Dear CH-UH Families,

I’m writing today with several important District updates, as well as important news out of Columbus that may change the future of school funding in our state.

Remote learning continues through at least January 15
The CH-UH Board of Education voted on Tuesday to continue the 2020-2021 school year in a remote status until at least January 15, the end of Quarter 2. The District will continue to offer in-person services to students with low-incidence disabilities, with the option to move remote if their families choose to do so.

After considering the recommendation from the reopening committees, PTA leaders and Superintendent’s Cabinet to remain in remote learning, I decided to recommend to the Board that the District finishes the second quarter remotely, the instructional model currently in place. Cuyahoga County remains in a Level 3 alert status with high incidence and four of the seven indicators met.

District planning committees will continue to meet to discuss next steps. The committees, which include staff, parents, teachers, and administrators, have been working for weeks to develop draft plans for hybrid learning models.

Update to COVID-19 case reporting process
As you’ll recall, the state mandated in September that school districts report positive COVID-19 cases among staff and students to their local boards of health. The Cuyahoga County Board of Health informed us recently that we should not report cases among students or staff who have been learning/working completely remotely and have not been on school property. Therefore, we will not send positive case email notifications regarding individuals who haven’t been in a school building or on campus. However, these reported cases will still be reflected on our COVID-19 dashboard, which can be viewed here. It indicates who has not been on District property.

Should your child test positive for COVID-19, whether or not they have been in school for any reason including extracurricular activities, please report this to their school when reporting them absent. Or, you may call or email your school principal. Thank you for your continued cooperation in this matter.

Results of CH-UH school levy/Fair School Funding bill
We continue to wait for the final results of Issue 69, our school levy. The unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections show that it passed by a margin of 65 votes. We expect that they will make an announcement with the final results on or around November 18.

Meanwhile, the Ohio General Assembly is discussing the Fair School Funding Plan, a bipartisan plan that was first proposed in 2019. The plan proposes to overhaul the way state funding for school districts is calculated and distributed, aiming for less reliance on property taxes and helping districts provide the highest quality education possible for each child. This plan could bode extremely well for CH-UH, allowing us to ask less of an already highly taxed community and ensuring that the funding we receive is based on the actual cost of educating our students.

The plan in legislative form is now known as Senate Companion Bill 376 to House Bill 305. I plan to head down to Columbus to testify in committee in favor of this bill as soon as possible, and the Board will discuss the legislation further during our next meeting on November 17 at 7 p.m. (watch live on our YouTube channel). We will keep you informed on ways in which you can help show your support of the legislation as well.

WiFi Hotspots Available for Families
Thanks to a grant from BroadbandOhio, the CH-UH Information Technology Department has more than 200 hotspots that can be assigned to CH-UH K-12 families who do not have home WiFi or are having connectivity issues at home.

CH-UH was recently awarded the BroadbandOhio Connectivity Grant. The purpose of this grant is directly related to student connectivity to the Internet. The District will use these grant funds to cover the cost of take-home hotspots and monthly service fees through the end of 2020, as all expenses must be incurred by December 30.

To request a hotspot, please call the IT Support Line at (216) 397-5910. You can also submit a request form online at http://www.tinyurl.com/chuhhotspot.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend and continue to stay safe.

Sincerely,
Superintendent Kirby