DVUSD Schools Start Home Learning March 30

This letter was sent to parent on Friday, March 27:

Dear DVUSD Families,
Thank you for your continued patience and support as we navigate the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the mandated school closure caused by the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19. We hope you and your family members are staying healthy.

We want to provide you with an update for the next two weeks. As you know, all Arizona schools will remain closed until at least April 10, 2020. When or if we receive an update from state officials about the closure, we will pass that on to our community as soon as we can.

In the meantime, we know our students are anxious to get back to learning. We are working closely with principals and teachers to prepare for the transition to Home Learning.

We have several important items to pass along to you today. This letter contains updates about: Home Learning for March 30 – April 3, Home Learning with teacher involvement for April 6 – 9, Essential Item Pickup from schools, additional free food distribution sites, and parent resources for social and emotional support.

DVUSD PreK-12 Home Learning Information

March 30- April 3

On Monday, March 30, you will find enrichment and review learning opportunities on the DVUSD Home Learning website for families to engage in with their children from Monday, March 30 through Friday, April 3. These learning opportunities are NOT required, nor will they be used for grading purposes. The enrichment and review learning opportunities are communicated and posted for families to view on our District website:  www.dvusd.org/homelearning.

During this week, DVUSD teachers will be involved in training on how to provide instruction in an online environment. They will be developing student learning plans to provide high-quality instruction during the COVID-19 school closure.

April 6-9 (April 10 is a scheduled Spring Break day)

Beginning on April 6, 2020, students will connect with their teacher in a virtual home learning experience. Students in grades 3-6 will interact with their teacher in either Google Classroom or Canvas and students in grades 7-12 will use Canvas as their learning platform. What that means is student assignments and activities will be assigned and collected in one of these two learning management systems. Pre-School and kindergarten through 2nd grade student learning will be posted on the teacher or school website with a weekly lesson plan including live links for learning activities. Also beginning on April 6, all teachers will provide Virtual Office Hours. Parents and guardians will receive communication on Friday, April 3 related to student access to their Google Classroom or Canvas learning platform.

We will embrace the DVUSD Home Learning instructional delivery until our schools reopen. At this time, school closures are confirmed until April 10, 2020.

For families who may need a device for their child or who need a low/no tech solution, such as paper packets of instructional material, Thursday, April 2, and Friday, April 3, have been set as the dates for parent pick up of these items. Additional information will be provided early next week regarding the procedures for parent pick up of a learning device or paper packets.

Essential Item Pickup
Per our March 20 update, we have scheduled a time for DVUSD parents to pick up essential items that may be needed for instruction on March 31 from 8:00-4:00 p.m. We will be implementing specific procedures to create the safest environment possible for our students and staff.

Please note that this pickup is only for essential items that students will need to engage in online learning. This pickup date is also for parents to pick up a band instrument if needed at home. District administration has directed school administrators to only approve requests that fall into this “essential” category.

In order to pick up an essential item, parents must do the following:

• Your school will send you an email, text, and/or phone call explaining how to make an appointment for Tuesday, March 31. A parent will receive a 15-minute time slot to retrieve an item. These procedures are necessary to keep within the recommended guidelines by local, state and national health agencies when interacting with others during pickup. No one will be allowed to congregate when on campus.
• Depending on the item(s) to be retrieved, each campus will determine if materials are delivered to parents or if parents/students will be escorted to retrieve their materials. We anticipate that most items will be able to be delivered to the front office for pickup.
• Social distancing procedures will be in place at all times.
• All band instructors will arrange pickup of instruments. The exact pick-up procedure will be determined by each campus’ band director. If only a few students need an instrument at a campus, then the band instructor can assign each student a time. However, in situations where there is a larger number of students, the band instructor will have a Sign Up Genius type of format where each student would sign up for a 5 – 10 minute time slot.
• Only a parent(s)/guardian or approved person on a child’s emergency card should come to a campus to retrieve an item.
• Additional information for cleaning out desks, lockers, etc. will be provided at a later date, if necessary.

These procedures are consistent with the recommendations from our local health agency. We thank you for your cooperation.

Food Distribution Sites Added
Our #Extraordinary Food & Nutrition staff have provided more than 21,000 meals during the first five days of food distribution. We are now adding several more sites, including six school bus stop locations within DVUSD. Any child age 18 and under can get a free breakfast and lunch so take advantage of it! Visit www.dvusd.org/food and see attached for all of the food distribution sites.

Parent Resources
DVUSD leaders are committed to bringing you timely information that will help you support your student(s) at home and help you navigate these unchartered waters. Please see www.dvusd.org/resources for helpful information regarding social-emotional supports for your child.

Thank you again for your patience and support through these challenging times. Beginning Monday, there will be a daily posting by 4 pm on www.dvusd.org/covid19. We look forward to our Home Learning journey beginning next week!  Most importantly, please be sure to keep you and your family safe by following all recommended precautions from local, state, and federal authorities. This certainly is an unusual time, but we will successfully navigate it, together, as a community.

Sincerely,
Curtis Finch, PhD
Superintendent