The School District of Washington’s Board of Education met on Wednesday, July 29, to do a final review of the Comprehensive Return to School Plan for the 2020-2021 school year.
Click Here for the Comprehensive Return to School Plan
We ask parents to read the entire plan as it contains much more detail than the overview. The plan reflects our desire to safely educate students during these unprecedented times while also considering the health of our faculty and staff. If our staff is quarantined or sick due to COVID, any instructional method is compromised as substitutes are difficult to find.
Building principals will be aligning building level protocols to the plan, in preparation of further communication to parents. We know we will need to implement three main things effectively to keep us in attendance at school at least in part or all of the time: 1) Social distancing to the extent able by reducing class size and creatively using space, 2) Face coverings to reduce risk of infection, see page 14 and 3) classroom/building cleaning protocols along with frequent personal hand washing/sanitizing. The details regarding all three of these areas and more are outlined in the plan.
Also note that it is very likely, whether at the beginning of the year or at some point thereafter, that a hybrid or remote schedule will need to be implemented. We ask parents to initially plan for the hybrid model.
In addition, we will be extending the Parent Choice: E-Learning from Home registration period through August 6 so parents can read and consider the plans in more detail.
Even after reading the Comprehensive Return to School Plan, if parents are concerned about the green (in-person) or yellow (hybrid) models, pursuing the Parent Choice: E-Learning option may make the most sense for them. Another reason some may choose Parent Choice: E-Learning is due to concern about stability (considering we may be in varying levels of attendance if outbreaks or large quarantines occur as directed by the health department).
We will analyze class sizes after the August 6 deadline to determine the overall impact on our district wide class sizes. A decision regarding how we will begin the year will be made by August 10.
Click Here for the Comprehensive Return to School Plan