Superintendent of Maple Valley Schools Dr. Bertolini's, Letter on the District Website update on status of Return To School Roadmap as of July 31.
We working toward our full release of plans for students’ return to school with us this fall. A series of decisions regarding start date, and types of curriculum offerings will be decided by our board this evening July 31st at a 6pm virtual meeting. I am releasing our proposal for academic options on our district website on Aug.1st. I encourage folks to go to the website and review the proposals. Our board will be having another meeting on Monday the 3?rd? with the focus of hearing feedback from the community on our proposals. We will meet again on Friday the 7?th? of August at 7 pm to review changes if any need to be made and then we will finalize our proposals for our Return to Learn Plan at ourregular board meeting on August 10?th? at 7 pm.
Throughout this process, we have been working very diligently and our teachers have been awesome in that whilethey are technically on break, they have attended our weekly town hall update meetings and building town halls tokeep apprised of information as we are learning it. Our administrators have been beyond dedicated working long hours and collaborating together to keep working on the safest and best way to educate our students
.All of these efforts have been challenged by some significant factors. First, health and safety are clearly the center of the return to learn roadmap and we are examining every requirement of that plan to determine if we are able to meet all of those mandates. Additionally, as the virus spikes and drops we are keeping a close eye on if we will be back in phases 1-3 again which would mandate school closure. We are trying to create the most seamless transitions if we have to adapt from one learning format to another with minimal notice.
Given the tensions of health preventive measures and personal freedoms, there is a wide range of opinion and stress around the mandates we must follow if we are to reopen for face to face instruction. Schools across the state are struggling with this and many are determining they cannot open safely and will begin with virtual instruction. There are many reasons for this, and those reasons vary across different contexts. Additionally, we have to consider in what format are we most likely to achieve the best educational outcomes for our students? We all prefer face to face, and yet if the health restrictions remove so many of the benefits of face to face instruction we need to be mindful of that as well. This is a learning experiment unlike anything we have ever had to try before.We ask for grace and forgiveness as we try to do our best for our kids, knowing there will be mistakes made and lessons learned for us all. We are committed to getting better every day and we ask for your patience and support as we continually learn and improve. We have many assets in this work together. Incredibly dedicated administrators, steadfast and thoughtful board members, phenomenal teachers and a community which loves its school district. We are going to be ok . Let’s keep working together to ensure we come out of this together too.
