The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education held a meeting via YouTube, Wednesday evening. They spent well over 75 minutes discussing the District’s Return to Learn Plan which must be submitted with 15 assurances to the State, in order for the plan to be approved by the Iowa Department of Education. Superintendent Steve Barber listed the assurances in certain areas that the State requires.

They include:

• All students have accessibility
• Modifications to ensure every student has access to the curriculum.
• Meeting Federal and State Guidelines
• Meet Teacher requirements so they are qualified for online instruction
• Standards are aligned
• Credit content (grading) requirements
• Equal access and service
• Meeting career and technical education requirements
• Protecting family education rights and privacy
• Access to the internet
• Responsibilities for web systems and content offered.
• State Assessments Requirements are met
• Notification of any changes to the program
• A provision for in-person instruction.
• Any other, additional requirements.

Over three months have passed since the District closed school buildings by order of the Governor, due to COVID-19. Since then, some of the guidelines have been removed, and as of Wednesday, districts across the State were still waiting for reopening guidelines in which schools must meet in order to start school. As of now, Atlantic plans to resume school August 24th.

Barber says over the past month or so, Atlantic has been collaborating and preparing for three different instructional delivery methods, which include Continuous Learning, a Hybrid model and an On-site model. He says the desire of most parents and administrators, is to open school in a traditional, on-site environment. Because some students who are at high risk may require distance learning, the District’s Equity Committee has recognized a procedure to help identify and develop plans for those students.

The Continuous Learning model incorporates a required, online learning experience. The CLP Committee has determined Google Classroom is the best way for teachers and students to interact on assignments, and provide immediate feedback – on the Secondary Level. The Elementary selected Seesaw, which is more friendly for the lower grades. Zoom will remain as the instructional platform for secondary teachers. And, the Iowa Academic Standards Committee identified two content systems for schools to use: IXL, which has been used in the past for some Middle School Students for interventions, was chosen for grades K-thru 8. The resource provides the four core areas with content and differentiation.

Acellus at the high school level has previously been used for credit recovery, and is able to be infused into the classroom setting. In other discussion, the District will offer teachers the last two week of July some different learning opportunities facilitated by District staff. Three Professional Development Days prior to the first day of school, will be scheduled to complete the mandatory training for those programs.

In other business, the Atlantic School Board approved Contract Recommendations for Ashley Coffman as 7th Grade/Middle School Special Education Teacher. Sandy Cooper will be moved up from 7th to 8th Grade Special Ed Teacher, and, Marnie Leiferman transfer from 6th Grade Language Arts to Title 1 teacher. Kendra Henningsen would then move from 8th Grade Language Arts to 6th Grade Language Arts.