Each of our Advisors will be calling the parents/guardians of each Advisee by the end of this week to discuss how your child and your family are doing with the updated distance learning plan. This call is also an opportunity to discuss the second semester checkpoint comment and grade that was shared through the community portal last week. We have adjusted the family calendar on our website to reflect this shift from Student/Advisor/Parent conferences to Advisor Check-In Calls to Parents/Guardians over the next three days. Please note that you may receive a call from a number with a blocked caller ID, as Advisors are calling from their own homes rather than the school.

I have responded directly to a handful of parent concerns about the decision made by the Board of Trustees to maintain the planned April vacation. I thought it might be helpful for all families to receive further explanation of the discussion that led to the Board’s decision.

Nothing is easy about the current health crisis. On March 15, when Governor Baker ordered the suspension of schools across the Commonwealth, there were 164 positive cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts reported by the Department of Public Health (DPH), with 1 case in Plymouth County reported. Yesterday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in Massachusetts reached 28,163, with 2,207 cases in Plymouth County. Governor Baker continues to lead efforts to prepare for an anticipated surge in COVID-19 cases, likely to begin next week.

As I wrote on April 11, the Board of Trustees voted on Thursday, April 9 to maintain the planned April vacation. The Board of Trustees took the additional step of meeting a second time on Friday evening, and weighed the benefits and shortcomings of each direction regarding April vacation.

Some of our Rising Tide families have shared through our distance learning feedback form that they are overwhelmed for a variety of reasons: the pressures of both parents working from home while supporting distance learning; having one or both parents working on the front lines of this pandemic; challenges with consistent internet connectivity; direct health concerns for family members; and having homes filled with overall stress and anxiety. It would not be fair to families who are feeling overwhelmed right now to change the planned calendar at the last minute.

Additionally, we are currently scheduled to return to school on Monday, May 4. With so many days of in-person teaching and learning lost, it is not in the best interest of teaching and learning to exchange remote teaching and learning days with actual teaching and learning days. While the Board of Trustee discussed that some anticipate that Governor Baker may extend the school closure, as of now we will resume school on May 4.

Many students have been engaged with the skills practice and topic explorations provided by our teachers since Tuesday March 17, while other students did not fully engage with their Google Classrooms until we required it the week of March 30; however, our teachers and staff members have been working remotely since we closed school on March 13.

The work by our teachers and staff members through this extended closure has been demanding and under challenging circumstances. By March 17, the second day of the extended closure, each of our teachers had set up a Google Classroom for each course, posted skills practices and topic explorations, and interacted with the students who were engaging with the learning opportunities. At the same time, our teachers have worked to adjust the design and implementation of each of their courses to meet the same goals for each course. They have needed to learn to use new tools for teaching and learning, and through the week of March 30 participated in various training modules around technology supports and curriculum adaptations. By April 3, teachers wrote check-point feedback to each student and shared check-point narratives with families. Starting on April 6, our teachers added the essential layer of a new schedule of video conference check-in periods for each course. Throughout the closure, teachers and staff members have been meeting virtually with collaborative teams and school leaders to find the best solutions to the challenges this pandemic has created for schools. Like our Rising Tide families, many of our teachers and staff members have been balancing their professional responsibilities with parental responsibilities from their homes. Planned vacation weeks are critical to the well-being of teachers under normal circumstances, and if our teachers are to serve our students and families well through the final two months of the school year, they need the planned break.

Although some of our local districts, like Plymouth, have canceled April vacation, some of the other schools and districts in our region have made similar decisions as Rising Tide to maintain April vacation week, including Silver Lake Regional, second largest sending district for our school, and Sturgis Charter Public School. The Board of Trustees made the decision with the understanding that not all families may be happy with the decision. I know it is hard to not have all the schools and districts in the area make the same decision. For families seeking support and structure through the vacation week next week, we will be providing a suggested schedule along with ideas for individual and family explorations and projects by the end of this week.

I wish you and your families well.