Amy's Weekly Write-Up

I want to thank you all for the kind words of support that you have extended to me this week. I am certainly feeling overwhelmed and having so many of you reach out was wonderful. I also appreciate all your patience as you come to me with questions for which there is no answer....yet! I know that the new school year will present many challenges, but I also know that we will navigate through it all together!

As I mentioned in staff meeting this week, we will be conducting intake conferences again this year. I think that they are more critical this year than ever. While Sandy typically schedules these, classroom teachers will need to set those up this year. Given the variables of in person vs. remote and individual schedules, it seemed to make the most sense for teachers to coordinate with families.

Some of you have asked me about the possibility of having those conferences in person. If you are willing to do so and families agree, I completely support that. I will have a couple of tents set up on campus so that outside meetings are possible. Please be sure to be masked and observe social distancing guidelines. You can also hold those conferences virtually.

You are free to set those up at any time. If you want to use some of your unscheduled time over the next ten days to hold those, that's fine as well. The expectation is that you will have met with your families by the end of the day on Sept. 18th. If you are unsuccessful reaching a family, let me know and I will do what I can to help.

This has been a very frustrating week as we've had yet another delay in the arrival of the devices we've ordered for staff and students. At this time, it is likely that we will need to start the school year without a 1:1 distribution of devices. I will be reaching out to all our families this weekend to assess how many devices are needed and to see if we can find some in the community that folks will loan to us until the new ones arrive.

In case I have not put it out there yet (I can't remember anymore), the district decided to order ipads for PK-2nd grade and chromebooks for 3rd-12th grades.

Because we will be in a remote model, classroom teachers will need to take attendance in Aspen. There will be a training on this during the ten days of PD. Additionally, there will be a video posted to refer back to, if necessary.