May 24, 2020
Hello Harding Community,
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond made it somewhat official, districts will be making up their own plans for next year in accordance with health and safety guidelines. In any plan, access for all students and adequate funding will continue to be issues. State school funding cuts and our own district budget issues do not support the higher cost that the safety guidelines will require.
Draft scenarios include:
- All students coming back for partial time staggered schedules assigned to a smaller cohort of about ten classmates supported by work at home.
- Only younger grade levels returning on partial time schedules with older students continuing on all distance learning.
- All continuing distancing learning at home in the current model.
In any case, principals are pushing for more definite plans to be communicated to all by the end of June.
My priorities are to keep the students and staff healthy and safe while addressing emotional, social, and academic needs. We hope to provide consistency of service and know that a number of factors could have any onsite learning plan fall apart like a house of cards. No matter what scenario we come back to, teachers have been learning about and practicing distance instruction and will plan for the most effective use of any time that we may be with students onsite. We also want to figure out how to support community from a distance because we feel connectedness is an important aspect of learning and mental health.
The teachers and I have been collecting and incorporating the family feedback we’ve been receiving throughout the shelter in place but want to be sure we hear from as many of you as possible. Please complete this survey (teachers will also be sending this out via REMIND):
Distance Learning Parent Survey or Distance Learning Parent Survey, Spanish
Our goal is to address student and family needs as best we can throughout next year and all information will be important for creating workable plans, support, resources, and materials. Thank you for your time.
Take care and stay safe.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Takimoto