Road to Reopen Update 3.21.21
Yesterday, Thursday, March 11, NC Senate Bill 220 became law. This officially allows us to transition all students K-12 to Plan A. When we return from Spring Break, our entire school (K-12) will return to full time in-person instruction Monday-Friday.
In order to allow our teachers time to prepare their classrooms for full time in person instruction, both Monday, April 12 and Tuesday, April 13, will be teacher work days for all teachers K-12. There will be no in person or virtual instruction on Monday, April 12 and Tuesday, April 13. On Wednesday, April 14, all K-12 students who have elected for in-person instruction will come to school. All in-person students will attend school Monday-Friday beginning Wednesday, April 14. Please note that, due to the loss of instructional time we have decided to NOT have late start Wednesdays for the remainder of the 20-21 school year. It is our plan for late start Wednesdays to resume in the 2021-22 school year.
Please engage with this video about our reopening plan and this decision:
The shift to full time in-person instruction means the following should be considered by K-12 families:
- Social distancing of 6 feet will no longer be required in K-12 classrooms
- Masks and frequent handwashing will be required
- Virtual students K-5 may experience a schedule change
- Middle and Upper School students will return to a seven period day schedule and all virtual students will be required to log into all seven Zoom sessions each day
- Students switching to in-person for the first time in Lower School will experience a change in teacher assignment
- Virtual students in Lower School might experience a change in teacher assignment
- Arrival and dismissal windows will change
- There will be a change in our screening procedures. We will be utilizing a web-based app for morning screenings and you will be logging in to complete the attestation for your children each day.
- Guidelines surrounding shared materials may change
We are beyond excited to make this transition for all of our students! Please stay engaged with us since a new plan means lots of changes and communication. We will do our best to keep it simple and appreciate all of your efforts to make this happen with us.
Road to Reopen Update 3.5.21
When we return from Spring Break, our Lower School (K-5) will return to full time in-person instruction Monday-Friday. Our Middle and Upper Schools (6-12) will remain on their current hybrid schedule until the State of North Carolina allows a change to full time in-person instruction for these age groups.
Please engage with this video about our reopening plan and this decision:
Details about our Reopening Plan Update
The shift to full time in-person instruction means the following should be considered by K-5 families:
- Social distancing of 6 feet will no longer be required in K-5 classrooms
- Masks and frequent handwashing will be required
- Virtual students may experience a schedule change
- Students switching to in-person for the first time will experience a change in teacher assignment
- Virtual students might experience a change in teacher assignment
- Arrival and dismissal windows will change
- Screening procedures may change
- Guidelines surrounding shared materials may change
- Outdoor lunch may not be able to remain possible
In order to allow our Lower School teachers time to prepare their classrooms for full time in person instruction, both Monday, April 12 and Tuesday, April 13 will be teacher work days for our Lower School teachers only. Middle and Upper School will have classes as scheduled on these days. On Wednesday, April 14, all lower school students who have elected for in-person instruction will come to school.
Road to Reopen Update 2.10.21
As we continue to watch the COVID-19 metrics improve in our community, we are planning to return to in-person instruction under the hybrid model. We have updated our decision-making metrics in response to all of the updated information and guidance we’ve received in the past week (these materials are linked below for your reference). These metrics are intended as benchmarks only and are subject to consideration of all relevant factors. We continue to be committed to transitions between learning environments being communicated in a timely manner in order to reduce chaos for teachers and students. We will resume operating within the hybrid learning environment on Monday, February 22nd.
Road to Reopen Update 1.14.21
In collaboration with the IC Imagine Board of Directors, the IC Imagine school leadership team has made the extraordinarily difficult decision to modify our learning environment. We will continue the school year with 100% virtual learning for all students in grades K-12 at this time. Please see the latest communication, including a video from our Head of School, Jenn Townley, for more information and further details.
Road To Reopen Update – 9.24.20
We are excited to share with you the updated timeline for students returning to 110 Champion Way. Along with the Road to Reopen Task Force, our leadership team has been hard at work planning and preparing for students to return to school. In this communication you can expect to find an updated timeline, more detailed information about virtual and in-person instruction, and our COVID-19 Data Dashboard. As always, we will continue to monitor COVID-19 data and guidelines weekly and may adjust these dates and plans accordingly.
Please take a moment to watch this Road to Reopen Update from Jenn Townley, IC Imagine’s Head of School.
Reopening Plan Quick Links
Submit questions to the Road to Reopen Task Force via this FAQ Form.
Reopening Plan Communications
10.23.20 Road to Reopen update
10.15.20 Road to Reopen Update
10.8.20 Imagination Insider – Road to Reopen Update
9.3.20 Imagination Insider- Road to Reopen Update
8.20.20 Road to Reopen Task Force
8.13.20 Road to Reopen Task Force
8.4.20 2-8 Device Distribution Update
7.23.20 IC Imagine Board of Director’s Meeting Presentation
6.17.20 Lighting the Way Forward
Road to Reopen Update- 7.30.20
As we continue to finalize plans for the 2020-2021 school year, we wanted to make you aware of the biggest changes that you will notice in this year’s Virtual Learning from your experience in the spring. Please remember that when we transitioned to remote instruction in March, we had one week to prepare for a completely unprecedented situation. We have taken the summer to make decisions that will allow our teachers and staff to provide the best possible Virtual Learning experience for your student(s) and family. Please view the infographic below for more details about the differences you can expect between the reactive plan we were forced to use for virtual learning in March of 2020 and the proactive plan we’ve been able to create for virtual learning this school year.
Road to Reopen Update – 7.24.20
In collaboration with the IC Imagine Board of Directors, the IC Imagine school leadership team has made the extraordinarily difficult decision to modify our return to instruction plans for the 20-21 school year. We will begin the school year with 100% virtual learning for all students in grades K-12. The state provided us with several different options for Plan B, so we have modified the original plan we shared with you and will begin with Plan B: Option F, which allows the school to determine which students and/or courses are on-site and which are remote.
As a part of this change to our plans, no students will be divided into cohorts at this time. We will begin device distribution the week of August 3 and will have all devices out to students by Friday, August 14 so that everyone can begin online instruction on Monday, August 17th. Beginning August 17, all students will be learning virtually and we will be evaluating our ability to bring students into the building starting with our students that are the most at-risk. Here is the Road to Reopen Phased Plan and the 7.23 Board Presentation we used to discuss our decision with the IC Imagine Board of Directors.
In our phased plan (detailed below), we will begin to bring in small groups of students (beginning with our most at-risk) into school for in-person instruction. As you will see in the detailed plan below, we hope to start this on October 5th, as the task force deems it practical to do so and the current COVID-19 metrics warrant. If your child is a member of the first cohort we decide to bring in, you can expect to hear from us about a month prior to them being able to return to school for in-person instruction.
We know that many of you are anxiously awaiting details about the start of the school year, how virtual learning will be different this time around versus your experience in March, and your child(ren)’s schedules, teacher assignments and supply lists. Now that we have a finalized plan in place for all levels of the school, we are able to focus more on the details of these questions that you will be hearing about from the principals of your child(ren)’s school levels more in the coming weeks.
Our Road to Reopen Task Force will be continuing to meet on a weekly basis and review the current information from the NCDHHS and BCDHHS along with our progress with our phased reopening plans. We will communicate an update about the task force to all of our families weekly on Thursdays. We will also update our Road to Reopen FAQs on a weekly basis. You can view our updated information about the Road to Reopen, as well as updated FAQs on our website. We have also added a way for you to submit questions to the Road to Reopen Task Force via this FAQ Form. Please utilize this form to ask questions regarding IC Imagine’s Road to Reopen plans, logistics and other operational questions. The Task Force will review submitted questions and look for themes. Questions will be reviewed and new FAQs will be added weekly on Thursdays.
As we mentioned in our last email, we appreciate all of the warm, supportive emails and messages from all of you. They have been bright spots in our inboxes during this challenging time. Your opinions and suggestions are important to us, so please use the above mentioned FAQ Form so that we can continue to incorporate your feedback into our decision making process.
Thank you for your continued support,
IC Imagine School Leadership Team