CMS to offer students three learning options when it starts Aug. 24
Cutter Morning Star School District has decided to start the
2020-21 school year on Aug. 24, offering three learning options for students.
The district had originally planned to start on Aug. 17.
“We’re starting school on Aug. 24, and we registered new students on July 20 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. We’re registering returning students on July
30,” Superintendent Nancy Anderson said.
When the students register, the district is going to want to know which learning option the student prefers, she said, noting they sent out a survey to parents requesting which learning option they felt comfortable for their students.
“We didn’t (receive) 100% (of the) responses, we’re still waiting on them,” Anderson said.
She said students have the options of “Eagles Every Day,” “Eagles Virtual Academy” and “Eagles with Options.”
“(Students who pick) ‘Eagles Every Day’ will physically attend school Monday through Friday during regular school hours. Students will receive face-to-face instruction from their teachers in our classrooms with integrated technology,” the district said.
Anderson said students and staff members will follow the guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Arkansas Department of Health, noting the district does not yet have its plan finalized but is in the process of doing so.
“Students will come to
school, and we’ll have school as normal as we possibly can. In addition, with integrated technology in the classroom, the teacher will be in the classroom, the students will be in the classroom, but we will have a lot of technology going on in that classroom as well,” she said.
“Eagles Virtual Academy” is for students who will not physically attend school but will receive all their instruction and assignments at home through their school-issued Chromebook or tablet, according to the district.
Students who choose “Eagles with Options” will receive “a combination of school at home and face to face instruction at school,” the district said.
“(The ‘Eagles with Options’) includes home-schooled students and ensures that students who are home-schooled can also participate in extracurricular activities because they also are enrolled for a portion of the day in school. We will discuss this option individually with those families who are interested in choosing this option,” the district said.
Anderson said the district has been doing “Eagles with Options” for the past three years and has had great success with it.
She said it is not in response to COVID-19, noting, “It’s just something that we’ve already offered, and it’s not a new thing, but we’ll continue to offer that.”
Anderson said the district’s cafeteria is operated by Chartwells, a dining service, and it has given the school guidelines on how it plans to follow the CDC’s directives on social distancing. It plans to offer a graband-go scenario, so no one is sharing any kind of utensils or touching the same item.
“We already have that in place. We’re working with our cleaning crew to do the same thing. We are fortunate at the elementary; we have a sink in every classroom. So, there will be hand washing stations,” she said.
Anderson said the school would be doing health checks, noting they are in the process of hiring extra staff to help with some of the screenings.
“We will have health care professionals on-site helping with the temperature screenings, and the questionnaire,” she said.
Anderson said the district is also in the process of making plans within the buildings for the students who return to school.
She said the cleaning company that works for the district would be using the spray mist to take care of the buses for the morning, noon and evening time.
“Anytime we have students that get on (the bus), it will be sanitized before and after,” Anderson said.
With the school start date being changed as part of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s directives, she said she believes the district will push everything down precisely one week for the students.
The teachers’ contracts are going to have to change because they are on a different amount of days, she said, noting there is a law that the individual can have 40 days, but no more than 50 days in a nine-week period, Anderson said.
“It actually makes the second nine weeks end in January, and we always like for our second semester to end before the Christmas break because we always like to do our semester tests then,” she said.
“We know that it is always better to finish up all of the nine weeks in semester exams before students go home for two weeks and then have to come back in January to take tests after being out for two weeks,” Anderson said.
She said she wants everybody to know that the district is ready to have school back in session.
“It’s been a long summer since it started in March, but we are ready. We are anxious. We are prepared. I cannot wait to see (everyone) again,” Anderson said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed the district to meet every child’s needs, she said, noting, “It has stretched our creativity and flexibility” and allowed them to “monitor and adjust to meet all students’ needs, no matter (what).”
Anderson said she wants the teachers to know she is thankful and appreciative of all the hard work they have done.
Anderson said she wants the community to know it has been a very challenging time and the workload has been exponential because they have not stopped and not had a break.
“We are ready to see our kids. We want our kids back, and we missed them. Aug. 24 is going to be almost like Christmas morning,” Anderson said.