Buchanan Community Schools issued the following announcement on March 24.
Dear Buchanan Parents and Families: As we are into our second week of the state mandated school closure, we find ourselves as a district navigating some unprecedented times--with perhaps more known now than when we started this journey last week. But still, we are encountering additional issues that remain uncertain or unanswered.
I thank you for your patience in these days, and I extend my best wishes to you and your family as we all undertake new or uncommon actions to ensure we stay safe and in good health. Today, our administrators met online to take stock of what is currently happening for our schools and in our district.
We also worked to determine next steps that we could take to further support our district families, our students, and each other as a district staff. We shared this communication with our district staff earlier today, and I wanted to share it with all of our district stakeholders this evening. I will start with new information/developments that impact our district at this time:
❏With the Governor’s Stay-at-Home Order going into effect today, the mandatory school closure is extended through Monday, April 13th; at this time, the earliest we could open school unless other mandates are imposed would be Tuesday, April 14th
❏Our district’s Food Service Department is still operating to provide take-away lunches and snack packs for pick up at the HS or delivered at key bus stops in the community, as this is considered essential services according to the State
❏Only minimal Team MJV custodial staff will be in buildings during the Stay-at-Home Order/essential workers only mandate
❏Facilitation of online/distance learning activities is considere dessential work as well; however, the State currently holds the position that online learning does not count toward instructional days/hours requirements of Michigan public schools
❏Mandated State testing such as M-STEP or PSAT/SAT will not be required or implemented for this school year; Michigan was granted a waiver by the US Department of Education; Michigan legislative action may still impact this issue. I would also like to address one major issue that is unknown yet at this time:
❏The State has not yet determined if these school days must be made up in the event school can resume in the near future. In today’s virtual leadership meeting, we further discussed what has been currently taking place to provide instructional/curriculum support to students and parents during the closure.
Unfortunately, we are constrained by a lack of full coverage with devices and Internet connection for all students. However, our building principals and their teacher teams are still connecting with students in many ways. Many teachers have set up Google Classrooms for their courses and are using online platforms like ExactPath and Study Island.
Teachers are staying in touch with students via email and class contact apps like Class Tag or Remind. Before we left the buildings on March 13th, many teachers created paper documents of instructional activities to hand out/deliver to students.
HS Principals DeMaio and Pruett have also been working to continue distribution of Chromebooks to students who need them, mostly our 8th grade students.
I am pleased to report as well that HS counselors are setting up a hotline number for texts/calls from students who may have a need for supportive dialogue or problem-solving, as we understand that the current health crisis and shelter-in-place requirements can create social or emotional challenges to some students.
Other district counselors continue to supply community resource contacts for district families, and they are staying in touch with students via email and phone. We gave further consideration in our meeting today about district plans to scale up our digital learning capabilities for all K-12 students in this time of mandated closure.
We will now be working to identify and ensure that all registered students have (or could have) atleast one device provided by the district (and available Internet connection at home), thus allowing some sharing by students in that household if needed to complete activities as they can each day.
With the current district inventory of Chromebooks, and some research and cross-checking of registered families, we feel we can better determine how we could achieve that level of coveragein each household in order to begin some semblance of online instruction for each grade level/course should the closure mandate remain in place. Please pay attention to further updates from me or building principals about that work in the coming days. Going forward, we discussed how we can continue to support home teaching and learning practices during the closure weeks. We have developed a new district web site page that will pull together all available educational resources that we can supply to parents and students.
This list will be building specific, with sections for each grade level/course in that building. Teachers can share resources with their principals to upload, along with ongoing updates each week as we remain out of school. Teachers who have google classroom structures set up currently can provide that link on this web site collection as well.
We envision this resource as a one-stop, full collection of what we can offer students and parents to keep learning reinforced and enriched while we work to increase our access levels for devices and connection so we can move toward online instruction in a full, equitable manner.
To further implement our support efforts to district families, principals will be developing protocols for their building’s teachers to make contacts to all of our students. For example, teachers can use contact apps like Class Tag or Remind to reach out to parents/students, and for those who don’t respond, there would
be a direct contact to those families/students via phone or email to ensure connection and support to students parents. So please watch for those contacts from your child’s teachers, and use this manner of two-way communication to help us help your student stay on track and engaged during these closure weeks.
I want to share with our community that many of our district staff are fully working and all are being compensated during these weeks. We recognize that the ongoing efforts to support our students and district families with learning resources, food, technology resources, counseling, referrals to community supports, and other contributions at this time are just as important as the in-district tasks we all normally do as part of our essential job responsibilities.
Thus, I know we are making the only correct decision to still compensate our employees in all departments not only for that fact but also to provide stability to our employees during these weeks of so much other uncertainty or worry.
I am confident our employees will maintain that same level of commitment demonstrated so far in the weeks ahead, even as the tasks may change or increase to continue to serve our district students, families, the community, and our district’s educational improvement initiatives. In closing, I reiterate my best wishes and thanks to you.
I am impressed by the collaboration and spirit that has shaped us so far to support kids and each other.
Please pay attention to additional communications coming from my office, from your child’s school, or those posted to our district web site.
Together as partners, I am confident we can navigate these unprecedented times and help each other and this community. Take care, stay safe, and continue healthy practices for your family.
Original source can be found here.
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