Jamie's Update: COVID-19 & Education

April 20, 2020
 

Dear Friends,

With each passing day on campus, I discover something new or something I haven’t appreciated in the past.  Yesterday, I noticed several of the cherry trees popping as their blooms were so vibrant against the emerging spring backdrop.  I have attached a picture of the tree just below the MS basketball court.  It was beautiful to see and you can just imagine the low hum of the bees discovering the fresh blossoms.  I wish the picture would have had students walking past the tree on their way to PE . . . next year! 

 

Last week, the teachers and administrative team spent a great deal of time working through additional structuring of our Distance Learning approach at each grade, division and departmental level.  I anticipate this will be part of the ongoing approach through the end of the year.  The teachers and students (and parents) remain on a learning curve, and with repetitive practice the DL skills will become more instinctive for everyone.  This should create an increased ease in navigating lessons, improve students’ executive functioning skills, and result in less frustration overall.  

 

As I have mentioned previously, I have weekly meetings with the State Board of Education (SBE), State Superintendent Chris Reykdal and OSPI, and Washington Federation of Independent Schools (WFIS) as I glean information related to the Covid-19 situation and education.  Here are a couple key points from last week:

 

1. Schools across the state (public and private) involve 1.2 million students and employees.  When the Governor is talking about opening the economy in reverse order, schools are later in the process due to the population, the nature of close proximity in schools, and the potential for spiking the virus.  All schools are under the mandated school closure through June 19, 2020.

 

2. At the outset of the statewide closure, SBE and OSPI focused on senior graduation requirements, nutrition and childcare.  They have shifted their focus to instruction, assessment, and grading and have found it challenging for a host of reasons. This also includes consideration for grades 9-11 and the impact various grading scenarios could have on college applications, scholarship criteria, NCAA eligibility, etc.  (SGS students in these grades need to be mindful of these considerations looking to the future.)

 

3. Summer school and camps, hosted on school campuses, are still in question.  SGS will make an announcement regarding our summer camps in May.

 

In today’s newsletter, you will see an announcement and information regarding bus fee credits for unused bus service for the period of 3/16/20 – 6/10/20.  Follow this link to view the full Bus Refund Announcement.

 

Thank you for your ongoing support, patience, and feedback.  I hope you enjoy your week and the warm weather!  Go Dragons!

 

Jamie Tender

Head of School