August 10, 2020
Good afternoon MHS,
I hope all of you had a good weekend. This communication will be brief this week as there will be ongoing communication as we continue to iron out the details of the school year. MHS is currently working on safety protocols for students and staff and creating a formalized, accessible, easy-to-navigate document for families. In addition to this, we also hope to create a video showing students what to expect when they arrive at school, attend classes, and then exit the building. Additionally, for those families who signed up for VTVLC, you can expect someone from the district to reach out to you directly this week with more information on enrollment. If you have not had a chance to connect with your guidance counselor regarding your child’s course requests from the spring and how those translate over to VTVLC, please email Lissa Knauss at lissak@mpsvt.org or Geoff Sather at geoff@mpsvt.org. Students can visit the VTLVC course catalog here to get an idea of what will be offered. The course catalog at VTVLC will be finalized and ready on August 21st.
To end this note today, I’ve heard from some of our MHS community that there is disappointment with MHS not running it’s own virtual academy like UES and MSMS. I appreciate this, and I do understand that our students and families would appreciate having MHS teachers teaching online and in school. MHS does not have the capacity in our number of staff to do both in school and online while still maintaining opportunities for students to stay on track in all courses. We also do not believe that our teachers should be required to teach in school and offer online learning opportunities simultaneously. Online and in person education are two very different platforms both in teaching and learning. Our teachers, whether they are teaching in school or through VTVLC, will be navigating a myriad of uncertainties and change in this year, so we will continue to do our best to offer opportunities to support our students' continued path toward graduation either through a hybrid schedule at MHS or VTVLC.
Thank you.
