Good evening,
Dearborn Public Schools is excited to announce the district has met the COVID measurements set by the Board of Education and will start phasing students and staff back to in-building learning.
Face-to-face learning labs for special education students who are part of the Act 18 program will start on Tuesday, Feb. 16. Learning labs for other students will start later next week. Most staff will report to their buildings starting Feb. 16.
The second week after learning labs start, schools will start reopening to all students for blended learning. With blended learning, students will be in school two days a week – either Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday – and will work from home the other days. Wednesdays will be live online classes for all students.
The reopening schedule will go as follows:
March 1 – The first students return for blended learning, including grades kindergarten, first, second, sixth and ninth.
March 8 – More students start blended learning including preschool, third, fourth, fifth, seventh and 10th grades.
March 15 – The rest of students start blended learning including eighth, 11th and 12th grades.
There are a few other date changes to note.
Dearborn Public Schools was able to arrange COVID vaccinations for all the remaining staff who want them on Thursday and Friday of this week. Thursday will now be asynchronous for all students to allow teachers time to get the shot. Friday, Feb. 12 through Monday, Feb. 15 were already days off school for mid-winter break. Students will now have a half day of school on Feb. 16, and teachers will use the other half of the day to prepare to return to teaching students face-to-face. The district earlier canceled the remaining late starts to allow for this half day.
For more information about reopening please click on the following links: First Bell site and https://dearbornschools.org/backtoschool/
Over the course of the next few days and weeks, you will receive more information from our school. The beginning transition to Learning Labs should go pretty smooth since we have been here before. The transition to the Blended Learning schedule will likely have a couple bumps in the first week, as we all get used to the routine, but they should not be too bad as much work has been put into getting ready and I know everyone is anxious to have their children resume in person learning.
Again, please look for more information from myself and your child’s teacher over the next couple of days and weeks.
Dr. Tynan