Newsroom

YCSDigest - September 25, 2020

School Board Meeting

The York County School Board will hold its next monthly meeting at 7 p.m., Monday, September 28 at York Hall. While this meeting is open to the public and public comments will be welcomed as part of the meeting, please be aware seating will be limited as physical distancing and other mitigation strategies will be in place. The meeting will be broadcast live on YCSD-TV (Cox Cable channel 47 and Verizon channel 39) and will be made available on YouTube within two business days.

Hybrid & Leveled Learning Models

Division staff have been finalizing details for our first groups of students enrolled in the Flexible Framework to return to our buildings over the next few weeks. We are currently on track to follow the target dates provided on September 14.  As part of this planning, a committee of administrators, teachers and parents reviewed and slightly modified the original Leveled and Hybrid models proposed in our Return to School plan.

Rather than alternating days during the week, the revised Hybrid schedule brings cohort groups into school on back-to-back days. The adjustment was determined to best support the needs of our students, families and staff. Additional information regarding these schedules will be presented during Monday’s School Board meeting.

Hybrid Schedule Student Cohorts

Students are being placed into one of two cohort groups primarily based on their last name to help ensure families with multiple students will have the same weekly schedule. There may be some exceptions, such as accommodating families with students with different last names or ensuring cohort class sizes are balanced.

• Cohort Group 1 (last names A-K) will attend school in-person on Mondays and Tuesdays
• Cohort Group 2 (last names L-Z) will attend school in person on Thursdays and Fridays

As a reminder, when elementary students are not scheduled to be in buildings, they will participate in virtual morning meetings with teachers and students who are in the classrooms and learn asynchronously the remainder of the day. Daily attendance will be taken for all students. 

Daily Health Screenings & Face Coverings

With in-person learning underway, families will need to add a step to their morning routine. One of the most important strategies to keeping our schools open and safe is to ensure students and staff are healthy when together.

All students and staff are expected to conduct a daily health screening before coming to school or work, which includes reviewing the common symptoms of COVID-19 and taking your temperature. If a student or staff member has any identified symptoms or meets other mitigation measures on the checklist, they should stay home.

When in buildings, students and staff will be expected to wear appropriate face coverings on buses and as they move throughout buildings and classrooms. While we encourage every student to use their own face covering and, if possible, bring a backup with them each day in case their mask gets dirty, additional masks and other personal protective equipment have been provided to our schools in case a need arises.

Transportation

To help achieve physical distancing on buses, families are strongly encouraged to provide their own transportation to and from school whenever possible. Transportation routes are being finalized based on responses provided in the Family Commitment Form or during new student enrollment.

If a family cannot provide transportation and has not registered for transportation, please contact your child’s school to be assigned to a bus or bus stop (this process may take up to 2 weeks). Bus stop and route information for students in grades PreK-1 will be provided by Friday, October 2 and schools will provide parents with arrival and dismissal procedures in the coming days as well.

Division Device Update

We are pleased to report that on Wednesday, September 23, the division completed the distribution of more than 8,500 devices to students. All families who indicated a need for a device through the Family Commitment Form should have received a notice of when they could pick up a device. If you are still in need of a division-issued device, or encounter a need for a replacement device, you should contact your child’s school to make arrangements. We want to thank you again for your continued patience and understanding as staff worked as quickly as possible to get these important tools into our student’s hands.