This is Ken Nicely, superintendent of Roanoke County Public Schools.

As you know, the governor has ordered that schools are to remain closed for the rest of the academic year, and today the governor issued a stay at home order until June 10.  The Virginia Department of Education has directed school divisions to focus our planning efforts to ensure that our students are equitably prepared for success in subsequent grade-levels and courses.  Specifically, we are identifying the essential content that had not yet been taught at the time schools were closed.  We’ve also been developing an equitable plan to incorporate this missing essential content into the curricula for all students. This will require additional instruction and possibly adjustments to grade-level curricula and pacing for the next school year.   

Today, we released our continuity of learning plans for our elementary and secondary students.  You can find these updated plans on our coronavirus special page on our website.  We’re also mailing a copy of these plans to every student household. 

Here is a brief summary of our continuity of learning plans. 

At the elementary level, our teachers will continue to provide lessons and materials that address the essential content for each content area (such as math or reading) that students and parents can access.

At the secondary level, teachers will provide assistance to help students demonstrate competence in the identified essential content on a pass/fail basis.  Teachers will reach out to students to introduce the essential content after spring break.  Students who complete this work will have the opportunity to improve their overall final grade.

Final grades for all students will be determined by averaging the grades from the first three nine weeks. Each nine weeks will count as one-third of the final grade. There will be no grades for the 4th nine weeks at the elementary or secondary level with the exception of dual enrollment courses.  Again, please see our website or the mailed brochure for details on our continuity of learning plans. 

We will observe spring break as usual next week.  We will take a pause for education and meal delivery next week to give our staff a well-earned break.  I want to express my thanks to all our staff for their amazing work and I especially want to thank all our parents for their patience and understanding.  Please remember to practice social distancing and to avoid gathering in large groups.

Thank you.

From Dr. Ken Nicely, superintendent of Roanoke County Public Schools:

Earlier this afternoon, Governor Northam announced that all schools statewide will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year.  Although this was not a complete surprise, we are still very disappointed for our students. These are certainly challenging times that require all of us to pull together and encourage and support one another. We will find our way and we will get through.

With this new announcement, comes lots of questions and we will be working hard to provide the answers.

Classes and Grades
We are working to determine the details for what instruction will look like for the long term and the implications for grades and finishing courses. Every school district will be receiving guidance from the Virginia Department of Education in the next few days to help us develop revised instructional plans.  As we develop these plans, we will keep you informed.

Seniors
We especially understand the impact this has on our graduating seniors.  Seniors who were on track to graduate will be able to receive the diploma you have worked so hard to earn. Events like prom and graduation ceremonies will have to be re-evaluated in light of the governor’s latest announcement.  We will be working to determine what options we have to possibly re-schedule these events and will not make decisions on these events prematurely.  Much of this is dependent on the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic in our community in the coming weeks and months and whether bans on gatherings are still in place.  We are committed to doing what we can to continue these special senior experiences as much as possible and our high school principals and teachers will develop other creative ways to try to keep the Class of 2020 connected.

Food4Kids Meals Program
Our Food4Kids meal program will continue as long as we have the staff and resources available to do so. We are working on consolidating some of the delivery routes for bagged meals and sites for hot meal pickup in an effort to maximize our limited resources.  We are also phasing in new, earlier delivery times.  As we finalize these plans, we will make sure you are informed.

Student Belongings
Some parents have asked about picking up their child’s belongings from the school now that we will be closed for the rest of the school year.  We ask that parents please be patient while we determine the best way we can accomplish this while adhering to the governor’s mandates. We will send out information about that in the coming weeks.

Conclusion
I want to commend our parents, our students and our staff for their incredible collaboration.  I’ve heard several stories of the amazing and creative ways our teachers are staying in touch with our students and I’ve personally seen the incredible work of our nutrition and transportation staff preparing and delivering meals to students.  As I’ve said before, this is an unprecedented situation and I’m very proud of the extraordinary efforts of our entire school community. We do encourage all of our students and families to stay safe and observe the social distancing urged by the governor.

As always, if you have questions, please check out our special coronavirus special page, call your local school, or call our hotline at 562-3791.

Dear Roanoke County students and families:

Over a week ago, schools in Roanoke County and across Virginia were closed in the wake of growing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the preparedness and can-do spirit of so many teachers and staff, Roanoke County Public Schools launched into the first week with a focus on staying connected to our students and families, providing for the continuity of learning as required by the state, and making food available to those students in need. Thank you to the many parents who have reached out to express your appreciation for these efforts by our staff.

The efforts of this past week were a result of our desire to establish lines of communication and to do our best to offer support, not knowing how long the mandated closure would continue. The governor’s order was for schools in Virginia to be closed for two weeks, and we anticipate that the governor will make revised announcements this coming week. At this point, we have not received any advance notice about whether the school closures will be prolonged nor for how long if the closures are extended.

We have, however, received revised guidance from the Virginia Department of Education regarding academic expectations during the mandated school closures and want to share our revised plan with you. As I expressed in the message sent out last week, we also do not want put extra pressure or stress on families about keeping up with schoolwork, nor overload students with too much screen time. Our goal is to strike a balance between providing resources and learning opportunities, having our teachers and counselors provide support, but not penalizing any student or adding undue stress. That overall message remains the same, but I want to provide a few more details that I hope will be helpful.

This sudden transition to providing continuity of learning during a mandated school closure is new to our teachers too. They have done an extraordinary job of reaching out to students and families and providing activities and resources. As is to be expected, teachers are working with families who expect and want a lot of resources for their children and they are working with families who are overwhelmed with the disruptions caused by the pandemic and genuinely do not have any additional capacity to help their children manage schoolwork. Teachers are developing and providing a reservoir of learning resources. We want our students and families, however, to access it as a faucet that can be turned off and on and with control over the flow, rather than feeling like you are drinking from a fire hose.

To that end, we want…

• to provide suggested activities that will help students retain skills;
• to leverage interactive activities available through online sources;
• to provide equity through paper-based activities for students without internet access;
• to ensure students, parents, and families that they are in control of the flow; all activities for grades K-12 are completely optional and none will be graded (keeping in mind that some high school students may be in dual enrollment courses and, therefore, have assignments to complete for their community college credits); and
• to affirm that we are fortunate to have some technology and other resources available to assist with an event such as this; but we also believe that, for most students, the most productive learning occurs under the guidance of effective teachers in our classrooms and look forward to returning when we are permitted to do so.

We miss our students, and our teachers and staff would like nothing more than to return to normal. Until then, we are here for you and encourage you to contact our teachers, principals, or district administrators if we can answer questions or assist in any way. Please continue visiting the RCPS website for current information. School buildings are currently closed to public access, but staff is available by phone and email. If you are unable to reach someone at your child’s school, you may also call the RCPS Hotline at 562-3791.

Sincerely yours,

Ken Nicely

Superintendent

Yesterday, we informed you that our schools are closed through at least March 27 by order of the Governor.  We have been preparing for this possibility and now we are starting to implement our plans.  This is an unprecedented situation and we are all working to maintain the continuity of education for our students.  Teachers will be reaching out to students and parents over the next couple of days, if they haven’t already done so, to begin the process of maintaining learning while schools are closed.  We understand that not all families have internet access at home.  We are working to identify those families without internet access and our teachers are developing printed instructional materials that can be delivered to the student’s home starting Wednesday.  While the state obligates us to provide continuity of learning, we also do not want put extra pressure or stress on families about keeping up with schoolwork, nor overload students with too much screen time.  Our goal is to strike a balance between providing resources and learning opportunities, having our teachers and counselors provide support, but not penalizing any student or adding undue stress.

We understand that students rely on us for nutrition.  We have developed a distribution network using our afternoon school bus routes to deliver bagged meals to students, starting Monday.  In addition, starting Tuesday, we will have hot meals available for pickup every weekday at Noon at several schools throughout the county.  We have a form on our website where parents can let us know their preference for meals, or parents can call their child’s school starting Monday.  All meals are free.

We have established a hotline at 540-562-3791 that parents can call if they have difficulty reaching their child’s teacher or school.

As I said earlier, this is an unprecedented situation.  We encourage you to go our website for the latest information and resources.  We encourage our students to continue social distancing and good hygiene practices.

Together we will get through this pandemic and we are here to serve our community and families in any way that we can.

Dr. Ken Nicely
Superintendent, Roanoke County Public Schools

March 5, 2020

All RCPS Parents/Guardians:

With the recent global awareness concerning the Coronavirus (COVID-19), we wanted to update you on how we plan to move forward providing instruction if an outbreak were to impact one or more of our schools.  We are closely coordinating with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), local medical experts and Roanoke County Public Safety to monitor the current status of the Coronavirus.  According to the VDH and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there currently are no confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Virginia.   If this virus becomes more prominent, we will coordinate with the VDH, medical experts and Roanoke County Public Safety to implement any necessary action such as closing one or more schools.  

If one confirmed case is identified in our community, andif there is any connection to one or more of our schools, one or more schools are likely to be closed for a minimum of 14 days, upon recommendation by the VDH. We are working on plans to provide resources to support continued educational opportunities for students while they are at home.  We encourage you to consider plans in the event that schools close for an extended period of time.  

Again, according to the VDH and CDC, there currentlyare no confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Virginia as of this writing. We are providing you this information as a proactive measure to keep you informed. Any updates will be posted to the RCPS website and we will continue to send information as needed.  

As a reminder, preventing the spread of illnesses is a team effort.  We need your help as well.  The best way you can help prevent the spread of viruses is to keep your child at home when he or she is sick and stay home until he or she is vomit-free, diarrhea-free and fever-free (under 100.4 degrees) without any medicine for at least 24 hours.  If a student returns to school while still contagious, even if he or she seems to feel better, there is a much greater risk that other students will become infected, further spreading viruses and other illnesses.  There are several other ways you can help prevent the spread of viruses including:
•    Avoiding contact with anyone who is sick
•    Washing your hands for 20 seconds and covering coughs/sneezes
•    Avoid touching nose, eyes or mouth with unwashed hands

We’ve created a page on our website about the Flu and Coronavirus so that parents can find links to more information from the CDC and VDH.  You can find that page at http://bit.ly/RCPS-flu. 

We will continue to monitor the situation in collaboration with the VDH and keep you up to date.  We appreciate the support and assistance of our community as we work together for the well-being of our students.


Sincerely,


Dr. Ken Nicely
Superintendent
Roanoke County Public Schools

Dear parents,

With the recent global awareness concerning the Coronavirus (COVID-19), we wanted to update you on what we are doing and what you can do to help us prevent the spread of viruses in our schools.  We are closely coordinating with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), local medical experts and Roanoke County Public Safety to monitor the current status of the Coronavirus.  According to the VDH and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there currently are no confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Virginia.  The VDH also reports that cases of the flu this season, thus far, are not higher than normal in the Roanoke Valley.  If this virus becomes more prominent, we will coordinate with the VDH, medical experts and Roanoke County Public Safety to implement any necessary action.

Our custodial staffs and building managers are working to keep our schools as clean and disinfected as possible.  This includes nightly cleaning with materials specifically designed to eliminate viruses.  Further, we continue to encourage all students and staff to maintain good hygiene practices including washing hands for a full 20 seconds and covering all coughs and sneezes.

Preventing the spread of illnesses is a team effort.  We need your help as well.  The best way you can help prevent the spread of viruses is to keep your child at home when he or she is sick and stay home until he or she is vomit-free, diarrhea-free and fever-free (under 100.4 degrees) without any medicine for at least 24 hours.  If a student returns to school while still contagious, even if he or she seems to feel better, there is a much greater risk that other students will become infected, further spreading viruses and other illnesses.  There are several other ways you can help prevent the spread of viruses including:

• Avoiding contact with anyone who is sick
• Washing your hands for 20 seconds and covering coughs/sneezes
• Avoid touching nose, eyes or mouth with unwashed hands

We’ve created a page on our website about the Flu and Coronavirus so that parents can find links to more information from the CDC and VDH.  You can find that page at http://bit.ly/RCPS-flu. 

We will continue to monitor the situation in collaboration with the VDH and keep you up to date.  We appreciate the support and assistance of our community as we work together for the well-being of our students.

Sincerely,

Dr. Ken Nicely

Superintendent

Roanoke County Public Schools