We are 13 weeks into the school year. This is one of the most challenging school years in the history of Lincoln Public Schools. Our staff have been working at a feverish pace to keep up with the needs of our students, our families and our community. They are dedicated to making this work. Just like many in our community, everyone is putting in extra time and effort where it’s needed – giving 110%.
Teachers are giving up their scheduled planning time during the school day to help cover each other’s classes. Administrators are also covering classes. Custodial teams are doing extra cleaning. All of our staff are taking on duties beyond what they are normally tasked to do. Everyone is pitching in. For that, we are grateful and we know our community is thankful for all of these efforts to keep our students in school.
But this continuous rigorous pace is starting to take a toll on our staff, and that in turn affects our students. Our students, too, are feeling the pressures and added stress of this year. That’s why today, together with the Board of Education, we are announcing a change to our student calendar to support time for our staff to catch up and recoup loss plan time.
There will be no classes for students on Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 23 and 24. Students will not have classes during those two days before Thanksgiving break. Middle and high school students will return to classes on Monday, Nov. 30. Elementary students will return on Tuesday, Dec. 1 since Monday is an elementary plan day.
This extra time will allow us to pause, allow staff to recoup lost planning time and do what we need to do to provide our students what they need so we can all finish the fall semester strong.
Families, we appreciate your support through all of this. We know the constant changes can create issues for our families. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we learn new information and continue to make adjustments in collaboration with the health department.
Below is our weekly family update with important information and reminders.
Changes to student calendar November 16-30
Here is the revised student calendar for the next two weeks:
Monday, Nov. 16
- Classes in session for all students.
- High School: Group A is in person, Group B is remote.
Tuesday, Nov. 17
- Classes in session for all students.
- High School: Group A is in person, Group B is remote.
Wednesday, Nov. 18
- Classes in session for all students.
- High School: Group A is in person, Group B is remote. (Early dismissal)
Thursday, Nov. 19
- Classes in session for all students.
- High School: Group B is in person, Group A is remote.
Friday, Nov. 20
- Classes in session for all students.
- High School: Group B is in person, Group A is remote.
**NEW** Monday, Nov. 23 – Friday, Nov. 27
NO CLASSES FOR ALL STUDENTS
Monday, Nov. 30
- Elementary, PreK and Early Childhood: No classes, teacher plan day
- Middle School: classes in session for all students
- High School: Group A is in person, Group B is remote.
LLCHD Directed Health Measure on youth sports
Today, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department announced a new Directed Health Measure that includes a three week moratorium on team sports as defined below. This moratorium will be for in-person practices and competitions, but will allow for some remote communication. This will begin on Nov. 16 and end on Dec. 7. All events scheduled for Friday and Saturday (Nov. 13-14) will proceed as scheduled.
This moratorium only applies to the team sports list below:
- Basketball
- Cheerleading
- Football
- Soccer
- Wrestling
- Baseball
- Softball
- Volleyball
- Bowling
- Dance
- Swimming
- Track and Field
We know this is hard news for our student-athletes and their families who have been looking forward to participating in winter athletics. We are hopeful this is temporary and we can resume our season at some point in the near future. What we do now protects the rest of the winter activity season.