Wamego Schools COVID 19 Information
- National Center for Disease Control (CDC)
- Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE)
- Pottawatomie County Health Department
August 7, 2020
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope you are all doing well. It is time for a weekly USD320 update. This week I am going to first focus on enrollment. At this point we have nearly 800 students enrolled after just 4 days of opening the process. If you have not yet enrolled, online enrollment is open and you can access at this website.
https://www.usd320.com/vnews/display.v/SEC/Enrollment%7COnline%20Registration
All fees should be paid at the end of enrollment in the link provided. https://payments.efundsforschools.com/v3/districts/56441/
If you have any questions regarding enrollment or experience any challenges, please contact our school office staff. For families who do not have a device to complete online enrollment, you must schedule an appointment with the school your student attends. If you have students in more than one school, you may complete the enrollment process for all of your students at one school of your choosing. All onsite enrollment must be done by appointment. You must wear masks, and will have temperature checks and health screenings prior to entering the building. Please do not bring your students with you. We will provide a computer in a socially distanced space with office support as needed. Our school offices are open from 7:30 to 4:00 Monday – Friday.
It is important that enrollment is completed asap. We are moving our request up and asking that all families enroll by August 18 so we can appropriately plan and prepare for onsite and remote learners.
A draft of the USD320 Reopening Plan will be released Monday evening, August 10. As COVID changes and we receive additional health and KSDE guidance this plan will be continually updated throughout the year. The BOE will review the plan at the August 17 BOE meeting. We will also have an informational night on Thursday, August 13 at 6pm. All principals will be present to share details and respond to specific school questions for the information night. This meeting will be broadcast on the district Facebook page. We will review the main details of the plan and answer questions that are submitted to us by the end of the day on August 12th. When we send out the plan on Monday, we will include a link to a survey where you can submit our questions. We want your feedback and questions to help us put for the best plan possible.
I am including our calendar changes which were approved at the last BOE meeting for your convenience and as a reminder.
- BOE Approved Calendar Revisions
- School will begin two weeks later to allow time for staff to prepare
- September 2- 6th grade and 9th Grade Transition Day
- September 3 – First Official Day of School for Grades 1- 12
- September 8 – Pre-K and KG First Day
- Thanksgiving Break Holiday is now November 25-27, Nov. 23 and 24 will be school days.
- Last Day of School is May 25 for PreK- Grade 11, one day earlier
- Early Release Friday- The BOE Approved “Early Release Friday” for Central Elem., West Elem., and WMS. These buildings will dismiss early on Fridays- 2:00 pm at CES and WES, 2:20 at WMS, so staff are able to plan and collaborate.
That is all for this week.
Stay Healthy and Go Wamego!
Tim Winter, Supt.
July 29, 2020
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope you are all doing well and it is time for a weekly USD320 update. Last night the BOE had a special meeting to discuss the opening date of school and the progress of the reopening plan. There was some great dialogue between our BOE, administration, and nursing staff. I know many of you have concerns and have voiced those concerns to myself, other school staff, or our BOE. I want you to know that your thoughts and concerns are carefully reviewed and are a part of the decision-making process. The administration team and others have been working very hard on the development of the reopening plan. Practices and procedures will be implemented to keep everyone safe and healthy. Here are the major take-aways from last night’s meeting.
- BOE Approved Calendar Revision- See attached for full details.
- School will begin two weeks later to allow time for staff to prepare
- September 2- 6th grade and 9th Grade Transition Day
- September 3 – First Official Day of School for Grades 1- 12
- September 8 – Pre-K and KG First Day
- Thanksgiving Break Holiday is now November 25-27, Nov. 23 and 24 will be school days.
- Last Day of School is May 25 for PreK- Grade 11, one day earlier
- Early Release Friday- The BOE Approved “Early Release Friday” for Central Elem., West Elem., and WMS. These buildings will dismiss early on Fridays- 2:00 pm at CES and WES, 2:20 at WMS, so staff are able to plan and collaborate.
- Learning Options Shared- See attached for additional details
- Option 1- On-Site Learning
- Option 2-Remote Learning- students must log a minimum of 6 hours of school work each school day.
- Contingency Plan- Hybrid Learning- a combination of onsite and remote.
Families will be able to choose learning option 1 or 2 through the online enrollment portal, which opens August 3. If you have not enrolled by August 25 we will assume your students will be a part of onsite learning, option 1. We want each family to carefully consider each option and what is best for their students. We will deter changes from one option to another as we move through the year as this will allow for more consistent and reliable staffing. I am hopeful we will start school the first week of September with the majority of our students on site. However, the COVID situation in our area, may dictate remote learning or the hybrid learning plan. Please complete online enrollment as soon as possible after it opens on August 3.
Here are some other key take-aways from the BOE discuss and or reopening planning.
- Students and Staff will wear masks in schools and on buses
- Shuttle Bus Service will NOT be provided- This will allow us to do a better job of social distancing on our bus routes
- All students and staff will be health screened before entering the buildings each morning
- Hand washing and/or sanitizers will be available in all classrooms
- WHS will NOT have Open Lunch for 11th and 12th grades. All students will remain on campus for lunch.
I encourage you to review the attached documents for full details and promise more details specific to each school will be coming. Our timeline will be to release our plans to the BOE and public for review on August 10 and to be considered for approval at the regular August BOE meeting on August 17.
That is all for this week.
Stay Healthy and Go Wamego!
Tim Winter, Supt.
July 16, 2020
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope you are all doing well. It is time for a weekly USD320 update. From this point forward, we will send an update every Thursday with the latest developments in our efforts to return to school and keep everyone COVID free.
Yesterday the state board of education approved the guidance document- Navigating Change. Please understand this is guidance for ALL schools in Kansas to use as a resource to develop our plan for returning to school. We will very carefully utilize the document in our planning, but our plan will not be a mirror image of the document and our plan will most likely be unique to all other schools in the state. We will all have some similarities, but the Wamego USD320 Plan will be created to best meet the needs of our students and keep our students, staff, and community safe. Navigating Change is a guidance resource, it is not the answer to all our questions. Here is a link you use the access 1080-page document. I do not recommend printing. The operations section beginning on page 1003 may be of most interest to families.
Navigating Change Guidance Document-
Just following the approval of this document Governor Kelly announced she would be releasing an executive order mandating that schools will not open until Sept. 8 after Labor Day. It is my understanding that this order must also be approved by the state board of education and it will be on their agenda next Tuesday. I want to assure you we want our students back in school or in some form of a learning environment/model. However, I also want it to be done safely. Those are the two most important items on our minds as we plan for a return to school. In this planning our district leadership team along with support staff and educators are working very hard to put our plan together. We will also work with our local and county health officials and resources in this process. This work will continue until August 3 when we will submit our plan to the BOE for approval. This will follow with an opportunity for parents, students, and community members to hear the plan and ask questions in a structured format on the evening of August 6. Due to the recent announcement by Governor Kelly, and the tremendous amount of planning this plan will take for school leaders and teachers, our start date for school will more than likely be later than the original scheduled date. I hope to have this date more definitive at our next information release next Thursday.
Approximately two weeks ago we asked all parents guardians to complete a survey to assist with our planning. Thank you for your phenomenal response. We have 1,504 responses. This data has been very helpful in in our planning process. We are asking you to complete yet another survey which will give us more specific information regarding what you feel is the best way to meet your student’s needs during this time. It is critical that you complete this for each of your Wamego Students. The survey may be accessed at the link below.
https://forms.gle/k65Yu3xgfkatGVV1A
Enrollment for the 2020/21 school year is topic we need to address. We are currently experiencing some technical difficulties with the online enrollment process but expect to have the online portal for enrollment open next week. A notification will be sent out when you are able to enroll and please take advantage of the online process to enroll as soon as possible.
This is all I have for now. Please complete the survey and thanks again for all you do and your support.
Stay Healthy and Go Wamego!
Tim Winter, Supt.
Dear Parents, Students, Faculty, and Staff,
Friday May 8, 2020
I hope you have all had a good week. Happy Friday, happy end of Teacher Appreciation Week, and to all of our amazing mothers- HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! No one would be here without their mother, literallyJ. Thanks to all who took the time to complete our 2nd parent survey. We carefully reviewed this information and there are couple topics I will address in this letter due to your responses and comments in the survey.
I will start with summer lunch today. We will continue to offer a food service program through the summer this year. We will serve meals in the current format until the last day of school, May 19. We will then begin the summer food service program beginning on June 1 and ending July 31. This is a free program for children ages 1 to 18. To best meet our community needs we are asking all to complete a survey of your intentions to participate in the summer meals program. Please use this link to complete the survey. This survey is anonymous and will not commit you to anything.
We are nearing the end of the school year with just 5 days remaining for our seniors (last day May 15), 6 days for our 8th graders (last day May 18), and 7 days for all other grades (last day May 19). The school principals will be sending out information on how the end of the school year and checking in school equipment, textbooks, etc. will look.
It is so unfortunate we will not be able to celebrate the end of the year as we are accustomed to with our seniors, 8th graders, and others. The Governor doubled down on her order that graduations of any kind that bring people together in any manner during phase 1 will not be allowed. This means traditional, drive up, small group, etc. are prohibited. The only permissible graduation ceremony during phase 1 would be a virtual program. We decided our best option was to find date this summer for a graduation. Seniors and parent, please complete the survey Mr. Katt sent out this week by tomorrow if you have not already done so. We ask that both seniors and parents complete the surveys which were sent.
As we move into our summer routine we will continue to monitor and abide by all COVID 19 Phase Out guidelines as issued by our county health department. We also reserve the right to take a more conservative approach. For example, we will not open our indoor school facilities to any activities prior to June 12. Decisions and dates regarding Boys and Girls Club, Camp Invention and other programs are on hold at this time. We will make decision on these programs most likely the first week of June.
From the survey some indicated concerns with their students falling behind. This is a legitimate concern and it is a topic of our leadership discussions. We are exploring the possibilities of offering summer school programs when permissible this summer and or next summer, and the possibly after school remediation programs in the school year. This is subject to how we continue to move out of the COVID 19 challenge. I am not optimistic summer programs will happen this summer, but I am also not ready to rule it out.
Also, from the survey you asked what the plan is for this fall? I am very optimistic we will be back in school in August as we would any other year. However, other options could be a later start date, a combination of in school instruction and online instruction, or we will be in the online format. The state department of education, administrators, and teachers across the state are currently working on a fall plan. Details of this plan will be made available to us in early July. Again, I am optimistic we will be back together “in school”, but we will plan for any and all options.
Happy Mother’s Day, God Bless, and stay healthy Wamego.
Tim Winter, Supt.
Dear USD320,
April 20,2020
I hope you have all all had a good week. We survived another week of COVID 19 and our numbers in this area remain pretty flat. I am certain that is due to your diligence in following the recommended guidelines. Please continue to follow those guidelines
Last week we sent out a survey to parents asking for their input on many things related to our school in the current platform. Thank you so much for taking the time to complete it. We had 691 surveys completed. We have and will carefully continue to review this information to make improvements. Overall the survey responses were extremely positive. All responses were in the neighborhood of 95% positive. This is wonderful, however, if you are having any issues or concern please reach out to your teachers, principals, or myself. Most indicated little or no issues with internet connectivity, but some indicated speed issues. Our technology team took a look at this and we hope to have improved this area by adding an additional filter survey for the district. All of our district owned devices still go through our filter even from a remote location. Please keep us informed of any issues you may be having. We will be resurvey parents in the next couple weeks.
Thanks as always for your support and patience.
Stay strong Wamego and We are Better Together!
Tim Winter, Supt.
Dear Parents, Students, Faculty, and Staff,
April 09, 2020
I hope you have all had a good 2nd week of continuous learning. From all accounts I receive, we are having great success reaching out to our students, building relationships, and providing instruction. However, we need to hear from all our parents so we can validate this and or make changes and improvements where ever possible. I am asking that all parents use the link below to complete a short survey for us. Please complete this survey for each student you may have. We know students in different classrooms or schools may have different needs and our goal is to identify how we can best meet the needs of each and every one of our students. You do not need to identify yourself in the survey, but if you would like a principal or myself to reach out to you, please leave your name and contact information in the comments section. We certainly encourage you all to reach out to us by email or phone directly as well if you prefer.
Parent Survey Link- https://forms.gle/1vywhkZaG5Bxqgr26
Additional information you may need to know-
Calendar/Easter Break- Remember we are on Easter Break Friday, April 10 and Monday, April 13. Classes in the continuous learning format will resume on Tuesday, April 14. There will be no meals served on school holidays. This is a federal program and at this time we are authorized to serve meals on school days only. We will be back at all of the meal locations on Tuesday.
COVID 19 Guidance (See attachments)- Please continue to take the recommended steps to stay healthy and keep others healthy. Wash your hands frequently, avoid groups of any size, practice the 6+ social distance measure at all times, and an addition is- the recommendation to wear some type of facial covering over your mouth and nose when out of your house. This can be a simple clothe mask and there are plenty of sites which demonstrate how to make these on the internet. Lastly- DO NOT LET UP. Some have started to communicate that this is making a difference and the spread is lessening. If that is the case, it is happening because we are doing a good job on all of the above. Keep doing what is working please. Our students, our families, and our community are so important, let’s keep working together to keep everyone safe and healthy. Better Together.
I want to continue to thank all of you for being so supportive. This community has really come together. These are difficult times and it will become even more challenging. Working together will become even more important in the future. If there is something that you are not happy about, or struggling with, please reach out for help to those who can actually help or have an impact on the situation. Wamego is a community of volunteers who want to help.
I will end with wishing you all a Blessed Easter.
God Bless and stay healthy Wamego!
Tim Winter, Supt.
Travel_Related_Quarantine_Table.pdf
Isolation_Quarantine_Release_Graphic_KS.pdf
Hi Parents,
March 30, 2017
If your student is having trouble connecting to any of our services, please follow the steps below:
1. Use the link below as a guide for troubleshooting
https://sites.google.com/usd320.com/techhelp/home
2. You may also contact your teacher, as they are the first point of contact for troubleshooting tech issues.
3. If you have tried these, and you are still experiencing difficulty you may e-mail helpdesk@usd320.com
Keep in mind that applications like google classroom, seesaw, and other educational services are being heavily used and we may see performance issues. Most issues that have been reported are a slowdown in downloads from seesaw.
The majority of issues we are seeing, are regarding the school owned device not authenticating to our proxy. Please use the site for troubleshooting these issues.
https://sites.google.com/usd320.com/techhelp/home
Dear USD320 Families,
March 27, 2020
I hope you are all doing well. You continue to be in our thoughts. Monday, March 30 is an exciting day! Essentially it is our 2nd First Day of School for the 19-20 school year. We will start the Continuous Learning Program, Day 1. I want to assure all that we will take this very slow for the first few days. This is an experiment that is happening around the entire country, and never before will the internet, zoom, google classroom, seesaw, and other online learning platforms been accessed to this level. Because of this I ask all to be patient and gracious to all. If you experience technical issues, your first contact is your student’s teacher. They have been trained on trouble shooting the common minor issues that may occur. If they are unable to correct this issue, we will then utilize the USD320 Technology Department.
Specific information regarding schedules and format for the Continuous Learning Program is or has been sent out by each school. Please be looking for this information. The teachers and principals have been working very hard for all of our students to put forth a quality educational experience for the remainder of the school year. Our school calendar will remain as is.
Remember to take advantage of the school lunch program that is now offered at 3 locations.
- Wamego City Park 11am to 1pm
- Louisville Ball Field 11:30am to 12:30am
- Belvue Ball Field 11:30am to 12:30am
Our food service have been simply amazing preparing and distributing lunch and breakfast meals. They are working very hard along with some other staff and volunteers. Yesterday over 1600 meals (breakfast and lunch) were distributed. We also started providing toilet paper to those who ask. This will take place every Tuesday- TP Tuesday.
Please follow all recommended guidelines;
- Stay home as much as possible.
- Wash Hands Frequently
- Practice the 6-foot distance when in public
- Avoid groups of people
- Monitor for these symptoms and if they occur contact your primary physician by phone
- Dry cough
- Shortness of breath
- Fever greater than 100
- Fevers- It is recommended that you are fever free for 72 hours without the assistance of fever reducers before you are not contagious from COVID 19. Please practice this protocol no matter why you have a fever, whether you have been tested or not. Better safe than sorry.
- A positive COVID 19 Test requires quarantine and two negative test to be released from the quarantine.
Thanks for all your support and patience as we continue to navigate this challenge. We will get through this and we will be- Better, Working Together.
Have a great weekend and Stay Healthy Wamego!
Tim Winter
Supt.
Dear USD320 Families,
Tuesday March 24, 2020
I hope you are all doing well. You continue to be in our thoughts and we hope you are all well. Our teachers and administrators are working very hard this week for you, to be ready for Monday, March 30 when we roll out the Wamego Continuous Learning Program. We are so grateful for WTC and working with us to provide internet to all homes from now until the end of school in May. If you did not fill out our internet survey we sent out last week and still need internet, please contact the district office at 785-456-7643 or email me at wintert@usd320.com asap. We ask this even if you are not in the WTC service area. We will assist you in securing internet for your homes during this time.
If needed, we hope you are taking advantage of our Monday - Friday meal program provided by our food service in Wamego (11am to 1pm), Louisville (11:30 to 12:30), and beginning tomorrow 11:30 to 12:30 the Belvue ball field. One additional feature of this we will add is, TP (Toilet Paper) Tuesday. On Tuesdays we will have toilet paper available to any family who requests it. We will provide two rolls to those who request it when picking up their meals. We ask that you request it only if you have a critical need. I know it is kind of crappyJ that we must do this, but we want to help however we can. We do have an inventory of TP that would have been used in the schools if we were still in session. We are limiting to two rolls per week so are able to make our supply last until the school is out in May. Each Tuesday we will have a limited amount to be given out on a first come first serve basis. We hope this is helpful to those who really need it. TP has been missing from most stores’ shelves for several days now. To get this started we offer it Thursday this week and moving forward next week, it will always be on TP-Tuesday. It will not be openly offered, you must request it when you pick up your meals, simply ask your lunch provider.
I have attached the latest guidance from our local health depart. Please review this. There have been two additional states added to travel areas which require self-quarantines, Illinois and New Jersey. Please follow all recommended guidelines;
- Stay home as much as possible.
- Wash Hands Frequently
- Practice the 6-foot distance when in public
- Avoid groups of people
- Monitor for these symptoms and if they occur contact your primary physician by phone
- Dry cough
- Shortness of breath
- Fever greater than 100
- Fevers- It is recommended that you are fever free for 72 hours without the assistance of fever reducers before you are not contagious from COVID 19. Please practice this protocol no matter why you have a fever, whether you have been tested or not. Better safe than sorry.
- A positive COVID 19 Test requires quarantine and two negative test to be released from the quarantine.
This all this information I have for now. Your schools will be in touch with you regarding your needs for starting school in the Continuous Learning Program. Please monitor you email frequently.
Thanks for all your support and patience as we continue to navigate this challenge. We will get through this and we will be- Better, Working Together.
Stay Healthy Wamego!
COVID-19_March_24_2020_[1].pdf
COVID-19 Resources for Parents
-
- National Center for Disease Control (CDC)
- Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE)
- Pottawatomie County Health Department
- Talking to Children About COVID-19: A Parent Resource
- How to Talk to your Children About Coronavirus
- 5 Tips to Help Children Manage Coronavirus Anxiety
- Coping With Stress During Infectious Disease Outbreaks
- Helping Children Cope With Emergencies
- Helping Children Cope During and After Disaster
- How to Talk to your Elementary Children About Coronavirus
- Talking to Children About COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
- http://sites.edb.utexas.edu/agency-and-young-children/
- https://consciousdiscipline.com/covid-19-five-helpful-responses-for-families/?mc_cid=89fc7c1740&mc_eid=347c7f60b3
- https://preventchildabuse.org/coronavirus-resources/
Dear USD 320 Families,
Today, March 17, 2020, Governor Laura Kelly announced all school facilities will be closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. This would also imply all school activities, programs, and events will be canceled. We understand this may place tremendous hardship on our families and staff, and impact the social and emotional well-being of our students. We also realize the many cancelations will be a great disappointment to all. For that, we are very sorry.
In cooperation with the Kansas State Department of Education, we are developing a Continuous Learning plan to meet the ongoing learning needs of our students. While our buildings may be closed, student learning will continue. Details of this process will be developed with our teachers next week and will be communicated to all families as soon as possible.
Food Service will continue to provide breakfast and lunch at no cost to anyone ages 1-18. At this time, meals can be picked up at the Wamego City Park or the Louisville ball diamonds from 11:00am to 1:00pm.
Our staff and board of education are also working on other critical issues, such as what this means for our seniors, how this will affect next school year, and what impact this will have on our employees. We will provide updates on these issues as soon as the information is available.
We are committed to working together as a community to support one another throughout these unprecedented times, and communication will remain a top priority. Please continue to monitor your email for updates from the district.
As a reminder, this school closure is in response to the current public health crisis. The focus should remain on preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Please be mindful of the following:
- Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
- Cover your nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing (cough/sneeze into your sleeve or a tissue).
- If you or any member of your family are sick, stay home.
- Avoid close contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms.
Follow additional guidance from these sources:
- National Center for Disease Control (CDC)
- Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE)
- Pottawatomie County Health Department
All of us in USD 320 are working together to meet the needs of our students and maintain the healthiest environment possible for our community. We appreciate your patience and continued support. We live in one of the greatest communities in the world, and together, we will get through this.
God Bless you all,
Dear USD320 Families, Faculty, and Staff,
As you all know all Wamego Schools are closed this week. A decision regarding next week will be made later this week. The KS Dept. of Education and Governor Kelly also yesterday Strongly encouraged All schools in Kansas to close this week. Please do your best to practice the precautionary measures of social distancing and avoiding travel as much as possible. Remember the symptoms to look for are- coughing, shortness of breath, and a fever greater than 100.4. If these occur call your primary physician and they will direct you to your next steps.
I have attached the latest updates from the health department on self isolation if you have traveled. This now includes areas in the U.S., specific counties in Colorado, all international travel, and cruise travel. PLEASE review and take the appropriate recommendations to heart.
Grab & Go meals will be available from 11:00-1:00pm in front of the Wamego City Park Train Shelter House on 6th Street. There will be a “pull through” lane (graciously marked by the City) for cars to pull into. Food Service staff will hand meals to students in the vehicles. Students may also walk to the park and pick up their meals from a Food Service Staff member at the Shelter House. Each student can pick up a lunch for today and a breakfast for tomorrow. The both meals should be refrigerated within two hours.
All Schools are closed to everyone except USD320 essential personnel who have been notified. We must continue to deep clean and maintain a sanitary environment for when our students return. Please, do not visit our schools. If you have a critical need, office staff will be present, and you may call a specific school.
We will continue to provide regular communication regarding this situation through email and social media.
Thank you for all your support and working together to maintain the safety and health of our entire community.
3-15-20+Quarantine+recommendations+press+release[1].pdf