Charleston CUSD 1 -

Thank you to everyone who participated in Wednesday evening's Special Meeting of the Board. From investing time to write, call, attend or listen, your input and engagement is valuable in helping us bring our school community's collective best for our youth. Few like remote learning; most want our kids in school; everybody is making sacrifices. Staying positive with and supporting each other, we will get through this together.

https://5il.co/lbxn EIU Homecoming Coloring Page & Family Fun Scavenger Hunt

Empower login issue resolved.

We are experiencing error messages when accessing Empower and have contacted tech support. We will send an update when the situation is resolved.

The Charleston CUSD #1 Board of Education has scheduled a Special Board Meeting for this Wednesday (September 23) at 6:00p.m. at the Charleston High School Auditorium. One item on the agenda pertains to "Consideration/Action on School Reopening Plans for In-Person Instruction." As with recent practice, the district will continue to limit in-person capacity to 50 persons at Wednesday's meeting, and the public can listen to the meeting through the Webex system (call in details on the agenda). Holding the meeting at the auditorium will afford people a better opportunity to physically distance for social distancing purposes. The meeting's agenda will be posted on our district's website, and the staff and public can participate in the public comment portion of the meeting either in person or via email or postal mail before 4:00p.m. on Wednesday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released indicators that schools are to use as one tool to help when making decisions about in-person learning. When applying local data available on September 17 about community spread of COVID-19, the assessment of our risk falls in the “Higher Risk of Transmission in Schools” level. Thank you, Coles County, for working together to reduce and stop the spread of COVID-19 in our community by following the 3 W’s: Wear a mask if you are out in public, Wash your hands frequently, and Watch your distance by social distancing!

EIU is celebrating their 125th anniversary this year! Click here if you'd like to order a Homecoming t-shirt: https://5il.co/l3ou

It is National Online Learning Day -- what a great day to remind you of a great resource from the district. The Remote Learning page on the website is your go to for training, answers to your questions and help for all your technology needs. https://www.charleston.k12.il.us/o/cusd-1/page/remote-learning--47 Need additional tech help, email or call the eLearning help desk elearning_help@charleston.k12.il.us (217) 639-1035

Order your 2020 EIU Homecoming T-Shirt: https://5il.co/l0o8

The Illinois State Board of Education would like to invite the parents and guardians in our school community to the first Statewide Return to School Family Convening, happening via Zoom on Friday, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. This event is an opportunity for parents, caretakers, and students to meet with state agency and with parent and student advocacy group leaders.  The ISBE hopes to hear from attendees about their experiences with school during COVID-19 and asks for their feedback on ISBE’s guidance. They also will share with participants about services and supports available to them. To help all interested families participate, this event will be hosted in English, with real-time translation into Spanish, Polish, Urdu, Arabic, and American Sign Language, plus captioning. The event is being hosted in partnership with several organizations, including Illinois PTA, Community Organizing and Family Issues, Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, and the co-chairs of several statewide Family And Community Engagement committees. Sergio Hernandez, Jr., ISBE’s Director of Family and Community Engagement, will co-chair the event. The registration link is  https://tinyurl.com/y2vqlu6s. The event will be recorded to make it accessible for families who cannot join live.

Food Distribution Update: The USDA has released new food guidelines for meal regulations during remote learning. Families may now request meals for any child in the household 18 years old and under. If you have already completed the meal request survey for this school year, but you would like to add a child(ren) to the survey, please call 639-4002. If you have not yet completed the meal request survey and need to, please follow the link:https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ZVmoXzSDt0eo3d9OfKD91RBJI8QfeWhAv9uOOCHHo3hUMVFMR1cyV1ZJUURFSFMyQ0g5MEo2RzhSTS4u If you have already completed the meal request survey and you do not need to make any changes or additions, you do not need to do anything. Meals will be delivered once next week on Wednesday, September 9th. Meals for the 9th, 10th, and 11th will be delivered. There is no meal distribution on Monday, September 7th. Starting September 14th, meals will be delivered on Mondays and Thursdays. Beginning on the 14th, meals will be provided for all 7 days of the week. 3 meals will be provided on Mondays (meals for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) and 4 meals will be provided on Thursdays (meals for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday).

Empower Classes Incorrect: Many students may find that they are missing classes or have the incorrect ones listed on their Empower dashboard. We are aware of the issue and have contacted the company who is working on it now. Thank you for your patience.

Today is our second day of teacher's institutes for this year, and staff continue to make preparations for our first quarter under remote learning conditions. Having visited our schools this week, I want to thank our CUSD #1 employees for their "can do" attitudes and giving their best efforts to learn and lead every day. I also thank our spectators who have been supporting kids in extra-curriculars by social distancing with face coverings. A special thanks also goes to all those in our school community who have sent us messages of support and gratitude. None of this is much fun for or easy on anyone, but I find joy and pride in how our staff and school community have responded with an attitude that "we are going to get through this together." That's one of the many things that I have always loved about the Charleston school community -- with such diversity of perspectives, people here can disagree on whatever the topic is and still respectfully find common ground and ways to row together toward the same goal.

We had a successful Meet the Teacher night for Mrs. Ready and Mrs. Zigler. We look forward to meeting the rest of our students throughout the week. Just a reminder to families: Meet the Teacher is limited to one parent/guardian per child. Also, a helpful Remote Learning Tutorial can be found on my YouTube Channel (https://youtu.be/CZ3gCM9hiao)--this video is shown at Meet the Teacher, but can be accessed later as well! The information on the video is applicable to families with students throughout the district (not just our Mark Twain families and students). -Mrs. Titus

Day One of Laptop Distribution at CHS is today!

CUSD1 Student Electronic Devices will be available soon!

This is an update on the status of our plans for the 2020-2021 school year. We made a commitment to monitor local COVID-19 case data and county risk levels. Due to the increased risk in our county, the district has considered multiple options. We acknowledge that no option satisfies everyone. The Charleston CUSD#1 Board of Education held an emergency meeting today to consider amendments to the school calendar. The Board of Education approved a calendar with a delayed start date and remote learning for all students. The calendar reflects the first day for remote learning on August 31. Students will participate in remote learning through first quarter. At that time, district officials will re-evaluate case data and risk levels and provide updates accordingly. A delayed start provides adequate time for the district to prepare student electronic devices and internet connectivity, and provide training to students and families on Empower, our new learning management system. The newly adopted school calendar is posted on our website. In the coming weeks, we will provide more information about how students and families will be provided with necessary technology, training and important information about remote learning guidelines. We recognize that, while not surprising, this news is distressing to many in our school community. We understand this presents a hardship to families searching for child care and balancing work and remote learning commitments. We remain dedicated to all students and will continue to strive to meet all students’ educational needs during these times.

Emergency Board Meeting Access: To join from a mobile device (attendees only) +1-415-655-0001,,1262256610#47994759# US Toll

This is an update on the status of our plans for starting the 2020-2021 school year. Most are aware by now of our plans to welcome all staff back on August 11 and to welcome students back for in-person, on-site instruction on August 17. When we developed our plans back in early July, we also made a commitment to monitor our local COVID-19 positive case data and to remain flexible with our plans accordingly. Recent reports from the Coles County Health Department reveal increased cases, particularly among youth, and an “Orange” level, warning of increased COVID-19 risk in our county. Due to this increased risk, especially when considering the approaching return of higher education students to Charleston, school district staff are considering multiple options for beginning our year. Some of these options include (1) beginning the year, as planned in early July, with daily in-person instruction and a remote learning option (2) beginning the year under a hybrid schedule that limits the number of students in schools, (3) beginning the year under full remote learning for at least one quarter, and (4) beginning the year at a later date. We acknowledge that there are advantages and drawbacks of each option, and no option will be pleasing or satisfactory to all. The complex work of balancing the safety of our school community with what’s best for student learning is nearly as impossible as reconciling community involvement relative to continually shifting science and data. We do, however, continue to strive to consider options from various perspectives including students, staff, parents and community members. Our primary aim is to arrive at a decision that represents our best collective efforts in returning to learn with the safety, health and well-being of our students, staff and entire school community as our highest priority. While such a process takes time, we also recognize that time is of the essence, as we all want to know sooner than later, with certainty, what the future holds. For now, securing child care, if needed, would be a proactive way for parents to prepare in the event that a return to remote learning days is warranted. We will provide more information as soon as we can. Until then, remember the 3 W’s of “Wear a mask, Watch your distance, and Wash your hands.”

Just a quick reminder that face coverings are required to be worn in order to access a CUSD1 school building at this time. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding!