Dear Swamp Owl Families:
In my 40+ years of education and 25+ years of leading schools, this coming year presents the most challenging obstacles. 1,300 of our 1,740 families completed the 1st survey. Thank you for your input. Your responses vary quite widely. Now we need more input as we move toward a solid reopening plan.

Administrators and school facility staff have attended multiple local, state, and national webinars to determine the best procedures to get kids back in school. We miss them and want them back at school! We are waiting on additional guidance from the LA Dept of Education coming on June 22nd.

In consultation with Ochsner Healthcare Safe Return to Work Team, we have determined the following criteria for each potential public health phase. Ochsner has worked with us to help make our students and teachers as safe as possible. This includes safe transportation measures, safe entry and exit, and safe presence during the school day.

According to the Louisiana Department of Education, schools need to be ready to volley between various methods of teaching and learning. Let's review the various phases that Discovery could volley between next school year if there is a resurgence:
1. Governor issues a "Shelter at Home" - School buildings closed; online education only, and teachers teach from home.
3. Center for Disease Control (CDC) Phase 1 - School buildings closed to students, online education to students with teachers in classrooms. Groups are limited to 10 and facilities limited to 25% capacity.
4. CDC Phase 2 - Schools buildings are open for students with many safeguards in place. Groups are limited to 25 (according to LA Dept of Education) and facilities to 50% capacity. Physical and social distancing are required. For contact tracing and limiting community exposure, students will stay in their same pod. Lunch will be eaten in classrooms, outside, or in divided sections of the cafeteria. To protect all community members, teachers, and students will wear masks in common areas and possibly in classrooms. Temperature will be taken before entering the bus or before exiting the car for carpool. Cocurricular teachers will come into the pods to teach and students will be able to attend Physical Education and recess outdoors as usual.
5. CDC Phase 3 - Schools can reopen with less then 50 in a group, with fewer safeguards. At this point we hope that students do not need to wear masks and that we can gather in groups for school events. This phase is not yet well defined for schools, but it will require fewer safeguards and more access to clubs, sports, and other extracurricular activities.

The CDC Phase 2 is the middle phase for Discovery. We are likely to start the school year in Phase 2. This gives us additional safeguards while we determine whether community spread is an issue. For the first 4 weeks of school, we will track community spread within each campus and within the entire Discovery community, then consider Jefferson Parish data. If the spread is minimal, we will move to Phase 3. Phase 2 is the phase that allows us to move easily to online learning and easily to Phase 3. Our Administrative Team has determined that we plan to start at Phase 2 unless a lower phase is required by state and local elected officials.

Due to the physical spacing of students and smaller class size the following grades will be located on the following campuses for the entire 2020-21 school year. Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy = KDHSA
Dr. John Ochsner Discovery Health Sciences Academy = DJOD
1. 2504 Maine Campus - KDHSA K-3rd grade
2. 201 Vintage Modular Campus - KDHSA 4th-6th grade
3. 3837 Loyola New Campus - KDHSA 7th-12th grade
4. 415 Williams Blvd. - Rivertown Campus () - DJOD Kindergarten students
5. 2012 Jefferson Highway Campus - DJOD 1st-4th grade

The large majority of families indicated that they trust the school will have appropriate safeguards in place, and their students will return to school and follow the required guidelines. Another group of families requested online education for the entire year until a vaccine is available and widely distributed. Online education was working well for them, and the parents are working from home. A smaller group of families do not want their child to wear a mask or be limited to one pod of students each day or have their temperature taken daily.

In response to the survey, we are trying to make an online option as a choice available the entire year to families who want it. If this option is chosen, the students would learn online the entire year and not participate in clubs or sports except for virtual participation. Virtual school culture activities would be offered as they were from March-May. Another group of families do not want their children to participate in wearing masks, temperature taking, or classroom pods. Those families could also choose the year long online option. Those students who attend the school campuses in the 2020-21 school year will be required to adhere to all safeguards for the health and safety of the entire community. If you do not want either to adhere to safeguards required by the school and or to choose year long online learning; I suggest that you withdraw from Discovery Schools and enroll in a different school. Discovery will err on the side of caution during the coming school year for the safety of students and our faculty and staff.

Keeping students in pods limits community spread. If a student is diagnosed with COVID-19, then the pod would go online for 2-3 days while a deep clean of the pod is conducted. All students showing no symptoms would return after the deep cleaning. The student with COVID would return after they are symptom free for 10 days.

We are in unprecedented times with no template to follow. As you know guidelines change often and quickly. We are keeping current with updates from LA Department of Education, JEDCO, and LAPCS on safe returns to work. We are partnering with Ochsner Health Care to help us create a safe return to school plan and a safe plan for the entire year. We will edit and revise our Discovery Strong Start 2020 plan accordingly after we receive parent input, and additional federal, state and local guidelines. Your feedback is valued. We want you to feel safe and comfortable while your child receives a Discovery education.

Let’s continue our Discovery planning with feedback from our families. My goal is to hear from at least 1,300 of our 1,750 families.

With a Collaborative HEART,
Dr. Glaser