March 13, 2020IMPORTANT
COMMUNICATION from Mark Kowalski, Superintendent
Dear Liberty-Benton School Community Member,
As you may
already know, Governor DeWine issued an executive order closing all schools in
Ohio through April 3, 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID – 19 better known as
the “Coronavirus”. These are
unprecedented times and uncharted waters for schools, communities, students,
parents, and more importantly, our entire nation. Over the next several weeks, there will be
many questions of which we may not have answers to at this time. Please be patient! I can assure you we at
“L-B” will work to provide answers to your questions. The Liberty-Benton School District will
follow all directives from Gov. DeWine and the Ohio Department of Education. There will be daily updates from both of those
entities and as they become available, we will post them to our website: www.liberty-benton.org. Like
you, we are learning this information in real time as to how we are all to be
affected and why these steps need to be taken. Right now, our collective job is
to support the Governor and the needs that exist in order to interrupt further
community spread. Governor DeWine
requested that we make decisions that are not only in our school community’s
best interest, but also in the best interest of our community as a whole. Stay home when possible, wash hands often and
stay away from people who are sick. With
that being said, we have developed an initial plan for our district to operate
under until our Governor and the Ohio Department of Education issue further
directives.
Effective
March 14, 2020: Liberty-Benton Local
Schools will operate under the following guidelines:
- Liberty-Benton Local Schools will deliver on-line instruction using Schoology and our one-to-one technology capabilities. Paper packets for Kindergarten and K-2 Resource Room students will be distributed.
- Teachers will be providing three assignments per week per subject. These assignments will be posted in Schoology. Teachers will be available to answer questions electronically regarding assignments. Any further questions should be directed to the building principal.
- All buildings and facilities will be closed to the public. However, all school offices as well as the Superintendent’s office will be open weekdays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
- All extra-curricular and co-curricular activities and practices are suspended indefinitely during the mandatory school closures. All activities will cease effective 12:01 A.M. on March 14, 2020.
- All fieldtrips and community events are cancelled during the school closure.
- The operation of our NEST program is suspended during the school closure.
- The end of our third nine weeks will remain March 27, 2020.
District staff will be required to report on Monday, March 16, 2020. All buildings will be open normal hours on Monday, March 16, 2020 should students or parents have questions or have business to conduct in the schools.