March 22, 2020
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Thank you so much for your patience with all of this. Like you, we are reeling and trying to adjust. I feel like this is even more traumatic for the Union families and staff because we already went through a crisis this year with our fire. We will all do our best to keep supporting you as you’re struggling to make it work at home.
Even though this hasn’t officially been announced at the state level, I think it is likely that the school dismissal will last longer than two weeks. To that end, we are gearing up to teach online. Canvas will be our primary platform so that students can turn in work and get feedback from teachers. We will also need to have ways to teach virtually through Google Meets so students can get questions answered in real time. Students have a safe, closed environment through their CSD Google Docs account to do this. More information coming on that. We will spend this next week continuing to prepare for teaching new concepts (moving on to new curriculum) in Week 3 of the school dismissal.
Week 2 (March 23 – March 27) – Wrapping Up 3rd Quarter
Students will continue to do review/enrichment on previously taught material. The district has decided to finalize 3rd Quarter and move on to 4th Quarter after this week. We can accept late/missing work in the Main Office at Union through 3:00 pm on Tuesday, March 24th. We will scan this work and get it to teachers to grade and add to the grade book. Please direct all instructional questions to teachers; they will have the information needed to answer your questions. We will NOT have paper packets for Week 2; we are switching to the online supports. To that end, we will distribute Chromebooks to support learning for those that need them (see below).
Chromebooks
We will be distributing Chromebooks to those that need them on Monday and Tuesday (March 23rd and 24th) from 8:00 to 3:00. We have to follow the Federal guidelines of not having more that 10 people in close contact with each other, so we will have hashmarks down the hallway for people to stand and wait to be served. We urge you to only enter the building with one parent and one student. We will ask other family members to wait outside.
If you filled out the district Chromebook survey, you will not need to sign a new contract. We have already checked out a computer to your student through the library check-out system. You just need to come in and pick it up.
If you did not fill out the survey, we will need a parent to sign a contract before we can check out a Chromebook.
Wi-Fi Access
If you do not have Wi-Fi access at home, you can get decent coverage around the outside of the Union building. Please help us be vigilant in protecting our community from the spread of Covid-19. We do not want groups of students congregating on school property; there is not supervision and it would not be a safe health practice at this time.
Office Hours
We will be open Monday and Tuesday from 8:00 to 3:00. After that, we will have to decide how to meet your needs and protect our office people from possible exposure to the virus. I will let you know what our plan will be early next week.
Lunch Distribution
Even if access to the office is limited down the road, we will continue to distribute lunches at Union from 11:30 to 12:30 each week day.
Issues With Canvas
Many students have had difficulty with slow loading times on Canvas. As you can imagine, the system is overwhelmed. However, they are aware of the issues and quickly working to resolve them. My own son has had better luck loading and working on Canvas earlier in the morning or later in the evening. I will update you as I get information.
IEP Meetings and Testing Students with Disabilities
We will continue to hold IEP meetings and will test students. We already have instructions for how to hold digital or phone IEP meetings. The LEA representative (an administrator) will verify who is there and that they agree to the goals and accommodations; this will be in lieu of signatures. They are still working out some of the fine points of testing. More information on that to come.
Hang in there!!
Warmly,
Kelly Tauteoli
