Dear Families,
I am writing with an update on our school district planning process for the upcoming school year. I hope this message finds your family safe and healthy. Please read this message in its entirety and complete the return-to-school survey at the end.
We expect the Minnesota Departments of Health (MDH) and Education (MDE) to release their direction for how schools will begin the 2020-2021 school year during the week of July 27, 2020. MDE has indicated the district needs to prepare for three scenarios:
- In-person instruction
- Distance learning
- A hybrid option where some students would be on campus and others learning from home
I shared more information about the MDE and MDH guidance in a previous message.
We have three teams preparing plans for each of the scenarios. These teams are focusing on specific areas:
- Instructional design
- Logistics
- Health and virus prevention
We are working diligently to solve numerous challenges to safely reopen our schools, should that be the direction of MDE and MDH. Our purpose is to develop a seamless system of instruction and services that meets the needs of every learner, regardless of the scenario. You can review the guiding principles we are using in our planning here.
To aid in our planning, we need every family to complete our return-to-school survey. The “why” behind this survey is to gather information about your family’s level of comfort with each of the three return-to-school scenarios listed above. This survey is available within the Family Access portal. If you are familiar with the portal, it is available on the home screen once you have logged into Family Access.
» Log into Family Access to take the survey
**Please complete the survey by July 14, 2020, at 9:00 pm.**
If you do not currently have an account set up in Family Access, follow these directions to complete your survey.
If you need further assistance, please contact Christine Neset via email or telephone at 507.645.3445.
Once again, I thank you in advance for your flexibility, patience, and grace. We all want daily life to be free from the implications of COVID-19. We all would like a sense of stability. We need to face the fact that the upcoming school year will be the most unpredictable in our lifetime. The school district will do its best to plan and communicate effectively. We look forward to doing this hard work with you, together.
Most Sincerely,
Matt
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Matt Hillmann, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools