Lake Hamilton shifts start of school to August 18
PEARCY — The Lake Hamilton School Board voted Monday to delay the start of student instruction by five days, until Aug. 18, to allow more professional development days, the school district said Tuesday.
The new start date was included in the calendar for the 2020-21 school year approved by the board during a special called meeting on Monday.
The original start date was Aug. 13. The change is designed to allow faculty and staff additional professional development days prior to the start of school, the school district said in a statement released Tuesday.
While the district will hold school on-campus in the coming school year, it will also offer a “100% online option,” according to its website.
All students who live in the school district boundaries or who have an approved school choice application will be eligible to enroll in the Lake Hamilton Virtual Academy, which is available for all students K-12, the website says.
In addition to virtual learning, the school district will also offer blended learning, which will occur mostly in school buildings but allows for a rapid transition to crisis or remote learning. This learning will primarily be face-to-face, but in a digital format. It will resemble traditional learning, in that students report to school each day, but in the event of school closure due to inclement weather or pandemic restrictions, students would transition to learning from home.
The third type, crisis learning, is remote learning from home initiated by school closure.
Brian Bridges, communications and public relations coordinator for the school district, said that creating a virtual learning option was a district-level decision with input from school and staff, and taking into account parent choice as expressed in the survey results.
“After seeing the need for this option, we looked at what was being offered by (Arkansas Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) and spoke with other districts to create the best possible virtual academy at Lake Hamilton,” he said.
Bridges said that the district released a parent survey on June 18. Over 2,200 parents submitted their feedback.
“After reviewing the responses, we learned that even if the school were open for on-site instruction, a portion of Lake Hamilton School District parents would choose a virtual option for their child, if it was offered,” he said.
Bridges said that the district plans to provide blended (on-site) and virtual (online) options for this upcoming school year. Parents wanting to choose the virtual option for their student(s) would commit to one full semester at a time.
“We believe that the most effective learning occurs when children are face to face with teachers and staff on-site and in person,” Superintendent Shawn Higginbotham said.
The district would like nothing more than to have 100% of its
students on campus in August. However, they recognize that the current global health crisis requires flexibility with instructional delivery, he said.
“We are offering full virtual options to families who choose not to return on-site for the beginning of 2020-2021. We continue to plan the Lake Hamilton Virtual Academy to produce the best possible learning outcomes,” Higginbotham said.
The district expects that this experience will include a robust curriculum, quality assignments, meaningful activities, with regular two-way interaction between Lake Hamilton teachers and our students off-site, he said.
“It will be as close to an on-campus experience as can be realized given the constraints of distance and novelty of the approach for many of our students, parents, and staff,” Higginbotham said.
Bridges said that LHSD would like to let parents, students, staff, and community members know that, now more than ever before, Lake Hamilton will be here for them during the upcoming school year.
“The Lake Hamilton School District will follow the (Arkansas Department of Health’s) guidelines and the Arkansas Ready for Learning report issued by the DESE as we plan for reopening in the fall,” he said.
To keep the social distancing rule, the district will arrange classrooms and other areas to maximize spacing between students and teacher(s) to the extent possible, Bridges said.
He said that they would also amend schedules to conform to social distancing guidelines. A few possible examples include staggering lunches, minimizing transitions, teachers traveling to students instead of students switching to different classrooms, etc.
Parents will be expected to screen their children prior to entering any school bus or building by using the ADH screening guidelines, Bridges said.
All staff and approved visitors entering school buildings will be screened prior to entering. Entry to each building on campus will be limited to admit only essential visitors, he said.
For parents choosing the blended learning (on-site) option this year, there is nothing further they need to do at this time, Bridges said.
The parents that would like to choose the Lake Hamilton Virtual Academy should register their student on or before July 10 at https://lhsd.info/LHVA-Registration-2020, he said.
“All of the Lake Hamilton School District reopening plans will be placed on our district website under the ‘LHSD is Here’ tab,” Bridges said.
“Under this tab, there are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions, district communication documents, information on the LHVA, and more. A direct link can be found here: https:// lhsd.info/LHSD-is-Here,” he said.
Bridges said that the district is proud to be able to offer learning options this year at Lake Hamilton. The safety of the students and staff is their number one priority. The district’s goal is to provide the safest experience possible.
“That includes a rich educational experience with opportunities for social interaction and extracurricular activities while adhering to guidelines provided by the (ADH),” he said.
“We do not know every detail just yet, but will continue to share updates on our website, social media, and mass notification systems when they become available,” Bridges said.