Comments on District Re-Opening Plan

USEP members,

Earlier today, the District sent out a notification on the re-opening of school in the fall. I would like to address that announcement.

USEP has insisted we be a part of the conversation regarding the process of re-opening schools. Toward that end, we sent representatives to various focus group meetings along with other employees and administrators to input concerns and positives to be considered for the fall opening. District staff and the various District departments then took that information along with a myriad of data collected from students and parents, compiled it and prioritized concerns. Then they set about to devise a method of re-opening that would address those concerns as best as possible.

USEP was invited to meet with the Superintendent and senior staff late Monday and were presented the initial overall plan, the one you are reading about today. District is trying to address three basic groups of students as well as employees with this plan. First, there are those families who are prepared to send their students back to a brick & mortar school. The second group are those families who are not yet ready to return but want their student to be tied to the educational process at their particular school, hence the MySchoolOnline avenue. The third group is those folks who are definitely not ready to return to a campus and will enroll their students in virtual school – Pasco eSchool.

Employees, too, are being asked on the webpage, at the bottom left, to weigh in on their preferences as well. USEP strongly encourages all employees, both Instructional and SRP, to complete the questionnaire by the deadline of July 1. Please pass on this information to friends and colleagues at work to ensure participation in this process. The choices are you prefer to return to a brick & mortar classroom, you prefer to work in an interactive virtual setting or either will work for you. There will be opportunities for choice based on student demand when the results of the student preference survey are completed. Please understand that this whole plan is a work in progress and no final decisions can be made prior to analyzing student preferences. Even with that, when we return the data could change as more or less students could elect to return to brick & mortar or virtual learning, which would necessarily affect allocations.

USEP is involved with District staff on addressing employee concerns through this process and will pass information on to you as it becomes available. Our goal is to provide the best possible situations for our employees, regarding both safety and teaching opportunity and to meet the educational needs of the students. We initially understand the overall approach as it should allow for the most flexibility for all concerned. Please be reminded that no final determinations will be made prior to the completion and analyzations of student preferences. At that time, employee preferences will be looked at based on student demand.

We will try to communicate additional information as conversations move forward into the intricacies of this process.