Corona Virus (COVID-19) Information

Good afternoon Minooka 201 Students, Parents and Guardians

We want to start by saying how grateful we are to all of our students, families and staff members that have embraced our Remote Instruction eLearning activities. None of us envisioned ourselves in this situation this year or ever. Our schools and staff should be bustling with our tremendous students interacting with their peers, friends and faculty as they continue their education in our classrooms, libraries, gymnasiums and playgrounds. But everyone has risen to the occasion and done what they must to support our students and communities during this unprecedented time. The collaboration between students, staff and families has never been stronger, and we hope that we carry such partnerships into the future of our school district.

School Calendar

Now that we know the remainder of our year will be done through Remote Instruction, we have decided to utilize the three additional Remote Instruction Planning Days authorized by the Governor and ISBE. We will be using these days on the first three Fridays in May, giving us four days of Remote Instruction eLearning each week and a final Planning day for teachers and staff to catch up from the week and prepare for the upcoming week of learning. Our tentative calendar going forward will be:

Friday April 24 - Remote Instruction Planning Day

Monday April 27 - Thursday April 30 - Remote Instruction eLearning

Friday May 1 - Remote Instruction Planning Day

Monday May 4 - Thursday May 7 - Remote Instruction eLearning

Friday May 8 - Remote Instruction Planning Day

Monday May 11 - Thursday May 14 - Remote Instruction eLearning

Friday May 15 - Remote Instruction Planning Day (Last Planning Day)

Monday May 18 - Friday May 22 - Remote Instruction eLearning

Monday May 25 - Memorial Day - No School

Tuesday May 26 - Thursday May 28 (Last Day of School) - Remote Instruction eLearning

Grading and Reporting

During these unprecedented times, Minooka CCSD 201 prioritizes connectedness and care for our students and one another as we maintain a continuity of learning. We recognize the importance of providing feedback, assessing student progress, and learning; and communicating this to students, parents, and teachers in the form of grades. To that end, we further identify a focus of keeping children emotionally and physically safe, fed, and engaged in learning.

With Governor Pritzker's and State Superintendent Dr. Ayala's announcement of completing this school year through remote instructional learning, Minooka CCSD 201 has revised the final grade markings for 4th quarter to Pass or Incomplete. Students will continue to receive modified grade markings on assignments but the overall summative 4th quarter grade will either be Pass or Incomplete. These marks will be one piece of data to help our educators begin instruction in the fall.

Pass Mark - denotes that a student has shown evidence of mastery of grade level material on at least 50% of the presented opportunities through assignments, activities, and other required work.

Incomplete Mark -denotes that the teacher does not have enough evidence to determine mastery--less than 50% of assignments show mastery.

Pass or Incomplete marks will not be factored into GPA or other Academic distinctions.

It is important for students to continue to learn and show evidence of their learning through the activities and assignments. Inadequate evidence will result in the mark of Incomplete. Please encourage your child(ren) to do their best and ask questions of the teacher when they need help. We are here for them and want to see all of our students succeed and persevere during this time.

Revised Remote Instructional eLearning:

The Final Quarter Grade: The rating of Pass or Incomplete shall be used in lieu of traditional marks. We request that teachers document all efforts to communicate with students in an effort to help them complete work that is assigned and that all possible barriers the learner may have are addressed and alternative methods of engagement/evaluations have been exhausted.

Student Materials

We have also received many inquiries about how families can get their student's belongings out of lockers, desks or cubbies from school. We are working to finalize our processes to accomplish this and plan to have information to share by early next week. As staff members will need to safely maintain distancing guidelines while clearing out the spaces and preparing them for pick up, we do expect this to take a few weeks before materials are ready. Look for information from your school building for specific details.

Thanks again for the continued partnership between our students, staff and families to keep our students engaged and connected during this time. Remember you can email any questions regarding our Remote Instruction eLearning Plan to eLearning@min201.org. We also encourage you to keep sharing those special moments that your student or family have during this time on social media through our #201eLearns hashtag on social media. Truly inspiring stories and moments out there.

Stay safe everyone,

Kristopher P. Monn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Minooka CCSD 201

Follow us:

Twitter @Minooka201, #201Inspires, #201eLearns

Facebook @Minooka CCSD 201, #201eLearns

Previous Annoucements

April 17, 2020

Minooka CCSD 201 Families,

Today, April 17, 2020, Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that the statewide school closure would extend through the end of the academic year, currently scheduled to end on May 29th. This means that Remote Instruction eLearning Days will be used for the remainder of the school year. We have been preparing plans for such an announcement and will have further details on how this will impact our Remote Instruction eLearning Plan and the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year next week once we know the extent of the Executive Order and any subsequent adjustments made by the Illinois State Board of Education.

We understand the hardships that this social distancing has brought upon our students, our families and our communities, and we share in the desire to get our communities safely back to our normal routines. Until that time, please keep staying safe and maintaining the appropriate social distance. We will have more information for you all next week.

Kristopher P. Monn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Minooka CCSD 201

Follow us:

Twitter @Minooka201, #201Inspires, #201eLearns

Facebook @Minooka CCSD 201, #201eLearns

April 1, 2020

Good afternoon Minooka 201 Students and Families,

Yesterday afternoon Governor Pritzker extended the suspension of onsite school through April 30, 2020. This means that Minooka CCSD 201 will continue with our use of Remote Instruction eLearning Days throughout the month of April, with school scheduled to resume on Friday, May 1, 2020.

We are currently in our second day of Remote Instruction and we want to send our thanks and gratitude to the hard working educators, students and families who have worked so hard to adjust and adapt our traditional school practices into a remote learning experience. Some of these live meeting platforms are great ways for students to interact with classmates and friends that we miss seeing in our schools, but parents should be aware that some activities from teachers could include live video streaming using platforms such as Zoom or Google Hangouts. Please see the Live Stream Parent Notification for more information. We are all in this together and we will all get through this together. Our cafeteria staff are serving over 325 meals a day to our communities, and we have loaned out over 250 chromebooks to families to help them during Remote Instruction. We encourage you to let us know how we can support our students and families even further. Email us at eLearning@min201.org with any questions and concerns you have.

Also, we have been asked to share this Grundy County Health Department Press Release - 3-31-2020 . Please, please maintain the appropriate social distancing everyone.

Schools across our state and nation are all adapting and evolving our remote learning plans and protocols each and every day. To aid our schools in planning for remote instruction, we will be scheduling Remote Instruction Planning Days on April 13 and April 24, 2020. There will be no student activities on these days, much like a Teacher Institute Day in our traditional school calendar. Also, please remember that Friday, April 10th was a No Student Attendance Day, so no Remote Instruction eLearning will take place on that day.

If your circumstances have changed and you would like to start utilizing our lunch service pickup at Minooka Junior High School or Jones Elementary, please sign up using the Lunch Pickup Form. Can't drive to pickup lunch? Contact us individually.

We are also planning a second day of chromebook loans to our K-4 families. Look for more information later this week.

Keep engaged, keep reading, and stay safe everyone. #201eLearns

Kristopher P. Monn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Minooka CCSD 201

Follow us:

Twitter @Minooka201, #201Inspires, #201eLearns

Facebook @Minooka CCSD 201, #201eLearns

March 30, 2020

Minooka 201 Students and Families,

Today is the final "Act of God" Day authorized by Governor Pritzker's initial school closing directive of March 13th. On Friday, March 27, 2020 Governor Pritzker issued Executive Order 2020-15, which authorized the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to create and implement Remote Instruction Days. ISBE then released rules and additional guidance over the weekend, including a detailed report titled Recommendations on Remote Instruction during COVID-19. Our District has analyzed these recommendations and revised our COVID-19 eLearning plan to incorporate many of these recommendations for implementation here in Minooka CCSD 201.

Our Minooka CCSD 201 COVID-19 Remote Instruction Plan is linked to this email and can be found on our District website. Whereas an Act of God day did not count as an instructional day, Remote Instruction Days are considered instructional days and include attendance, submitting student work, feedback between students and teachers and assigning grades. A summary of the Remote Instruction eLearning Plan follows.

COVID-19 Remote Instructional eLearning Days Guidance

Beginning Tuesday, March 31st Minooka CCSD 201 will make the switch from Act of God Days to Remote Instructional eLearning Days.
Remote eLearning activities and assignments will be offered during COVID-19 Remote Instructional Days in accordance with ISBE. Activities and assignments may be required and may count towards grades. Students and parents are encouraged to continue their engagement in learning during this unprecedented social distancing of public school.
Students’ attendance will be calculated during COVID-19 Remote Instructional Days as instructional days, attendance information shall be collected.
Teachers will post contact information and eLearning activities for students and parents to continue engaging in learning during this time. Teachers will periodically update activities as applicable and notify parents and students of updates.
Teachers will host required virtual office hours during the course of the COVID-19 Remote Instructional Day as identified in the eLearning Plan. Digital office hours can be conducted via email, Google Classroom, or Unified Classroom but not via social media. Announcements and activities may be shared through social media.
Classroom teachers and special education teachers will work together to ensure that work is appropriate and accommodations are made for students with special needs.

School specific information on how Remote Instruction will look at your school will be communicated out later today.

Parents should be aware that some activities from teachers could include live video streaming using platforms such as Zoom or Google Hangouts. Please see the attached Live Stream Parent Notification for more information.

The current school closure period extends only through April 7th, but recent studies and updated guidance from the federal government would indicate that the need to maintain the social distancing protocols could last much longer. We are preparing for Remote Instruction to last weeks, not days. We expect that there will be bumps in the road over the next week as students, families and our staff adjust to Remote Instruction. When a bump occurs, please contact your school or email eLearning@min201.org and the appropriate staff member will respond to your questions or concerns.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding during this ever-evolving environment. Our staff are eager and ready to inspire and engage with our students again. As before, please continue to share your eLearning experiences with us on social media using #201eLearns. We will all get through this together.

Like always, stay healthy, stay socially distanced and stay safe everyone.

Kris Monn

Kristopher P. Monn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Minooka CCSD 201

Follow us:

Twitter @Minooka201, #201Inspires

Facebook @Minooka CCSD 201

March 28, 2020

Good afternoon Minooka 201 families,

Late yesterday Governor Pritzker issued a new Executive Order that authorizes the Illinois State Board of a Education (ISBE) to create and implement Remote Instruction Days as a type of instructional day on the school calendar. We are still learning the details from ISBE, but for now we can say that beginning on Tuesday, March 31 we will be using Remote Instruction Days for the duration of this COVID-19 school closing period. These days will look much closer to our original eLearning plan. Teachers will be introducing new materials and content during these days and providing feedback to students.

Monday, March 30, 2020 is still an Act of God Day, so our staff will provide some type of eLearning activity but will spend most of their time planning for the Remote Instruction Days to follow. More detailed information on our implementation of Remote Instruction Days will be forthcoming prior to Tuesday as we gather more information from ISBE this weekend.

Until then, enjoy the rest of the weekend and keep staying safe everyone.

Kris Monn

March 24, 2020

Good afternoon Students and Families of Minooka 201.

We hope you are enjoying this snowy spring break!

Last Friday Governor Pritzker extended the statewide school closing through April 7th, which means that currently school is scheduled to resume on April 8, 2020. However, we have been advised to prepare for an even longer break period. We will send out updates to our calendar as we receive further guidance from the state officials.

Our eLearning activities will resume on Monday March 30th, and later this week we will be sending out updates on eLearning, access to devices and our continuing meal services for our students. Until then, we encourage all of our students and families to stay engaged, stay healthy and keep reading during this break. You can find online resources to help students continue their learning while at home on the Minooka 201 eLearning webpage and through the Unified Classroom PowerSchool site.

As before, stay safe everyone.

Kris Monn

Kristopher P. Monn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Minooka CCSD 201

Follow us:

Twitter @Minooka201, #201Inspires

Facebook @Minooka CCSD 201

March 20, 2020

Good afternoon Minooka 201 Students and Families,

I hope everyone has stayed engaged with their learning through our COVID-19 eLearning plan. Our staff have been designing and sharing activities all week through this plan, and we have seen some terrific stories and videos from both staff AND students online. Great job everyone. Follow along by searching for the #201eLearns hashtag.

Today begins the official end of our first week of eLearning and the beginning of Spring Break. Though you may receive communications from our schools over the break, the next official eLearning day is Monday, March 30, 2020.

Yesterday Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that Chicago Public Schools would be remaining closed until April 20th and Governor Pritzker announced that parents statewide should be prepared for a longer school closure mandate than previously issued. If we receive any notice of such an extension we will communicate through both email, phone and text messaging. Details of how a prolonged school closure would affect our eLearning plan and expectations will be communicated at that time.

Until then, please stay safe and stay calm. We will get through this as a district and as a community.

Sincerely,

Kris Monn

Kristopher P. Monn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Minooka CCSD 201

March 15, 2020

March 15, 2020:

Minooka 201 Students and Families,

Thank you for your patience as we adjust our plans based on new guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education and state and county health officials. We have amended our plans for students and staff this week. Please remember that this situation continues to evolve and subsequent changes could be made.

Monday, March 16th will be a 5 hour attendance day for students. Families will receive specific communication from their schools regarding the schedule for the day. Our intent is for our school to use this time to prepare students for eLearning activities before the statewide school closure takes effect on Tuesday, March 17th.

Tuesday March 17th through Friday March 20th have been deemed "Act of God" Days by Governor Pritzker, which means that they are not counted for attendance and they do not have to be made up at the end of the school year. More importantly, we cannot use official eLearning days as defined in our plan as these days will have no official attendance and no official grades will be given for any work done. However, we still intend to provide the same types of activities for our students to keep them engaged in the learning process during this school closure period. We are awaiting final guidance from our state agencies before communicating our final eLearning plan.

We expect to have further communications to our families later today or early tomorrow with final details on our District's operations during this school closure. In the meantime, please continue to do your part to keep your family and our communities healthy and safe.

Sincerely,

Kristopher P. Monn, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Minooka CCSD 201

March 13, 2020

March 13, 2020

Today Governor Pritzker announced that in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, all schools would be ordered closed effective March 17 through March 30, 2020. As of this correspondence, all Minooka 201 schools will be closed at the end of the school day on March 16, 2020.

We will plan for eLearning days to be used from Tuesday March 17th through Friday March 20th, as well as Monday March 30th. No instructional days will be planned over our scheduled Spring Break which runs from March 21-29, 2020.

As always, this situation remains fluid. We will send out additional information as it’s developed, and families should look for communications from their school and teachers for more specific details. Please stay safe and continue to your part to keep our communities healthy.

Sincerely,

Kristopher P. Monn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Minooka CCSD 201

March 12, 2020

March 12, 2020

Dear Minooka CCSD 201 Families,

In light of the continued global spread of COVID-19, or as it is more commonly called the coronavirus, we wanted to proactively update our community regarding this pandemic. The guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), the Centers for Disease Control and the Illinois State Board of Education have not changed since our last update on March 2, 2020 regarding closing school or cancelling activities. Schools are recommended to stay open unless some local instance of COVID-19 is confirmed.

The Illinois State Board of Education has asked all school districts to consider using eLearning days in the event that a local district, region or the state deems it necessary to close schools for an extended period of time. Our eLearning plan was approved in December 2019 and is ready to be used in such an event. The Minooka CCSD 201 eLearning plan envisioned only two consecutive days of eLearning instruction, so our school teams are developing the necessary pieces to add three additional days of eLearning if such a closure occurs.

If it becomes necessary for Minooka CCSD 201 to close our schools due to quarantines, excessive absenteeism or some other factor, Minooka CCSD 201 intends to use five (5) eLearning days in lieu of emergency days. This would not extend our school year past the current date of May 29th. Any days beyond those five would be considered "Act of God" days by Illinois statute and would not need to be made up. Please note that this situation is fluid and emergency declarations could change our intended response.

Spring Break Travel

We know that many of our students and families plan trips that take them out of Illinois or out of the country. Currently the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advise that students and family members that travel to China, Iran, South Korea and Italy should not attend school or work for 14 days. Since that list is likely to change and expand during the spread of COVID-19, we are asking families travelling out of Illinois over the break to fill out this basic survey so we can respond appropriately to any updated guidance from CDC.

SPRING BREAK TRAVEL SURVEY

The following information was shared in our March 2nd update but is worth repeating.

Currently, the IDPH recommends schools hold classes and events as usual, and follow routine cleaning and disinfecting procedures; no special measures are necessary. As such, our process in disinfecting our schools is to have our trained Buildings and Grounds staff rotate through disinfecting our classrooms and common areas using a hospital grade disinfectant. To see the complete recommendations to schools from IDPH, please click here.

To aid our work at the schools, families can take basic precautions to prevent the spread of illnesses. The IDPH recommends the best way to protect against coronavirus is by taking the same everyday precautions against getting sick in general. These include:

· Washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

· Avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

· Avoiding close contact with people who are sick.

· Staying home when you are sick.

· Covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.

· Cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces.

We will continue to closely monitor recommendations regarding coronavirus and will update you as soon as there are any significant changes in recommendations for schools. Thank you for your support in helping to keep our school community healthy.

Sincerely,

Kristopher P. Monn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Minooka CCSD 201