It was so nice talking to you this week! I’m super excited to be able to work with such wonderful families this year! Here is the schedule for this morning for supply pick up. Your child will receive his/her math books, a science packet and other important materials. Thank you for your patience with our soft start this year. Technology is new to many of us! We will learn together! đ
Dearborn Public Schools is inviting parents and the public to learn more about how starting the school year online will look during a special virtual town hall meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 6 p.m.
Viewers can tune in to the meeting via the districtâs Facebook page, YouTube Channel or on its cable television channel.
Among the topics to be discussed are an overview of what technology the district will be using, how the studentâs daily schedule will look, how services will be provided to special needs students, COVID-related cleaning procedures, how COVID-19 cases in students and staff will be handled, and other frequently asked questions. Questions can also be submitted during the event via Facebook or through an online form at http://bit.ly/DbnTownHall8-26-20.
âWe know opening school this year online is like no other return-to-school our community has experienced. That is generating a lot of questions and some anxiety for parents and students, and we hope to use this forum to answer as many of those questions as we can and in turn calm their fears,â said Superintendent Glenn Maleyko.
Dr. Maleyko will be joined at the town hall by other staff, including representatives from administration, school nurses, and the operations and technology departments. Those speakers will help answer the most pressing questions in the community. The district has published some of the information on its Back to School website.
Dearborn Public Schools is starting the school year with online classes until at least Oct. 1. The Board of Education will reevaluate conditions in September to decide if the district can start bringing more students back to the schools. During online learning, the district will also offer learning labs, which are small group face-to-face sessions for students recommended by their teachers.
To ease families into the new online learning method, the first week of school will be half days for students. School starts Monday, Aug. 31. Teachers will use the afternoons that week for additional professional development. Many schools will also use that first week to hold events to distribute class materials to students.
âWe ask parents for their patience and understanding that this system of educating students is new to us, too. We know there will probably be hiccups as we bring more than 20,000 students back to class in a way that has never been done before in Dearborn. The first week will be a phase-in period for all of us,â Dr. Maleyko said. âWhile we still hope to return most of our students to in-person learning this year, in the meantime we are carefully planning and working to make the most of online learning across the district.âby Katie Hetrick on August 25, 2020
I would like to welcome you to the 2020-2021 school year. Although this is an extraordinary start, I am optimistic that together we will make this a great and successful school year! I will work to get Snow off to a positive start before I transition to the Human Resources Department in October when the new principal will take over.
In this letter, I will attempt to answer some questions that I have received thus far. I will continue to communicate information as I receive it on the school blog. It is imperative that all Snow families subscribe to the school blog for fast and accurate information as things may change throughout the school year. I urge all families to stay connected! https://snow.dearbornschools.org/.
Registration
If your child is still not registered, please be sure to get registered immediately. Here is the district link to registering. https://dearbornschools.org/services/enroll/ Please contact the Snow school office if you have any questions at 313-827-6250.
For students who opted-in for the Virtual Learning Program (VLP), please remember that this is separate from Snow but will be facilitated by highly qualified Dearborn Teachers.
School Year Calendar
Below is the link to the 2020-2021 school year calendar. The first week of the school has been amended to all half days to provide teachers with additional planning and collaborative time. https://dearbornschools.org/services/district-calendars/
Attendance
Start and end times have been amended for remote learning. The new times for remote learning are 8:55am-3:50pm and from 8:55am-12:00 pm on half days. Students are expected to be online where they will be live with their classroom teacher at 8:55 am daily. Please communicate with your childâs teacher regarding potential absences.
Student Placement & Orientation
To ensure social distancing, we will not be posting student rosters on school doors as in the past. Instead, you will receive a welcome email from your childâs teacher on Friday, August 28th. It is essential that your email is accurate in ParentConnect to receive important communications. If you need to update your email, Login to ParentConnect and change it under the âMy Accountâ option. If you cannot login to ParentConnect, please contact Snow school and we will update this for you.
The Snow team has worked extremely hard to create well-balanced student rosters while taking into consideration the needs of all students as a whole and individually. If you would like to share specific information about your childâs needs, please contact their teacher. Our dedicated teachers are accommodating and understand that this is a difficult time for all of our families. Please stay tuned for more information (including date/time) regarding orientations as it will look different this year.
Remote Start Learning
As you may know, we are starting this year with 100% online learning until at least the week of October 1st. At this time, the Covid situation will be reassessed by the district. Traditional grading will be implemented.
Chromebook distribution and supply distribution will happen the first week of school. Details will be posted on the school blog.
Platforms: Schoology and Zoom, more information will be shared when available
Online Hours: full days 8:55 am-3:50 pm
half days 8:55 am-12:00 pm
Schedule: a consistent & structured schedule will be shared during the first week of school. The schedule will include live instruction/breaks/learning labs & independent work times embedded in the school day.
Learning Labs: will be virtual and/or optional in-person support, both 1-1 & small groups beginning 9/21/20, stay tuned for more information regarding logistics and protocols
We highly recommend that each student have a device to utilize for online learning. Please assess whether or not you are in need of borrowing a school device. We will announce a distribution date soon.
Week 1 (8/31-9/3): all half days from 8:55am-12:00pm, it will be a soft start with the first week.
Please establish routines with your child that include consistent bedtime and morning practices and inform them that they will need to be online daily at 8:55am for live instruction with their teacher. I also encourage you to identify/create quiet spaces/work stations for your child(ren) to support online learning.
Remember, this is a global pandemic and an unprecedented time. We will work to support all students. Together, with patience, communication and collaboration, we will get through this!
Dearborn starting with half days of school and tweaking school day times during online learning
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Press Release #05/2020-21
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 18, 2020
Dearborn students will get to sleep a little later during district-wide online school and ease into the new school year with half days for the first week under recent changes to the school calendar.
Classes for all Dearborn Public School students will be a half day for the week of Monday, August 31 to Thursday, September 3. (Friday, Sept. 4, is a day off for the district.) The four half days will give staff additional time to learn new online teaching tools, including the Schoology and Zoom software that all teachers and students will be using during online instruction.
To make up for some of the half days, the district is eliminating the first three late starts planned for this year. Class will now resume at the regular time on September 23, October 14 and December 9.
The district is also adjusting its school hours during online learning. High schools, middle schools, kindergarten to 8th grade buildings, and both Salina schools will start class at 8:15 a.m. with the school day ending at 3:10 p.m. and half days ending at 11:10 a.m. Most elementary schools will start class at 8:55 a.m. and finish by 3:50 p.m. on a regular online day and at noon on a half day.
Middle and high school students will have their first to third hour classes on Aug. 31 and Sept. 2 and their fourth through sixth hour courses Sept. 1 and 3.
All the new schedule changes apply to both the traditional and Virtual Learning Program students. When the district returns to the school in the buildings, start times for all students will revert back to the traditional hours, generally 7:20 for high school, 8 a.m. for middle school and 8:40 for elementary. Students in the Virtual Learning Program will also move back to the traditional start times.
âWith all students starting the year online, we do not have to worry about daily busing. Without busing, we can adjust our class schedules to make it a little easier for students, especially the high school teens whom we know would rather not be in class at 7:20 each morning,â said Superintendent Glenn Maleyko.
Administrators worked with the Dearborn Federation of Teachers to adjust the school calendar. The changes still need official approval by the Board of Education, but that is expected to happen at their next meeting on Monday, Aug. 24. District calendars can be found at https://dearbornschools.org/services/district-calendars/.
Dearborn Public Schools is starting online for the entire district at least until Oct. 1. The Board will reevaluate conditions in September to see if students can begin to shift back to more in-building learning. Students in the Virtual Learning Program signed up to take classes online for the entire school year.
During online learning, students will still be expected to participate in live class every day. How those school days will look, especially for the elementary students, is still being finalized.
âWe know this school year is bringing with it a lot of changes. We appreciate the patience from our parents, families and staff as we make adjustments to serve our students the best we can in the unprecedented environment created by COVID-19,â Dr. Maleyko said.
