Greetings from OLCHS! Today is July 24th. In just a few short weeks we will open the 2020-2021 school year. In this incredibly unique summer, I hope that each of you have enjoyed your time away from OLCHS with family and friends, and that everyone is healthy, happy, and re-energized.
Over the past few weeks, our Reopening Task Force, which included almost 100 members representing OLCHS staff, students, parents, and BOE members, reviewed all of the recommendations from ISBE and IDPH, including the strong encouragement to reopen our school for some in-person student learning. The work of the Task Force drove the development of our Fall 2020 Reopening Plan, which you can access here. We are incredibly grateful to all of the Task Force members for providing us with the guidance and support to develop this comprehensive Reopening Plan.
Included in the plan are very specific protocols and expectations to maintain a safe and healthy environment for all who enter our building. The well-being of our students, our staff, and their families was absolutely paramount as we considered if and how we could have people return to campus. I can assure you that our plan fully aligns with the safety and health recommendation outlined in the ISBE/IDPH guidance document as well as the recommendations provided by the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT). As you can see in the plan, no stone was left unturned in our efforts to keep our building clean, sanitized, and safe for all.
The plan also addresses how we will provide high quality educational and support services to our students. With social distancing as one of the important safety conditions in order to reopen the school, we are only allowing approximately 50% of the students to be present in the building at one time. Therefore we are implementing a “Blended Remote Learning” model to start the school year. However, it cannot be overstated that we need to be prepared for a sudden change in conditions which would prompt us to transition our instructional model to a full-remote environment.
To provide more clarity and to address questions you may have, we are holding a virtual town hall meeting for families on Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 6:00 pm using the WebEx video conferencing app. The link for this event is here. If you have specific questions or concerns that you would like us to address during the virtual town hall meeting, please use this link to submit those questions.
Additionally, we have created a dedicated email address for staff, students, and parents to submit questions or requests for additional information. Feel free to submit questions to fall2020@olchs.org.
Finally, we are asking all of our parents to complete a survey that will help us plan for the fall semester. The survey can be accessed here. Please complete this brief survey as soon as possible, but no later than Sunday, August 2, 2020.
Sincerely,
Michael Riordan, Superintendent
Oak Lawn Community High School District 229
Fall 2020 Reopening Plan
Parent Reopening Survey
Town Hall Video Link
Town Hall Question Submission Link