Camanche Community School District

THEATER/AUDITORIUM EXPANSION: The District's current theater is more than 40 years old and has received limited upgrades since its original construction.

HEALTH & WELLNESS ADDITION: The District does not have enough gymnasium and weight room space to meet the needs of athletic and co-curricular programs.

The Clinton County Auditor's Office will be open Saturday morning, August 22nd from 8 a.m. to noon for Camanche School District voters to vote absentee in person for their September 8th Special Election. Those wishing to vote should enter the building through the doors near the Auditor's Office. A "Vote Here" sign will be outside of those doors.

The Camanche School Board had their regular monthly meeting last night. At that meeting the Board reached the decision to require all people present on school property to wear face coverings. There is an exception to this requirement for people with a medical exemption, or if a school administrator determines that an extenuating circumstance exists. These types of situations will be handled on a case by case basis. The goal of the Camanche School District is to keep all people who are present in our facilities as safe and healthy as possible, while still providing our students with a quality education. Please feel free to contact your building administrator or me with any questions or concerns.

Watch your mailbox for this edition of The Camanche Comment which will have information in it pertaining to the District's September 8, 2020 referendum. It should be arriving soon.

ADA Upgrades: The current theater and gymnasium have several American with Disabilities Act (ADA) needs to be addressed.

Secure entrance improvements were previously completed at the middle school, however, there are safety and security needs at the elementary and high school entrances.

We are thankful for the financial support our taxpayers have provided over many decades. Voter-approved funding and penny sales tax funds have allowed the District to make numerous educational updates to its facilities. However, community feedback and a recent facilities study have identified needs in the following areas:

The Camanche Return To Learn Plan continues to evolve as we gather more input from our stakeholders. If you haven’t done so already, parents are encouraged to fill out the parent survey found under the Return To Learn Button on our website. While you are there, be sure to check out the updated information in the portion of the RTL Summary document that discusses the Hybrid Option of the plan.

We are proud of our successes to date, but we know there are challenges ahead, including ensuring facilities meet our community's current and future needs. To help develop ideas and options, the District engaged the community to gather feedback and prioritize needs.

Two years of facilities planning, community conversations, and community-wide surveys led to the Board's petition approval to proceed with a bond referendum on a September 8th ballot.

A link to a Camanche CSD Parent Survey has been posted on the school district’s website. This can be found, along with other RTL documents, under the Return To Learn button on our website’s front page. This is a brief survey that shouldn’t take much of your time to complete, but it will provide us with useful information as we continue to develop our Return To Learn Plan. Thank you in advance for your participation.

I am pleased to announce that Registration is now open in the Camanche School District for the 2020-2021 school year. Families that are currently in our student accounting system should also receive an email providing a link to the registration page. If you wish to directly access the registration page, go to our district’s website at www.camanche.k12.ia.us. For those who wish to apply for free and reduced lunch, the application can be completed on our registration site. Finally, by the end of this week (7/10/2020) we plan to add a Return to Learn (RTL) information page on our website. I would encourage parents in our district to look for and complete the Parent Survey that will be located in that link. Your input about our RTL Plan is important and will assist us in meeting our goal of providing a safe and quality learning environment for your child. As always, feel free to contact any of our school offices with any questions or concerns.

Please take 5 minutes to complete the survey below from the Iowa Department of Education regarding internet and technology access for the 2020-2021 school year. http://bit.ly/iowatechsurvey Have a great summer! -Camanche Admin Team

Help the Class of 2020 celebrate! Drive through CHS parking lot Sunday, May 24th from 2 pm - 3 pm. Graduates will be standing in the parking lot. Enter from 9th Avenue, drive slow, and please stay in the vehicle. Go Indians!

Governor Reynolds announced today that schools are to remain closed for the rest of this school year. She also stated that "Continuous Learning" for students is to continue. In Camanche we will continue to engage and educate our students by using on-line learning. I also want you to know that we are committed to getting the information you need to support your child’s learning to you as soon as we possibly can. I encourage you to contact your child’s principal with questions or concerns that you may have. Finally, I want to express my sincere thanks to everyone who is doing their part in helping us address the challenges this pandemic has created. Your efforts and support are truly appreciated. I hope that all of you are able to stay healthy and well. Thank you.

On-line learning will formally begin for Camanche students this Monday (4/13/2020) through the Continuous Learning Plan that was approved by the Iowa Department of Education. This on-line learning delivery system combines a voluntary plan for grades K-8 with a required plan for grades 9-12. The reason we will require educational services for our high school students revolves around wanting to provide additional educational activities for our high schoolers that can be graded and have credit assigned to it. This is important as our high school students work to earn credits to meet graduation requirements. The voluntary on-line education option for grades K-8 will focus on the core subjects of English and Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Along with creating educational programming, educators in our district are arranging office hours to make sure that they are available to support students and their families. This will be a new learning experience and educational environment for most, if not all of us. I believe that it is essential that students, parents, and educators all work to keep lines of communication open with one another as we move through this unique and challenging time. By working together, I am confident that we can see the Camanche School District’s Continuous Learning Plan engage our students with learning opportunities that will further their academic growth. Thank you for your understanding as we work through the challenges caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic. If you would like more information, please look under the “COVID-19 Info” button on our website.

This afternoon the Governor of the State of Iowa has ordered schools in Iowa to remain closed through April 30th. Camanche Schools, of course, will follow that order. I also want to make you aware of the Camanche School District’s intention to follow the Iowa Department of Education’s “Continuous Learning” directive. We are currently working on the specifics of our plan. Please look for more information coming from your child’s school, or on the district’s website under the COVID-19 Information button. I do sincerely appreciate everyone’s understanding as we work through this Pandemic and hope that all of you remain healthy and well.

Camanche CSD worked with the state to qualify for a summer food program during this time of crisis. We were unsuccessful in this work due do not meeting some of the requirements. So, just like we do each summer, please see information below regarding the food program in Clinton being implemented next week. The Clinton Community School District is participating in an emergency extension of the Summer Food Service Program, offering meals during this time of mandatory school closing. Meals will be provided to all children without charge and are the same for all children regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability, and there will be no discrimination in the course of the meal service. Meals will be provided, at a first come, first serve basis, at the sites and times as follows: The following sites will be serving sack lunches from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm, Monday through Friday, starting March 23, 2020 through April 9, 2020: Clinton Middle School 1350 14th Street NW Clinton High School 817 8th Avenue South Be Safe, Camanche Admin Team

Updates regarding COVID-19 Pandemic: 1) Camanche Schools will be closed in accordance with the governor’s recommendation that schools close for four weeks. At this time, we plan to resume classes no earlier than Monday, April 13th. 2) Due to the deep cleaning occurring in our school buildings, we are limiting access to our buildings and request that you contact the building principal before entering a school. We also ask that you pick up any items you need no later than Thursday, March 19th by noon. 3) The State Athletic and Activity Associations have canceled all practices and events at this time. Information regarding dates when these activities will be allowed to resume will be announced by these groups in the future. We do know that there are more unanswered questions than actual answers available at this time. This has been caused by the rapidly changing events surrounding the COVID-19 Pandemic. We will continue to provide more information to you as it becomes available.