PSD LATEST COMMUNITY MESSAGE

(Posted: May 22, 2020) 

Dear Pasco Families:

As the final month of the 2019-20 school year approaches, we want to take a moment to thank you. Learning at home has taken a tremendous effort by you and your children. Our staff, teachers, and administrators greatly appreciate your efforts, and we will do all we can to help keep students engaged in learning through the last day of school on June 17. 

As you know, planning for the upcoming school year is complicated by the COVID-19 public health emergency. While we would love to simply resume normal operations, we do not yet have state-wide guidance which would provide the framework for our district. The state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has convened a “Reopening Schools Work Group” to examine potential models for reopening. This workgroup includes 123 people from across the state, including myself, with teachers, administrators, education support professionals, elected officials, community-based organization representatives, and education partners. This group is looking at health data and different potential options for how to safely reopen schools. They are scheduled to complete their work between June 8-12. 

While the state work is happening, we have launched a Reopening Pasco Schools workgroup. The Pasco workgroup will use the feedback you’ve shared so far about at-home learning, as well as our core Pasco priorities, to look at different learning scenarios for the fall. We will then line up our local needs with the state guidelines to prepare the plan for the 2020-21 school year.

We miss our students, and we are eager to engage them in learning as we have always done before – inside our classrooms. But we also know it will be difficult to resume school in September without some significant changes to protect the health and safety of students and staff. We will continue to communicate with you throughout the summer, and we look forward to sharing more information about our plans for the fall very soon. 

We are Pasco, 

Michelle Whitney

Superintendent, Pasco School District

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