Teacher Appreciation Week, school reopening surveys and student vaccinations

I am sharing a few items today that I hope will be informative and supportive. Some items are new and others are answers to questions I have received. If there are any questions you have from this message, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me for clarification.

Please join me in acknowledging our amazing teachers! There have been significant challenges over the past 18 months. Our teachers have been active in finding creative ways to help our students be successful and get back to school. We appreciate the tremendous energy and support our teachers have displayed during this crisis – and always!

We are so pleased to have our students back in school and be able to increase student activities. I have received a few questions from families about what school will look like in the Fall. We are planning to start school with full schedules, five days a week. We are involved in designing our reopening plan that is required by OSPI. Part of that plan is the inclusion of family and student voices. We are seeking feedback on a few things about this past year and about support for students and families moving forward. We have developed a short survey for families and students to answer by Friday, May 14th. This is the link to the family survey. Our teachers will be asking students to complete the student survey next week during school. Thank you, in advance, for your feedback through these surveys.

You may have heard this morning that Canada has approved the Pfizer vaccine for use with 12-16-year-olds. It is expected the FDA will make a similar announcement over this next week. As a district, we do not plan on requiring vaccines for students to return to school. However, we do encourage our families to consider getting their students vaccinated. Students being vaccinated will help protect them and ensure we are able to keep schools consistently open in the future. This would be one more action to help minimize interruptions to learning we have experienced this school year.

Before the pandemic hit, we recognized a need to revise our strategic plan to include all of our initiatives and newly identified areas of importance. That work was put on the back burner as we have navigated how to best provide learning for the past 18 months. We are now ready to organize an advisory group to develop a more comprehensive strategic plan. The advisory group will focus on inclusive instructional practices, equity, and preparations for the growth of our district so each student has opportunities to excel. Please follow this link to read more details and to fill out a short application form due by 5:00 pm on May 18th. We welcome all voices interested in contributing to this process.Thank you,

James