The Indianola Community School District will have to turn in a Return to Learn plan to the Iowa Department of Education in July, giving the district guidelines on how to provide as normal an education as possible once the 2020/21 school year begins. Superintendent Art Sathoff tells KNIA News the biggest issue is working on providing remote learning to every student if necessary.

“This spring most school districts chose to make remote learning voluntary, but if it returns this fall the Department of Education has said it will need to be required. So looking at our practices for distance learning, one of the big action items from the board was extending our digital learning environment from the high school and middle school down to pre-k and elementary. So our tech director is looking at different devices to see what is available and get things ordered there. We learned this past summer even if we shared a device for a family who needs it, there may be multiple students of different levels who need that device. So we think it’s appropriate to provide one for each student.

Sathoff also said the July 1st deadline for the plan submission to the state is a list of assurances that each district is working on what needs to be planned for when school returns this fall, rather than a finalized plan.