Governor orders all schools closed through May 1
Staff report
Gov. Eric J. Holcomb announced today (March 19), that all K-12 public and private schools well remain closed through May 1, and possibly extended if circumstances warrant. In addition, Indiana’s state of emergency will be extended an additional 30 days when it expires April 5.
All state-mandated assessments will be canceled for the current academic year as well. Holcomb also has shared the state’s plan with U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and asked Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Jennifer McCormick to pursue any federal waivers needed to cancel the requirements for accountability, chronic absenteeism and state-mandated assessments.
In a text to Avon Community School Corporation parents Thursday evening, Dr. Maggie Hoernemann stated:
“To clarify, part of the reason we (and other districts) need to use waiver days (in addition to our e-Learning days) is so that our teachers can be sure to provide strong educational experiences via e-Learning. For many of our teachers, this is the first time they have ever taught in this fashion (except for our practice day in November) so the learning curve has been steep,” she wrote. “Additionally, we are providing paper/pencil packets (for families who do not have access to technology) which require a significant amount of grading and feedback needed in order to have value. Therefore, our teachers are really trying to teach in two different ways. We want to be sure that the experiences provided to our students are of the highest quality and focused on what they must learn this semester.
Hoernemann also stated that ACSC is working to provide breakfast/lunch “at least for our students who use the Free and Reduced Lunch program.”
“Ideally, we will be able to provide breakfast and lunch for any ACSC student, but we are still working on that,” she wrote.“Families using the Free and Reduced program will receive an email over spring break with the details. Many more families may be completing applications based on changes in their economic status and we will process those quickly.”
The link for Free/Reduced applications is:
“The Department of Education and the government are trying to assist us with this challenge and we appreciate their efforts,” she stated.
