NFV News
May 2020
End of Year Edition
Lots of activity still going on in the NFV schools, now that we are getting into May, the end of year stressors are back. The seniors, though are not, for the most part, worried about graduating since we have awarded them credit for all work completed as of March 13. I assume Mr. Wolverton has kept all parents informed of seniors activities, but here’s a rundown of dates I have:
Last day of school May 27
Last day for seniors is when they’ve completed the assigned work and Capstone
Senior check out and computer return is May 7, 8, and 11.
Grades K-11 locker clean out is being scheduled for May 18-27. These students will be keeping their computers over the summer.
Senior Awards video will be released June 5
Senior Celebration street processional is May 30
Graduation ceremony is tentatively set on June 27, 10:00 am, or July 18 10:00 am
If restrictions don’t allow there will be a virtual ceremony July 18
What words describe our spring quarter?
Frustrating, Disappointing, Maddening, Letdown, Bummer
This has been the most frustrating and disappointing school year for everyone. At times, I sit and look at an empty screen, thinking about the great disappointments hanging over the seniors heads, like Eeyore.
I think we’ve all had plenty of personal thunderstorms and we need to keep walking away from it and not let it run us down. We have little control over these nasty viruses, and when we don’t know what may happen next our mind typically thinks negative thoughts. Graduation may not be all that awesome if we have to do it virtually, but it's still a celebration and there are years ahead for class reunions, weddings, and a lifetime of memorable ceremonies. Senior spotlights are running on our Facebook page, and other ways of celebrating the Class of 2020 are in the works. These seniors’ year may have been short circuited, but they have been a great senior class and NFV is very proud of their accomplishments thus far.
CARES ACT and Future Planning
The Federal Government has passed what they call the CARES Act, which is funding for many things in this pandemic, such as cleaning and disinfecting supplies and training, reimbursement for losses during the pandemic, and some enrichment for schools and students in the coming year. With that money, we could offer extended summer school for students who already have a learning gap, most likely in July and August. We have also considered an earlier start to next school year, a sort of “recovery” period for students who have been out for nearly 5 months. I believe it could just be a few days of reintroduction to school, a little extra time so that the 20-21 year will be fruitfull for everyone.
As we look forward for the students returning, we have many questions, the Governor’s proclamation ends May 15th, but the virus doesn’t seem to be paying attention and it could easily be extended. Some of the experts have warned of a fall relapse, if that happens, we could be in the same boat next fall as we are now. One change to that would be all students will have required distance learning lessons. DON’T PANIC, no decisions made yet, but our team is brainstorming the what if’s so we might be ready for a number of things.
Worst Case Scenerios
If we feel it is not safe for students and staff to be in those crowded halls, buses and classrooms, we may have to:
Have masks for everyone
Regularly and constantly disinfecting hands and desks
Stagger start and end times to avoid congestion
Use flipped classrooms.
Eliminate some curriculum to streamline learning
Teach from a distance with video stream
Serve lunches in classrooms
Social distance in school buses and classrooms
Continue distance learning from home
Those are worst case scenarios, but some of them are likely. We are stocking up on masks, hand sanitizer, and disinfectants. We plan to be ready to go no matter what we have to do, but we can’t guarantee it will be like old times (2019).
The end of this month will be filled with decisions that could go in different directions. Will there be summer sports? Fall sports? Will conditions allow us to loosen restrictions or continue them? Will we have live or virtual celebrations? Can we SAFELY get back to our classrooms? Can we go to our favorite restaurants, ball games and concerts?? If we’ve learned anything in this year its flexibility and adaptability. Not only have we stretched our staff to learn new things rather quickly, we also learned to change, on the fly sometimes, in order to better serve our students. We’ve tried to do the best that we can and NFV will continue down that road for a long time to come. #GoTigerHawks.
North Fayette Valley Schools
Email: dwillhite@nfv.k12.ia.us
Website: nfvschools.com
Location: 600 North Pine Street, West Union, IA, USA
Phone: 563-422-3851
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NFVCSD
Twitter: @NFVtigerhawks