Dear Shrewsbury Families & Colleagues,
I am providing an update to you this evening both through this email message and through this video message I recorded earlier this evening with the assistance of Marc Serra, the Executive Director of the Shrewsbury Media Connection, which I encourage you to view.
Please note:
1) The Division of Public Health has confirmed five cases of COVID-19 in the Town of Shrewsbury. They have not made us aware of any connections to our school community.
2) As you know from the news, Governor Baker has extended the school closure period in Massachusetts, so the earliest we can reopen schools will be Monday, May 4. While this is certainly disappointing news, it was not unexpected given the evolution of the pandemic.
3) This afternoon, Department of Elementary & Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley provided updated guidance to Massachusetts public school districts regarding remote learning, which can be downloaded here. Additional guidance regarding remote learning and services for students with disabilities was also provided via a DESE web conference. Based on this updated guidance, our school district will be shifting our approach to remote learning beginning Monday.
This shift will initially include providing academic assignments for students that will be expected to be submitted to their teachers for feedback, and will move into the presentation of new curriculum content in addition to continued reinforcement of essential skills and knowledge, with ongoing opportunities for connection with and support from their teachers.
The goals for this next phase are:
I. Keeping our students connected to educators and classmates in ways that enhance their well-being
II. Engaging students in remote learning, with a focus on:
A. Providing supports to help ALL students learn at home
B. Maintaining and developing key academic and critical thinking skills
C. Helping students learn important academic content
It is important to note that no matter how successful we become at a remote learning model, it cannot replicate the learning that would happen when school is in session. We also know that many students’ and staff members’ families have been turned upside down due to the school closure, the closure of childcare facilities, and the need for so many to work from home simultaneously, and it is important to be thoughtful and flexible given these circumstances. In order to maximize the effectiveness of remote learning, we are using the following guiding principles:
- Maximize access by doing whatever we can to overcome barriers to remote learning to reach all students to the greatest extent possible
- Create consistency by providing guidelines for students, parents, and educators
- Empower educators to work within those guidelines to determine how to best achieve the goals
- Provide structure and predictability so that students, parents, and educators know what to expect
- Focus on the essential, since remote learning cannot replicate all that we would normally do in school
- Emphasize independent, differentiated, and varied student work as parents have varied capacity to assist with home learning, so that there are options for different students' learning needs, and to promote at-home learning that doesn’t require technology
- Institute accountability with flexibility and grace in order to assign students responsibility for engaging with assignments and learning tasks, while doing our best to support students and families who are facing significant challenges that may get in the way
We will be providing more details on what to expect for next week sometime tomorrow, with additional information to be provided as elements are added. I look forward to having students, parents, and educators engaging with this updated approach, with the understanding that what we are doing is unprecedented, will be messy at times, and will get better as we all become more experienced.
Thank you for your continued support and perseverance under these challenging circumstances.
Respectfully,
Joe Sawyer
Superintendent of Schools