March 27
Dear Parents,
I hope you and your family are doing well in these very unusual times.
Many people, including myself, like to get into a routine and the last few weeks have been anything but routine. The important thing to remember is to take care of you and your family both physically and emotionally.
We continue to receive guidance from the Iowa Department of Education (DE). They have provided some clarity regarding online work. This is a quote from the DE guidance: “Public districts may not require any students to participate in online educational programming or any other services while school is closed”.
We are not going to resume classes online but we are going to provide optional activities if students want to work on some educational topics.
These are not required by any of the teachers.
This link is available on the Montezuma website and we will continue to update the website if we find other valuable links.
All students in grades 6-12 have computers but students in PK-5 may want a device at home to utilize these resources.
If you would like to check out a device, you should send an email to Mr. Hanna at khanna@montezuma.k12.ia.us.
We will make arrangements to get you this device.
We are investigating whether we can supply a hot spot to supply internet service if you do not have the internet in your home. You can email Mr. Hanna if you need internet access and we will see what we can do to help.
Here are updates on a few other topics:
Meals
Just a reminder that our meal program is still available for students age 2-18. You simply need to send Angie, our Food Service Director, an email at aradeke@montezuma.k12.ia.us and she will get the meals prepared for you.
You can pick up meals on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11:30-12:30.
On Monday and Wednesday, you will get 1 hot meal and 1 cold lunch as well as breakfast items for 2 days.
On Friday, you will get a hot meal and a breakfast item for Monday morning.
School Buildings and Facilities
The Montezuma School buildings are closed.
We closed our playground equipment as well.
There is no clear guidance on how long the COVID-19 virus survives on different surfaces. There is information that it may survive anywhere between 2 hours and 9 days.
That is a tremendous difference and underscores the point that we just do not know how long it survives. We are not cleaning that equipment so we are going to close the equipment. Also, we do not want to encourage social gathering.
Athletics and Activities
Iowa’s High School Unified Activities Partners have prohibited all school activities through April 30th.
All extra-curricular activities are now in a prohibited period for practice, competition, and sanctioned activity until the closure is lifted.
This prohibition means no in-person contact between coaches/administrators and student-athletes for the duration of the period.
Coaches and sponsors should not attempt to organize formal or informal events or practices.
State Testing
ISASP testing is suspended until further notice. Guidance will be provided as more information becomes available.
Prom and Graduation
We are planning on resuming all school and extra-curricular activities after April 30th and this includes prom and graduation.
This may change in the next few weeks but this is our plan at this time.
Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. I will continue to provide updates as information becomes available.
Thank you for your patience and as I said at the top of this letter, take care of yourself and others.
Sincerely,
Dave Hoeger,
Superintendent