The PORTA Board of Education met last evening to finalize a return to learn plan. After careful consideration of the requirements placed on the district to insure social distancing, face-mask wearing, regular and thorough cleaning and minimizing of 50 or less people in a space, the district has decided to begin the school year utilizing an A/B Split schedule. In short an A/B Split schedule will allow for half the class to learn in person on their scheduled days. For instance if a student is in group “A” they will attend on Monday and Tuesday and remote learn on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If your student is in Group “B” they will remote learn on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and be in-person on Thursday and Friday. In some instances students will be invited to attend four days a week if they have special educational needs or programming and those will be determined on a student by student basis. The process of determining who will be in Group “A” or “B” will begin by a simple split of student by alphabetical order by last name, beginning with Group “A” including last names beginning with A-K and Group “B” comprised of those with last names L-Z. Obviously, there will be exceptions to this order which might include insuring families attend on the same day, a need to balance classroom sizes, as well as other exceptions. Your building principal will contact families individually next week to notify you of exceptions that may affect your family. If you are not contacted please take note of the group your child is initially assigned to by Alphabetical order.
Group “A” students will begin on August 24th and 25th and will utilize the first two days for orientation to our new plan. Group “B” Students will begin August 27th and 28th for their orientation. Those students who are opting for the full remote learning option will be required to attend an in-person orientation on August 26th at 9AM. We anticipate this orientation will last approximately an hour. Beginning August 31st, students will begin attending in their prospective groups and remote learning on those days they are not assigned to in-person learning.
All students, in-person or remote, will have access to daily lunch and breakfast. Our lunch program will follow National Lunch program guidelines and will be very similar to the normal lunch program. Students who qualify for Free or reduced meals will be able to receive those meals at their normal rate and those paid participants will continue to pay for meals if they choose. Remote students may pick-up meals if they choose.
All parents, remote or in-person learners will be required to certify that children are symptom free prior to the school day start. We are developing a system similar to our school reach call system that will text a daily self-certification form to each family to complete. The form will consist two or three simple check off questions to be sent back to the district.
Please stay in contact with our various social media, website and newsletter outreach opportunities so that we can continue to update you on daily schedules, expectations for students and any changes that may occur between now and the beginning of the school term. Please have patience as we are sorting out issues and creating solutions as fast as we can. If you have questions, concerns or solutions please feel free to seek out your building principal.
Group “A” students will begin on August 24th and 25th and will utilize the first two days for orientation to our new plan. Group “B” Students will begin August 27th and 28th for their orientation. Those students who are opting for the full remote learning option will be required to attend an in-person orientation on August 26th at 9AM. We anticipate this orientation will last approximately an hour. Beginning August 31st, students will begin attending in their prospective groups and remote learning on those days they are not assigned to in-person learning.
All students, in-person or remote, will have access to daily lunch and breakfast. Our lunch program will follow National Lunch program guidelines and will be very similar to the normal lunch program. Students who qualify for Free or reduced meals will be able to receive those meals at their normal rate and those paid participants will continue to pay for meals if they choose. Remote students may pick-up meals if they choose.
All parents, remote or in-person learners will be required to certify that children are symptom free prior to the school day start. We are developing a system similar to our school reach call system that will text a daily self-certification form to each family to complete. The form will consist two or three simple check off questions to be sent back to the district.
Please stay in contact with our various social media, website and newsletter outreach opportunities so that we can continue to update you on daily schedules, expectations for students and any changes that may occur between now and the beginning of the school term. Please have patience as we are sorting out issues and creating solutions as fast as we can. If you have questions, concerns or solutions please feel free to seek out your building principal.