May 20, 2020

North Linn Parents,

I wanted to provide a  quick update on a couple of items as it pertains to athletics, graduation, prom, food service program, summer school and our district’s Return to Learn plan.

·Athletics – As you may be aware of by now, the Governor will allow athletics to resume in some fashion beginning on June 1st.  Please know and understand that we will need to adhere to our Iowa High School Athletic Association’s recommendations.  I assume those will be forthcoming to schools within the week.  As soon as we receive these recommendations and guidelines, we will be communicating these.  

·Graduation – Graduation is still scheduled for July 12th.  As social distancing restrictions ease, we will continue to collaborate with Linn County Public Health to determine how we can hold a commencement that will be somewhat similar to a traditional ceremony.  We have been discussing the possibility of an outdoor ceremony located on our football field if we need to adhere to social distancing recommendations. Obviously later in June, we will be communicating what our plans will be.  

·Prom – Prom is still scheduled for July 16th.  Also in June and based on Linn County Public Health Department recommendations and requirements, we will be communicating what our plans will be.

·Food Service Program – We will be continuing our Monday and Wednesday food service distribution for the month of June.  We will still be distributing to any students 18 and under. There will not be distributing grab and go meals on Monday, May 25th but will deliver meals on May 26th for the week.  Pick-up time will remain from 11:00 till 11:30 at Troy Mills Christian Church, Coggon Fire Station and Walker Fire Station.

·Summer School - If COVID restrictions continue to be eased we will be offering a morning summer school program Monday through Thursday for our elementary children beginning the week of July 13th and run the program for 3 weeks. Although we will be expanding the program to involve more students than we normally do, we will still organize this invite program similar to previous years.  But to also meet the needs of all of our children, we will be offering online summer school lessons developed by our teachers similar to what is currently being offered.  We will make available devices and/or hotspots if this is needed for online learning.  This gives all of our students an opportunity to stay engaged if a family so desires.

·Return to Learn – The district has begun the process of developing our Return to Learn plan for this fall.  We are developing 3 different plans to address possible scenarios of a required online platform, a hybrid delivery if only a portion of our students are able to come to the buildings due to social distancing requirements and if we are able to return in a normal fashion.  We are flushing out our plans to address learning gaps caused by our early departure from school, define our essential learnings, revise our scope and sequence and also develop health and safety plans for our students and staff.  We will be sending out a survey to our parents, students and staff to solicit their input as we continue to develop our plans.  

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or one of our staff members if you have any questions and please stay safe!

Doug