Federal Way Public Schools News
February 19, 2021
Hello Staff, Families, and Community,
Our schools are gearing up for return to in-person instruction. At front entrances, in hallways and classrooms, we're reinforcing mask wearing, hand washing, and social distancing through student friendly signage and floor markings. We've been working hard to prepare classrooms to be set up to ensure social distancing. Staff are receiving training on the hybrid model, and the hybrid model guides for staff and families were released earlier this week. Last night, our principals and Student Support Services Department provided our families a more in-depth look at our hybrid model.
We recognize a shift from one to two models creates more information to absorb. We're evolving through these changes together, and we’re doing our best to provide the best resources and information as soon as the information is available.
Everything we’re doing is being done for the first time. We’re not alone as schools across the country are having to relearn how to do school during a pandemic. We’re providing our families options, 100% remote or hybrid, so our families can choose what's best for their child/ren. We appreciate the goodwill of our families as we strive to provide the best instruction we can in less than ideal circumstances.
I have some good news to share. Our school meals provided so far this year surpassed ONE MILLION this week. That's one million meals provided by our Nutrition Services staff to feed children in the community. This is truly incredible!
Additionally, we're in the midst of planning with Seattle Children’s Hospital on implementing rapid testing of school staff at our sites. This is an additional safety measure we want to take to help prevent virus transmission and keep our school environments as safe and healthy as possible.
It’s important for our staff and students to be safe in our learning environments. With students returning to in-person instruction, we’ll need our parents to partner with us. We have high expectations for our scholars and will be closely monitoring mask wearing at all times on the bus and at school, and we’ve built in times for hand washing. These requirements are part of the hybrid model. If a student doesn’t comply with wearing a mask, the school principal will contact the parent/guardian to pick the child up from school. Mask wearing and following our safety protocols are imperative.
We’ve reached out to many of our surrounding districts who’ve begun to open including Tacoma, Clover Park, and Puyallup school districts, to name a few. Through these conversations we’re learning how these schools are opening and seeing low infection rates as well as other lessons learned. We’ll continue to learn and collaborate as we transition to in-person learning.
Sincerely,
Dr. Tammy Campbell, Superintendent
A Day in the Life of a Scholar
Hybrid/Remote Reminders
Key information related to 100% remote and hybrid that affects Preschool-Grades 5:
- Final Confirmation of 100% Remote or Hybrid due today by 11:55 pm. The deadline is today for parents and guardians of grades preschool-grade 5, Employment Transition Program, and secondary Functional Core Program scholars to make their final choice for 100% remote or hybrid for the remainder of the school year. A reminder was sent on Wednesday to parents/guardians to confirm their choice. If we don’t hear back before the deadline, we will use the parent's/guardian's original selection for their child’s placement.
- Classroom and Teacher Changes: As a reminder, knowing that we are moving from one model (100% remote) to two available models (100% remote and hybrid), some teacher reassignments will be inevitable. While we make every effort to keep teachers and students together, recognizing we must adhere to social distancing guidelines and class size limitations and respond to parents’ choice of the model and staff accommodation requests, we must rebalance classrooms. This means your child’s teacher may change. This applies to both remote and hybrid classrooms. We recognize changes are not ideal, and we’re doing what we can to maintain continuity as much as possible and school staff will be supporting the transition.
- Class Rosters, Teaching Assignments, Bus Schedules: After we collect confirmation from parents on their final selections for hybrid or 100% remote, we will use this data to establish AM/PM in-person learning assignments, class rosters, teacher assignments and bus schedules. We anticipate having this information available by March 1, 2021.
- Bell time schedule beginning March 8: In order to establish a consistent schedule for all elementary scholars, beginning March 8, 2021, all elementary scholars, regardless of remote or hybrid status or grade level, will be returning to the same start and end times as last year (with the exception of the four schools who’ve moved locations due to school construction: Mirror Lake, Star Lake, Wildwood, Lake Grove). Find the bell times here: https://www.fwps.org/Page/8038.
Other key reminders:
100% Remote Model:
Scholars in fully remote learning will continue to attend the AM/PM session they are currently attending. Updated bell times for AM/PM sessions are available on our website: https://www.fwps.org/Page/8038.
Hybrid Model Information:
Return to in-person instruction for parents or guardians who've selected the hybrid model as their confirmed choice for their child for the remainder of the school year is as follows:
Return to in-person dates:
- March 8, 2021: Preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade, Employment Transition Program, Secondary Functional Core Program
- We are planning other return dates for grades 2-5 as follows: March 22 for Grades 2 and 3 and March 29 for Grades 4 and 5
Hybrid Overview:
- Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays: Hybrid in-person days will consist of an AM or PM session four days a week, and an alternate AM or PM remote session. Scholars will be pre-assigned to groups, either AM or PM, with the goal of keeping scholars residing in the same household on the same schedule. During the in-person part of the day, learning will be focused on core instruction (English Language Arts and mathematics), and time with specialists will be provided remotely.
- Wednesdays will remain asynchronous learning (100% remote).
- School schedule: You can find the hybrid school schedule here: https://www.fwps.org/Page/8031.
- Recess and meals are not provided at the school campus. Recess is part of asynchronous learning. Meals, seven breakfasts and lunches, will continue to be available at our meal pickup locations across the district on Wednesdays. Please ensure your child has a meal before going to school.
Safety is a top priority. Here is a preview of some of the safety measures we’re taking:
- All staff and scholars are required to wear masks at ALL times at our school campus and on the bus.
- If a scholar doesn't comply with wearing a mask, the school principal will call the parent/guardian to come and pick up the child.
- Daily health screening attestation and temperature checks that must be completed every day for all staff and scholars before they leave for school.
- Social distancing will be practiced in all areas and there will be regular handwashing throughout the day.
- Scholars will arrive on a staggered schedule to promote social distancing: what this means is that scholars arriving by bus or by car will remain in their vehicles until waved in by a staff member.
- Visitors will not be allowed on campus in order to minimize the number of people on campus.
Hybrid Model Guide for Families
We’re providing high levels of support to our families by offering the Hybrid Model Family Guide! This guide was shared via email with parents on Tuesday, and hard copies in our top languages will be mailed to families who've chosen hybrid for their child.
Our family guide is available in multiple languages at www.fwps.org/hybridmodelfamilyguide and includes valuable information such as:
- A Day in the Life of a Scholar
- Hybrid model schedule
- How to set your child up for success
- How we’re preparing our classrooms for a safe return: required temperature checks and online health screening (www.fwps.org/healthscreening) before scholars arrive at school, requiring masks at all times, social distancing, following universal safety precautions, and more.
We believe the family guide is an important tool for all parents including those who’ve chosen the hybrid model as well as those who will be bringing their child back for in-person instruction next year.
School To you
As a reminder: in preparation for our transition to supporting both hybrid and remote instructional models, Friday, February 26 will be the final day of School to You delivery.
Wednesday pick-up at school days will continue as scheduled for those who are remaining in 100% remote instruction. There is a pick-up day scheduled for next week on February 24. March pickup dates will be March 10 and March 24. Scheduled pick-up times will be communicated by your school.
To help keep everyone safe and healthy, wear a face covering when picking up supplies at the bus stop and during scheduled Wednesday pick-ups at the school building.
If you have any questions, please contact your child’s school.
For more information visit https://www.fwps.org/Page/7901.
Staff Guide and Training
The comprehensive hybrid model staff guide and training was provided to staff earlier this week.
This guide is a reflection of the valuable time and feedback from the Hybrid Review Committee, an 80+ member group including scholars, parents, teachers, school support staff, family liaisons, principals, nurses, maintenance and operations, and union partners, who helped us fine tune the staff and family guide so we have clear, effective protocols in place for our return to in-person instruction.
The staff guide can be located in staff's Launchpad to Learning or at www.fwps.org/hybridmodelstaffguide.
Right at School Update
We are pleased to announce that Right At School will continue to offer child care services as the district moves to both hybrid and remote instructional models!
These services will be offered at selected locations with district provided transportation at the end of the morning session and the beginning for the afternoon session. More detailed information will be provided soon.
Over 1 million meals provided to scholars!
We hit the ONE MILLION meal mark this week with 1,054,480 meals provided so far this school year! Our dedicated Nutrition Services staff show up every week to pack nutritious breakfast and lunches to ensure children in our community have access to food. This helps our scholars thrive and learn! And on another positive note for this week, our meal kits expanded from 5-day to 7-day meal kits.
Want to help us thank our staff? Find our posts on Facebook and Twitter!
Want to learn more about meal programs? Visit www.fwps.org/schoolmeals.
An act of kindness and generosity
COVID-19 RATES IN OUR REGION
We continue to closely monitor the rate of COVID-19 infection in our region and in our district’s geographical area.
Based on the King County COVID data dashboard as of February 19 at 8 a.m. here is the most recent data:
- The King County COVID rate per 100,000 between January 30 - February 14 is 129, per the King County Key Indicators Dashboard.
- The Federal Way rate per 100,000 between February 3 - February 17 is 231, per the King County Dashboard “Geography Over Time” by city.
There are health reporting areas within our district reporting higher or lower COVID-19 numbers than the overall Federal Way rate, ranging from 157-267. We also recognize that recent data from this dashboard may be incomplete, as noted on the dashboard.
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
Construction on the new Thomas Jefferson High School is edging towards completion! The concrete slab for the theater, commons, and office building are now complete while the delivery and installation of the structural steel for these areas have begun. Construction crews have started installing the concrete for the CTE courtyard. You’ll also start to see some finishes installed like flooring, paint, carpets, and cabinetry in the classrooms and activity room!
Federal Way Public Schools
Email: comments@fwps.org
Website: www.fwps.org
Location: 33330 8th Avenue South, Federal Way, WA, USA
Phone: 253-945-2000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fwps210/
Twitter: @FWPS210