LSR7 Update

Hello LSR7 Staff. Please let me introduce myself. My name is David Buck. I'm a parent of 3 daughters that will attend LSR7. I'm a husband to a person who is my better half. I'm a reluctant owner of pets (I do like them). I'm a book club member. I'm an outdoorsman. I'm a teacher. I'm a coach. I'm a learner. I'm a son; sibling; neighbor; shopper at Aldi's; etc. And, after 12 years with the same desk, I've moved across the state to be the superintendent at Lee's Summit R-7.

Transition during a pandemic has proved to be a unique one indeed. I've been impressed and thankful for the dozens and dozens and dozens of individuals that have worked diligently for months on our re-entry.

Before I jump into a few things (re-entry), I wanted to share with you that I will send out an update from time to time via this format. I'll try to always include a bit of trivia with answers at the end. I will usually end with a personal picture just to remind myself that I'm a lot of things...not just the guy with a desk at 301 NE Tudor. I find touch points important.

Answers at the end of this SMORE.

1. What medicine/drug was once known as 'mould (mold) juice'?
2. "Back in the USSR" is the solo studio album of what singer?
3. What is the most attended or watched sport in the world?
4. The North End is the oldest neighborhood in which New England city in the U.S.?

As you are well aware, the district released the Roadmap to Reopening last week. Many districts in the state are doing so this week. Some are waiting as long as August 7th. The vast majority of districts, in their own processes, came to the same conclusion...parent choice.

That parent choice is online (Academy some are calling it) or in-person. The type of in-person is not defined in most places. That is because they are waiting for health department and expert guidance.

Prior to that release, I received 3 typse of emails, primarily. 1. please be in school every day. 2. please use a hybrid. 3. please provide online. #1 and #3 have been quiet since Friday. #2 has been joined by questions. And the questions are legitimate. We sometimes have detailed answers to them. We sometimes have 'this is where we think we are going' responses. Some...we are in a wait and see.

Here is what we know:

• The state level is not going to weigh in on this.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics (64,000 members) believes schools need to reopen. They believe that beyond education, school are vital in addressing racial and social inequity. "...the AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school."
• Children's Mercy advises schools to re-open.
• We exist as an essential public service to provide an education to students. We provide so much more.
• Hotline calls are cut in half since closure.
• Developmentally, small children struggle with self-guided learning more than older children.
• Some individuals are immune compromised.
• Cases are on the rise in our state and region despite school closure.
• We need resources to mitigate risk of infection.
• The local health department has seen our summer school plan and allowed it.
• 1,200 kids attended summer school...and masks were not the big fight we expected. It was rather normal.
• Our HS offers 549 unique courses. Our R7 Online offers around 100.
• Our elementary is building R7 Online as we speak.
• Nearly 900 kids have participated in athletics this summer. We shut down 1 due to numerous cases. In all cases, we defer to the health department about who to notify and what. In no case have they said we need to notify a particular person as they deemed everyone else to be little to no risk.
• We have communicated that a case exists when we know about it. That type of communication may change, as we don't know about every case I'm sure.
• We are bound by FERPA and HIPPA with regards to communication. Only if the health department directed us to tell person x would we tell person x. They are the experts and been trained in contact tracing.

As we wrestle with what this looks like, and we continue to wrestle with what this looks like, I want to let you know that we are focused on providing for our kids. Some households could handle our previous closure better than others. Some kids likely did well. Others paid dearly for our closure.

Let me give you a story regarding this. In late April or early May, a student at my previous district was found running down a state road about a mile from his house. A police officer found him. He was bruised, frantic, and gaunt. He was 11 years old. Since school had not been in session since March 13th, his stepfather and mother had abused him. They handcuffed him to his bed. They starved him. They beat him. They did this only to him, not his siblings. He lost 50 lbs before finally escaping. He literally was running for his life praying someone would help him before his parents would find him.

Had he been in school, we would have noticed changes. Bruises. Weight loss. It would have been hotlined a long time ago. If his siblings had been in school, they would have said something and we would have hotlined it. Weeks if not months of abuse would have been saved from this young boy's life. Had he not escaped, it is debatable if he would have made it.

Closure meant that he lost the safety net we provide.

As I personally wrestle with this topic, I think of him. I also think of my sophomore, who is taking college french online as I type and is very self-guided and capable of moving to an online format. I think of my child who has autism and the lack of services and structure she has had since mid-March. I think of the family who has a 7 year old as their oldest and they both work during the day. I think of the social-emotional growth needed by so many. I think to my many friends who work in the medical field, are pathologists, or head nurses in a covid ward and what they see and how they step up to serve and are still parents, neighbors, grocery store shoppers, and so on.

This is not easy. I know you know that.

We will continue to grapple with the in-person options. There is no one size fits all here.

I will continue to look at this via an equity lens, a developmental appropriate lens, and the lens of what guidance and science say. We will not have the perfect plan. USPS, your local bank, the HVAC company you use, the car manufacturer down the interstate, nor any entity has the perfect plan. We will serve our students in the best manner that we can. We will give our parents the grace and patience they need as they make decisions they have never been asked to before. We will continue to be flexible and student-centered. It is our charge. It is our call. I thank you each for being part of that call.

While the mask ordnance is about to expire, we will require masks from the moment they step on a bus to the moment they leave our care. We have debated about masks at the desk when no movement is occurring. We will continue to give that thought, but I can tell you I went to 5 of the 6 SLI sites and kids were incredibly compliant. A kid here or there would take a mask break with permission of a teacher, but it went incredibly well. We may have a medical exemption for wearing a mask or two. We will wait and see.

We will provide masks and have masks on hand for those that do not have one on that day.

We will disinfect and deep clean often.

We will provide classrooms with spray and wipes. The type of wipes may be simply paper towels, as the Clorox wipes, if you will, are on back order till at least October.

Plexiglas at places where visitors would come into our school or interact with our staff.

We will have a 2nd 'nurse's office' if you will. If someone develops a fever or symptoms after arrival, they will be kept in this 2nd location until someone can come pick them up.

We will not allow parents to eat lunch with their kids, and severely limit visitors. While we can educate hand washing, mask wearing, and screening questions/temperature checks to our daily stakeholders, we can't do that for the walk in. We have two buildings (STA and SLC) that have visitors often. To help mitigate those walk ins, we will have temperature scanners set up.

We will disinfect buses between routes and ask those that can to get to school in another fashion.

We will need some online (Academy) educators. They will still come to work daily so we can provide support and uninterrupted technology. Dr. Delsemme will engage our staff for that in the very near future.

We will ask that no one has communal objects (example, a crayon box that many kids grab into).

Washing hands teaching and promo will be done PreK-12.

Kids carry water bottles (either shut down or not allow the water fountain...little kids often touch their mouth on the fountain).

Field trips, assemblies, etc. will not occur until a vaccine is available.

Elementary recess...no co-mingling with other classes.

5 days vs. Hybrid. This is the same thing you see districts wreslte with across the state. I spent time last night calling friends in other parts of the state that were releasing their plans on the 20th. This is the biggest input they hear and the biggest challenge they have. Some want 5 days because of development reasons, for related services reasons, for day care reasons. Some want hybrid for building capacity reasons.

Can we broadcast our live classes to select students? HS courses = 549. Online (Academy) = around 100. If we don't offer say Broadcasting online, can we do so via live video? Think the old satellite classes across the state.

Lunch. We can limit a 4th grade class interaction with other 4th grade classes the rest of the day. What can we do about lunch?

What is the August Health Department Guidelines. We, like you, anxiously await.

Temperature check of students done at home (so they don't come into the building with a fever) or at school (how to not cause large crowds at the entrance).

Crowds at sporting events allowed?

Collect money at sporting events?

Move as many processes as possible to online...limit paper transfer.

There are so many other things we are working on in this arena. So many. These are just a few.

As of 4:25 p.m. today, we have 6,836 responses. That is 60% of our population. Of those, 5,848 have chosen in person (85.55%) and 988 have chosen online (Academy) (14.45%).

Here is the break down by building (building name is after their data, not before...IP means inperson and OL means online):

School/Choice/Count/%

125Not Responded 447 8.57%

125IP 11 19.64%

125OL 1 1.79%

Miller Park Total56

140Not Responded 71 78.89%

140IP 16 17.78%

140OL 3 3.33%

Summit Ridge Academy Total90

152Not Responded 1097 60.21%

152IP 618 33.92%

152OL 107 5.87%

LSHS Total1822

160Not Responded 1188 63.46%

160IP 573 30.61%

160OL 111 5.93%

LSNHS Total1872

170Not Responded 1193 57.03%

170IP 805 38.48%

170OL 94 4.49%

LSWHS Total2092

230Not Responded 598 61.08%

230IP 337 34.42%

230OL 44 4.49%

PLMS Total979

231Not Responded 600 62.05%

231IP 297 30.71%

231OL 70 7.24%

BCMS Total967

232Not Responded 563 59.58%

232IP 330 34.92%

232OL 52 5.50%

SLMS Total945

401Not Responded 234 67.05%

401IP 83 23.78%

401OL 32 9.17%

WVE Total349

402Not Responded 209 60.06%

402IP 122 35.06%

402OL 17 4.89%

HGE Total348

403Not Responded 281 59.16%

403IP 178 37.47%

403OL 16 3.37%

MAE Total475

404Not Responded 169 66.54%

404IP 65 25.59%

404OL 20 7.87%

LSE Total254

405Not Responded 248 61.69%

405IP 139 34.58%

405OL 15 3.73%

GWE Total402

406Not Responded 304 65.52%

406IP 128 27.59%

406OL 32 6.90%

PLE Total464

407Not Responded 391 73.50%

407IP 93 17.48%

407OL 48 9.02%

MLE Total532

408Not Responded 522 68.06%

408IP 182 23.73%

408OL 63 8.21%

PVE Total767

409Not Responded 353 65.74%

409IP1 49 27.75%

409OL 35 6.52%

UWE Total537

410Not Responded 333 61.44%

410IP 201 37.08%

410OL 8 1.48%

RHE Total542

411Not Responded 312 52.09%

411IP 235 39.23%

411OL 52 8.68%

TRE Total599

412Not Responded 270 53.78%

412IP 200 39.84%

412OL 32 6.37%

CCE Total502

413Not Responded 316 58.09%

413IP 222 40.81%

413OL 6 1.10%

HPE Total544

414Not Responded 232 53.58%

414IP 179 41.34%

414OL 22 5.08%

WLE Total433

415Not Responded 265 55.56%

415IP 184 38.57%

415OL 28 5.87%

HHE Total477

416Not Responded 279 59.62%

416IP 171 36.54%

416OL 18 3.85%

LFE Total468

417Not Responded 325 57.93%

417IP 201 35.83%

417OL 35 6.24%

SPE Total561

418Not Responded 250 61.58%

418IP 129 31.77%

418OL 27 6.65%

SVE Total406

I'm a parent. I have been going to work every day throughout the pandemic. My wife ran a small business up till mid-June. I/we have and continue to face the same decisions and thoughts that you have. 100s of millions of people have too. These are challenging times.

Our kids need us.

Nearly 3000 adults serve nearly 18000 students each and ever year in our community via the public school. I see signs up at business that continue to serve their constituents saying 'heroes work here.' I dare say we have superheroes here. You not only serve. You provide a lifeline to our kids. You feed them. You nurture them. You educate them. You provide them with resources, services, a safe place. You matter to kids. You matter to me. Thank you for everything.

Congratulations to our 2020 Teacher of the Year, Matthew Ketteman from Longview Farm Elementary, on earning recognition as a Kansas City Regional Teacher of the Year!

The

Kansas City Regional Professional Development Center

chose him as one of six honorees for the award, which highlights excellence in teaching and honors classroom teachers throughout the state. With the award, Mr. Ketteman is now qualified to apply for

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Teacher of the Year. Good luck Matt!

Kudos to these talented scholars. Way to go!

1. What medicine/drug was once known as 'mould (mold) juice'?
2. "Back in the USSR" is the solo studio album of what singer?
3. What is the most attended or watched sport in the world?
4. The North End is the oldest neighborhood in which New England city in the U.S.?

Answers:

1. Penicillin
2. Paul McCartney
3. Soccer
4. Boston, MA