Dear Oak Hill Family,
I hope you are enjoying a healthy and relaxing summer!
The Oak Hill Academy Health and Safety Task Force has been working hard throughout the summer to develop our reopening plan for the Fall Semester. Oak Hill will offer a safe return to campus with a comprehensive safety plan in place. As we worked tirelessly to create a safe environment for our students and staff, I could not help but reflect on how fortunate we are for our unique campus layout and learning environment in this time of a world pandemic. Please remember as large school districts are making decisions, they have hundreds, if not thousands, in their buildings with high teacher:student ratios. We are lucky to have a small, nurturing school that allows for small class sizes which optimize social distancing, expansive outdoor space for learning and physical activity, outdoor dining to allow for fresh air, a superb staff who has been resilient in preparing both virtual and in-person learning, and many more advantages which make Oak Hill such a wonderful place to learn and grow. These factors allow us much greater flexibility and creativity during this time.
Please carefully read the
Re-entry Plan linked here
. I realize this is a lengthy communication, but it is important that each family has an understanding of our plan and how we plan to band together as a community to keep our students safe.
Two major changes to our traditional return to school plan are the following:
- Based on the most recent Dallas County order as of July 16, 2020, the school start date will be pushed back to September 8, 2020. The primary focus during the first week will be on teaching safety measures, establishing routines and expectations, and setting up students with their 1:1 devices. We strongly encourage families to limit travel and quarantine for the 14 days prior to school starting, if possible. We are waiting for state guidance regarding whether the delayed start of school will require an extension of the school year end date.
- We will now offer a fully virtual option (eLearning) for this school year. A few parents have reached out with individual circumstances necessitating a fully virtual option this year. We would like to accommodate these families and any others who are in need of a virtual option, and are therefore preparing our classrooms for this alternative. Please be mindful, we still consider being in the classroom the best option for our population because of the needed structure, curriculum differentiation, social-emotional benefits, improved learning in a multisensory/collaborative model, and so much more; however, if this is the best option for your family, we are compassionate to that need as well. This option must be decided on a quarterly basis and a student cannot opt in or out mid-quarter. The decision must be made no later than Monday, August 3, 2020 for the first quarter. Please complete the Google Form linked here to provide your intention to begin the school year. As a side note, any students required to quarantine or be off campus for health reasons will automatically be transitioned to the virtual eLearning option. This is the exception to changing your decision in the middle of a quarter. Our new eLearning virtual option will be a more robust and comprehensive option than the Spring emergency eLearning plan. Students will follow the traditional daily schedule with both synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities available for all subjects. Questions regarding the full virtual option can be sent to Linda Wachel, lwachel@oakhillacademy.org.
We are continually updating these plans based on guidelines and directives from state and county health departments, as well as the TEA (Texas Education Agency). We will communicate new information as we receive it. If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please feel free to email them to
covid@oakhillacademy.org
(no later than July 31) so we can compile them and publish those the first week of August.
Sincerely,
Brit
