March 15, 2020
Dear Parents and Staff,
Today, our Administration Team met to discuss and finalize more details as we build our plan to provide virtual support to students during this school closure. As stated in a previous communication, we will be conducting professional development of staff on Monday, March 16 and March 18 to help prepare them to do virtual instruction during the closure. For this reason students will not report to school on March 16 and March 18 through April 6.
In response to concerns, we are going to make modifications to the meetings planned for parents on Monday night. The plan for the elementary schools is to still host the face to face meetings on Monday night as planned for those parents that feel they need more than a virtual option. (Abrams Elementary 5:30-6:30pm and Oconto Falls Elementary 6:30-7:30pm) This information will be available virtually through our webpage for parents within a few days after the meeting. As for the Middle School and High School parent informational meetings, it has been decided to cancel these meetings and offer this information online only. This decision was based on the fact that our students in grades 6-12 have been using devices and taking them home and we feel there will be less requirement for face to face interaction. Our intent is to have all three level informational meetings (elem, MS, and HS) uploaded to our webpage by 5:00pm on Wednesday, March 18, 2020.
In regards to the concerns shared with us regarding students attending Tuesday, March 17, I want to restate that you as parents have the right to keep your child at home. Please understand that our reason for bringing students in on Tuesday is to ensure that they are prepared for virtual learning during this time of school closure. This will include ensuring they have their device and charger, and that they have the base-line knowledge to be able to communicate effectively with their instructors in a virtual setting. It will also allow us to identify students that do not have access to on-line service in which case we will put together a different plan for them. Please know that we have been thoughtful of social distance while also trying to ensure students are prepared to learn online over the next three weeks and possibly beyond.
As more information becomes available to us we will be sharing with families and staff.
Sincerely,
Dean R. Hess
Superintendent of Schools