By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
HEIGHTS — The Crestwood and Dearborn Heights District No. 7 school boards voted to continue their school reopening plans as required to do every 30 days under the Michigan’s Return to Learn law passed in August.
Both districts approved their Fall 2020 re-entry plans in early August and have stuck to them with re-evelations. Crestwood will re-evaluate its plan at the second trimester starting in late November and District 7 at least the first card marking at the elementary and middle school levels through Oct. 30 and at the high school level by semester through Jan. 22.
Currently, Crestwood is holding school fully online which students at all grade levels are required to attend during their regular school hours. Work is graded on a traditional scale with no pass-fail scale.
At its Sept. 28 board meeting, the Crestwood School Board approved the plan extension unanimously and will address the issue again at its Oct. 26 meeting.
D7 unanimously passed its Fall 2020 re-entry plan again at an Oct. 14 special meeting with Marcia Lebar, Vickie Bracken, Karen Whisler absent.
A survey was sent to families on whether they wanted their students to return to face-to-face or remain online. Supt. Jennifer Mast said more are wanting to return to face-to-face instruction at the elementary and middle school levels.
Principals from the schools will have solid numbers on those who want to change their learning method, and Mast also said that when the numbers are settled it is possible that students might be able to swap their preferred learning option.
D7 families had the choice between remote learning and face-to-face instruction for students in a survey sent out to the entire district. At the time 45 percent of the community wanted face-to-face instruction and 55 wanted online instruction.
A COVID-19 dashboard has been added to the district’s website where updated information on cases in D7 is updated every Friday.
Currently, each school has its own dashboard which can be accessed by selecting the school from the drop down on the school district’s main page, and then choosing COVID-19 Dashboard from the “about us” drop down.
Data as of Oct. 16, showed there had been two students and one staff member confirmed positive for coronavirus since the start of the school year. Also, 21 students and six staff members had been in quarantine.
To view Crestwood’s or D7’s plans in detail go to, www.csdm.k12.mi.us and www.district7.net, respectively.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected])