PHASE 3 INFORMATION

Following our reopening plan, Richland Two will transition to Phase 3 on Monday. The district’s Reopening Schools Plan calls for a switch to Phase 3 over a two-week period once the disease activity falls to low.

• We are making modifications to Phase 3 based on the latest CDC Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools. Please review the information below on the details of Phase 3.

R2 Virtual School — Students participating in the R2 Virtual School will continue in this learning model.

In-person Instruction — Students come to school five days a week (½ day on Fridays). For the most part, students are organized in classroom communities similar to Phase 2 with one change — students may leave the classroom for related arts and specialized classes (e.g. speech, ALERT, ESOL, etc.). The implementation of this change may vary from school to school due to individual circumstances such as class sizes and/or room sizes.

eLearning — Schools will continue to provide eLearning for the remainder of the 2020–2021 school year.

In-person Instruction — Students come to school five days a week (½ day on Fridays). The hybrid model will no longer be an option.

eLearning — Schools will continue to provide eLearning for the remainder of the 2020–2021 school year.

At all levels, some classes may be taught using the dual modality approach for delivering instruction, which means the class will include eLearning students and in-person students. Other classes may include only eLearning students or only in-person students. This will vary by school depending on the number of students participating in eLearning.

Due to the additional planning time required for dual modality instruction, Fridays will be half-days for elementary, middle and high school students.

Parents must contact the school to request the change by the deadline. The process for requesting the change may vary by school.

March 25 and 26, and April 15 and 16 will be asynchronous eLearning days for students so that the district can hold vaccine clinics for our employees. Students complete assignments on their own. Teachers will be available to assist students during designated office hours.

Parents, please know that we recognize the impact these days will have on your family's schedule. We ask for and appreciate your patience, understanding and support as holding the vaccine clinics for our employees has multiple benefits for the district as a whole:

• By having the clinics on a Thursday and Friday, our employees have the weekend to recover from any temporary symptoms they may experience. This cuts down on employees having to take time off after getting the shot.

• The clinics will reduce the possibility that on any given day schools will have multiple employees request to be off for vaccine appointments and/or will have multiple employees need to take sick leave due to temporary symptoms.

• The clinics streamline the process for our employees.

• Two weeks after April 16, a large majority of our employees will be inoculated and will no longer have to quarantine due to a possible close contact exposure. If employees have to make their own appointments, the district has no control over the timeline for how long it will take for a majority of employees to be inoculated.

In Phase 3, the school week for middle and high school students will mirror the school week that elementary students are currently following (full-days Monday through Thursday and half-day Friday).

The latest guidance from the CDC states that strategies for preventing the spread of the disease should remain in place regardless of the level of community transmission. Based on this information, returning to traditional school operations, in place prior to the pandemic, is not possible at the start of Phase 3. Therefore, the following safety precautions will remain in place:

• Students and employees will continue to wear masks.

• We will continue to practice social distancing to the greatest extent possible. In classroom seating arrangements where 6 feet of social distancing is not possible or optimal, we will use barriers/dividers.

• Procedures for visitors, after-hours school events and travel considerations will remain the same as they were in Phase 2.

• Parents and employees will continue to monitor for symptoms using the checklist for students or online sign-in form for employees. If a student or employee is experiencing any symptoms on the checklist, the student cannot go to school and the employee cannot come to work.

• Procedures regarding contact tracing, isolation and quarantine will continue to be followed. It is very important for parents and employees to notify their school nurse if a student or employee is ill with a cough, shortness of breath, or loss of taste/smell; tests positive for COVID-19; or is a close contact of a person testing positive for COVID-19.

• Service Solutions (SSC), the District’s custodial service provider, will continue to follow the comprehensive plan to ensure that our schools are clean, sanitized and safe.

• Schools will continue to receive additional supplies to assist with cleaning, sanitation, social distancing and other safety measures.

In anticipation of our transition to Phase 3 on Monday, March 22, the transportation department has made some changes to routes. If your child rides the bus, please take a moment and review route information at www.richland2.org/BusRoutes

Each school will determine its school meal service model (whether students will eat in the cafeteria or in classrooms). Please contact your child's school for details about the specific plan.

Elementary schools will continue to offer "weekend meals" to students on the last day of each school week.

For eLearners meals will continue to be available for pick up between 8 and 10:30 a.m. at the following locations: R2I2, Dent Middle School, Longleaf Middle School, Muller Road Middle School on Fridays. After Spring Break the pick-up day may be changed.