NEW INFORMATION
April 8, 2020
To the Parents and Students of the Wallowa School District,
Under direction of the Wallowa School Board, I’m formally communicating that our schools are back in session…from a distance. I’m sure you are aware that students will not return to our schools this year. The state will continue to provide direction and support, but given all they are dealing with, it could be sometime before we will receive answers to all of our questions. As many of you know, we have begun pushing out on-line distance learning and packets.
From day 1, Wallowa Schools were in the process of ramping up our efforts to deliver education to your children at your home. Mixed messages from organizations outside the district halted those efforts until Monday of last week. In line with our school board’s direction, they have asked me to lead an aggressive, yet responsible, distance learning initiative that helps students stay up with their academic skills, learn new material, receive grades, and earn credit.
With that in mind:
- Seniors that were on-track to graduate prior to this school closure, will be eligible for Wallowa SD diplomas. This means we will not be asking seniors to complete any additional course work, unless you were short of the requirements on March 13, 2020; any student who needs to complete additional credits to graduate will be contacted individually by Mr. Howe. We will be working with you concerning options for all other senior and graduation-related decisions.
- As of this past week, all other students, K-11th grade, are back in school! Work that teachers have already assigned needs to be completed and turned in. We are in the process of designing a fair and flexible grading, and credit, system that can honor each student’s hard work, and accommodate the differences that each student, each family, and each home is experiencing.
- Teachers, and all staff, are at work (mostly from home) developing impactful lesson plans and curriculum. We are working together to improve our technology and distancing teaching skills as fast as we can. Also, we know that your family’s day-to-day schedule has been completely disrupted, making learning at home a big challenge. We recommend setting up a “classroom” learning area at home if possible, solving technology issues by contacting our IT Department (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), and connecting with teachers. We are committed to redesigning our school services to fit your needs and your schedules, as much as possible.
- Parents, please speak to your children and encourage them to apply themselves more diligently than ever to this new learning challenge.
In the meantime, we all hope to return to a more recognizable educational learning environment soon. Even before this crisis, the Wallowa SD staff were talking about the necessity to expand our teaching delivery systems. As much as none of us wanted the dangers and problems we face today, our staff is seeing this as an opportunity to permanently transform our schools away from a one-size-fits-all model, to a more flexible framework that accommodates a variety of different
learning needs. During this time, your students remain our number-one priority. Please make sure learning remains theirs.
Stay home, stay safe, stay healthy…keep learning!
Jay W. Hummel
Superintendent of Wallowa Schools
Parents and students of the Wallowa School District,
Thank you for your patience and resilience during this unprecedented challenge. The schools remain closed until the Governor changes that order.
During that time we will continue to do the following:
- Provide breakfast and lunch to students during days when we would have had school. Monday, please come to school, or to the South Grange in Lostine, to pick up your meals. However, next week we will make the transition from having students come to school (or Lostine) to pick up their meals, to delivering those meals to you at your home. This will reduce the natural gatherings that occur when we have you come to one location, and help us all better observe the “social distancing” directives presently in place. We will reach out to each of you as we are establishing these routes and schedules.
- Continue pushing out educational materials and learning activities, K-12. Early next week, teachers will be making contact with each student to help them get set up, work on assignments, and assist students with their learning. Similar to how we will be transitioning to delivering meals to your home, as much as possible, we will providing these educational opportunities either online and/or we will deliver packets to you.
- Follow the Oregon Dept of Education’s (ODE’s) directives for how this is impacting seniors. Based on yesterday’s phone conference with the ODE, and all the superintendents in Oregon, I anticipate we will be directed/allowed to modify our graduation requirements. When I receive more specific details concerning graduation, and other end-of-the-year senior activities, we will reach out to each of you.
Our entire staff will back at work next week…some physically at school…and many working from home. Please do send us your questions and concerns. We will do our best to answer those questions.
We remain solidly in the middle of the Wallowa community and will do all we can to help.
Take care of yourself, your family, and your friends!
Jay Hummel