Staying Informed – A Joint Message from SWW Administration and HSA – March 27, 2020
A joint message from the School Without Walls Administration and the School Without Walls HS Home and School Association (HSA)
——
March 27, 2020
Dear School Without Walls High School Students and Families –
We reach out hoping you are safe and healthy.
Students returned “to school” this week and we recognize it has been an adjustment, and a bit of a bumpy ride. We are grateful for the support (and patience) we have received from you. As you can imagine, there was no playbook for this scenario and we (teachers, students, parents) are all figuring this out in real time.
The emphasis this week was to make sure that teachers have contacted all of their students and that they are safe.
Next week SWW Admin will institute a structured schedule based on the students’ regular schedule A/B day. Please look out for details on this in a follow up communication.
We also want to make sure that you are as up to date as possible on what is a constantly changing situation (as related to schools, but also overall public health and safety).
Please treat https://coronavirus.dc.gov/ as your main source of information.
In most cases, the above site is updated when the Mayor hosts her daily press conferences (11:00 a.m. on Channel 16, or online via bit.ly/mmblive).
For DCPS-wide information, please monitor https://dcps.dc.gov/coronavirus and if you have Twitter, consider setting up alerts from https://twitter.com/dcpublicschools.
We (SWWHSA) are doing our best to keep up with changes and posting all Coronavirus-related information on the HSA website at https://www.swwhs.org/tag/coronavirus/.
However, please note the most complete and up to date sources of information are those above, maintained centrally by DC Government
Finally, today, the DCPS Media Coverage team shared press coverage that we are passing along for your information:
FOX 5 partners with Washington Teachers’ Union to air lessons on TV for students without laptops
Fox5DC
FOX 5 and its sister station, FOX 5 Plus (WDCA), are partnering with the Washington Teachers’ Union to air lessons on television, starting Monday, March 30, for students who do not have access to laptops or Wi-Fi during school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. Each day of the week will feature a 30-minute lesson, presented by the District of Columbia Public Schools teachers, that is aligned with district learning standards for a particular grade group.
In these strange times, parents can help their children be active at-home learners
The Washington Post
When D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee announced that D.C. Public Schools classes would not resume for 40 days, friends asked for ideas to help home-school their own children. As a high school teacher, I shared some online resources and also recommended exploring more project-based learning that takes several days or weeks to complete.
Distance Learning Programs Rolled Out Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
The Washington Informer
This week, thousands of District students returning from the spring break spent their first day, not in the classroom, but at home engaged in video conferences, PowerPoint presentations and other online academic activities coordinated by their teachers. Since D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) declared a public health state of emergency and ordered the shutdown of schools, administrators, teachers, parents and others had been preparing for what school officials have coined as distance learning.
Executive Office of the Mayor
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) is releasing My School DC common lottery results to families tomorrow and extending the enrollment deadline for DC students matched in the My School DC Lottery amid the transition to distance learning due to coronavirus (COVID-19). The original enrollment deadline for the 2020-21 school year was May 1, 2020. The new deadline is set for May 27, 2020, one month after DC Public Schools and public charter schools are expected to reopen.
The Washington Post
It’s a tense ritual that unfolds in the nation’s capital every year. About 25,000 families apply to secure a slot at public schools through the competitive school lottery system. Then, they wait for a randomly assigned number to decide where their children can attend. It’s a system of chance intended to give every family an equal shot at attending a top school. But for every family, the stakes look different. Some families say a lucky lottery number is their only hope for a quality education.
Thank you for your continued support.
Stay Safe. Stay Healthy. Stay Home.
Richard Trogisch
Principal, SWWHS
Sandra Moscoso
President, SWWHSA