Good Afternoon Bulldog Family,
Today, the Governor signed sweeping
legislation addressing the Coronavirus pandemic. There are sections of the law
that deal directly with schools. Below is a list of provisions that affect the
scope and operations of Garfield Heights City Schools:
- Distance learning: For
the 2019-2020 school year, permits school districts, STEM schools,
community schools that are not e-schools, and chartered nonpublic schools
to make up through distance learning any number of days or hours necessary
due to school closures as a result of the Director of Health’s order, any
local board of health order, or any extension of an order regarding
COVID-19. A district or school may amend its existing plan or adopt one if
it does not have a plan. (Current law limits make up through distance
learning to three days.)
Waiver of education requirements: For the 2019-2020 school year, due to
the Director of Health’s order, any local board of health order, or any
extension of an order to close all kindergarten through 12th grade schools:
- Exempts all public and chartered
nonpublic schools from administering state achievement and alternative
assessments.
- Prohibits the Department of Education
from publishing and issuing ratings for overall grades, components, and
individual measures on the state report card, and submitting preliminary
data for report cards for school districts and buildings.
- Establishes a safe harbor from penalties
and sanctions for districts and schools based on the absence of state
report card grades for the 2019-2020 school year. Includes safe harbor
from:
- Restructuring under state law based on
poor performance
- Provisions for academic distress
commissions and progressive consequences for existing commissions (but
specifically retains the chief executive officers’ powers prior to the
2020-2021 school year)
- Buildings becoming subject to the Ed
Choice Scholarship
- Determination of “challenged school
districts” where new start-up community schools may be located
- Community school closure requirements
- Identification of school districts and
buildings for federal and state targeted support and improvement
- Restrictions to which community schools
may change sponsors
- Exempts schools from retaining students
in the third grade under the Third-Grade Reading Guarantee, unless the
school principal and student’s reading teacher determine the student is
not reading at grade level.
- Permits public and private schools to
grant a diploma to any student on track to graduate and for whom the
principal, in consultation with teachers and counselors, determines that
the student has successfully completed the student’s high school
curriculum or individualized education program at the time of the
Director’s order.
- Declares the General Assembly’s intent
that public and private schools continue to find ways to keep students
actively engaged in learning opportunities for the remainder of the school
year, and to grant students who need in-person instructional experiences
to complete diploma requirements or career-technical education programs
access to school facilities as soon as reasonably possible after the
Director of Health permits access, even if the last instructional day of
the school year has passed.
- Prohibits the use of the value-added
progress dimension from the 2019-2020 school year to measure student
learning attributable to teachers for their performance evaluations.
- For community school sponsor ratings: (a)
prohibits the Department from issuing a rating for the academic
performance component; (b) prohibits the use of that rating for the
overall rating; and (c) prohibits the Department from finding a sponsor
out of compliance with laws and rules for any requirement for an action
that should have while schools were closed.
- Permits the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to waive the requirement to complete any report based on data
from assessments that were to be administered in the 2019-2020 school
year.
- Delivery of services to special needs
students: For the duration of the Director of Health’s order, a local
board of health order, or extension of any order closing schools, but not
beyond December 1, 2020, permits licensees of the following boards to
provide services electronically or via telehealth communication to
children who receive services through their resident school districts or
under the Autism Scholarship or the Jon Peterson Special Needs
Scholarship:
- Ohio Speech and Hearing Professionals
Board; Ohio Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Athletic Trainers
Board; State Board of Psychology; Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage
and Family Therapist Board; State Board of Education, with respect to
intervention specialists.
The above provisions
give the Garfield Heights City Schools flexibility in educating our students
while obeying the Governor’s stay at home order. Should the Governor decide to
cancel in person school beyond April 6, the district will:
- Reach out to potential graduating seniors
and work with them to graduate on time with a diploma
- Establish and alternate date and venue
for graduation and for prom
- Establish an extended plan to educate
students in pre-k through 3
- For students in grades 4-12, continue
utilizing the Google Classroom platform for education as long as the stay
at home order is in place
- Continue, during all regularly schedule school
days, to serve hot nutritious meals in the “grab and go” format at the
middle school
- Continue to regularly communicate with
the community regarding district operations.
- Continue to be a resource for the
students and parents to ensure continuity of education.
The Garfield Heights
City Schools is committed to each student and family in our community. We will
continue to maintain relationships, advance educational opportunities, and help
feed our students.
Stay safe. Stay
healthy. Take care of yourselves and of one another!
Sincerely,
Christopher G. Hanke
Superintendent