Dear Upper Arlington families,
I want to provide a few updates ahead of tonight’s Board of Education meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. and will be held virtually in accordance with recent public health guidance. The meeting will be live-streamed on our district YouTube channel.
Earlier today, we received new guidance from Franklin County Public Health and Columbus Public Health for residents and school districts. While the public health officials announced a stay-at-home advisory for our area beginning on Friday and running for the next four weeks, they also advised that school districts may stay in their current learning models. The Board of Education will be discussing this advisory during tonight’s meeting.
As I shared yesterday, the reality is that staffing concerns may cause us to shift our school-based learning model and move all or part of our district to distance learning for a period of time. This could happen on short notice, and we will continue to keep you updated.
Also at tonight’s meeting, the Board will consider matrices developed by our Medical Advisory Team to help guide future decisions regarding learning models. You can review the new draft matrix for enhanced distance learning and the draft matrix for all-in learning on our website. If approved by the Board in the future, these matrices would be used when the data indicates that the district or a school level should shift learning models.
As I shared with you in my email last week, the Board will also consider:
Changing the two-day weeks before Thanksgiving and winter breaks — November 23 and 24 and December 21 and December 22 — to enhanced distance learning days for all students in the school-based pathway.
Enhancements to the hybrid learning model and a possible timeline for implementation. You can read more about that here.
A TIF (tax increment financing) for a proposed development at the Kingsdale Center on the site of the former Macy’s building. The City of Upper Arlington will share more information on this at tonight’s meeting, and city leaders have asked that the Board of Education vote on the proposal during its December 8 meeting.
With so many important topics on the Board agenda this evening, I will be sharing a follow-up email tomorrow with updates from the meeting. Have a great evening, and as always, go Bears!
Sincerely,
Paul Imhoff, Ed.D.
Superintendent, Upper Arlington Schools