Be Positive, Be Grateful, Be Involved, Be Flexible

Because of our low COVID-19 rates in our community, we are planning on starting our hybrid model of education for grades K-5 on October 5. If the rates stay low we will bring in our 6-12 grades in a hybrid model the following week. For grades K-5 our rates need to be below 75 per 100,000 for 14 days to bring students on campus in larger groups, and for grades 6-12, the rates need to be below 25 per 100,000 for 14 days to bring more students on campus.

Currently, we are only bringing in small groups of students.

Our hybrid model is below:

As we get better at delivering education in this interesting time, we will be tweaking this model to bring as many students on campus as many days as possible.

Building administrators will be contacting parents soon to let them know what days their child(ren) will go to school. We will do everything we can to keep family members in the same group.

Remember, schools do not open schools, communities open schools. We can only successfully open schools if the community keeps our COVID rates low. Please wear your mask when out in public, social distance, and stay home when feeling sick.

• With manufacturing delays caused by COVID, the security entrances have taken longer to complete than we anticipated. We are waiting on the ballistic glass to come in now. We are told the project should be completed early October.

• The ES playground will be finished tomorrow and ready for play on Wednesday. There was a delay in placing the remaining tile surface, but the installation will now be completed.

• Small groups of students started back last Thursday with around 45 total students throughout the district. They arrived in the morning for breakfast before going to assigned classrooms and lunch was provided before they headed home for the day. Thursday and Friday were successful days. It was good to have students back in the buildings even though it was few in number.
  
  
• Required observances: Constitution Day (or Citizenship Day) is an American federal observance that recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. It is normally observed on September 17, the day in 1787 that delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document in Philadelphia.

• I will be meeting monthly through virtual conversations to give families and community members the opportunity to visit with the superintendent. These will be informal meetings and those attending will be able to have conversations about the important issues involving the Tonasket schools. All Tonasket community members, whether parents of students in the districts or not are invited to attend these virtual conversations. The next virtual meeting will be October 7 at 5:00 PM for the English session and 6:30 for the Spanish session. I’ll hold them every first Wednesday of the month.

• The health department and the Department of Labor and Industry is visiting regional schools checking on masking and other CoVid related health issues. Please be aware of this and always follow all guidelines.

• We found an error in how enrollment was being counted and our revised FTE enrollment is 1,051.33. We ended last year around 1,078 and set our budget for 2020-21 at 1,040.