Academics

The first day of school for all scholars in Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) will be Tuesday, September 8, 2020. Scholars will all begin with Kansas City Virtual Academy or via campus based distance learning. No scholars will be on campus.

In virtual academy, your scholar will be in online classes from the start of school until at least January 2021, with virtual academy teachers. Students will be in the Odysseyware curriculum and provided with support from certified KCPS teachers in each subject.

In the traditional distance learning option, students will start out in an online setting utilizing Google Meet and/or Microsoft Teams with their teachers from Northeast Middle School. Once it is safe to return to face-to-face instruction, scholars will return to the campus.

While we are in a distance learning environment, all scholars will be required to attend every class daily via a KCPS approved online platform. We are anticipating four classes each day. On Wednesdays, scholars will attend all classes for homework assistance, intervention, and enrichment.

Plans are still tentative, scholars will unload from buses and/or cars and enter the building practicing social distancing. During morning check-in, scholars will grab breakfast and go to a designated classroom. Classroom capacities for effective social distancing are established and students will remain in one room throughout the day. NEMS teachers will rotate through classrooms to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 during passing periods. Social distancing will be practiced during lunch, restroom breaks, and dismissal. Scholars and staff are required to wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the day as mandated by Kansas City Missouri Health Department guidelines.

All scholars must attend every class daily and successfully complete all work to obtain a grade for each class. Any scholar who misses classes more than a few times, will be put on a truancy watch list. Once absences accumulate to 10 or more absences, the parents/guardians will be referred to KCPS’ truancy office.

All scholars will be graded per the KCPS grading policy.

We will host our technology distribution on Thursday, September 3, 2020 from 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. If scholars have not returned their computer from this Spring 2020, their device has disabled by KCPS. Parents/guardians will not be allowed to check out another one, until the device is returned to our campus.

All scholars with an IEP, will receive services and instruction per guidelines of their plan. Services will be monitored by the scholar’s case manager to ensure that there will be no gaps in their educational services.

KCPS and NEMS have detailed plans in place to communicate with all stakeholders about the safety of all members of our NEMS family.

At this time there are no plans in place for virtual tutoring sessions however, teachers will have office hours to be able to answer questions and provide one-on-one support to all scholars.

Everyone in the building will be required to wear the appropriate PPE at all times. All scholars will be provided with two cloth masks.

Buses will be unloaded one at a time and scholars will have markers on the sidewalk to ensure social distance while lining up to gain entrance to the building. Backpacks and bags will be limited. Scholars will enter one at a time to have their temperature checked and proceed through security.

Breakfast will be grab and go and scholars proceed to their first classroom of the day. Classroom capacity has been calculated to ensure social distancing.

Bathrooms will be cleaned numerous times throughout the day and adequate soap, paper towels, and hand sanitizer will be available. Bathroom breaks will be scheduled to allow for social distancing and classes will go on that schedule. Passes will be given on a very limited basis for emergency situations.

To increase the safety of all NEMS team members and scholars,, scholars will remain in one room all day and teachers will rotate. This will significantly reduce the risk of any exposure of COVID-19 during passing periods.

In order to keep scholars socially distanced during dismissal, a dismissal schedule is in place to prevent close contact to ensure a smooth release to the buses.

Note: This guidance is advisory in nature and informational in content. This guidance is intended for planning purposes. Additional guidance may be needed as COVID-19 outbreak conditions change, including as new information about the virus, its transmission, and impacts, becomes available.

All scholars’ e-mails have been changed to kcpublicschools.org for their login to Google and Microsoft Office 365. Instead of using kcmsd.net or kcps.us.  All PreK-12^th grade student passwords have also been reset to their birthdate in the format of MMDDYYYY for the 2020-2021 school year. This will allow all students to use kcpublicschools.org accounts to log in to most district resources. Please note that Tyler will continue to use separate accounts.