Zionsville Community School make-up days

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I am pleased to share that the Indiana Department of Education has approved our plan for making up snow days. (The ZCS Board approved our plan last Monday.) Similar to many Indiana schools, we are taking a blended approach for our make-up days. Click on the image at left for full-size, printable calendar.

As you know, our school year will be two days longer with May 29 and  30 being school days for students now.The remaining three days will be made up with robust e-learning day experiences on three Saturdays: March 8, March 22, and April 12. While the Department of Education requires that we name a specific replacement day for each snow day, we recognize that students may need extended time to test, access, or complete their e-day learning experiences. Thus, we will be sending the link/posting the e-day activities for students on the Monday before each e-Saturday, and any assignments will not be due to teachers until the Monday after the e-Saturday. This will give time for students to get support or help from their teachers.

We are looking forward to the release of our first e-learning experience for students next week! We recognize that as parents, you are your child’s first teacher, and we have planned experiences that we believe will be engaging and beneficial for our students that we hope you will also take a look at– these are a great chance to help even our youngest learners begin to build some independent e-learning skills. Over the past few weeks we have had educators collaborating on plans for these learning activities, and we are proud that they are high quality lessons designed by our teachers.

On Monday, March 3rd, teachers will send home information regarding the e-learning exercises. In addition to planning, designing, and giving feedback on each lesson, your child’s teachers will be available to answer questions throughout the week. They will also inform you of additional specific “office hours” when they will be available by phone or computer to interact with students who have questions on these assignments or want support. We also have established a set of help-lines for elementary students. These phone lines will be staffed by ZCS teachers from each grade level K-4 who are highly familiar with the e-learning lessons in the event that your child needs clarification on an assignment and is not able to reach his/her teacher at the time. Hotline phone numbers will be monitored on Saturday, March 8 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The numbers are grade level specific and are listed below:

  • Kindergarten:   317-732-5178
  • 1st Grade:           317-660-1298
  • 2nd Grade:         317-520-1163
  • 3rd Grade:          317-660-5181
  • 4th Grade:          317-660-5142

If you experience internet connectivity issues at home that cannot be resolved by your provider, please let your child’s teacher know, so we can offer guidance about access times for school computers. Additionally, we are proud to partner with the Hussey-Mayfield Library. Their staff has asked us to let you know that students who need computer access are welcome to use their labs as well. If you have any questions after reviewing or opening the assignments on your home computer, please check with your child’s teacher next week. Assignments for this first e-learning make-up day are to be completed by Monday, March 10th . Once teachers check that your child has completed the lessons, he or she will mark your child present for the attendance make-up day as the state requires.

We are excited that we’ve had the opportunity to offer students these experiences to replace our lost hours of instruction prior to our spring high stakes testing and in a way that smoothly blends with our current school learning rather than tagged on to the end of our year. It is a chance we’ve never been offered by the DOE before, but this unusual winter has led to some unusual problem-solving to make up lost learning time, and we hope our students enjoy this opportunity.

We thank you for being our partners in education.

Sincerely,

Scott Robison, Superintendent
Zionsville Community Schools

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