Impacts of COVID. 19 on your LEA: Please describe the areas that have been most impacted by the coronavirus on your LEA. What has been done to determine the strategies that are needed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic? Please provide any baseline data and stakeholder feedback collected to show the impacts of COVID-19. Merit has been affected by the coronavirus in a variety of significant ways. It has become necessary to provide online instruction to our students. Even students who attend classes in-person have needed online support when they have become sick or required to quarantine. Many students have missed classroom time due to illness and quarantine requirements. It has been challenging to keep the school sanitized and up to CDC and local health department recommendations. Transportation has also been affected, as it has been difficult to keep students socially distanced. Finally, Covid-19 has been a significant emotional and mental strain on students and staff alike. We have had many discussions with board members, staff, parents, and the local health department to consider how best to approach these challenges. We have reviewed guidelines and requirements from USBE, the CDC, and the local health department. Merit had 89 students taking online courses last school year. These students made up 20% of our student population this past school year. We had never previously offered online courses to students, and this has been a major challenge for our students and staff to adapt to. After conversations with our custodial team, we determined that a big challenge in keeping the school clean and sanitized was our school’s carpets. Presently, all of the hallways and most classrooms are carpeted. They are old carpets and they are difficult to clean. This has made it difficult for us to keep the school sanitized, and it has become a health hazard for our staff and students. The school board has repeatedly voiced concerns to the school administration regarding technology supported learning and providing sufficient support to staff and students. After consulting with H-Wire, a third party IT group, we have come up with potential solutions to address online learning. Merit will be purchasing new computers, Chromebooks to achieve a 1:1 student to Chromebook ratio, and Audio Enhancement technology to communicate with classrooms to enhance social distancing practices. With many students online and many students missing classes, we have also identified a need to purchase a better ...

Impacts of COVID. 19 on your LEA: Please describe the areas that have been most impacted by the coronavirus on your LEA. What has been done to determine the strategies that are needed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic? Please provide any baseline data and stakeholder feedback collected to show the impacts of COVID-19. Rise 2021 data showed a significant drop in student performance in math, especially for Special Education students, and a decline in growth for ELL students in ELA. North Xxxxx Preparatory Academy chose a hybrid schedule with an option to be 100% online for the 2020-2021 school year. In March of 2021, NDPA moved to full in person learning and maintained the 100% online learning platform for the remainder of the year. North Xxxxx Preparatory Academy had 20% of their students opt to enroll in the online program for the 2020-2021 school year. Students who attended in person with the hybrid schedule accounted for 75% of our students, and there were another 5% of students we were able to accommodate in every day in person attendance for in person learning for hardship cases where parents lacked supervision. When in class, students completed work, but when working online the quality of work and learning was minimal or students got on for instructional sessions but did not complete or submit work done. For students in the lower grades, it was a challenge to teach how to navigate online while they were online only or if they were in quarantine due to exposure, if there was no parental support. Many students reported that they were left to do work with minimal parental support either due to COVID cases or parent work schedules. We also found that parents did not want to have their students in the school for health safety, but also were reluctant to partner in the instruction and work completion of their students due to their own work schedule or other factors. As a result, we saw a drop in overall scores as demonstrated on Acadience Reading and RISE, with significant drops in grades K-3.

Impacts of COVID. 19 on your LEA: Please describe the areas that have been most impacted by the coronavirus on your LEA. What has been done to determine the strategies that are needed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic? Please provide any baseline data and stakeholder feedback collected to show the impacts of COVID-19. Although there was a myriad of impacts directly related to Covid, this response will focus on three: academic impact, emotional impact, and employee impact. Xxxxx seems to have caused a retardation of student achievement and progress. This is most readily evident in the quality of work received during the pandemic as compared to comparable work prior to the pandemic and post pandemic (for us post pandemic means this academic year). We have compiled this data for our academic advisory committee. You may view it here: xxxxx://xxxxx.xxxxx.xxx/page/OFov8Zvs0tQec/. Essentially, we are seeing a stagnation of achievement and progress during Covid, resulting in most students going into the next academic year about a year behind in functional knowledge and competency. As we are a competency school, this has directly impacted offerings, strategies, and personnel. The emotional impact of covid left its mark on both our staff, our students, and our families. We had more non-covid related absences last year than the two previous years combined. We had double the suicide attempts, double the referrals for anxiety, and nearly double the reports of child abuse/neglect. This put significant strain on our current employees as they struggled to cope with the intensity and duration of the various emotional needs. Furthermore, our employees increased the number of students taught per week by 20% due largely to distance learning and quarantine requirements. With the increase workload came additional stress and a departure from strategic priorities.

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