Greetings Families,
When our eLearning plan was drafted at the beginning of the school year, it was never meant to replace in-class learning for a significant period of time. The goal of the original eLearning plan was to provide learning experiences for kids on the rare occasion that we called a snow day. Given the current Stay-At-Home order, we have been thrust into a new reality, and our plan needs to evolve.
We have convened an eLearning Steering Committee that will recommend ways to adjust our current plan and make it more sustainable for students, teachers, and parents. The first step in this plan is to adjust the way student attendance is taken. In the current plan, we use a compliance-based model for attendance. This means that students are considered in attendance if they complete their work. We have found that this model is not conducive to the long term use of eLearning days. Starting the week of April 14, we will shift to an engagement-based system for taking attendance. Simply put, if students are engaged in work on a particular day, they are considered in attendance.
Each Friday morning, parents will be sent an electronic attendance form and are asked to complete a form for each child (preschool-8th grade) for that week. Forms should be submitted by 5:00 PM Friday. The form should take no more than 20-seconds to complete for each child. Once forms are submitted, our staff will enter attendance into our student management system. At the bottom of this email is a short tutorial video that walks you through how to submit attendance. In this new attendance system, elementary school parents will no longer need to submit attendance for specials.
Thank you for your continued support and flexibility as we work to best serve your children. While there is no playbook for how to “do school” in a global pandemic, I would say we’re all doing a great job.
Be well,
Dave Palzet
Superintendent | PSD 107