Superintendent's Update for Week of September 28, 2020

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 • Garn Christensen • Monday, Sep 28 at 3:22 PM • Eastmont School District

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Below is our update for the week of September 28st:

Current Activities: 
 

To date: we have the following groups on campus:

May - June employees working on campus = 50 - 60

July - Aug employees working on campus = 110 - 120

August 15 - Present: employees working on campus = 755 - 795

Aug. - Present: estimate of gr. K-7 employees’ children in on-campus educare = 180

Sept. 14 - Present: estimate of grade P-12 life skills students on campus = 55

Sept. 28 - Sterling, Clovis, Eastmont Junior High, and Eastmont High School began on-site food services. 

Sept. 28 - Phase 1b P-12 students on campus = 400 (Photo shows preschoolers at play - when masks are not required as long as students are distanced.)

Total adults and students on campus = 1,550+

Other Activities:

In our 6th week of providing remote and on-campus services with no COVID related shutdowns. This will likely change as we increase students being served at schools. 

We are now serving over 5,800 meals a week. These are available for any interested child or teen in our community up to age 18. Please visit our Food Services website for for additional information. https://www.eastmont206.org/departments/food-services/index.

We continue to ensure all safety measures are in place as both a work site and P-12 school system. We did learn the use of any plastic face shields for students will likely be rare. Any use require a signed approval form from the local health department. Please present these to your school's nurse.  

Our Remote Learning and Eastmont Virtual Academy (EVA) continues to refine instructional offerings and provide additional learning resources. 

Network and video connections continue to improve.  When possible, monitor instructional activities and report any video meetings where a teacher is not involved to your principal. Similar to Zoom bombing, we are learning similar non-instruction use of Google Meet is occurring.   

The Parent Portal for our student information system is now active for grades 8 - 12. Please watch for an email from Eastmont this week on how to set this up or visit with your student's school if you do not receive it.    

Eastmont teachers and employees continue to work hard and bring creative approaches to daily activities - even remotely teaching a student basic engine operation.  

    Next Steps: 

A waiver was approved to move forward with Phase 1c. This will occur October 5th. It allows older students to participate in small groups for part-time physical exercise/athletic conditioning and CTE related activities. 

This waiver also included approval to open our facilities for community use. This will begin October 12 and start with outside areas.  

Phase 2a returns remaining grade P-4 students part-time once our county rates decline below the 75/100,000 over a 2 week period, or we receive approval by our local county health officer.

Phase 2b returns remaining grade 5-7 students part-time once our county rates decline below the 75/100,000 over a 2 week period, or we receive approval by our local county health officer.  

Phase 3 begins to return grade 8-12 students part-time once our county rates decline below the 25/100,000 over a 2 week period, or we receive approval by our local county health officer.  

Phase 4 begins to return additional extra-curricular, music, choir, athletics, and similar type activities to campus. This will occur once our county rates decline below the 25/100,000 over a 2 week period, or we receive approval by our local county health officer.  

Continuing Issues:  

The Chelan Douglas Health District is working to start a community testing center in East Wenatchee. They will also be contacting some of our K-4 parents in hopes of gaining a better understanding of the infection rate among this population. This is important as it provides information on our Phase 2a students who we hope to return to campus as soon as we get approval. 

Though fewer, we still have not resolved all the remote learning connection issues. Please let your student's school know if you continue to have problems.  

Our new website is improving each week with more accurate information.

This system, ParentSquare Messaging, is our primary electronic and emergency messaging system. Please ensure your emergency contact information is current for parents and others who may be helping supervise your students. 

Information on our November 3rd proposal to renew our current educational and operations levy is available on our website. Additional information will be mailed mid October. 

We understand how difficult this is for students and families. Our goal continues to do this in manner that is safe for students, families, employees, and our community.  We look forward to returning all students to campus and a return to full activities.

Sincerely,

Garn Christensen
Superintendent

Superintendent's Update for Week of September 21, 2020

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 • Garn Christensen  • Monday, Sep 21 at 4:08 PM • Eastmont School District

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Below is our update for the week of September 21st:

Current Activities: 
 

To date: we have the following groups on campus:

May - June employees working on campus = 50 - 60

July - Aug employees working on campus = 110 - 120

August 15 - Now employees working on campus = 755 - 795

Aug. - Sept. 11, Estimate of gr. K-7 employees’ children in on-campus educare = 180

Sept. 14 - Now, Estimate of grade P-12 life skills students now on campus = 55

Preparing for Sept. approved return of P-12 most vulnerable Phase 1b students on campus = 400

Other Activities:

In our 5th week of providing remote and on-campus services with no COVID related shutdowns or evidence that Eastmont operations are causing an increase in community rates. 

We are now serving meals for any interested child or teen in our community up to age 18. Please visit our Food Services website for school and bus drop off locations. https://www.eastmont206.org/departments/food-services/index.

We continue to ensure all safety measures are in place as both a work site and P-12 school system. However, we have been informed these are under review by the WA Dept. of Health and may be updated and aligned with other similar guidelines in place for childcare, and youth & adult recreation activities. 

We continue to work for maximum ventilation practices now the smoke has cleared.

Our Remote Learning and Eastmont Virtual Academy (EVA) continue to refine instructional offerings and provide additional learning resources. 

Network and video connections continue to improve with better reliability and ease of access thanks to the thoroughness of our technology team. 

Temporary internet hotspots have been distributed where needed. Please let your principal know if this something that may be needed. 

Eastmont teachers and employees continue to work hard and bring creative approaches to making remote and on-line learning as relevant and rigorous as possible.    

Next Steps: 

Sterling, Clovis, Eastmont Junior High, and Eastmont High School will begin on-site food services starting on the 28th.

Phase 1b students return to campus on September 28th. This group represent another 3-5% per school.  This group are those students identified as our most vulnerable students.

If county rates decline below the 75/100,000 as a county over a 2 week period, we will return grade P-4 students as Phase 2a.  

Phase 2b will return our grade 5-7 students and will be initiated once we determine the increase in students on campus is not contributing to increased county rates.  

Phase 3a will return grade 8-12 students and will be initiated once county rates decline below the 25/100,000 as county average over a two week period and determine the increase in students on campus is not contributing to increased county rates. 

Phase 1c will return some of our older students in small groups for part-time physical exercise/athletics conditioning and CTE related activities. A request for a waiver to begin these activities is in process as well as to open our facilities for community use. This is in recognition other community recreation groups are being allowed to open per a recent Governor's order.  

Phase 4b will return additional athletics and extra-curricular activities to campus as long as prior Eastmont activities do not contribute to an increase in county rates.

Continuing Issues:  

The question has come up on student use of plastic face shields rather than masks. Specifically, the type of face shield and approval process. We are researching this with our local health department to ensure we have the latest requirements. We hope to have more information by the end of the week. Please visit with your student's principal if this something you might desire for your student.  

Though fewer, we still have not resolved all the remote learning connection issues.  

We continue to correct data in our student and family information systems as we complete the transition to our new student management system.  

We continue to update our new website and ensure future events will be on the event calendar. 

This system, ParentSquare Messaging, is our primary electronic and emergency messaging system. Please ensure your emergency contact information is current for parents and others who may be helping supervise your students.  

Please know we understand how difficult this is for students and families. My goal is to do this in manner that is safe for students, families, employees, and our community.  We look forward to returning all students to campus and a return to full activities. I also wanted to thanks those who have shared feedback on this weekly newsletter.

Sincerely,

Garn Christensen
Superintendent

Superintendent's Update

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 • Garn Christensen  • Monday, Sep 14 at 2:10 PM • Eastmont School District

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Below is our weekly update:

Working: 

Today, we returned Phase 1a students to our campuses on a part-time basis. These are our students with high need Individual Education Plans (IEPs) who are primarily in our lifeskills programs. This brings us up to just over 4% of our students on campus. 

We are now providing meals for any interested child or teen in our community up to age 18. Please visit our Food Services website for school and bus drop off locations. https://www.eastmont206.org/departments/food-services/index

Eastmont Schools are starting our 4th week of providing remote and on-campus services with no COVID related shutdowns.

We continue to practice required 6' social distancing, PPE use, increased hand washing, and increased cleaning of high touch surfaces as required by the WA Dept. of Health for K-12 schools. 

The smoke in the valley this week is causing us to stop our maximum ventilation practices. In prior smoky years, we have tested indoor air quality of our schools and found it safer than outside air. This is due to our large spaces and air filtration systems. 

Eastmont Virtual Academy (EVA) continues to develop and organize in response to parents requesting an all remote option for this school year. 

Network and video connections continue to improve with better reliability and ease of access.  

Still working on:  

Eastmont remote learning continues to have connection issues that we are working to resolve. 

We started to distribute the 100+ hotspots we purchased and found challenges with connecting to the internet. We continue to work with the vendor to resolve these issues. 

We continue to correct data in our student and family information that moved from our old student management system to the new system.  

Our new website continues to be updated on all pages. One goal this year is to improve our events calendar.  

This system, ParentSquare Messaging, is our primary electronic and emergency messaging system. Please ensure your emergency contact information is current for parents and others who may be helping supervise your students.  

Future Issues: 

The health department approved our plan to return Phase 1b students to campus. As long as our county rates continue to decline, this group will start September 28th. They represent another 3-5% per school beyond those this week in lifeskills (1a) and educare. This group are those students identified as our most vulnerable students.

Ideally, if county rates continue to decline, we will soon be implementing Phase 2a. This step will return our younger students to campus and can only occur if our rates are below the 75/100,000 as a county over a 2 week period.

Phase 3a will be the return of our older students and will not begin until county rates are below 25/100,000. 

Information on our November 3rd proposal to renew our current educational and operations levy will be going up by the end of this month on our website and mailed to all residents by mid October.

Please know we understand how difficult this is for students and families. My goal is to do this in manner that is safe for students, families, employees, and our community.  We look forward to returning all students to campus and a return to full activities.

Sincerely,

Garn Christensen
Superintendent

Superintendent's Update

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 • Garn Christensen • Tuesday, Sep 8 at 1:52 PM • Eastmont School District

 This post can be viewed by users outside of ParentSquare

Below is our weekly update:

Working: 

Eastmont Schools are starting our 3rd week of providing remote instructional services to all students with no COVID related shutdowns.

Last week, we were able to return to providing meals for any interested child or teen in our community up to age 18. Please visit our Food Services website for school and bus drop off locations. https://www.eastmont206.org/departments/food-services/index

We continue to practice required 6' social distancing, PPE use, increased hand washing, and increased cleaning of high touch surfaces. 

Children of instructional employees are on-campus at each school in supervised educare working remotely. Having this group on campus has allowed us to sustain our workforce and practice our safety and distancing procedures in preparation for bringing all students back to campus.

We continue to increase ventilation at all schools per safety requirements. The smoke in the valley this week is causing us to have to balance opening doors and windows with unsafe air conditions.  

Eastmont Virtual Academy (EVA) continues to develop and organize in response to parents requesting an all remote option for this school year. 

We increased our fiber bandwidth from 1 GB to 2GB  last week to help us have better video connections with 5,000+ students and their teachers.  

Not yet where we want it: 

Eastmont remote learning continues to have connection issues that we are actively troubleshooting. It appears Google Meet is having connection issues beyond Eastmont. If these are not quickly resolved, we will be looking at transitioning to more reliable video conferencing software.  

We received hotspots for remote internet only to learn the software for use had not been configured. This is being done now in hopes of getting these distributed later this week.  

Our new website continues to be updated on all pages.

We are still checking data accuracy for information that moved from our old student management system to the new system.  

We are using ParentSquare Messaging as our primary electronic and emergency messaging system. We learned this past week the data for the primary parent, secondary parent, etc. got reversed in some situations and is being corrected. Please let your principal know if you are not getting messages from your student's school.   

Future Issues: 

In response to a continuing decline in COVID rates in our community, on September 14, we will be returning Phase A1 students to campuses. This is about 1% of our students and are those with high need Individual Education Plans (IEPs) who are primarily in our lifeskills programs. 

For comparison, on August 14, our county 14 day average COVID rate was 507 per 100,000. As of 9/7, we are at 237 per 100,000.  

We are waiting for confirmation from our health department to return our Phase A2 students. This group represents another 3-5% per school. These students are those not engaging in remote learning and have been identified as among our most vulnerable students.

Phase A3 is in planning and will return our youngest students once our COVID rates are below the 75/100,000.  

Phase B to return our older students once our community 14 day average rate is below 25/100,000. 

Information on our November 3rd proposal to renew our current educational and operations levy will be going up by the end of this month on our website and mailed to all residents by mid October. 

Thank you for your patience. Eastmont Educators are doing the best they can in a very difficult situation. We look forward to returning all students to campus and a return to full activities.

Sincerely,

Garn Christensen
Superintendent