Happy Friday!
I hope everyone is recovering from the holiday break as we bust into 2021! We hope 2021 is full of positive changes as we leave behind a challenging 2020!
One of those changes is our district’s approach to emergency/snow days. We now have permission from the State Board to utilize remote learning on days when Mother Nature makes it too risky to travel to school.
How does this affect students and families? This allows schools to conduct instruction remotely on emergency/snow days by making assignments accessible to students on school devices and their instructional platforms (Google Classroom or Seesaw). It will be similar to our current remote instruction, except teachers will not be available to live stream instruction. Assignments will be made through each class’s instructional platform and students will complete work on their own timeline before their next return to school.
The advantage of this new instructional tool is that our schools will have a set calendar that will not vary depending on how many emergency/snow days are used. This will allow us to adhere to set dates for graduation, last day of school and other end of the year activities.
Families will be given as much notice as possible if a Remote Learning Day will be necessary. The district will utilize phone and text messages, as well as notifying local media of any schedule changes. The district will notify every family by 6:00 AM on the morning of a Remote Learning event, but every effort will be made to get information out the night before, when possible.
This will take some getting used to, like all of the other changes we have experienced in the last year. We firmly believe this new resource will allow us to keep students and staff safe while offering quality instructional opportunities. Thank you for your willingness to work with the schools as we constantly work in your child’s best interest. If you have further questions, contact your building administrator or the district office.
Respectfully,
Fred Lamkey, Mount Pulaski Superintendent