The events over the last month have truly been a test of our collective abilities to weather uncertainty and change as well as a chance for the Power of WE to shine through. As we continue to navigate this situation, we want you to understand that throughout this crisis our decision-making process has centered on two priorities:
- Keeping everyone (our staff, our students and our families) in our community safe and,
- Keeping all of our permanent employees paid
These priorities are at the forefront of all of our discussions but, unfortunately, they are sometimes at odds.
We know the best way to keep people safe is to keep them at home but not everyone can work from home. Our operations staff, such as nutrition, transportation, custodial and maintenance teams have been coming to work and showing the Power of WE to keep our buildings running. In order to protect them while they work, we have enforced social distancing and maintained strict guidelines around restricting other staff access to our buildings.
As we move into new territory in the Leadership and Learning phase of this closure, it may be necessary for instructional staff to get additional items from classrooms. In maintaining the philosophy of keeping everyone as safe as possible, we will allow staff to come to our buildings between 1:00 – 3:00 pm Mondays and 9:00 – 11:00 am Wednesdays to retrieve items needed to support remote learning and operations. You should only utilize this opportunity if needed to support your remote work. As we did before, we are enforcing the following guidelines:
- Only 1 bathroom will be open.
- Only 1 door will be open for key card access
- Touch as little as possible while accessing the building
- Staff are expected to only access areas necessary to retrieve personal effects
- Food and drinks will not be permitted in classrooms
- All trash should be disposed of in a central receptacle- not in classrooms.
- Only staff will be allowed- no children or family members.
These discrete windows and restrictions will allow our operations teams to keep working safely while allowing others access as needed.
We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding during these trying times. And while we do expect that questions and concerns will be addressed with your supervisor first, if your concerns persist, please utilize the ‘Ask a question’ form at http://www.colonialschooldistrict.org/contact/ask-a-question/ to have the situation reviewed.
Please stay safe and be well!
The District Leadership Team
