July 20, 2020
Good morning,
I hope each of you were able to stay cool in the heat this past weekend! As Libby shared in her most recent communication sent out to families on Thursday, July 16th, you can expect weekly communication from the district on Thursdays, and you will receive an update from me each Monday. The work that is taking place at the district and school level is abundant, and I will do my best to keep the information that’s coming to you informative, school specific, and easy-to-follow.
On July 9th, a group of students, parents, and staff joined me and the administrative team to share perspectives and considerations in scheduling for this upcoming year. For the sake of transparency, here is a summary of what was shared and discussed. This information was taken to our Guiding Coalition (MHS Leadership team composed of administrators and teacher leaders) this past Thursday and Friday. The information provided on the document gave us a foundation of perspectives to build upon when thinking about a schedule for the fall. Libby shared in her most recent communication that there is no way for us to safely distance our students in classrooms and keep our MHS community as safe as possible without splitting our days up into two cohorts. As we plan for in-person learning, each of our classrooms can house a maximum of 13 students according to the AOE opening guidelines. What does this mean for us? It means we can’t have all students in the building at the same time every day. This looks different at UES, RVS, and MSMS as they have the space to allow for safe distancing.
As noted earlier, our Guiding Coalition met this past Thursday and Friday for two full, intensive days to discuss the July 9th meeting and to think creatively about how we can keep safety, rigor, relationships, and consistency at the forefront of our thinking. The 13 people who were in the room felt as though the schedule we will present to our union this week is one that we feel good about and pays attention to the considerations brought forth from the group on July 9. Because this proposed schedule may have a change in working conditions, it will need to go in front of the teachers’ union before we can solicit feedback from students, parents and the rest of our teaching community. That is the work that will take place this week. With this schedule, there is an abundance of layers that need to be thought about, planned for and executed to make it work for all students and staff. Prior to us sending any schedule out to the MHS community, a small group of staff will come together to collaborate on all questions that could be asked of us with such a new schedule. With that, we will create a FAQ’s sheet to, hopefully, answer many questions that will arise from the new schedule.
The goal is to get all of this information out to you by August 1st. I know that this later date can increase levels of anxiety not knowing what the school year will look like, but we are committed to doing this thoughtfully and that takes time. Some of you have reached out with regard to remote options for our students. At this time, we are connecting with our students who are in the at risk category according to the CDC. Once we gather the numbers of students where it is a medical necessity to not be in person and those who live with a family member in the higher risk category, we will determine our capacity for any additional students. Please know that this remote option will not necessarily go through our teaching staff at MHS; however, students will be able to earn credits at MHS through another resource that is widely used in Vermont and in our current flexible pathways model.
Please know that everything we discussed last week revolved around safety for all factions of our school. It won’t be perfect. It won’t meet everyone’s needs and won’t please everyone. We will, however, ensure that learning and relationships forge ahead in the most positive way possible.
Please subscribe to our Solon Salutes at https://solonsalutes.blogspot.com/ as that will be the way future communication will be published. Please see below for information on district and school communication.
I will be in touch again next Monday with an update.
Sincerely,
Renee DeVore
Important note regarding communication:
District communication: MRPS registrars distribute start of year paperwork each year and input/update family information in Powerschool. Superintendent Libby Bonesteel uses Powerschool's emergency message software, called SWIFT, to send important messages, including snow day closings and delays. If you are not receiving district communications from the Superintendent, please fill out the Communication List Revision or Addition Report Form on our website and we will revise your information in Powerschool. SWIFT also has a tendency to end up in spam folders depending on your email settings, so please check there too! Please also follow the school district on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @mrpsvt.
School communication: Here at Montpelier High School we produce and send a weekly newsletter called the Solon Salutes. New this year, we're asking families to subscribe to our newsletter to receive it via email. Please subscribe to the Solon Salutes by clicking into a newsletter and clicking 'Follow by Email' and following the prompts. A link to our newsletter can also be found on the Montpelier High School website and we will also be posting each newsletter on our Facebook page @montpelierhighschool.
Phone #'s and email contact information: Our front office phone number is (802)225-8000. This is the best number to call to reach our administrative assistant, registrar, nurse, and myself. Visit our school directory to find email addresses for teachers and staff.
