‘Return to Learn’

Since closing due to the threat of COVID-19 in March, the Creston Community School District has been preparing for students to return this fall, in whatever form that may be.

“We want to be able to make sure we can still make sure our families are safe and provide not just educational services, but also the services they would receive if we were in a traditional system,” said CCSD Superintendent Deron Stender.

School districts are expected to provide the Iowa Department of Education with a first draft of their ‘Return to Learn’ plans by July 1, with administrators hoping to inform families of the final plan by mid-July.

“I plan on sending out information almost on a weekly basis through a video, an e-update or our media partners,” said Stender.

To help identify the needs of the different communities, the Iowa Department of Education and the AEA designed the Family Resources and Needs survey for districts to issue to their community.

“We have three different plans and seven different areas that we have to develop the protocol that will be in place,” said Stender. “Basically, no matter what happens, the district should be able to support the safety for all of our students, continue with education and provide auxiliary services, even if we can’t come back in a traditional setting.”

Schools are being asked to identify plans for three scenarios: traditional learning, hybrid traditional learning and distance learning.

“We are trying to gather information on many aspects of our students and our families,” said Stender. “We talk about meals, making sure how people are going to eat, and how our kids are going to receive the traditional meals that we would provide if we were in a different type of model like we would this last spring.”

The survey includes various questions regarding mental health, technology access and food access during the pandemic. While education is the primary goal for the school district, Stender said it is important to the administration that they continue to provide the other services they traditionally do.

“It is a very comprehensive survey that is trying to gather as much information as possible,” said Stender. “As we develop our plans, we can talk about how we are going to still make sure our children get meals and receive mental health and behavior services.”

Stender said parental response to this survey is imperative in the district’s planning, as the administration wants to take every student and family into account.

“It’s important because it helps us understand,” said Stender. “Every community and school district is going to be a little different in their needs. We are going to be different than Waukee for example, or even East Union ... this allows us, as we are working on our plan, to design it to meet the needs of the families of our community.”

The deadline for the survey is tomorrow, June 17, and all families are asked to participate. To access the survey, go to the CCSD website or click this link: https://bit.ly/3frMcJM.