid scenario.

Finally, we are asking a couple more things of you with our daily processes. If someone in your household is being tested for the virus, or someone in your household is showing symptoms of the virus, please stay at home until the test result comes back negative and/or the symptoms go away. We are also asking that you check the COVID-19 dashboard daily to keep up to date with the most recent number of confirmed positive cases in our district. We will continue sending letters through OneView but will no longer send text alerts. Our alert system is designed to be just that, an alert. This does not downplay a positive case. However, we are already communicating each positive case through a letter and updating our dashboard for each occurrence. Our dashboard is updated at the end of every school day. The numbers represent a snapshot in time and will change relative to each case. Once the person(s) with the positive test returns to school or work, the positive test will come off the dashboard. Our link to the dashboard is on left hand side of the main page of our website at www.bathwildcats.org.

We thank you for your cooperation and support of in-person learning. We will continue to work hard to keep our doors open every day for our kids and families.

Sincerely,

Rich Dackin

Superintendent