Good Afternoon Community:
Wasn’t Saturday a beautiful day! The weather was perfect, and I spent much of the day outside working in the yard. I am looking forward too many more weekends like Saturday!
Late Friday evening the Education Commissioner shared the DESE’s recommended guidance for the remainder for the school year. The guidance is titled; Strengthening our Remote Learning Experience. I have read the guidance thoroughly and highlighted some key points for families to review so that you understand the direction our district will be moving towards for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.
Key points from Strengthening our Remote Learning:
- It builds on the initial guidance from March 26, 2020,with a deeper focus on two areas:
- Further define the recommended elements of a quality remote leaning plan- including focus on teaching the standards MOST critical for student success in the next grade-level.
- Encouraging districts to move all students towards successful engagement in remote learning, with a focus on addressing fundamental needs.
The Kindergarten through Sixth grade classroom teachers are using this coming week to identify the most critical standards for student success in the next grade level. In the coming week, they will share those priority standards and learning activities they are planning. As I explained a few weeks ago, we cannot mandate anyone to complete these learning activities, but encourage parents / students to continue to reach out, engage, and work with the classroom teacher so that we know how best we can support you and your child.
I anticipate there will be questions about the new guidance, and will add this to our agenda for the virtual meetings scheduled for Monday. Sarah Crawford and I are looking forward to hosting these virtual meetings tomorrow, Monday, April 27th. There are two scheduled times:
- Preschool through Second grade parents are invited at 3:00 p.m.
- Third through Sixth grade parents are invited to join us at 5:00 p.m.
We are all in this together! Our community of teachers is dedicated to our students and families. We will continue to meet each family where they are with the remote learning plan and we will all finish strong! Thank you for partnering with us during this extended closure!
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions/concerns.
Have a wonderful day!
Gretchen Morse-Dobosz
Superintendent/Principal
Worthington School District
147 Huntington Road
Worthington, MA 01098
gmorsedobosz@hr-k12.org