Anne Arundel County Public Schools, MD 2020 Reopening Report, 27 Jan 2021

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From YouTube: Reopening Report - January 27, 2021

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Reopening Report - January 27, 2021

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Hi again, everybody welcome to the latest in our series of reopening reports. These reports are designed to provide you with the latest information as we move toward bringing students and staff back into our school buildings.

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There has been much discussion over the last week about the reopening of schools with governor hogan and state superintendent of schools, dr karen salmon, clearly expressing their desire to see students in buildings by march 1st. That is exactly the timeline on which we have been working. In the wake of the vote of our board of education took earlier this month.

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The registration period has now closed and families have made their choice as to whether to return their students to school for in-person instruction.

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Our planning with the anne arundel county department of health is to get our elementary school students back first, followed quickly by our middle and high school students. Our aim also remains to bring students in priority need groups.

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Those with special needs, english language, learners and students that are centers of applied technology back sooner than the elementary group, as I've said before, moving to a hybrid format is going to require the same grace, patience and flexibility.

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I've urged throughout this pandemic. The logistics of reopening are neither simple nor easy and we are all going to have to make modifications to the way we have been operating.

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Students in a hybrid setting will have to adjust to learning both in school and at home during the week, and our awesome teachers will adapt to educating students simultaneously in classrooms and on devices remotely.

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This is going to take some getting used to, and we all need to understand that we're continuing to prepare our buildings for the arrival of students and staff, and there are many things that have taken an immense amount of planning and coordination as well masks have been acquired for all employees.

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Face shields from the state are available for any employee requesting one hand sanitizer is in place in classrooms and buildings. Every school is equipped with an electrostatic disinfectant backpack, sprayer and school front offices will have protective acrylic sneeze guards.

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We are still analyzing the data from the recently closed family registration in order to set up class rosters and a b day schedules and will be providing that information to families as quickly as possible.

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There is also the need to establish and coordinate bus routes so that when we have all of our schools, open students in the same family can, whenever possible, attend classes in person. On the same day, there is a lot of work yet to be done and we need to do it together.

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I want to say a special word of thanks to our facilities, maintenance and operations teams, particularly those employees based in our schools. They have been on the job daily since last march, though they didn't get the warranted public recognition. They have been shining stars in our ongoing efforts.

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Our work with the anne arundel county government to set up vaccination clinics for our employees continues. I am deeply appreciative to county executive, stuart pittman, county health officer, dr nalesh kaliana, rahman and county fire chief trisha walford. For their assistance and collaboration well, as of this taping, we don't have exact dates for clinics. We do have plans in place for fire department personnel to administer vaccines to employees during clinics at a single centralized location.

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This is a massive effort that takes an incredible amount of coordination, and I am grateful to all involved when dates and times have been finalized. We will contact our employees with instructions on how to register for and receive a vaccine.

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Even before we get students back into our buildings, we have made some changes to the elementary school virtual schedules that will take effect when the second semester begins on february 2nd.

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These changes, which include restoration of the two-hour midday block, are based on feedback from families and school-based staff.

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Finally, as I do every week, I want to again remind you to take advantage of the three free meals in a snack that we offer each school day to anyone, age 2 to 18 at more than 125 sites around the county. A list of all the sites can be found at www.aacps.org forward slash meal pickup.

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We are several steps closer to reopening our schools. Now more than ever, I remain very optimistic about beginning to bring as many students back as possible to our buildings by march 1st, thanks and I'll see you again in our next report.