Superintendent Update
April 12, 2020
Good evening, Otsego families, and happy Easter. This is Jeff Haase Superintendent of Otsego Public Schools. I hope you’ve had a great day with your family and were able to relax over your spring break week.
I wanted to connect with you tonight to give you a quick overview of what will happen this week and the weeks to come.
First, our food delivery on Mondays and Wednesdays will begin again tomorrow. A few stops have been combined, there are now 9 distribution locations. Look for the information in your email and on the COVID-19 Closure webpage. In the first four weeks of our closure, we served more than 61,000 meals and couldn’t be more proud of the work our food service staff and volunteers are doing.
Tomorrow begins another new chapter in distance learning. Per the governor’s executive order closing school buildings for the rest of the school year, all districts in the state are developing what’s called a Continuity of Learning Plan. Our buildings are closed, but the school year is not over. This plan will include academic lessons, but also social-emotional connections with our kids and our focus on relationships remains at the forefront. Our teaching staff will spend this coming week preparing lessons and activities for the following six weeks. Kids will start these lessons on Monday, April 20th. Please use this week, the 13th-through-17th, to get caught up on any assignments or lessons that went out prior to spring break. This is important work to keep your children engaged in their school work, their brains active and help them prepare for the lessons to come. Instructional materials will be created in the same manner as before with a mix of online assignments for grades 3-12 and learning packets for those in Kindergarten through 2nd grade or without access to the internet. Look for details from your building principals and child’s teacher(s) as those plans come together toward the end of this week.
One part of this plan we want you to be aware of is the social and emotional support that we will provide. We are here to help you and your child. It is so important for kids to connect with their teachers as they reach out - please encourage that connection as best you can - and we want you to reach out with any questions or requests for help whether it’s academics or emotional. We know this remains uncharted territory and an uncertain time, and we want you to know that we are here to help in any way we can.
I will continue to provide updates during the week and we’ll put all new information on our COVID-19 Closure webpage. Thank you for your partnership in this new distance learning plan, we are proud of our community and appreciate all your support. Thank you.
Jeff Haase
Otsego Public Schools Superintendent.
Otsego Public Schools
Email: ops@otsegops.org
Website: otsegops.org
Location: 400 Sherwood St, Otsego, MI, USA
Phone: 269-694-7900
Facebook: facebook.com/otsegops
Twitter: @OtsegoSchools