Parents,
Major historical events are seldom clean and tidy. The very reason an event is considered historic is due to the widespread disruption of daily lives. We are living in one such historic time. The last time we as a people faced something like this was the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918 – over 100 years ago! Our best weapons against this disease is to limit contact between people. Thankfully this is a seasonal virus and there should be improvements soon, but in the meantime we all must do what we can to keep all our families safe. I will protect my family by helping you protect yours. While some may see this isolation as divisive and creating a “bunker” mentality, I see this as doing all I can to protect YOU. To protect YOUR elderly parents. To protect YOUR medically fragile child. To protect YOUR health. At the same time, you are protecting MY family. You are protecting MY parents. You are protecting MY 80-year-old aunt. You are protecting ME. We are all helping each other in this challenging and frightening time.
In an attempt to keep some bit of normalcy, keep learning moving forward, keep students engaged, and keep on track at least a little, I will be creating a packet of resources for math, reading, writing, spelling, and Social Studies for use at home. While other districts are very technologically invested, MRA has never embraced technology at the k-4 levels to the extent required for “distance learning” to succeed. This will require someone to come to school and pick up the packet. Some things will be available in PDF format that I will email out, but not everything. There will also be online video links sent out, but realizing not everyone will be able to watch, those will be completely optional.
This is in no way a perfect solution and will require a great deal of maturity from our students. We are all doing our best at home and at school to support continued learning and while this going to be a bumpy ride, we are in it together. Metaphorically hold hands and we’ll all be fine. There will be information coming out as to when packets will be available.
Thank you for your support and everyone stay healthy.