The following message was sent to all Milford families August 5, 2020:

Dear Milford Families,

Last night at their meeting, the Board of Education voted to approve the Return to Learning Plan: Plan A and Plan B. Click here to read the plan in its entirety. Click here to access the Return to Learning Information Hub on our website.

Plan A is defined as the choice between In-Person Learning and Eagle Online Learning. Students who are learning In-Person are learning in the buildings daily with safety protocols in place. Students who are learning in Eagle Online do not attend in-person, they learn through our online program delivered by Milford teachers.

Plan B is defined as a time when all students in the district will be learning from home. When Plan B is enacted, children who are enrolled in Eagle Online remain in Eagle Online, and children who were learning In-Person learn remotely from home.

Barring any significant changes in local data trends and Ohio’s Public Health Advisory System (the color-coded system) Milford students who choose In-Person will be in our school buildings for the first day of school on Monday, August 24. Students who choose Eagle Online will begin their online learning on August 24. Students and parents should prepare now to return to school August 24. We are not delaying the start of the school year.

The Board’s approval of the Return to Learning Plan last night means that we have parameters set into place to guide decision making between enacting Plan A or Plan B. Decisions to enact Plan A or Plan B will be made weekly on Thursdays, when updated state and local health data is available. If the trends begin to reverse and there is a need to enact Plan B (In-Person students switch to remote learning) we will communicate with parents in a timely manner. 

The deadline to turn in your Decision Form between In-Person and Eagle Online is Friday, August 7. If you haven’t already made your decision, we urge you to do so before the deadline. Due to decisions that need to be made with staffing, if we do not hear from you by the deadline, your student will automatically be placed in In-Person learning. This is a change from information we previously communicated - we previously indicated that if we did not receive a decision by the deadline that students would be placed in Eagle Online. This change was made due to staffing decisions that will need to be made.

There are certainly many reasons to be confused, saddened, and even angry about how the current health crisis is affecting schools. We are determining the next steps to bring kids back to school while standing in the middle of many forces and competing objects. We do not have all the answers. But we are working very hard to figure it all out and we will continue to adapt and pivot as Governor DeWine changes orders and as new guidelines come to us. 

Starting school In-Person August 24 is dependent upon a multitude of factors, and we urge all of our Milford families to continue to follow health and safety guidelines - wear a mask, practice physical distancing, frequently wash hands, and sanitize. 

The Return to Learning Plan provides details for parents making the excruciating decision to send students back into our buildings or commit to Eagle Online for the first semester. We know this decision is not easy. We know that our ability to get back in buildings and stay in our buildings has an inherent risk. We are all going to need to be flexible and nimble as things change during this pandemic. 

Sincerely,
John Spieser, Superintendent