Lee County School District

Meet Our Virtual Academy Team Our district staff and Board of Education are committed to trying to make this virtual environment we are in work for our students and families. Right now all of our students are working on a virtual platform, but when we are able to come back to school in person, we still have over 350 students who will work virtually because their families feel it is best for their circumstances. We want to support all students, and have developed a Virtual Academy to be able to reach out to students and families and help in any way we can. The team in our Virtual Academy is led by Mr. Phillip Angel, our district DPP. We also have Mr. James Dailey overseeing the plans to help the students at the elementary school and Mr. Joshua Broadwell overseeing the plans to help the students at the middle high school. We have hired two additional people to provide direct services and make phone contacts as well as home visits to families who are struggling with virtual lessons. Ms. Barbara Brownfield will be working with elementary students and Mr. Stephen Donithan will be working with middle high school students. Our Virtual Academy does not assign separate work or replace the work that teachers assign the students, but will provide support in catching up and try to communicate with families the importance of staying caught up on their work. The team can schedule time with students and/or guardians to find out what the barriers are to being successful and help resolve the issues that may be causing students to get behind or fail their classes. They can hold individual Google Meets, make phone contacts, and soon will be setting up time to provide individual tutoring. If families are struggling, please reach out to our Virtual Academy team who will be able to help answer your questions or connect with the teachers or people who can help get students back on track. James Dailey- Elementary Dean- 606-464-5088 Barbara Brownfield- Elementary Intervention Instructor- 606-464-5084 Joshua Broadwell- Alternative Dean- 606-464-5197 Stephen Donithan- Middle High Intervention Instructor- 606-464-5083 Phillip Angel- Director of Pupil Personnel- 606-464-5064

Update For School for the Week of Nov. 2-Nov. 6 Our current number on the Daily Incident Rate map is 158.2 and, in speaking with our regional health coordinator, we will continue to work in a virtual environment this coming week. This number is slightly lower than it was yesterday, and that is encouraging. However, more tests were performed on Monday and more today, and those numbers are not necessarily reflected in the incident rate map at this time as the numbers on that map come from the national data counts. I know the numbers and data are confusing. The Daily Incident Rate map is made up of data over a 7 day average and based on a population of 100,000. Our population is much lower than that, so a relatively small number of cases in our county will show up as a rather large number on this map. This map is the designation by the state based on CDC and health professionals to guide us in our determination of whether we have school in person or not, but it is not the only factor and it doesn’t just affect schools. When a county is red, the governor asks the entire community to focus on safety measures that will help the community reduce the number of cases. I want to assure our community that we want our students in school. Our staff is working hard to make connections with our students and provide curriculum that meets the academic standards. However, we know it isn’t the same as being in person with our students and our students are missing out on socialization and activities. We may eventually go back to in person learning even with numbers on the map that are escalated, but the risk of doing it too soon, while our numbers are as high as they are, is that students and staff will transmit the virus, more people will be quarantined or become ill, and we could be shut down for a much longer period of time. If our entire community works together to help bring the numbers down, we will be in much better shape to come back in person and sustain in person learning for several weeks at a time. We hope that everyone practices healthy social distancing guidelines for Halloween activities. Also, please note that Tuesday, November 3rd is Election Day and is not a school day. If you haven’t exercised your right to vote I encourage you to do so on or before Tuesday. We will update you next Thursday evening regarding the following week of school. Sarah Wasson Superintendent

Update on School For Week of October 27-30 As we continue to monitor the cases of COVID-19 in our community, I want to reach out to you tonight to let you know that we will continue in an all remote learning environment this coming week. Our average daily incident rate as of right now is 42.5, keeping our county in red status. While many of our cases are directly related to the nursing home, the regional health department has established testing at our local health department facility, and it will take a bit of time to receive the results. There is not testing tomorrow, but testing will be set up again this Friday if anyone would like to be tested. In communicating with our regional health department leader, it is important for us to stay in a remote environment this week and give the community time to see where the cases stand. Next week we will reevaluate the local case count on Thursday evening at 8:00 p.m. and make a determination for the following week regarding in person classes. Please continue to wear your mask when you are in public and maintain social distancing even when around your friends and family. In order to have school return to in person learning we need to be able to contain the virus as much as possible and lower our incident rate significantly. Our teachers and staff are continuing to reach out to individual students who are at risk of failing or are getting behind in their work and we will do everything we can to help our students. Please note the end of the first 9 weeks is tomorrow, October 22nd. Friday, October 23rd and Monday, October 26th are not school days for students, but these days would be good days to try to get caught up on missing work. If you have changed your mind about sending your child to in person classes and want to switch to complete virtual learning for the 2nd 9 weeks grading term, please reach out to your child’s school or Mr. Phillip Angel. Sarah Wasson Superintendent

COVID-19 Update- October 19, 2020 We have added one student to our dashboard as testing positive for COVID-19 today. The student has been on virtual school since the beginning of the year so no other students have been impacted. We thank our parents who are communicating with us and will continue to provide updates as they happen. Sarah Wasson Superintendent

Update On COVID-19 Cases I want to reach out to you and let you know I appreciate your support and understanding as we moved into a completely remote learning environment quickly this week. We have the state Department of Public Health map to guide us in our decision making and it is intended to be a system that we look at on Thursday evening and make a decision for the following week. However, this is just guidance and is not the only information we have. I worked closely with our Regional Health Department director and received some information on Wednesday indicating there were high levels of COVID-19 cases in our nursing home with both residents and staff. The numbers at that time were high enough that I felt it was in everyone’s best interest to switch quickly back to remote learning to allow the nursing home time to finish evaluating their situation and the health department time to gather the data and help make further decisions. We send our thoughts and prayers to all of those in the nursing home who have been affected. We have had 3 students who have attended in person classes reported to our district today as testing positive for COVID-19. One student in 8th grade and one student in 5th grade have not been to in person classes since October 1st and due to the passage of time the health department does not feel as though there is any risk of exposure to any 8th or 5th grade student or staff. The third student is a 2nd grade student and has not been to in-person classes since October 8th . Again, the health department does not feel as though there is any risk of exposure but we have reached out to every family of every student in this child’s class to make them aware to monitor for symptoms. I want to make sure all parents know where to find information regarding positive cases that are reported to the school system. I have created a link from the Superintendent Messages page of our district webpage that will take you to a site to find any district data. We are required to report to this website each day we have school how many student or staff cases there are and how many students or staff are quarantined due to exposure at school. We will always do our best to reach out individually to parents of students who have had potential exposure on the day that we get this knowledge. We will let you know when the student was last in person and where they may have been in contact. Because we have to report on students whether they were in-person or attending virtual, we may not always have phone calls to make, but we will also post this information the school dashboard linked on our webpage. The Lee County Health Department is establishing a testing site on Monday and we will continue to monitor the cases with the regional health department to determine when it will be safe for us to return to in person classes. I will provide you with more information next week. Again, I thank you all for your support.

Change to Remote Learning Starting Tomorrow, October 15 Due to the recent information of the high level of COVID-19 cases in Lee County, our schools will shift to a completely remote learning environment beginning tomorrow. We will also be completely remote next week. I will be in communication with the health department next week and as they gather further information on the spread of the virus they will help us make a determination of what is best for our students and staff in the weeks to follow. We will have food pick up available at the back of the middle high school for those families who wish to pick up meals tomorrow. Please continue to stay safe by practicing good hygiene, wearing your masks, and maintaining social distance when around others. This is difficult on all of our families who have trusted us to keep a safe environment for our students in our buildings, but until the spread of the virus in our small community is known and under control we want to do what is safe for all students and staff. Thank you, Sarah Wasson Superintendent

Information Regarding Remote Learning Day During the board meeting tonight we had a discussion of meeting the needs of both in-person learners and our virtual learners. We don’t have enough staff to separate virtual and in-person learners into two groups and our teachers having been working hard to try to manage uploading the content for all learners into the virtual classrooms because we know that at any time we could have to switch back to all remote learning for certain time periods if the virus case count were to increase in our community. We have been struggling to meet the needs of both in-person and virtual students and we want to give our all to our students. In order to give our staff the time they need to manage both worlds and give all students our best effort, our school board has approved for our district to have one completely remote learning day through December. On these remote learning days, students will complete their work from home and teachers will work with virtual students as well as complete all the tasks they have to do to provide the best instruction to both sets of learners. The first complete remote learning day will be this Friday, October 16. We will then utilize Thursday, October 22, Friday October 30, and Friday Nov. 6 as remote learning days. Once our 4 day weeks have passed, we will change the remote days to Wednesday to give students a break from masks in the middle of the week and ensure that we maintain the focus that these remote learning days are still school days. The remainder of the remote learning days will be November 11th and 18th and December 2nd, 9th, and 16th. We will evaluate the need for additional days at our December board meeting. During our first few weeks of being in a complete remote learning environment many of our students did exceptionally well at managing the curriculum and completing their work. However, many students also have received failing grades for not completing work. If your child is still working in the completely virtual learning environment it is critical that you help monitor your child’s work to make sure they are completing all assignments in a timely manner. The board has also committed some additional staff to help us try to close the gap that has been created for our virtual learners and we will get more information out to all stakeholders soon regarding options available for additional one on one help for your child who is in a remote learning setting daily.

Lunch Menu for October 5th through October 8th Monday- Pizza Tuesday- Turkey and Cheese Sandwich Wednesday- Elementary- Hot Pocket Pizza Sticks Middle High- Mozzarella Sticks with Sauce Thursday- Chili and Grilled Cheese OR Strawberry Yogurt Grab and Go Lunch Sack Thursday of this week and each following week we will do our best to follow the lunch menu provided at this link as well as on our Food Service department page on our website. This schedule has meal plans for both in person and virtual learners on a two week rotating schedule. In person students will have an option of a hot meal or a grab and go lunch sack each day beginning on Thursday. Some meals may change slightly depending on different commodities that arrive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gdTc-hrZn5KS7a1Rdo-0AULUFvk0mGXk/view?usp=sharing Please remember if you are the parent of a virtual learner and want to pick up lunch at the back of the Middle High School please contact Darian Creech by phone at 606-464-5000 or email her at Darian.creech@lee.kyschools.us. You may leave her a message if she is not in her office and let her know the names of the students for whom you will be picking up lunch.

Lunch Menu for Wednesday and Thursday Our food service department has to follow a lot of new guidelines as they prepare and package food to go out to our students in order to keep food as safe as possible as it is taken to classrooms during in person classes. Everything must be bagged or packaged, which includes items such as an apple that doesn't have a peeling that would be removed before eating. Our food service department is working under strict guidelines and we are learning as we go to work under these guidelines and provide food that our students like. We are also adjusting to the number of meals we are preparing for in person and virtual learners. Because food has to go out to classrooms and students aren't able to come through a line to pick up food, we will work to develop a way to offer choices in the coming weeks. To help families decide if you would like to eat food from the cafeteria or if you would prefer to send a lunch with your child, we want to let you know what the main menu items will be for the next two days. We will be posting this to the Live Feed of our website for each week. Tomorrow we will have Chicken Fajita Tacos and Thursday we will have Pork BBQ sandwiches. In person students will be provided food on Thursday afternoon to take home for Friday and the weekend. Virtual students who need lunches and breakfasts may pick them up between the hours of 10:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on Thursday and will be able to continue to pick up food each Monday and Thursday. The pick up location is the back of the Middle High School at the entrance near the cafeteria. This is the same spot that middle school students are dropped off and picked up. There is a sign on the door giving you the number to call when you arrive and food will be brought to you at the door. If your child is a virtual learner and you want to pick up food each week, please call 606-464-5000 and let Darian Creech know so she can ensure she prepares enough food for pick up. You may also email her at darian.creech@lee.kyschools.us.

Information for September 28-October 2 We have a few things to let you know as we start back to in-person classes tomorrow, Monday, September 28th. The information is in the video linked here and also posted to the Message from the Superintendent page on our district webpage. I will keep all communications updated on this page so you can find anything you need at any time. I have also linked the KY COVID-19 page with the color coded map and a link to all the guidance from the Kentucky Department of Education on this page. Additionally, when the state provides a link to the school and district dashboards that show how many cases are in various schools and districts throughout the state, I will share that link on the Message from the Superintendent page as well. We look forward to having students back in our buildings this Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tuesday and Friday of this week will be virtual learning days. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZXJSyFnyKjNMz5zilt1dwTGboTqTb8d3/view?usp=sharing

Lee County Schools are returning to in person classes beginning September 28, 2020. We have a lot of information for our parents and are sharing it in the attached video and in a letter on our webpage and Facebook page. Please take a few minutes today to read the letter or watch the video so you know what in person and virtual learning will look like when we return and what needs to happen if you have changed your mind about how you want your children to continue in school when we start back to in person classes. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X1INt1HmXob3w_xBGIUmRPrE7loAwxml/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/14AKcETEkv8w6s5_KLZuPEakyVzfqUsHj/view?usp=sharing

Join us for our Back to School Bash and Registration Event Next Week Families will come to the Board of Education to complete paperwork and then go to the schools to pick up supplies and information for the upcoming year. Please come according to the schedule on the flier if possible to help us spread out the number of people. Paperwork is on our district webpage on a link under Parent Resources if families want to print and complete it prior to coming.

If you have questions regarding the virtual learning program we will implement as school opens on August 24, 2020, please submit them through this Google Form and we will do our best to answer them in a live Facebook session with Superintendent Sarah Wasson as well as Principals Carol Napier and Danny Wright and Assistant Principal Jessica Napier on Monday, August 17, at 4:00 p.m. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_p9c_qysMNnRWvo9ScZiCOqHhKitJcTYiFHErL65pd7HIFA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Updated Calendar During the special called Lee County Board of Education meeting on August 3, the Board established an updated school calendar. This calendar will have students start on August 24. There is still a choice for parents of in-person classes or virtual classes, and most parents have responded to our survey letting us know which choice they prefer. If there are still parents who have not communicated that with us, please call the schools or the central office and speak to Mr. Phillip Angel. If the governor asks schools to hold off in-person classes past the 24th of August, we will start school all virtual on this date. We will be establishing dates and times soon for parents to complete needed paperwork for the 2020-2021 school year and to get the devices to families who requested them in the survey. When this process is set up, we will send a phone call out to all parents as well as post more information on our district webpage and Facebook page.

Paraeducator Study Guide Link and Other Employment Opportunities Click on the link below to take you to our employment page where you will find the study guide in the documents section as well as an application for employment. https://www.lee.kyschools.us/o/lee-county/page/employment--350

Updated School Calendar Attached is the updated school calendar for the 20-21 school year with a new student start date of August 12. This will be the first day for students whether they select in person classes or our virtual program. We will continually monitor the cases of COVID-19 in our area to determine if this is still the best start date, but it is the belief of our district leadership based on health department guidance that starting early will give us more days of in person instruction available prior to possibly having to go into a virtual environment on a more regular basis depending on the trend of the virus. We appreciate those families who have already submitted your survey regarding your selection for in-person or virtual curriculum for the upcoming year. If you have still not sent your survey to us, please try to get it in the mail by tomorrow, Thursday July 16, so we can best prepare for the upcoming year. We know that what you select now on the survey may change as the situation with the virus changes, but if we know what you want to do as of now we can make better plans to serve your children. Thank you all for working with us to help us make the best decisions possible for the upcoming school year.

Quick Link to Employment Opportunities Please follow this link to find employment opportunities in the Lee County Schools. https://www.lee.kyschools.us/o/lee-county/page/employment--350

P-EBT Food Benefit Program for Public School Students Students who receive free or reduced price lunch are eligible to receive an additional benefit of $313.50 due to COVID-19 for households to spend on food at home for students. If your child is currently enrolled in SNAP benefits, you do not need to do anything. These funds will automatically be added to the P-EBT Card. If your child is receiving Medicaid or KTAP benefits based on income levels below the NSLP income guidelines, or if a child is in foster care, a P-EBT card will be mailed to you with instructions and you don't need to do anything to apply. According to information we have received at this time, all other students in the Lee County Schools may apply for this benefit because we participate in the CEP program and all students here qualify for free lunch. Please see the attached flier for information on how to apply. You will need your child's state issued school identification number. This number is the same number students use to log in to Infinite Campus to access their grades and attendance information. If you do not know this number, you may call 606-464-5000 and ask to speak to Sherry Profitt. Please call next week Tuesday - Friday from 8:00-12:00 and 12:30-3:30. You will need to be able to provide information that identifies you as a child's guardian before you can receive this information. Please have the child's birthdate and social security number available to tell Ms. Profitt when you call. If the information does not match what we have in Infinite Campus you will need to come by our office and show identification to prove guardianship.

Student Voice Survey The Student Voice Team of Kentucky is asking students in grades 6-12 to complete a student voice survey related to their experience with school and how COVID-19 has affected the way they are learning and feeling. If students in grades 6-12 would like to participate, please complete the survey at the following link. https://surveymonkey.com/r/svtcovid19

School lunches are once again being taken to pick up points throughout the county. The attached picture shows the locations and pick up times and these are also still on our webpage. If you need a lunch and have not been coming to get one please call us in the morning and we will make sure we have enough. Also, if you have been coming to get lunches but no longer plan to come, let us know so we can reduce our numbers. We can feed any child age 18 and under in the county. There have been many questions about our end of the year activities such as prom, graduation, and promotion ceremonies. At this time, the only thing we know for sure is that we will not be able to have prom on May 2nd as originally planned. If students have ordered tuxedos or other items for the prom it would be best to try now to cancel those things. If there is any chance for us to hold a prom or special dance later in the year, even after school is officially out, we want to do this for our kids. But until the spread of this disease is under control we can’t make any plans or set any new date. Additionally, we had moved the senior trip to New York up to July, but we are going to be working on cancelling that trip as well. With the affect this virus is having on New York right now, we don’t feel comfortable that going in July will be safe for our kids and staff. We will see what recommendations come from the governor’s office at the end of April and May and see if we can plan any other type activity for our seniors. Regarding end of the year promotion ceremonies and graduation, we don’t have an answer at this time. We know these ceremonies are important to our students and we are hoping that time will give us what we need to be able to have some kind of ceremony. For our senior class, this is especially hard as we know they will move on to other adventures in their lives. Our goal now is to plan to create a virtual ceremony of some type and be ready if this is our only option, but we also will have hope that we can have a ceremony at a later date. If seniors and their families have suggestions or input they would like to give, please reach out to Ms. Smith, Mr. Angel, Mr. Stickler, or Ms. Wasson through e-mail or give us a call. We miss our students very much and want everyone to know that these are tough times and decisions for all of us, but as Governor Beshear says, we will get through this together. The number one goal is to keep everyone healthy and come out of this stronger and closer in spirit than ever before.