Coming Back Without Reverting Back
It is nice to hear the sounds of a normal summer in Avon: students singing in The Little Mermaid, swimmers coming and going, Braves campers playing outside, and students engaging in summer programs. It almost feels normal, and a return to normal may be helpful in a number of ways. Many want to know exactly what next year’s school year will look like. Will it be normal?
Here is what we can tell you so far:
● Start and End Times: We intend to return to traditional start and end times and school will be five days per week.
○ Elementary School (UPK-4): 9:05 AM-3:15 PM
○ Middle School (5-8): 7:56 AM-2:25 PM
○ High School (9-12): 7:56 AM-2:25 PM
● Masks and Face Coverings: This information is not known right now. As communicated previously, the guidelines we are currently operating under were clearly established for summer programs. We simply do not know the requirements for September. We are hopeful that we can still preserve safety while being less restrictive. Yet, conflicting perspectives continue on this matter. We will communicate these expectations as soon as we can.
● Physical Distancing: This falls into a similar category. We will communicate more specific information regarding expectations for September as soon as we can. As with face coverings, we will allow more time. We do not want to communicate one thing only to be forced to shift direction if new requirements are established.
● Transportation: We are assuming that transportation expectations may remain a bit more restrictive. We anticipate that masks may be required and that we will be expected to maintain reduced capacity on the bus runs. To this end, a number of families opted for parental transportation last year. It is important that parental transportation requests be verified for the coming year.
An opportunity to verify transportation wishes will be sent to you next week. We are again reaching out via a survey to learn more about your wishes and perspectives. The parent and family survey will ask about transportation wishes as part of the design, but it will also invite broader perspectives. However, and to be clear, the intention of the survey is to focus on improving the way we do school. This particular survey is NOT focused on COVID requirements. Instead, we want to learn more about how we can use the experience to improve our schools.
Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to organizational change that focuses on strengths. Many change models focus on fixing something that is broken or underperforming. Appreciative Inquiry seeks to learn about what is working and figure out ways to do more of it. This can be applied to some school-based practices in the time of COVID. In some ways, we all were better as a result of the challenges we faced. We want to learn from you about how we can be even better as we come back to school this year. How can we use the COVID experience to make the learning program even stronger for the students of Avon?
The survey will be sent to families, students, and staff early next week. The survey will close after 3 PM on Saturday, July 31st. We ask that you share your perspectives so we can come back without reverting back.
Thank you.