Dear Waitsburg Families,

As the final month of the 2019-20 school year approaches, we want to take a moment to thank you all for the tremendous efforts you are making to help your children stay engaged in learning from home. Our staff truly appreciate the partnerships that were made with you during this difficult time in our state and nation. We know that this is a stressful time for students and families, and we are committed to helping all of our students finish the school year strong.

With a little over two weeks left of school, together we want to continue to do all we can to help keep students engaged in learning until the last day of school. We will send out a survey next week to students, staff and families to get feedback about distance learning. The feedback collected will provide important information moving forward and it will help as we take a look ahead to fall.

In terms of planning for fall, we want nothing more than to be able to resume normal school operations. However, we do not yet have any concrete information to share about what the fall might look like in our district. The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has gathered together a "Reopening of Schools Work Group" to discuss potential scenarios for reopening.

This workgroup is made up of 123 individuals from across the state, including teachers, administrators, education support professionals, elected officials, community-bases organization representatives and other education partners.

This group is looking at health data and studying potential options for how to safely reopen schools. They are scheduled to complete the work by June 5 and submit their report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for review. The Superintendent's office will share the report the week of June 8 – 12. Once we receive the report, we will be able to move forward with developing a plan for our district.

We know that this school closure and the current model of continuous distance learning is not a sustainable, viable model for students and families. We know that this situation has been a hardship for our families. We miss our students, and we are eager to be able to develop and communicate our plan for the fall. Please look for more information in June.

Sincerely,

Mark Pickel

Superintendent