RTL Update – Court Decision on Temporary Stay
Here is the latest information around Return to Learn for the 2020-2021 school year. Court Decision on Temporary Stay for Extracurriculars Today, a judge in Story County denied the Ames Community School District’s motion for a temporary stay of enforcement that relates directly to students' non-participation in extracurricular activities. As a District, we are currently in a two-week window of 100% online continuous learning due to COVID-19 metrics in Story County and per Department of Education guidance, we are not permitted to engage students in extracurricular activities. Our goal in asking for the temporary stay was to allow students to participate in extracurricular activities while in the online model. As the motion was denied, extracurricular activities will continue to be suspended through next week. The school board will hold a meeting on Thursday, September 17 to determine the next delivery model.
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John Sletten (1931-2020) – Ames High Track Coach
Former Ames High track & field head coach John Sletten is a legend. For 43 years, he built a championship tradition for the Little Cyclones that is unrivaled, and today, the track at Ames High Stadium is named in his honor. Mr. Sletten passed away the morning of September 8 after battling a brain tumor. He was 88 years old.
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Ames High will Compete Against Urbandale with No Crowd on Friday, September 4
Given the current COVID-19 positivity rate across Story County, we have made the decision as a District to host Friday night’s football game against Urbandale with no crowd. This means no band, student section, or walk-up tickets. Leading into this decision, we planned for this night with a wide-range of mitigation steps that included vastly limiting crowd numbers. As we have progressed throughout this week, we know that those steps are not enough for our community and county. The only individuals that will be permitted to attend the game are key event staff and parents/guardians of senior cheer and football players to participate in the previously scheduled senior night recognition (masks required).
Read moreRTL Update – Required Continuous Learning
School Board Approves the Recommendation to Start the School Year in Required Continuous Learning Last evening, the school board voted unanimously to begin the 2020-21 school year in a 100% off-site Required Continuous Learning delivery model due to the rapidly increasing COVID-19 positivity rates in our community. This decision was based on the COVID-19 positivity rates in our community. On Monday, the 14-day positivity rate was 21.1%, which exceeds not only our local metrics but those outlined by the Department of Education.
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Revised 2020-2021 School Year Calendar Approved (August 28, 2020)
As a result of the ongoing pandemic due to the coronavirus, and in order to return to school safely, we have made slight changes to next year’s calendar. The easiest way to understand these changes is to know that outside of the federal holidays indicated below, every other day in our calendar will be a student contact day, giving teachers and students increased opportunities for instruction. A special thank you to the Ames Teacher’s Union for working collaboratively on these changes.
Read moreRTL Update – Cohort Group Emails Sent / Tech Device Distribution
School Board Meeting (August 28, 2020) The school board will hold a special board meeting tonight at 5:30 p.m. The meeting can be found at the Zoom URL below or streamed on our YouTube Channel. https://ames-k12-ia-us.zoom.us/j/83762585724 Cohort Groups / Student’s Teacher Today, emails were sent out indicating student cohort groups and teachers. Student schedules were also available for Ames High and Ames Middle School. Please check your Infinite Campus Parent Portal.
Read moreRTL Update – Cohort Groups / Device Pickup
When will I know what day of the week my kid goes to school? As the online request form closed last week Friday, we are working to roster students within our student information system, Infinite Campus. We are finalizing that process this week and will communicate which cohort group your student will attend to start the school year along with their teacher (elementary) on Friday, August 28. Ames Middle School and Ames High School will release student schedules on Friday as well.
Read moreRTL Update – School Board Statement on the Importance of Local Control
Here is the latest information around Return to Learn for the 2020-2021 school year. Department of Education Permission for Phased-In Hybrid Denied The Ames Community School District requested permission from the Department of Education (DE) to begin the school year in a “phased-in” hybrid delivery model and it has been denied. We are continuing to work with the DE to understand what options are available to us and how instructional hours completed during the “phased-in” time period will contribute to the overall total.
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School Board Statement on DE Denial and the Importance of Local Control
The Ames school board issued a statement in response to the Department of Education denying permission for the “phased-in” hybrid delivery model and outlined next steps and the importance of local control. You can read the statement below:
Read moreRTL Update – Process for Positive Cases
Process for Positive COVID-19 Student/Staff Ames Community School District has put in multiple strategies to substantially reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19 within our buildings. Even with those mitigation strategies, due to the nature of community spread of COVID-19, a student or staff member may contract the virus. We have posted on our website the process for responding to a student/staff member testing positive for COVID-19. Even with this document, we know that there are many more questions and we are working on an FAQ related to this to address many of them. A few examples of those questions include: Do all family members need to quarantine if their student is identified as a close contact at school? Will teachers be required to work if they test positive for Covid-19 but are asymptomatic (do not have any Covid-19 symptoms?
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