The Davenport school district announced a new start date for the 2020 year.  The original plan was to open on August 24.  Now, schools will open the day after Labor Day on September 8.

The district continues to work on plans to allow students back in the classroom after the governor mandated 50% of the time.  However, after weeks of planning, the district will need more time.  Bettendorf schools are still scheduled to open on August 24.

Here is the full release from Davenport School District:

The Davenport Community School District, the School Board of Directors and the Davenport Education Association (DEA) have been working together with the Scott County Health Department to assess the current health status of our community, and its impact on our students, staff and families.

 

As a result of this ongoing evaluation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Davenport, the Davenport Community School District will delay the start of the 2020 – 2021 academic school year until Tuesday, September 8, 2020.

It is our duty as educators and community leaders to ensure a safe, healthy, and secure environment, for not only our student population and their families, but for our teachers and staff.

Delaying the start of the 2020 – 2021 academic school year until Tuesday, September 8, 2020, will allow our Davenport Community School District team the necessary time to finalize health and safety standards in our buildings with state and federal re-opening guidelines, allow for the COVID-19 transmission rate in our community to decrease and ensure our students and teachers have the best possible learning environment to achieve success.

With this decision coming less than two weeks before schools were anticipated to open, we know that this delay in the start of the school year brings many questions to mind, including:

 

  • What the revised 2020 – 2021 academic calendar will look like
  • If parents will be allowed to make a switch from 100% Online Only to the Hybrid model, or vice versa
  • How families will be notified if there is a positive case within their school or classroom
  • When students can expect to view their schedules
  • How students will access the online learning portion of their coursework, and how they will receive a Chromebook if they do not have one at home from the spring
  • How extracurricular and athletics will move forward
  • When families will be contacted who have an IEP or 504 plan …

… among many other questions.

 

In the coming days and weeks, we will continue to diligently work with the Scott County Health Department and the Davenport Education Association to create a school structure and learning environment that is successful for EVERY CHILD, no matter if they are physically in the classroom or participating in online learning.

As information becomes available, we will post on the District website, send out communications to families in email and phone, post in the Parent Portal, publish on social media, send out updates through our media partners, and even mail packets out to our families.

 

We know that this has been a challenging time for many of our families and community members, and we appreciate your understanding and patience as we make the tough decisions to do what is right for our students, teachers, staff, and community.

 

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