BY SARAH STEPHENS, OWER/EDITOR EAN
An email to Elmore County Public School employees March 30 conveys that after further consideration, staff members will not be required to come back to work Wednesday, April 1. Below is the email sent out to employees from Superintendent Richard Dennis. Originally, some staff members were asked to come in for training this week for virtual/distance learning and training.
Below is the letter in its entirety:
UPDATE as of March 30, 2020
The Elmore County Public Schools are committed to providing our students instruction to meet their learning needs for the remainder of this school year. We expect our employees to be able to provide instruction from home once we have completed necessary tasks for set up.
Upon further consideration and in an effort to ensure the health ad safety of our employees, our school faculty and staff members are not required to come back to work on Wednesday, April 1, 2020. We will, however, open our schools to those employees who are willing to volunteer to help complete necessary tasks to begin online school on April 6, 2020, to include parent communications, preparation of technology for distribution, and webinars/online training for staff. We expect these tasks to take one to two days this week to be ready to begin instruction on April 6.
If you choose not to volunteer on Wednesday and/or Thursday of this week, please understand you will still be expected to begin instruction April 6, 2020, to those students assigned to you. Your school administrator will reach out to you with tasks to be completed at home as well as other instructions and expectations no later than Friday, April 3, 2020.
Thank you for your willingness to help ensure that every student is empowered and every student succeeds.
Richard E. Dennis
Superintendent of Education
Education programs across the country are facing similar issues, in their attempt to continue education by distance learning or other programs during the COVID-10 Pandemic. As Dr. Dennis said earlier this week, “This is a new world” for so many, whatever their career field as shutdowns continue and the virus continues to spread.
