December 1, 2021
Watchdog Nation,
The purpose of this message is to provide notice of a stakeholder input opportunity regarding our Return to Learning/Continuity of Instruction Plan. Every six months, the Beresford School District will seek additional input regarding our plan as per state/federal requirements.
Stakeholder Input Opportunity:
On Monday, December 13, 2021, the Beresford School District will seek additional public input regarding our Return to Learning Plan/Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan. Stakeholders may provide additional community input by attending our December 13, 2021, school board meeting and sharing their thoughts during our community input session at 6:30 p.m. The board meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. in the Beresford Middle School/Beresford High School library.
What updates were made to the Return to Learning Plan/Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan?
We made three updates to the plan since August 9, 2021. To see the updates, please reference page six and pages 15-16 (e.g., look for the text highlighted in blue). On page six, in the Close Contacts in Household section, we added, "Parents/guardians need to work with the DOH or primary care provider to obtain release date information (e.g., this applies to clinical and home tests). Quarantine release letters from the DOH or primary care provider need to be sent to Julie.Limmer@k12.sd.us.” On page six, in the COVID-19 Positive Individuals -Isolation section, we added the wording, “primary care provider” as an option for individuals to obtain release date information. We added the items on page six to provide clarity regarding how individuals/families could obtain release date information. More so, we included the wording about primary care providers to help families obtain information in a timely manner. On pages 15 and 16, we added the different stakeholder input sessions conducted regarding both plans. We added the stakeholder input session information to the plan to show how we have afforded individuals/stakeholders the opportunity to comment on our plans for the 2021-2022 school year.
Direct Plan Links:
How many COVID cases has the Beresford School District experienced?
Since August 2021, we have had 30 positive cases* of COVID reported to the Beresford School District (e.g., between staff and students, the daily district population is roughly 830-individuals). Due to staffing assignments across buildings, the case breakdown is as follows: BES (10), BMS (7), BHS (8), and BSD (5). For comparison, last year, the Beresford School District had 28 positive cases as of November 9, 2020.
What about the ARP ESSER Spending Plan?
Initially, we needed to seek input regarding our Return to Learning Plan/Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan and our ARP ESSER Spending Plan. However, this November, the South Dakota Department of Education has waived the ARP ESSER Spending Plan public input requirement. Within our approved ARP ESSER spending plan, we allocated dollars for the following: Float Nurse, SEL Training, Tutoring, Counselor, Reading Interventionist/Instructor, ELL Teacher & Tutor, NWEA Assessments, Exact Path Programming, and a carpet extractor/cleaner. As the year unfolds, we will inform our stakeholders via email and post information to our ARP ESSER web page if we need to make significant changes to our spending plan.
Where can I find the first reading, second reading and adoption, and updated plan(s)?
You can find the revision history of our work by going to:
https://www.beresford.k12.sd.us/page/arp-esser.
Respectfully,
Dr. Dustin Degen