Pioneer Family News and Updates
News and Information for the week of ...
August 3, 2020
Superintendent diehl and Pioneer SD message
At this time, you may have already heard and seen the message regarding school re-opening in the Fall from the Pioneer SD and Superintendant, Jill Diehl. If you have not, please see the message that was communicated to all Pioneer families yesterday evening.
August 4, 2020
Dear Pioneer School District Family,
Our district’s primary focus is on the health and safety of our students, families, and staff as we plan for reopening school. After careful consideration of the increasing COVID-19 cases in Mason County and the concerns expressed by our Public Health Officer, we have made the decision to start school with our Remote Continuous Learning 2.0 model where our students will be in 100% remote distance learning in Fall 2020 or families will have the option of selecting the Pioneer Academy Home School program.
The Remote Continuous Learning 2.0 model will be strongly focused on quality learning for all students and may include options for small group onsite instructional intervention with adherence to the Washington State Department of Health requirements. The model will be significantly improved from last spring's emergency closure plan. Instruction will include a combination of enhanced learning opportunities and experiences, structured support for students and families, and improved communication for the highest levels of student success. The remote learning model will be in place through the first trimester or until we can safely transition our students to a hybrid or traditional face-to-face learning model.
Detailed information on both models including enrollment, schedules, attendance, course completion, and grading will be provided soon. We appreciate your patience and support as we move forward with our reopening plan and please know the heartfelt decision-making that went into selecting what we believe to be the healthiest and safest models for each member of our Pioneer family.
Sincerely,
Jill Diehl, Superintendent
Pioneer School District
Principal's Message
Dear Pioneer Families,
As a parent, educator, and community member, I appreciate your understanding, patience, grace, and support you have provided us as we navigated last Spring in an entirely virtual and remote learning situation. As we experience, navigated, and learned together during an unprecedented and challenging job, we heard and listened to you and appreciated all of your feedback.
As a school and district, we ventured into this summer, collecting and analyzing all the feedback you provided to how remote learning went in the Spring. We also began the process of creating small focus committees around crucial areas and surveyed our families and students for how Fall would look. As we communicate our commitment to remote learning in the Fall with the upmost importance of student and staff health and safety, we are dedicated. We have been working diligently through this summer on making this system better for your kids and families.
As families at Pioneer, you will begin to see communication from myself and the middle school to start informing and establishing the systems, expectations, and support for you and your children in September. We will work on and communicate what those supports look like, and here are just some of the guiding questions that have been driving our planning you can expect and that we have heard from you.
- How can we improve communication to students and families that is not only informative but an understanding of all the barriers and challenges that face our kids and families?
- How can we provide more clear support and guidance for kids and parents around essential items of accessing and utilizing technology and the learning platform?
- How can we provide some more targeted supports for our kids that need additional help, such as an individual education plan or 504 plan?
- How can we provide more social-emotional support for our kids and families that may need it?
- How can we create consistency for all students and teachers around items such as grades, work, communication, etc.?
As your child's teachers, many staff have been attending professional development and planning this summer with the hopes and goals to make this experience as positive and productive as possible. We also will be working diligently to not only improve our remote learning systems but planning as well for if an when we can safely bring students back to some face-to-face learning this year.
Although, you may have a long list of questions or wondering as well as specific needs that you want to work on, please understand that we wish to and will be working towards meeting all of those needs. Please take time the rest of this summer in whatever way you and your family have found, and continue to do so. As we get closer to September, you will be receiving more information and opportunities for feedback to support our process and how it applies to your children at Pioneer Middle School.
Thank you,
Joshua Stoney
Principal
Pioneer Middle School
Fall Idea Planning Form
Dear Parents, this form is created to help collect your questions and feedback regarding re-opening school this September in a fully remote learning environment. Many of you provided feedback and ideas through previous district surveys and committee work and appreciated that information, and it will be used as well. This form is specifically targeted toward Pioneer MS families to help us get feedback, ideas, and suggestions from you to support your child or children this year.
If you have multiple children at Pioneer MS or numerous ideas or suggestions, please feel free to complete the form as many times as you need.
Pioneer Middle School
Email: jstoney@psd402.org
Website: https://ms.psd402.org/
Location: 50 East Spencer Lake Road, Shelton, WA, USA
Phone: (360)426-8291