Old Mission Peninsula School Prepares for September
With 1:1 Student Technology Upgrades
TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Old Mission Peninsula School (OMPS) is making preparations to ensure students and staff have adequate tools, support and safety measures in place for a planned return to classroom learning in September. With state-of-the-art technology in place, computers for every student, small class sizes, on-line educational tools and an expansive outdoor campus, OMPS will be uniquely positioned and ready to welcome students to the campus with the added flexibility to quickly adapt to any changes necessary throughout the next school year.
While teachers provided exceptional student instruction remotely throughout the end of the 2020 school year, the OMPS team was already busy planning and considering options for three possible scenarios for the coming school year (full return to classrooms, blend of on-campus and remote learning, and all-remote learning).
The teachers are eager to get back and reconnect in the classroom with their students. OMPS’s return to school will follow the MI Safe Schools: Michigan’s 2020-21 Return to School Roadmap released on June 30, 2020, by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the COVID-19 Task Force on Education and the Return to School Advisory Council. The Roadmap includes safety protocols, social-emotional guidance, and instructional and operational recommendations based on the status of coronavirus within the community. Our team will closely monitor any changes to this Roadmap as September approaches.
It will be an exciting year at OMPS as instruction will be further supported by school enhancements made available through the Michigan Charter Schools Grant funding, awarded to OMPS in late 2019. The grant includes funding of $650,000 allowing OMPS to purchase new computers, one for each student attending the school. Our investments in additional technology will support students and staff in maximizing learning opportunities regardless of the teaching and learning model driven by the State’s Roadmap, and the status of COVID in September and as the school year proceeds. We are able to provide interactive Promethean smart boards for every class at OMPS, Google Expeditions, and an extensive new digital library. OMPS science, music and art offerings have been expanded significantly, and investments have been made in a wide range of outdoor learning infrastructures to expand and develop our outdoor learning lab.
OMPS continues to offer smaller class sizes, a benefit for physical distancing procedures to protect students while within the school, and as a benefit to student instruction time both in person and under remote learning conditions. Outdoor learning provides additional opportunities for distancing while learning, an unforeseen benefit to the large campus.
We are also very excited to announce that the OMPS Preschool will open in September following the Michigan LARA Guidelines for Safe Child Care. The preschool will offer a curriculum that provides the foundation for the Math, Science and Expeditionary Learning English Language Arts curriculums offered in the OMPS Kindergarten to Grade 6 program. Preschool will also include play, exploration and education opportunities within the extensive outdoor campus available at Old Mission Peninsula School. Stay tuned for more details on this great addition to our school on beautiful Old Mission Peninsula.
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/whitmer/MI_Safe_Schools_Roadmap_FINAL_695392_7.pdf
Information around this outbreak is changing rapidly. The latest information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.
https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98163-521561--,00.html
Ways to help talk to your children for the Corvid-19:
https://www.brainpop.com/health/diseasesinjuriesandconditions/coronavirus/
For questions regarding the coronavirus itself, please contact the Grand Traverse County Health
Department at 231-995-6010. You can sign up for their alert bulletins here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Dh9I9XIwA_0iBPt3glYtIN8r36hxFPmtMWcdPPQkN7M/viewform?edit_requested=true
http://gtchd.org/2231/COVID-19-Novel-Coronavirus
CDC – Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID -19):
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
State of Michigan information:
