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Superintendent's Report - December 1, 2020
Dr. Talisa Dixon delivered her regular Superintendent's Report at the Columbus Board of Education meeting on December 1, 2020. You can watch the report above, or read a full transcription below.
Thank you, President Adair. I have several brief updates to share with the Board tonight.
District Response to City Health Advisory
First, since the Board last met in mid-November, we have adjusted some of our District operations in response to a joint health advisory from the City of Columbus and Franklin County, which went into effect on November 20th.
Students in the Career and Technical Education programs at Columbus Downtown High School and the Fort Hayes Career Center returned to a completely remote learning model on Monday, November 23. The health advisory runs through December 18, which is the District’s last school day before winter break. CTE students and staff will return to blended learning on January 4, 2021, unless the advisory is extended beyond that date.
CCS suspended all in-person interscholastic athletics and extracurricular activities through at least Friday, December 18. The District will reevaluate winter sports seasons and provide further direction, if needed, later this month.
Beginning this week, CCS has suspended its daily Fuel Up! Meal distribution offering. The District is still offering five-day meal packs to all children 18 and under on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5 to 7 p.m.
Families will have the choice of two types of five-day meal packs:
- A shelf-stable meal pack that does not require refrigeration or heating, OR
- A meal pack with fresh food or food that may require refrigeration at home.
As advised by City and County health officials, we are allowing staff members the flexibility to work from home to the maximum extent possible as their position and job duties allow, in order to help reduce exposure opportunities and provide relief for our local hospitals.
I believe that these measures will aid in our community’s effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 while also maintaining the operations of the District and, most importantly, supporting our current learning model.
End of Course Exams
Beginning tomorrow, December 2nd, our high schools will be administering Fall OST End-of-Course exams over the course of the next seven school days.
Students who need to retake exams in order to achieve scores necessary to meet graduation requirements, as well as a small number of students who are enrolled in a tested course on a block schedule that ends first semester, will come on-site to take these state-mandated tests.
As of Monday, we have an average of 384 students per day who have registered to come in and take the OST exams across 20 high schools.
Tests being administered include:
- English Language Arts I and II;
- Integrated Math I / Algebra I;
- Integrated Math II / Geometry;
- Biology;
- American History; and
- American Government.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided for these students, and transportation hubs will be available for students to ride a CCS yellow bus to get to and from their schools.
Last month, we welcomed 1,333 (one thousand three hundred and thirty-three) third graders -- or 36 percent of our third-grade students district-wide -- to our elementary school buildings to take the English Language Arts state test for the Third Grade Reading Guarantee.
I must commend our teachers, principals, school staff members, administrators, and operations team for their collaborative effort in ensuring that these state-required testing opportunities were available for our students. Much planning and coordination went into these testing days to meet COVID safety standards along with state testing guidelines.
Graduation Requirements
On the Board’s agenda tonight is a request to waive the long-standing requirement here in Columbus City Schools that high school students complete at least one credit of internship and one credit of technology in order to graduate.
During one of my recent Virtual Family Engagement “Super” Sessions through the Department of Engagement, I heard directly from members of our Class of 2021 and their families who raised questions about the requirement during this pandemic… when we’ve been ordered to stay at home and avoid the type of in-person interactions this requirement is designed to build.
Please know we do not take this request to waive a graduation requirement lightly - it’s there for a reason. But I appreciated hearing directly from our families and seniors on the very real difficulty in meeting this requirement this school year. And so I too ask for the Board’s consideration to waive this requirement for students graduating in the Class of 2021.
And I look forward to my next Virtual Family Engagement “Super” Session to hear directly from students, families, staff, and our partners. We have another one scheduled for next Thursday, December 10.
World Language Middle School
Finally, the Board of Education is also being asked to approve a resolution to rename the former Dominion Middle School building at 330 East Dominion Boulevard as the new “World Language Middle School.”
Scheduled to open for the start of the 2021-2022 school year, this school will be home to the District’s new dual-language, immersion, and English Learner middle school for students in grades sixth, seventh, and eighth.
These students will feed into the school from Columbus Spanish Immersion Academy and Ecole Kenwood and will also include Columbus Global Academy students. Once the new middle school is opened, CSIA and Ecole Kenwood will return to serving students in grade PreK-5.
Renovation work on the building at East Dominion Boulevard began this summer when the current Dominion Middle School staff moved out of the former Columbus North International School building. Dominion Middle School is now located at 100 East Arcadia Avenue.
We are looking forward to opening the new World Language Middle School next year. A cross-departmental team has been planning this school and the academic programming for months. Principal Sandra Santos has also started a steering committee comprised of a diverse group of stakeholders to further develop and define the school’s mission and vision.
I look forward to sharing more about this exciting opportunity for our students in the coming months.
That concludes my report for tonight.