Requesting a Change in School Model - Fall 2020

October 2, 2020

Dear KLSD Families,

As I’ve said many times, this project of keeping schools open during a pandemic is truly a community-wide enterprise. I can’t thank you enough for your collaboration to this point.

Back in August, we asked you to make a commitment to either the hybrid model or the fully remote model for September and October. Your responses allowed us to plan effectively for the opening of schools.

Today we’re asking you to consider the next three months of school – November, December, and January. We’re looking at three months this time rather than two because of the number of days out of school (Thanksgiving and winter break) in the colder months and to more closely coincide with the end of the first semester.

If you intend to keep your child in the same model to which they’re currently assigned, you do NOT need to communicate with us at this time. You can ignore the next three paragraphs.

If, however, you do want to make a change, we’re asking you to complete a form and return it to us no later than Tuesday October 6. Directions are at the bottom of this email. Our intention is to have the change take effect on Monday, November 2^nd. Because we don’t know how many changes will be requested, we don’t know how complex this process will be. We want to give ourselves sufficient time to plan thoughtfully.

The only options we’re asking you to consider at this time are A) moving your child from the fully remote to the hybrid model (2 days per week of in-school instruction) or B) moving your child from the hybrid model to being fully remote at home, 5 days per week.

Please note that we will not be able to accommodate requests for students to be in a particular cohort or a particular class.

To all who are wondering, does this mean there will be no other changes to the school model between now and January? Not necessarily. We are continually thinking about how and when we might make adjustments to the amount of time students are in school. All of these decisions are complicated, as you can imagine, and must consider NYS guidelines. For today, we feel it’s important to honor the agreement we made with all families about the 2-month initial commitment.

Yours,

Andrew Selesnick, Superintendent of Schools

 

Directions for requesting a change:

The link below will open a Microsoft Form that can only be completed by someone with a KLSD Microsoft account. We’re using this method so that we can be sure for which student the request is being made and to minimize our need to verify information.

If you click on the link on a personal device, you’ll be brought to the MS Office sign-in page. Please sign in with the credentials of the student for whom the change is being requested.

Alternatively, you can open a browser on the student’s school-issued device. Type in the link below and a form associated with your child’s KLSD account will open automatically. (To avoid having to re-type the link, you can also forward this email to your child’s school email address and click the link on their device.)

Importantly, if you’re requesting a change for more than one child, each request must be associated with each student’s separate KLSD account – so, either complete each form separately on each child’s device or sign out and sign in again on your own device using each child’s credentials.

Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3iooXBA