Soon these stadium lights will be dark no more and school districts in Iowa will lead the way as we begin the slow process of safely reopening our facilities. Iowa is in a very unique position as it is the only state in the country that offers high school sports over the summer months. Following the easing of restrictions across the state, Iowa schools are preparing to resume high school athletic programs. We are going to have high school baseball and softball, but you should anticipate that it will look different than it has in the past. Two big changes you will notice is that all our bleachers will be closed. We are encouraging you to bring lawn chairs and practice social distancing. Additionally we will not be opening our concession stand.
At Hudson Schools, we are preparing to open our summer sports seasons with strict adherence to the guidance that has been issued. For your reference, that guidance is included here. On one hand I am happy and excited for our student athletes. They will once again be permitted to gather together in a show of school spirit and begin to resume a sense of normalcy. On the other hand, I am a bit concerned in how all of this is going to work. However, I have a great deal of confidence in our administrators charged with running our programs, and in all our coaches' ability to operate within the rules and regulations as they are being rolled out and developed.
When the Governor of Iowa recently announced that school districts may resume high school athletics, she was very specific with what was being permitted at this time. The guidance that has been issued in conjunction with the Iowa Department of Education was very clear in the fact the order only covers high school baseball and softball. I understand the issue has become a bit cloudy as it relates to junior high sports, particularly since an additional order was recently issued designed to allow the resumption of youth sports. As a point of clarification: this does not apply to junior high sports. I am uncertain why the difference exists and can only speculate as to the rationale behind it. However, I do believe it is appropriate for schools to go slowly in reopening. There are a lot of issues that need to be ironed out as we move forward.
Practice for high school baseball and softball will begin on Monday, June 1. In the interim we still have quite a few things to figure out. In the next couple of days we will be meeting with athletic directors in our conference, officials from the statewide associations, and with our coaches regarding expectations for practices and games. For those of you who are planning to participate in these sports seasons, and parents of athletes, we will be hosting a meeting with all of you before the weekend. My plan is to have our outdoor facilities reopened by 8:00 on Monday, June 1. In the interim, if you have questions please contact Mr. Wurzer, Mr. Curley, or Mr. Bahnsen.
Good afternoon to the Hudson High School Class of 2020. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Hudson Community School District I would like to welcome you, along with your parents, grandparents and all our community members who are joining us this afternoon for this virtual graduation day ceremony. It is my sincere hope that our celebration this afternoon permits you to set aside the worries and stress we are all experiencing in society right now; and enjoy this day with our graduates. Regardless of how we honor these students, this is an exciting day for the Class of 2020, and although we are apart this annual rite of passage is a milestone worthy of recognition.
Each school year has a normal ebb and flow with a predictable pattern of rhythms that carries us from beginning to end. This natural cycle provides us with comfort and predictability. Our fall is filled with energy as we return from summer with the joy of seeing our friends, reconnecting with teachers, and learning new skills. Wintertime comes and we enjoy the holidays with our families and settle in for deep and intense learning. Spring gives way to new life and the excitement begins to grow once again when we look forward to end of year celebrations, vacations, the change in schedule that comes with longer days, and for you, the Class of 2020: Graduation Day. Needless to say, the way our school year has unfolded, and in fact will end does not conform to the comfort and predictability to which we are accustomed.
But [it] began with much promise and an opening day convocation with our faculty and staff. During this annual welcome back event, we have an opportunity to share and shape a vision of the journey we are about to embark on. With agenda set and bold goals identified we all look forward with the buzz and excitement of a new [and final] beginning with each of you. A theme that encapsulates and incorporates this agenda; and throughout the course of the school year, becomes our focus on this important work. Hopefully we are able to bring it to culmination on graduation day, the biggest and most important event in our academic calendar. The fact is, if one is really paying attention, they can usually see a reemergence of that theme in my final words of advice to you, the graduating class. You have to pay attention though because I am deliberately subtle.
However this year, I am taking a much more overt approach and begin by first asking you to consider examining the three Latin words that were included in my email signature block this year. Those words translate roughly to character, scholarship, and perseverance. Those words epitomize how I envisioned our focus for the school year. Those words were how I encouraged our faculty and staff to model their interactions with you. Those words are how we take a disciplined approach to academia. And those words, I hope demonstrate how we face adversity. How fitting it is then, that I encourage you to persevere as we find ourselves here, during this the moment of time, today facing such great adversity in our nation.
There is no doubt these last two months have been difficult for all of us, but they have been especially disappointing for each of you. Celebrations of this day and of your accomplishments were to have occurred together, as a community and as classmates. This is not at all how you had hoped high school would end. Track meets, concerts, awards assemblies: indeed a whole litany of finales have been cancelled. All of these events, those of the mundane and those designed to capture the pinnacle of your time as Hudson Pirate have been taken away. This leaves us with a sense of sadness and loss. We all wish it could be different. But the fact of the matter is this: none of us, your parents, teachers, family members, relatives, or friends outside of the Class of 2020 knows exactly how you feel. That’s because our experience was different. We didn’t have to endure the thought of missing our final moments of high school or having our high school graduation cancelled in favor of a virtual ceremony. Not only was that unheard of, it would have been technologically impossible. This experience will shape you and who you ultimately become.
This moment in time is of historic consequence. Think about that for a moment. Never before in any living person’s memory have we faced an obstacle that required us to take such drastic measures in order to keep one another safe—and done so on a global scale. In that opening day convocation with faculty that now seems so long ago I could not have dreamt in my wildest imagination this day for you.
The memories you have of this moment in your lives are unlikely to fade with the passage of time. You will no doubt recall with vivid detail where you were and what you were doing when key moments of this crisis unfolded. Perhaps it will be the day when you learned school would be closed for the remainder of the school year. For others it may be the moment you found out our athletic seasons were cancelled. I can assure you that decades from now your heirs will want to hear about these hard days. And you will want to share these memories with your children and grandchildren about the year you graduated from high school—and the whole world came to a stop.
I would further suggest that each generation has to come to grips with major societal upheavals that tests the strength of their resolve. Moments that require them to stand up for themselves, for their community, for their country; and perhaps for humanity. For my grandparents it was World War II. For those of my parents’ generation it was Vietnam. For me it was living through the horror of September 11, 2001. For you that time is now. In each instance, that generation rose to face an adversary that was foreign to the generation that preceded them. It required a commitment to persevere. An understanding that we can and will succeed through hard work, grit, and determination. A view toward the future and the belief that the difficulties now in front of us soon will pass. The understanding, and the gravity that comes with it; that our predecessors were counting on us. To the Class of 2020: this is the moment that will test you. I have watched you grow up and have no doubt that you are up to the task.
So today we bookend your career as a Pirate and proudly announce you as a graduate of Hudson High School. Please don’t let these last two months define your high school experience. Instead, cherish the memories that you have made. And remember that while this is a moment in your lives, it is not the moment. Those are yet to come and they will certainly bring you great joy and excitement.
We are now preparing for the final days of the 2019-2020 school year and have outlined the following procedures for collecting personal items from the school and returning district property. As a start, no students or parents will be permitted in the building at this time. District personnel will collect and bag student possessions from their lockers and classrooms. Parents and students will have it available for pickup curbside according to the schedule outlined below. All district employees who help with this evolution will be required to wear facemasks.
We are also pleased to announce that our food service program will continue to operate through June 30th per the procedures that have been in place since the onset of this emergency. As a reminder, this meal service is available to any child in the district age 18 and under. Please visit our website for additional details on meal service.
Grades
PK-6: Due to the disruption of the end of the 2019-20 school year, we will not be sending out end of the year report cards at the elementary level (PK-6).
7-8: Our goal is to be very flexible as we make these decisions to benefit students where we can. Students will receive quarter 3 grades as their final second semester grade at the time of closure. Any students with failing grades for quarter 3 will be assigned remediation. All students will receive a Pass for 4th quarter. You can expect to get a copy of your grades around June 1st. We will be flexible with honor roll expectations.
9-12: We are looking at combinations of “pass” and/or letter grades. Our goal is to be very flexible as we make these decisions to benefit students where we can. For each class in which the student had a passing grade, we asked “does this grade raise the student’s cumulative GPA?” If yes, the grade stood. Otherwise, the grade was converted to a Pass that does not factor into the student’s GPA. If a student prefers the alternative, they may request the change via email to Mrs. Koop. If you have questions about “pass” grades for your college entrance or major requirements, you should contact the college you plan to attend and ask your admissions officer. You can expect to get a copy of your grades and/or transcripts around June 1st. If you are enrolled in a class through Hawkeye Community College, those grades will be communicated on your transcript, and your GPA will be updated accordingly. Any students with failing grades will be assigned remediation.
Collecting Personal Belongings and Checking Out for the Summer
May 25: At 8:00 a.m. on May 25th, all district owned student computers and devices will be locked remotely. These must be turned in during check out (see below). Students in grades 7-12 should have school work completed prior to this date. All files should be backed-up to a student’s google drive.
May 26-27: Grades PK-6 checkout will be on the southeast corner of the elementary building next to the playground. Enter the facility from the north end of campus on 1st street and proceed behind the football stadium. You will first need to drop off any district owned property such as library books, computers, school owned musical instruments, and textbooks. Following that dropoff, proceed to the next stop where you will give your name and grade level and a school employee will retrieve your belongings. Do not leave your car.
Schedule for Elementary Students:Southeast corner of the elementary
Grades 7-12 Traffic Pattern for student checkout
PK-6th grade Pick-up from 12:00PM until 6:00PM Tuesday 5/26, Wednesday 5/27
May 26-27: Grades 7-12 checkout will be behind the high school. Enter the high school parking lot via Hudson Road, and exit by the greenhouse onto Wood Street. You will need to bring your computer, textbooks, and any other district owned material. Following that drop off, proceed to the next stop where you will give your name and locker number and a school employee will retrieve your belongings. Do not leave your car.
Schedule for Secondary Students: Behind the high school
7-12th grade Pick-up from 12:00PM until 6:00PM Tuesday 5/26, Wednesday 5/27
During this teacher appreciation week I wanted to take a few minutes of reflection, some deep cleansing breaths, and extend a huge thank you and shout out to our teaching staff! Suffice to say we are having quite the second semester. In my mind I am now viewing these times as BC/AC. [B]efore COVID-19 and [A]fter COVID-19. Right before spring break I recall a conversation in the high school office with staff who were sharing their plans for spring break. Although coronavirus was on all our minds and part of our conversation, we assumed all would be just fine in Iowa. (Although they had just fielded a phone call from someone in the state of Washington who was trying to get to the bottom of a rumor that we had a case of coronavirus in our school. Why on earth someone from Washington state was concerning themselves with a school roughly some 1700 miles away was beyond me.) Prior to all of this our primary focus was on hiring new staff for next year (luckily we now have that done), finalizing the teacher contract, and keeping up with policy discussions that were ongoing in the state legislature. We were also ramping up preparations for the administration of our spring battery of state testing, finalizing plans to replace our fleet of computers, and reviewing rubrics that would be used in assessment. These were all the normal, run of the mill things we would typically doing during this time of year.
Meanwhile, our teachers were carrying out the primary mission of our school, and really of schools everywhere: they were teaching students. That week they had just finished up their final round of parent teacher conferences and they too were looking forward to spring break. It had been a long winter, and while I typically refer to the period of time from the holiday break to spring break as 'the long stretch', it was particularly long this year. During a normal winter we generally have a snow day or two to break up this long period, to at least provide a brief respite from the intensity and daily grind of classroom teaching. But this year it was not to be. We had enjoyed a relatively minor winter with few interruptions. In fact, up to that point we had missed only one day of school for weather, and had not even had a late start yet. In all, the school year was progressing nicely. Our very highly trained teaching force was operating like a well oiled machine and we were hitting all our targets. With statewide testing right around the corner, it appeared that all systems were go for a smooth glide path into the final weeks of the school year. They were certainly deserving of a few days off!
Then of course it wasn't. All of a sudden everything changed when the lights on the instrumentation panel started blinking red. That smooth glide path for a soft landing was no longer a viable option because the wings started coming off the airplane. The metaphor of 'building an airplane while flying it' doesn't seem to accurately portray what we are experiencing right now. Oh no, quite the contrary. We still have a plane, now our goal is just trying to keep it from coming apart any further. Continuous learning models were quickly developed and put into practice and school districts were now forced to choose whether or not they would offer voluntary learning options or required learning options. Choose wisely we were told, because the distinction is critical. Except that it really isn't. At least from my seat on the plane. As I look around the state and compare what we are doing with what our colleagues around the state and Cedar Valley are doing, I really see very little difference. We aren't providing voluntary education or required education. We are providing emergency education!
A highly trained and well oiled machine indeed! Except that everything our teaching force knew about teaching and learning, particularly as it relates to this new methodology is no longer relevant. Instructional strategies that work well in the classroom don't necessarily translate well to online or remote learning. Lessons in math that utilize small group instruction with manipulatives aren't possible from a distance. Classroom management and maintaining focus and structure is a challenge even during regular in classroom instruction. Imagine the challenge now when the teacher is unable to redirect or refocus the students, especially when they are separated by a screen miles apart!
Yet in spite of all those challenges and unknowns, our teachers have risen to the challenge. Every single thing that we have asked our teachers to do, they have stepped up to the plate and exceeded our expectations. The challenges, and even fears they had about our continuous learning model are now distant memories. All of this, everything they have done has been accomplished as a team in the spirit of cooperation and sharing. Additionally, all of this has been done without an ounce of formalized professional development. Talk about on the job training! Each week they add a new component to their lesson plans and their instruction gets stronger and better.
But they also realize that what they are doing right now is no substitute for the classroom. They miss their students terribly and want so bad to see them return to their classrooms. Thank you to our teachers, and teachers everywhere for what you are doing right now. Keep generating that spark, and before you know it, the kids will be back with you in your classrooms, right where they belong.
