Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parent-teacher conferences will be November 2nd from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. and November 5th from 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 -8:00 p.m. There are no classes on November 5th and 6th. ECLC is open those days.
November 6th is also the end of the first quarter.
PS-5th grade conferences will not be longer than 15 minutes, allowing time for cleaning in between guests. For in person conferences, face coverings are required, and participants will be seated 6-12 feet apart. Those waiting will be required to stay on a black “dot” in our hallways or other marking on the floor in other locations. If you want to do the conference via Zoom, make sure you have had communication with the teacher so a link can be sent to you.
Sixth-8th grade and specials conferences will be “drop in” but scattered throughout the building so those waiting are apart from one another. Within each conferencing area/room, we will use multiple tables/seats for parents so we can have one set of seats drying from disinfectant while another spot is being used. Face coverings are required, and participants will be seated 6-12 feet apart. Requests for a Zoom conference instead of a face-to-face meeting, if desired, should have been made. These “taken” times will be posted outside of their doors and/or communicated through other means. Due to the higher number of students that upper grade teachers have, 6th-8th grade conferences are less than 15 minutes. At this time, we are planning on using the following locations for upper grade and specials conferences:
- Mrs. Kubalsky (6th-8th): Room 206 (her room)
- Mrs. Nicoletto (6th and 6th-8th Spanish): Room 207 (her room)
- Mrs. Thomas (6th): Room 203 (her room)
- Mr. Connors and Mrs. VanSpeybroeck: Room 215 (music room)
- Mr. Ryan: Room 212 (art room)
- Mrs. Tilkens: Cafeteria
- Ms. Burken (7th): Cafeteria
- Mrs. Whelchel (7th/8th): Gym
- Mrs. Lundquist (8th): Gym
Other Upcoming Dates
November 11: JFK has school on November 11th, Veterans’ Day. There is no bus transportation this day as the DCSD is not in session.
November 13: Dismissal is at 12:15 p.m. There is bus transportation. There is no afternoon preschool.
November 25: Dismissal is at 12:15 p.m. There is bus transportation. There is no afternoon preschool.
November 26-27: Thanksgiving break. No classes. No ECLC.
Online JFK Spirit Store
Click HERE for the online JFK spirit store developed by Home & School
COVID Related
Our weekly meeting with the health department seemed to be rather short this week. There’s nothing really new to report. Things just keep trending in the wrong direction:
- Toward the beginning of fall, I wrote that the average number of cases of COVID-19 in Scott County was in the mid-30s. I believe we’ve had over 100 cases on at least 3-4 days over the last week.
- The 14 day positivity rate calculation used by the Department of Education for Scott County was at 6.6% when school started. On 10/13, it was 8.7%. Last Sunday, it was at 11.8%. Today, it’s at 14.5%. No, it’s not automatic that when the county hits 15%, schools have to switch to 100% remote learning. The county positivity rate is only one factor that the Department of Education would consider. JFK’s building level absenteeism rate is doing quite well so far.
- According to the CDC’s document regarding the risk of COVID-19 transmission in schools (see the link below), the risk of transmission in Scott County schools continues to be in the highest levels of risk according to the number of new cases per 100,000 population, positivity rate, and percent change in number of new cases per 100,000. The percentage of hospital beds used on Wednesday was at the lowest risk level, and the percent of hospital beds being used for COVID patients remained in the moderate risk level.
CDC indicators, thresholds of COVID transmission in schools
Amazingly, we are still doing well with our COVID numbers in the school. Our cumulative positivity rate for persons at JFK is 4%. Since school began, we’ve had between 1 and 5 positive cases. Our attendance rate has actually also been doing well. There’s only been a few days when attendance has dipped below 95%, which is considered the target attendance rate.
Last week I shared with you some metrics that might be used should there be a need for a two week building shut-down, a one week building shut-down, a shut-down of a particular homeroom, a mask mandate for the building, and a mask mandate for a particular homeroom. It’s a tough conversation to have: act too soon and you risk compromising the education available, but act too late and you risk or have already risked compromising everyone’s health. Below is our current draft:
COVID Metrics for building closure, face masks, 10-21-2020
Our most vulnerable times at school, in my opinion, are at recesses. Students, like all others, are like magnets; they are attracted to one another. Unless we are at our designated spots in classrooms or in the pews at church marked with black dots, we tend to move together. It’s tough to remember to stay apart from one another. Kids do pretty well at recesses when playing with a ball. They’re far enough away from one another to play catch with it, chase it, play four square, do volleyball bumps, play soccer, etc. We’ve increased the number of balls available at recesses, but it seems that there are still too many kids too close to one another at recesses. Indoor recesses, of course, present a whole different type of challenge.
Everyone in Iowa is waiting to see if contact tracing is going to become much more challenging as well. On October 21st, the CDC changed the definition of a close contact from being within 6 feet of a positive case for 15 consecutive minutes to 15 accumulated minutes over a 24 hour time period. It’s hard enough to remember who you were with five days ago for 15 minutes, it’ll be even harder to track it by the minute! The Iowa Department of Public Health is still discussing the CDC change and how/if it will impact Iowa’s guidance.
I hope you were able to figure out how to enjoy Halloween in a COVID safe manner. Most situations involving COVID are not the “super spreader” events you hear about in the news. Rather, they are small gatherings of family and close friends or work-related situations.
I must say that I’ve had to chuckle when asked a couple of times over the last two weeks if people have to quarantine after they’ve visited other states and returned to Iowa. Based upon Iowa’s rates, it’s people in other states that should be concerned about Iowans visiting them! Listening to my daughter in North Carolina and son in South Carolina describe how things are managed in their states, there are differences, and their rates are at about the national average. Depending upon the measurement, Iowa’s rates are at least double the national average.
Not Immune to Other Things Either
In a June Principal’s Post, I reflected upon various -isms, including racism. We are not immune, and we continually need to examine our thinking, statements, and actions, whether intentional or not or as individual actions or as part of various systems. In our 8th grade curriculum at JFK, for example, we have a rather extensive unit in the spring on civil rights as part of American History. But does it come too late for students? What are we doing in 6th and 7th grades as students are becoming prolific consumers and producers in social media? What are we doing as they develop the known accounts and sometimes the accounts we adults don’t know about in Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, WeChat, WhatsApp, etc.? What are we doing to help students with the dopamine rush comparable to using drugs that can be experienced with more “Likes” or “followers” regardless of the content of what is being published? What are we doing to help students’ minds grow as there is more brain development that happens in the middle school years than at any other time in people’s lives outside of birth – age three? There is more work to do, including at JFK.
This Was the Dog
On Tuesday, we had to part ways with our dog, Skip. He was 15 years old and no longer doing well. My kids were about 13, 11, 8, and 6 when we got him as a puppy. He was the best of dogs, and the one with whom many memories were made. He was the dog that two of my daughters used to have jumping between their beds as they threw a dog treat back and forth. This was the dog that loved birthday parties and holidays because he was such an opportunistic food snatcher. He was the dog that would be waiting for you whenever the garage door was opened. This was the dog that would come slinking up to me any time the “dad voice” was used at our house as if to say, “I don’t know what happened, or who did what. I just hope it’s not me that you’re mad at. I’m so sorry.” This was the dog that would insist on being petted whenever I sat in a chair on the deck and would sit up and put his head in my lap whenever I stopped. Skip was the dog that saw our children off to college and return home for visits. This was the dog that we carried up and down the stairs when his legs didn’t work so well but he was used to sleeping in the bedroom upstairs. He was the dog that we nursed through old age because you just can’t give up on one who’s been with you for so long. This was the dog.
Chad
