March 29 Remote Learning Day

Monday, March 29 will be a remote learning day for the Meridian School District.

We have been fortunate to have our district employees start the COVID-19 vaccine process. Our employees are scheduled to receive their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine this Friday evening. Our intent was to use the weekend as a buffer to accommodate any staff members who may experience adverse reactions to their second dose. During the pandemic, and especially these past three months, securing substitutes has been particularly difficult and a challenge for every school district on any given day. Even before the pandemic substitutes for all roles were scarce. The substitute shortage has been exacerbated by quarantine events in districts across the county.

In addition to the scarcity of substitutes, we have also been concerned with the reports of how those who have been impacted by reactions to the second dose may not recover fully in two days. Moving Monday, March 29 to a remote learning day is out of precaution to ensure we are better able to support learning – even though it will be in a remote fashion. We will not have time to react Monday morning if we are faced with multiple staff absences.

We understand this is a disruption and apologize for the inconvenience it causes your family. We will provide food for students for Monday by adding additional meals to the meal kit we distribute to our students at school on Friday, March 26. We will be offering these with our current schedule of drop-off at Cordata Presbyterian, Pollman Circle, pickup at the Middle School, and our delivery through Transportation. The schedule for these is located on our website.

If you are currently scheduled for Friday meal deliveries, you don’t need to do anything. You will just receive four days instead of three. If you would like to be added, please contact the transportation department at 360-318-2172.

We anticipate being back to our current regular schedules for each building on Tuesday, March 30. As always, if anything changes, we will be reaching out to let you know.

Thank you,

James