School Re-Opening Plan FAQ
What steps will be taken to ensure that surfaces are clean in classrooms?
OCMS school custodian will clean frequently touched surfaces throughout the day and conduct overall cleanings at the conclusion of every day. Spray bottles and microfiber cloths will be provided for classroom instructional staff for additional cleaning. Teachers will have access to cleaning supplies for their classroom.
What other steps are being taken to ensure a healthy environment?
OCMS will partner with parents in educating students on the importance of symptom screening, staying home when ill, good hand hygiene, and social distancing to prevent the spread of illness. Staff members will also be educated on the importance of symptom screening, staying home when ill, good hand hygiene, and social distancing to prevent the spread of illness. Signage will be posted throughout schools encouraging healthy hygiene habits to reduce the risk of transmission and promoting social distancing. Hand sanitizer will be made available in classrooms, busses and workplaces.
Will students be required to purchase and wear a face mask?
At this time, students will not be expected to wear masks or face shields in the classroom unless social distancing cannot be achieved. Masks or face shields will be required when social distancing is difficult or not possible (i.e. hallways, common areas, school bus, etc.) OCMS is hoping to purchase face shields for students and will have OCMS face masks available at the front office. However, parents are welcome to provide school appropriate masks and shields for their child. Face shields will remain at the school and will be wiped down at the end of each day during “Home Room.” Face Masks will be required for all bus riders.
With the delay in start date, will it impact school breaks?
OCMS follows the same school break and holiday schedule as the District, and the delay in start date should not affect school breaks or holidays. However, it will impact the end date. Please visit www.ocalicharter.com/calendar for specific holidays, breaks, and events.
Is Ocali Live the same as Florida or Marion Virtual School?
Ocali Live is not the same thing as Florida Virtual or Marion Virtual Schools. Ocali Live is our “work-from-home” or “remote learning” campus option for parents who do not feel comfortable with sending their student back to the brick-and-mortar physical campus when school reopens, due to COVID-19.
Students who choose Ocali Live will have the same schedule, same homework assignments, same teachers, and same expectations as if they were on-campus at our physical school. Ocali Live students will benefit from the opportunity of having daily interaction with teachers, peers and support staff to ensure students understand the content being taught. The only difference is students enrolled in Ocali Live will be learning via live video stream with their teachers versus being in a physical classroom on-campus. OCMS staff is acutely aware of the needs of Middle School students and their attention span. Therefore, lessons and activities will be created and implemented in such a way that your child will not be in front of their computer for 7 hours straight.
In the situation where family/life circumstances change because of COVID-19, the interchangeability between Ocali's brick and mortar option and Ocali Live gives parents the flexibility to switch from one to another seamlessly, without any loss of instructional time.
For kids choosing to do online learning, will the school check out laptops or computers to provide them access to online learning? And what technology will students need to do online learning?
A device and an internet connection will be necessary. As we did during Distance Learning for the last months of school, OCMS will provide devices and work with families to secure internet services for our students when possible.
How does the school plan to keep parents informed and involved if their children are learning online?
Skylert, alternate email address and specific one to one communication, support staff that will also reach out to parents to ensure that households have the information they need to be successful.
Do the kids learning online, still have to buy school supplies and uniforms?
Yes. Although their school supply list is slightly modified, they still need school supplies.
For a complete list of supplies, please CLICK HERE.
With regard to uniforms, studies show that consistency is key to student achievement, and we believe maintaining a proper dress code for both on-campus and online learning, helps students feel united and part of the school family they belong to. With that said, students who attend OCMS are required to follow the same dress code requirements for both on-campus and online classrooms.
This will also eliminate any discrepancies students could feel should one group be required to wear uniforms and the other group not. Plus, online students will be expected to attend all scheduled classes as if they were on-campus, and wearing the school uniform will help establish the learning environment they deserve, despite working from home.
How is Ocali Live any different than the online learning students have done the past three months?
Remote learning over the past three months was, quite honestly, a quick-fix band-aid applied to the COVID-19 response thrust upon all of education across the nation. Due to lack of time to prepare, every school had to modify schedules to quickly implement a learning option for students to complete the school year, while remaining in quarantine.
To say the least, it was far from perfect and far from practical in many cases. However, learning from that experience, and knowing what we know now, the online learning option, going forward, will dramatically improve for students learning remotely.
For starters, students will be expected to attend a regular, full-time schedule as if they were on-site at our main campus.
They will start the day off with the first period, by logging onto their first-period teacher’s Zoom call. On that call they will receive live instruction, small group work, assignments and support. Ocali Live Students may not be required to stay on line the entire time but will be directed by the teacher. Then when the second period begins they will log onto their second-period teacher’s Zoom call. They will continue this throughout their day, until they have remotely attended every class on their schedule. This will happen five days per week.
They will still have lunch periods and be given breaks to use the restroom, etc., but will no longer have a lot of the flexibility afforded them during the past three months.
Attendance, including tardiness (minus technology issues) will still be taken and their participation will still be required based on school attendance policies.
How should I set up my home to accommodate Ocali Live?
It is important that your student has a quiet space to work so he/she can concentrate on learning. It is best if they can use headphones with a microphone to connect to the audio. They will be able to interact with the teacher and ask questions.
There are often more distractions at home, and sometimes it becomes easy to treat working-from-home as a more relaxed environment. Maintaining a strict learning schedule is imperative to your child’s academic success. So, we encourage parents to make sure the learning environment for your child is as free from distractions as possible.
Students should not have their cell phones out during class, listening to music, or watching television. They should be strictly focused on their teacher throughout each period as if they are on-site and physically attending class.
Lastly, parents need to make sure homes are equipped with high-speed internet. If the computer can be connected via cable to the internet modem, it will help minimize streaming issues and disconnection from the live stream. Wireless connection will work, but may greatly reduce connectivity, and increase the risk of disconnection or delayed streaming.
The school is increasing its technology and internet accessibility to meet the new demand of Ocali Live.