Santiam Families,
Every day brings a new change lately and today brought another, but hopefully, a good one. With the sudden change in our area utilities, such as power, internet, phone service and cell coverage, we are up and running quicker than anticipated yesterday. I know some of you are still living without some of these and feeling the lingering effects of the storm, but our utility crews made significant progress in the last 24 hours.
With this change, we are now MOVING UP THE TIMELINE for the in-person learning option for SJSHS students from March 1 to Wednesday, February 24. We believe we can now safely and adequately make this adjustment mid-next week.
With that said, parents and students should show grace to our staff who are doing something that they have never done, teaching both in-person and distance students at the same time. Our elementary school staff successfully navigated this transition over a month ago, and I’m confident our junior/senior high staff will too. On top of learning a new instructional model, many SJSHS teachers are just now unpacking boxes in our new school buildings and setting up the needed technology. It is a heavy lift! The Santiam Staff should be commended for their work. It is not easy, but well worth it for our kids.
I am so sorry for all the changes lately, but we are adjusting to the changing conditions and state rules as they change, while working to provide the best learning environment we can at this time.
So, again, KEY UPCOMING DATES are:
- Week of Feb. 16-19 – NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
- Monday, February 22 – SES students return to either in-person or distance learning AND SJSHS students return to distance learning only
- Wednesday, February 24 – SJSHS opens for in-person learning for families who selected this option, while the others remain in distance learning
- Thursday, February 25- SES and SJSHS material pickup day for distance learners
Again, thank you for your flexibility. This is positive news that are now able to move up in-person learning for SJSHS. A big thank you to the crews restoring our utilities and our thoughts go out to those facing hardships from the storm. I bet you hope you don’t hear from me again, but we know how this year has been! Thank you for your understanding.
Take care,
Todd Miller