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Riverside Elementary Students and Families,

Today’s information will provide a little more insight on what the “bubble strategy,” is at the elementary buildings.

The “bubble,” is the CDC’s recommended approach for face to face instruction. If someone tests positive for COVID-19, the exposure to possible infection is limited to a smaller group, and contact tracing is easier to conduct. Students will remain with their classmates and teacher for most of the day. Library, art and music teachers will come to the classroom to deliver their lessons. PE will be held outside as much as possible. In grades where departmentalization is used, those teachers will rotate rooms instead of the students. Students who are pulled for special education, Title, TAG or guidance small groups will still be pulled by those teachers.

Recess will be held outside as much as possible. With that being said, classes will have designated areas for their recess. Classes will rotate areas each recess. Students from two separate classes will not be allowed to play with each other at recess. 

The question I get quite often is, “what determines if/when the school has to close down?” The answer is that we will be following the Iowa Department of Public Health guidelines on a county’s positive COVID testing data. For the elementary buildings that would mean if the positive percentage of people being tested is in the  20%-25% range, the district will then have to submit a waiver to the state to be approved to deliver full remote instruction to our students. Dr. Mitchell monitors this data everyday. If the waiver is approved, our teachers will then provide remote instruction to their students. If the percentage of positive test remain below 20%, we will continue to provide face-to-face instruction, using the "bubble," strategy in both elementary buildings.

If you have questions or need clarification on what the “bubble,” strategy is or how we will implement it, do not hesitate to call either school or send an email to myself, jcrum@riverside.k12.ia.us or to Dr. Mitchell at tmitchell@riverside.k12.ia.us. Please remember, communication, patience and adaptability will be important as we start the 2020-21 school year.

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Jason Crum
PK-5 Principal