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Available Resources Letter

November 20, 2020
Good Morning,

As we enter Thanksgiving Break followed by remote learning, we want to ensure all families know the many available resources in regards to emergency situations, nutritional assistance, counseling services, and for help with alcohol or drugs. Please see the attached letter explaining these in detail.

Thank you,

Mr. Moss - Principal
Mrs. Jaber - School Counselor
 

Notice of Possible Council Quorum

November 20, 2020

NOTICE OF POSSIBLE COUNCIL QUORUM

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a quorum of the Quilcene School District Board will be attending the 2020 WSSDA Annual Conference on November 23rd, 2020.

No School Board action will be taken.


Reopening Step 1 Announcement

November 18, 2020

Dear Ranger Families,

After meeting with Dr. Locke yesterday, Mr. Redmon has made the call to move to Step 1 of our reopening plan (K-12 remote learning) beginning November 30th. We will then reassess our ability to offer in-person learning in mid-January.

There were several factors that were taken into account when making this decision:

  • Jefferson County is seeing the beginnings of community spread; not all cases can be easily and quickly traced.
  • The number of cases per 100,000 people is about 111, and the positivity rate over the last two weeks is about 3%.
  • Up to this past weekend, cases happened within households and it seemed the cases were a blip on the radar. It’s clear to the health department that we are now in a trend, not a “blip.”

While our staff is actively preparing for remote learning after Thanksgiving, we will continue with regularly scheduled in-person learning this week.

Over the course of the next several days we will be communicating regularly through our website, Facebook page, Class Dojo, and Remind on items that include continued weekday meal deliveries, material deliveries, and what education will look like beginning the week after next.

While we hoped it wouldn’t be necessary, our staff has been actively planning for this eventuality for months. Consequently, this won’t be a mirror image of last March. Some of the big changes you’ll notice will be in teacher’s abilities to leverage video and other technologies to increase student engagement. In grades 9-12 all students will have a single page to visit daily that will list direct links to all assignments, meetings, and tasks.

Our ability to bring students back on-campus is completely dependent upon our vigilance in reducing the spread of COVID-19. As a community, we can do this.

Thank you, and please don’t hesitate to call with any questions,

Sean Moss

K-12 Principal


Athletic Practices Cancelled

November 16, 2020
Due to Governor Inslee's latest COVID-19 restrictions, which includes the cancelling of all indoor youth sports, we will not be conducting any after school sports practice until further notice.

Superintendent Update 11.16.20

November 16, 2020
Good Morning Rangers,
Over the weekend Governor Inslee announced additional restrictions on business and private gatherings. There are no additional restrictions on K-12 schools or on continuing our in-person blended learning cohorts. Students will continue to attend on their scheduled days for in-person instruction. The decisions to prioritize keeping schools open where possible are based on prioritizing the educational needs of students while at the same time paying attention to data on COVID in schools.
In order for us to keep schools open for in-person learning we will need all families, students, and staff to follow all the state guidance both in and out of school to help stop the spread of COVID-19:
  • Do not come to school sick, or if you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19
  • Always wear a mask at school and when out in public
  • Wash your hands regularly
  • Maintain six feet of distance between you and others when outside your house
  • Do not have indoor social gatherings with people outside your household
  • Limit outdoor gatherings to five people
  • Quarantine for 14 days after out of state travel
At school we will be continuing our health and safety measures:
  • Wellness screenings and temperature checks
  • Masking
  • Maintaining physical distancing
  • Anyone with symptoms is sent home
  • No visitors in the school
  • Increased cleaning of surfaces
In addition, we are asking that families call and make an appointment before visiting the school or district office.
Our staff and students have been doing a good job following our health and safety protocols on campus, due to these circumstances we are taking a cautious approach and we are reducing the number of after school sports practices, and indoor practices are canceled, per Gov. Inslee’s order.  We will determine when these activities can safely resume based on community transmission data.
The school district will be asking all families and staff to follow the travel advisory issued on Friday. If students or staff travel out of state, they will need to practice self-quarantine for 14 days after returning home before coming back to their school. Students will participate in distance learning during this time. 
We continue to closely monitor the spread of COVID-19 in Jefferson County and work closely with Jefferson County Public Health to make decisions about maintaining in-person cohorts. Knowing that closing in-person learning will have a large impact on students and families, we plan to keep our in-person cohorts open as long as we continue to be advised it is safe to do so. 
If your family is experiencing additional challenges or financial hardship please reach out to your teacher or the school office. We are able to connect families with resources in the community to provide assistance with food, housing, financial assistance, mental health care, and internet connectivity. There are also many community resources linked on this local page: https://l2020.org/covid-19/
 
Thank you, stay healthy and safe,
Frank Redmon
 
Contact Information
District Office 360-765-2900
School Office 360-765-3363

Athletic Practice Change

November 13, 2020

We have decided to scale back our practices a bit due to the rising cases of COVID-19, so we have cancelled all late practices (4:45 to 6:15).

Practice on Monday 11/16/20 will be boys basketball right after school.  Boys will also practice Thursday 11/19/20 after school.

Girls basketball will practice after school on Tuesday 11/17/20 and Friday 11/20/20.

The only change is there will be no late practice.

 


Update from Mr. Moss 11/13/20

November 13, 2020

Next week (11.16-11.20) we will again be in Step 4 of our reopening plan.

For a detailed explanation of this along with an overview of items covered during Monday evening's Virtual Open House, please view the following video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fE88F9KmyHIpbrGVWcrP7QaQ9_oQWgwL/view

We will be making a few adjustments to our hybrid plan after Thanksgiving Break, including changing which high school students are in which cohorts. A letter from Mr. Redmon explaining these changes in details can be viewed using the following link: https://www.qsd48.org/District/News/2156-Superintendent-update-11-05-20.html

Lastly, county COVID-19 cases have been increasing recently. Please remember to wear masks, practice social distancing, and wash your hands frequently.

Thank you,

Mr. Moss


Sp Ed Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC)

November 10, 2020

Quilcene School District's Special Education department is seeking to strengthen family and community partnerships by creating a Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC). SEPACs are a parent led committee that provides input to the district to help shape programs and policies to better meet the needs of students with disabilities. 

For further information, please contact the Director of Special Services, Brianne Barrett at bbarrett@qsd48.org.


Buswhere App has been launched

November 06, 2020

We are excited to launch Buswhere, a location tracking service for all our bus routes. Buswhere is an app which allows you to see the location of your child's bus in real time on your phone and to receive notification when the bus is approaching your bus stop. Buswhere allows you to download a free Android or iOS app to track the bus and view ETAs at any stop along the route.

If your child rides a bus to school, you should have received an email yesterday from Buswhere with information on how to register to secure your account.  During registration, you are automatically assigned to the closest stop (you can edit that at any time) and will receive a notification when the bus is getting close to your stop.

If you did not receive the email from Buswhere please contact our Transportation Supervisor Lee Ann Maki-Van Berkom at lmaki@qsd48.org or 360-765-2904 in order to get setup with access.

Access is secured with a login and controlled centrally by Transportation Supervisor to make sure only authorized parties can view the bus’s location.

 


Superintendent update 11/05/20

November 05, 2020

Hello Rangers!

Last night the school board approved the recommended changes to the reopening plan that the Reopening Team put forward. These changes will take effect the Monday after the Thanksgiving break. For next week (Nov 9-13), we will stay in Step 4, and I will send another update next week as well. 
 
Dr. Locke did not have many updates in our conversation this week; we have reached something of a plateau in Jefferson County. We are starting to see an uptick in the number of cases in the county, Dr. Locke says that these are still coming from out of the county and there still is no evidence of community spread. He also related data about outbreaks in schools. There have been 46 as of Tuesday across the state. These are called "outbreaks" when two or more people test positive for COVID in the school but are not considered to be close contacts with each other. In all of the 46 instances, contact tracing shows that the infections happened when the infected person was not in school. When there are positive cases in schools, they don't spread through the school, and the origination is from outside of the school. This is more evidence that schools are safe and healthy places for students and staff, particularly when we adhere to the safety protocols built into our reopening plan. 
 
To ensure that you are aware of the coming changes to our learning plan, this is what the board approved last night, to start on Monday, November 30th:
  • School will start 10 minutes later than our current start time. Buses will pick up students 10 minutes later than we have been, and arrive at school at 8:20 instead of 8:10. If you are bringing your students to school, please do not arrive before 8:20 - we will begin the health screenings at that time.
  • Kindergarten will add another day to their week; Starting Monday, November 30th they will come to school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday
  • Grades 1-5 continue in-person learning on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Over time, we will add more grade levels to a four-day-per-week schedule as we are able.
  • Grades 6-12: Each grade split into cohorts “A” and “B”. Cohort A at school on Monday and Tuesday, cohort B in school on Thursday and Friday. Cohorts will be reorganized to ensure equity. The new groups will be determined in the next week or so - you should hear from your child's teacher or the school office of any changes for your child. 
  • This new plan will be our default learning modality, unless or until Jefferson County Risk Level reaches “high” (>75 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks) - per DOH guidelines.
  • Other factors that may cause us to move to a more remote learning mode: Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) recommends a change, evidence of community transmission in Quilcene, testing positivity rate > 2%, or high-risk levels in Kitsap or Clallam counties. 
  • If conditions warrant, and in cooperation with JCPH, Quilcene will return to remote learning until the risk reduces to the moderate level.
I use a couple of sources to check on the number of cases in our county - the WA Risk assessment dashboard, and the JCPH Facebook page.
 
As always, if you have any questions about these changes, or how we are keeping students and staff safe and healthy at school, or anything else school-related please do not hesitate to contact me!
 
Thank you for all that you do to support our students and staff!
 
Frank Redmon
Superintendent




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