IMPORTANT LETTER FROM SUPERINTENDENT REED REGARDING SCHOOL CLOSURES AND DISTANCE LEARNING EFFECTIVE TUESDAY MARCH 17 - FRIDAY MARCH 20. 3.15.2020
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Greetings Parents,
I hope you have had a good weekend with your children. I know that these are troubled and uncertain times and it's so important to make sure your children feel safe and protected.
We have been closely monitoring developments around COVID - 19 and have been collaborating with San Juan Basin Health Department, the organization that is responsible for making determinations, in collaboration with our school board and myself about when closures should occur. We have also been keeping in close communication with area health care providers and have resources for parents posted on our website. Because of the extreme volatility of the current situation and because we want to protect our children and our greater community from this pandemic, we have made the decision, in conjunction with San Juan Basin Health District, to begin distance learning for our students on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. We plan to be in session tomorrow, Monday, March 16th, operating on our regular schedule. The week of March 23rd – is our normal Spring Break and schools will be closed. We will notify parents at the end of spring break, what next steps will be, based on the assets and needs of the community and directives from state agencies. Please continue reading for the details of our plan.
So, what does that mean to you and your family? Over the last week we have been working on remote learning plans. Each student will be provided appropriate technology and learning materials. Teachers will be reaching out through our technology platform, to instruct your children. Our upper elementary and secondary teachers already utilize multiple platforms, such as Google Classroom, Summit Learning and Google Hangouts and our students are familiar with these as they use them in their classrooms on a daily basis. We are working with our own technology staff with the assistance of Echo Consulting to make sure that our devices can work from our students' homes. For our younger students, we plan on using a combination of technology and learning packets. Again, these are familiar to our students as they use them in their classrooms. For those students who do not have home internet access, we will do the best we can to develop materials to support student learning.
Another area in which we have developed and/or are refining our action plan is how to provide food for our students. There will be more information shared on the district website and through emails home, when those plans are solidified.
Finally, we understand that parents may have concerns about sending their child(ren) to school tomorrow. If that is the case, please keep your child home tomorrow. If you make the decision to keep your child(ren) home, please plan to come by the school office on Tuesday, to pick up the learning materials for your child(ren).
As a final thought during these very stressful times, it's important that we give each other grace. Our staff and our community are working incredibly hard to ensure the safety of our students and all members of our community. We are all in this together. I thank you for your patience as we worked collaboratively to make the best decisions, in an area where decisions have never been made before.
Kind regards,
Superintendent Linda Reed