Dear Graettinger-Terril Students, Parents/Guardian, Teachers, Staff, and Community:
Following communication from Governor Reynolds and the Department of Education, we are able to give more updates regarding the steps that the district will be taking moving forward.
Graduation - “If districts and nonpublic schools have graduating seniors who are unable to complete their classes for the year due to school closure, illness, family illness, or related COVID-19 issues, the Department suggests the district use local discretion to determine whether the students have completed sufficient course content to consider the units complete. We recommend that districts provide as much latitude for students to graduate on time as possible.” Graettinger-Terril CSD will come out with more information regarding this provision and communicate the expectations of the district directly to Seniors and their parents.
Teaching and Learning - “If a school district closes its schools to slow or stop the spread of COVID-19, and does not provide any educational services to the general student population, then it would not be required to provide services to students with disabilities during that same period of time.” The Graettinger-Terril Administration met with all district staff. At that time, we worked with teachers to encourage them to provide optional assignments that can keep students engaged in learning while we are out of school. Students are not mandated to do these assignments, however, they are encouraged to do so in order to keep up their learning. We also encourage that all students continue to monitor their email from updates from teachers and administration.
Making up the days - During her press conference on March 16th, Governor Reynolds communicated that the time out of school will be waived and not required to be made up. Governor Reynolds also communicated that she has been given the power to waive any continued time out of school beyond April 12th (should it be needed) and will continue to monitor the situation in the weeks to come.
Activities before and after April 12th - At this time, all events and activities through April 12th have been either canceled or postponed. We will continue to monitor the current situation regarding COVID-19 using the information provided to us from the CDC, Department of Education and Governor's office. We will communicate cancellations and postponements as we make decisions on their viability.
Iowa Lakes Community College Classes -
At this time Iowa Lakes Community College will extend spring break through March 24th.
Online courses will continue as usual so please let your students know they need to continue to log in and complete coursework.
Face-to-face Arts and Science courses will be converted/offered online to start-up Wednesday, March 25th, please let students know they will hear from their Iowa Lakes instructor in the next week on what that will look like. This includes the Composition Class taught at Ruthven-Ayrshire by Mrs. Kirk.
Career Academy – Wednesday, March 25th we will be resuming, if a student feels comfortable coming to campus we welcome them to attend. If a student does not feel comfortable attending campus please let us know and we will continue to work on solutions.
Concurrent Enrollment taught by high school teachers- we are working on this and will continue to update you with information.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding as we navigate this situation.
GT Administration