What concerns, questions or ideas should we consider when planning to reopen schools?
That’s the question I asked of our school community last week. Thank you to the 247 people who took the time to respond, share comments and then rate the thoughts of other members of our community. You can read the full report here.
Please note the survey questions as well. 58% of our survey participants said that they are extremely or relatively comfortable sending their children back to school if the health orders allow it, while 30% are hesitant and concerned and 8% are extremely uncomfortable or will not send their child to school without a vaccine.
Would our survey participants prefer online distance learning or socially distanced in-person learning? 86% prefer to have our students return to us. And last, I asked how satisfied our community is with our communication and response. 67% are somewhat or very satisfied, 13% are neutral and 20% are somewhat or very unsatisfied.
The top thoughts report is accessible in the link in the report. Please know that we will carefully consider all 258 thoughts that were shared in the exchange. Many of the thoughts expressed are shared by our leadership teams–our school administrators and BOE members.
What are we doing to prepare for the new school year? We’re participating on an Erie 2 regional reopening workgroup that brings together educators from across our WNY school districts. We’re awaiting guidance from NYSED and the Governor. Most important, we’re planning a Springville Reopening Committee to consider the guidance from the Erie 2 workgroup and NYSED. We will develop our own plan for Springville. If you’re a parent or student in our district and you’re interested in participating on our SGI Reopening Committee, please email me at kmoritz@springvillegi.org.
As things have changed rapidly throughout this closure, our team of educators have responded to every new challenge with agility and the needs of our students foremost on our minds. We will continue to do so through the remainder of this trying time. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts with me.