Goshen Community Schools would like to inform the GCS community of this Important Update:

The GCS back-to-school plans were abruptly changed on Thursday (August 6), based upon information received from an official at the Elkhart County Health Department (ECHD). However, that information has now changed. Yesterday, GCS acted quickly, based on the information we were given. GCS is the first local school to start classes, and at that point, the first school day was only four days away.

This afternoon (Friday, August 7, 2020) in conflict with what we were told yesterday, the ECHD released Public Health Order No. 04-2020, which said, in part, “All K-12 schools in Elkhart County, public and private, are authorized to start the 2020-2021 school year (“School Year”) by providing in-person instruction or instruction via remote learning according to their COVID-19 Plan to Reopen.”

Additionally from Public Health Order No. 04-2020, “The Elkhart County Health Department understands that the public and private K-12 schools in Elkhart County have recently made significant efforts to transition from in-person instruction to instruction via remote learning as a result of preliminary concerns identified by the Elkhart County health officer. The Elkhart County Health Department understands and supports all public and private K-12 schools that choose to open with remote learning instruction as they work to transition to in-person instruction.”

GCS will transition back to in-person learning after next week. GCS will start school virtually on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 and continue to meet virtually through Friday, August 14, 2020.

Following the first week of all-virtual classes, GCS will revert to the original school board-approved reopening plan (approved at the July 27, 2020 board meeting) to return to classes in this manner: Students in grades K-5 will return to school on Monday, August 17, 2020 in Course III, which means Students in grades K-5 will have shortened days (7:50 a.m.-1:30 p.m.), with eLearning for specials. The Spanish translation will be posted as soon as it is available. Students in grades 6-12 will return to school on Monday, August 17, 2020 in Course IV, which means that students with last names starting with A-L will attend in-school classes on Monday and Tuesday, and have virtual classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Students with last names starting with M-Z will have virtual classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and attend in-school classes on Thursday and Friday.

The number one goal of GCS administrators is to give our students and staff a safe return to the classroom. We do not anticipate that this plan will change again, so we will move ahead with a short, one-week course of all-virtual learning, and then will return to our original plan, with K-5 students in Course III and students in grades 6-12 in Course IV.

More information regarding athletics, marching band, and other co-curricular activities may be announced later. For now, GCS students and athletes may continue their co-curricular activities as they are scheduled.

We sincerely appreciate your support of our students and staff, as we know the last few days have been stressful and confusing. We pledge to do everything in our power to make this school year a good one for the students of our community.

Dr. Steven Hope, GCS Interim Superintendent

The Public Health Order and a Letter from Dr. Mertz may be read at this link: https://buff.ly/2Dmo5ip

The Spanish translation will be posted as soon as it is available.