Wednesday, April 15, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The Nugget Newspaper Crossword
By Jacqueline E. Mathews, Tribune News Service
PHOTO BY CHARLIE KANZIG
Sisters Elementary School allowed parents to retrieve personal items
after Governor Kate Brown announced that schools will remain closed.
SCHOOLS: Materials
pick up at schools was
emotional for many
Continued from page 1
to Brown and the Oregon
Department of Education
(ODE), basically, seniors will
be given a <Pass= for any
classes they were passing at
the time of the closure, which
will ensure those students get
their diplomas. Any students
who were not passing will be
given the opportunity to com-
plete their courses in order to
finish up.
ODE will soon publish fur-
ther guidelines for grade 9-11
regarding how the question
of credits and grades will be
handled.
Sisters High School
Principal Joe Hosang said,
<I am confident about how
we will take care of the stu-
dents, including the seniors.
Everyone seems to understand
this is a work in progress, so
parents and students have
been very understanding and
gracious.=
Regarding this year 9s
graduates, Hosang has a team
of parents and staff members
working on plans to honor
the seniors as well as possible
given the circumstance.
<Between the Senior Party
committee, GRO, and our
commencement ceremony
committee, as well as others,
we are going to do all we can
to make things as good as we
can for the class of 2020,= he
said.
Once Brown9s announce-
ment came, clearing out stu-
dent belongings got added to
the list of tasks needing to be
accomplished. The elemen-
tary school was able to bag up
students9 possessions from the
classroom for pickup along
with the educational materi-
als Friday, but personal pos-
sessions will have to be dealt
with in the future for middle
and high school students,
according to Superintendent
Curt Scholl.
He wrote, <Now that we
know that we will not be
returning to our buildings, we
understand that some students
have personal property in
the schools and we will need
to arrange a process for the
recovery of those items. This
communication will come
from your child9s school,
but please be patient as we
are currently working to re-
engage our students.=
Middle school teacher
and teacher union president
Michelle Hammer acknowl-
edged the challenges ahead
for everyone involved.
<Preparing for this 8new nor-
mal9 creates a steep learning
curve for teachers and they
are working extremely hard
to meet students9 needs,= she
said. <In whatever we do we
do not want to add additional
stress to families. We do want
to provide some semblance of
normalcy for our students by
helping them get into a rou-
tine, while being keenly aware
that families are facing mul-
tiple challenges themselves.=
Warburg spoke in the same
vein, saying, < I couldn9t be
prouder of our staff who have
been incredible this week in
their hard work to plan and
organize materials for our stu-
dents, connect with families,
and learn new skills. They are
eager to begin the work this
week to rebuild their class-
room community in a virtual
environment. We appreciate
the way Sisters9 parents have
been so supportive 4 we will
make mistakes as we practice
this new way of teaching and
we will model for our stu-
dents what it means to have
a growth mindset, growing
our brains as we all learn new
skills.=
High school teacher Kristy
Rawls, who also assisted with
handing out materials, said,
<I was very glad that I was
able to help and also see the
students. It made my heart
happy during this really rough
time. I am so sad for those big
events that seniors and other
students are going to miss, but
equally sad to lose all those
small daily contacts we have
with our kids.=
Scholl touched briefly in
his letter on what <distance
learning= is comprised of.
<This distance learning is
not just about online educa-
tion and may, in fact, include
a blend of other modes, such
as phone calls, recorded video
lessons, Canvas, Google
Meet, Zoom and paper pack-
ets,= he said.
Scholl asked for continued
<patience, kindness, resilience
and strength= moving forward
into the weeks and months
ahead. <We are in uncharted
waters, but the school district
has the right people to tackle
this challenge.=
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