Craig Fiegel

This is message to keep everyone informed about our return to school efforts. This week we welcomed all Middle School students and both 9th and 12th graders to the High School. We were excited to see students in person. We continue to work at the elementary schools to set up classes for those returning in person as well as those choosing to stay remote.

For most of our remote students and some in-person students the teacher had to change. Classrooms are set up to provide 3-4 feet of distance within the classroom. Plans are in place for lunch as well as other activities to limit movement within the building and provide safety protocols to help ensure student safety. As I have pointed out previously, we have talked to several districts to learn from their experiences, and even with that we are learning as we go. We really appreciate your patience; as things are very fluid as we make adjustments for what is working and address what is not. .

The issue of specials for the Middle School and Elementary students is a topic of conversation. In our elementary schools our special teachers are being used in a variety of ways: as supervisors for lunch and recess time. We have placed some as remote instructors to help keep our class sizes lower, and we will need staff to serve as substitutes at times. To spread students out during lunch time our gyms are serving as cafeterias.

Our Specials teachers will be pushing out assignments and programs online for students outside of their in-person or remote instruction times. The State has recognized the challenges schools are facing during this unusual circumstance and are working with districts to allow for these changes to the PE mandates.

Weekly schedule for 10/13-10/16
Mascoutah High School:
Tuesday Oct. 13 9th and 12th only (last names A-K)
Wednesday Oct. 14th All Seniors only SAT testing
Thursday Oct. 15 9,10,11 and 12 (last names A-K)
Friday Oct. 16 9,10,11 and 12 (last names L-Z)

Mascoutah Middle School:
Tuesday Oct. 13 6,7,8 (last names A-K)
Wednesday Oct. 14 6,7,8 (last names L-Z)
Thursday Oct. 15 6,7,8 (last names A-K)
Friday Oct. 16 6,7,8 (last names L-Z)

Elementary Schedules MES, SES and WES
Tuesday, October 13th, K & 3rd
Wednesday, October 14th, add 1st & 4th with K & 3rd
Thursday, October 15th, add 2nd & 5th with K-4th
Monday, October 19th, add Pre-K with K-5th

Temporary Network Outage

Yesterday, October 8, we discovered our in-house network services were infected with malware that affected our ability to access certain files. The network team worked diligently to shut down all connections (incoming and outgoing) to minimize potential damage and spread; unfortunately, District-Wide servers were infected. We immediately began to investigate with the assistance of third-party forensic investigators to determine the nature and scope of the incident and to assist with the remediation. Our investigation is currently ongoing.

What we know currently:
· Student and financial data are hosted with a third-Party offsite service, and we have no indications that our student and financial data is impacted at this time.
· There is no indication that any Google products such as email and document storage are impacted as they are web-based and protected by Google. Chromebooks are NOT infected
· Staff devices that may have been infected were disconnected from the network and are being closely inspected by our IT Team.
· We may not be fully functioning by Tuesday but we will be able to have school.

We will provide further information when we learn more. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to restore our systems.

COVID Counts for the week
Updated totals 10/9/20
Staff:
2 - Quarantined Positive - working remotely
1 - Quarantined due to exposure from staff - working remotely
1- Quarantined due to own child being probable positive
2 - Teaching remotely due to own children being quarantined due to exposure outside of school
Students :
1 - Quarantined positive
9 Quarantined due to exposure in a child care facility, quarantine through next week.

Mascoutah School District

MSD19 is currently experiencing disruption to all technology services throughout the district. This includes the network and Wi-Fi. Student devices are not affected; however, our staff devices are not operational at this time. We are actively addressing the issue now. Teachers will update students when the issue has been resolved, but they will be out of communication until a resolution has been reached.

Mascoutah School District

We want to provide everyone with an update on the planning efforts as we transition from a remote model. We invite you to watch a video message from MSD19's Superintendent, Craig Fiegel: https://youtu.be/q6rCMHeP-Cg

The Transition Plan: Revised (9/25/2020) will allow Pre-K through 5th Grade students the opportunity to return in person daily. Families may still opt to remain remote (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ESXroNpQN_bI1-WZXkKjThEx-NdTHhdJGrWZKy7ChmA/edit?usp=sharing).

If you want to alter your choice, we ask that you call the school’s office to let them know immediately of your change no later than Wednesday morning, September 30.

Our secondary instruction is going to be a hybrid model of instruction. The one change is we will eliminate C-Day at both the high school and middle school, allowing students to be in person as much as possible.

Please watch the video message and read the updated plan to learn more.

Mascoutah School District

UPDATE: Mascoutah School District 19's Transition Plan has been revised to incorporate the forthcoming Hybrid Learning model option. It is now available to the public: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bedC4vkR5A4kkuDjqUgKPstBJu61gRSNaVR-pHN1Bjg/edit?usp=sharing

In addition, please complete the "Hybrid Model: In-person/Remote Parent Survey" found in Skyward Family Access. You will need to complete this for each student associated with your family. The Transition Plan: Revised (9/11/2020) contains additional information about this survey, as well.

Mascoutah School District

The USDA announced schools can offer free breakfast & lunch through December. The District won't charge registered students for breakfast or lunch through the last day of attendance in December (currently December 18): https://www.msd19.org/article/289391?org=mascoutah-cusd-19