January 6, 2021
Toutle Lake School District Parents/Guardians and Students – Happy New Year, Everyone!
This letter is written to provide information regarding the District’s plan to have Grades 7-12 students return to in-person learning. Our school board conducted a special board meeting on Monday evening of this week, and after much discussion approved the following:
- All 7-12 students requesting in-person learning during this first semester, will return to the hybrid model (similar to the one that we had in November) on Monday, January 25, 2021.
- During the two weeks of January 11th and January 18th, each 7-12 in-person student will be provided the opportunity to attend class in-person on two different days (students will receive a Skyward message in the very near future from Mr. Byrd informing them of their days.) In-person attendance on these two days will be optional for the students. If students choose not to attend these optional in-person days, they will be expected to log into their Google Classroom Meet as per usual.
- Parents and/or students may contact the secondary office should they have extenuating circumstances that, in their opinion, warrant having the student attend in-person more than just their two days during the weeks of January 11th and January 18th. The District will make a concerted effort to accommodate all such requests by providing a study lab environment for these students.
- Teachers will be available to meet with students on campus from 8:00-8:30am and 3:00-3:30pm. Students wanting to schedule a meeting should contact the secondary office.
This plan is fully expected to happen as stated, however the level of COVID-19 spread in the community could put a pause to the plan. By waiting until January 25, however, we are confident that the spread will have leveled off and possibly even declined; given that we will be well past the projected spikes after the holidays.
Our second semester will begin on Thursday, January 28, and we will embrace the transition with a renewed sense of hope, confidence and optimism. Thank you for your support of TLSD and its awesome family of Ducks!
Sincerely,
Bob Garrett
Superintendent
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December 16, 2020
Toutle Lake School District Parents/Guardians and Students -
My, what a difference a day can make! In case you have not heard, at 2:30pm this afternoon Governor Inslee and State Superintendent Reykdal held a joint press release to announce new updated school guidance for in-person school instruction. You can view the press release by clicking on this link: Please use this link to watch online.
The original metric ranges for the degree of risk when it comes to the number of new cases of COVID-19 per 100K people during the last 14 days have been dramatically revised! And that is just one of the changes.
Rather than do my own summarization of the changes, I am going to “borrow” and give credit to Monique Dugaw, the Executive Director at ESD 112 for Communications and Public Engagement, who has already written an excellent summary. Please see the links below.
Monique's Summary
Summarized revised recommendations
Checklists for schools
As we have polled families about their choice of instruction/learning for their children during the second semester of this school year, nearly 50 secondary students and 20 elementary students are choosing to move from remote learning to in-person learning. We have about 5 students wanting to go from in-person to remote. Our plan is to accommodate all of these changes beginning late January. Principals will continue to communicate with the affected families, and more detailed information will be sent out after the holidays.
Our final school board meeting of the 2020 calendar year will be tomorrow night/Thursday, December 17, at 7pm. Please see below for the link to the zoom meeting.
And most importantly, I want to extend my appreciation for the opportunity to serve the Toutle Lake School District as its Superintendent. I feel blessed and wish each of you the Merriest of Christmases; and may the year of 2021 be full of Hope for one and all!
Sincerely,
Bob Garrett
Superintendent