Dear WHS Students, Parents/Guardians,
As we close out the first semester and enter into the second half of our school year, I would like to personally thank our entire school community for their continued patience, support, resilience and trust in what has been an incredibly difficult first five months. There is no formula or recipe for navigating a school community through a global pandemic, but there have been endless stories of kindness, grit, perseverance, leadership and down-right hard work that has created many positive results for both students and staff.
I recognize and understand that this pandemic and the non-traditional ways of learning are taking a toll on many of you, as it is on me. Please be assured we are dedicating energy and efforts to finding a pathway to return all WHS students to full in-person learning, while still allowing families a choice to remain in distance learning. A WHS distance choice survey will be sent to all families in February.
In the coming weeks, you can anticipate a purposeful transition that will methodically scale up in-person learning with the hope that we are back to full, in-person learning before spring break (April 1). Of course, this is all dependent on a continual decline in the number of positive COVID-19 case numbers and approval from the Minnesota Departments of Health and Education.
We are committed to the success of every student, regardless of the learning model. As we continue these non-traditional ways of learning, please be sure to reach out to your student support team if additional emotional, social, or academic support is needed for your student. We're here for you.
In closing, it is important to recognize that the magnitude of this pandemic was unpredictable and everyone is working tirelessly to find success. As we look and plan to transition back to a more traditional learning model, please know your trust and partnership is needed now more than ever. As I have said from the beginning, we may not all agree on how to best navigate a global pandemic, but in the end, we will get through this together. Sincerely, Scott Gengler |