Dear Parents and Families,

At last night’s regularly scheduled board meeting, the school board approved the plan to start the school year in full remote learning. Input from families and the community had a significant impact on the final decision.

As I mentioned in an email last week the district has two immediate goals 1) provide our kids an outstanding remote learning experience and 2) get our kids back in school for in-person instruction as soon as the community health situation allows. Please remember, when the district returns to in person school parents can choose to keep their child learning remotely.

The district is working very hard improving remote learning. When school starts, you will find better communication from our schools, simplified learning platforms, consistent schedules, a return to regular grading practices and a combination of live and recorded video lessons.  These improvements will provide students with the instruction and resources they need to learn.

For those of you who do not have a device to connect to the Internet, we will again be holding Chromebook distribution days. Watch your email, the district web site or Facebook page for more information.

On August 27, 28, 31 and September 1 our staff will be engaged in the training necessary to make remote learning outstanding this year. At last night’s meeting, the board also authorized me to request a waiver from OSPI to exchange the first three days of student instruction, September 2, 3, and 4, for additional professional development, preparation, and student/family outreach time for our staff members. If approved, this additional time will help us to assure we are providing a significantly better remote learning experience for our students and move the first day of school to September 8, the day after Labor Day.

We will be monitoring the community health metrics closely and will begin our transition to in-person learning as soon as reasonably possible. Any decisions concerning returning to in person learning will include input from state and local health officials, parents, staff, union partners, and community members.

While the coming school year is filled with uncertainty and challenges, there are a couple of things I am sure of – our kids need us and we will do an outstanding job of meeting their academic and social/emotional needs whether we are in a remote or in-person instructional model.

Please stay tuned, more information will be coming out all month.

Respectfully,

 

Dan Zorn, Superintendent

Longview Public Schools