PRINT ARTICLE

Dear CH-UH Families,

I hope you and your children had a great final week before your much-deserved Winter Break. I’m writing today to share important District updates.

Interest surveys for Semester 2 learning models
Currently, all of our students remain in a remote learning model. While this instructional model remains in place, we have continued to plan for a return to in-person learning when we are able to offer that to families. As we approach the end of Semester 1, the District is launching surveys to gauge our PreK-12 families' preferences regarding in-person and remote learning options for the second semester. These interest surveys will inform our planning, but do not commit your students to any learning model at this time. A survey was sent to kindergarten families on December 17. We will be sending surveys to students in grades 1-12 separately in order to guide our planning and reopening recommendations to the Board of education.

These learning models would begin on or after January 18, pending Board of Education approval and guidance from our county and state boards of health. A formal learning model selection survey will be sent to all families on January 6.

The CH-UH 2020-2021 Health and Safety Information Booklet contains details on how we have prepared our buildings for in-person learning, including the results of the recent HVAC study conducted in each of our schools by Heapy Engineering. We will post this on our website for your reference.

Stay-at-home advisory
The District remains in its high-alert plan for staff through today due to the Cuyahoga County Board of Health’s issuance of a stay-at-home advisory. Today the Cuyahoga County Board of Health extended this advisory to January 15, 2021. I will recommend to the Board that all students, including students in the MD/AU classrooms, remain in remote learning in alignment with this order.  

We will continue monitoring the case data in our area and recommendations from our state and local boards of health. The data released by the Ohio Department of Health yesterday show that Cuyahoga County remains at Level 3 (red) with high incidence and four of the seven indicators met.

COVID-19 case summary for the week of December 14
This week, we received reports of two staff members and two students testing positive for COVID-19. Of these cases, both staff members and one student had been working/learning remotely. These cases are reflected on the District’s case reporting dashboard.

When staff and students who have been in District buildings test positive for COVID-19, we send notices to the families whose children attend the affected schools and to the staff members of those schools. We also post the notices on chuh.org and our District app, available for Android and iPhone.

Update to District app
On the subject of the app, have you noticed that it’s got a new look? The updated CH-UH City School District app combines our social media and news into one sleek feed and puts events right on the homepage for easy access. I use it nearly every day to stay on top of what’s coming up; I highly recommend it!

I hope you all enjoy your Winter Break and continue to stay safe and healthy. We all deserve rest and relaxation so that we can enter 2021 with renewed energy and focus.

Sincerely,
Superintendent Kirby