May 21, 2020
ACTIVITIES WORTHY OF APPLAUSE:
4 Quarter efforts of faculty and support staff:
You embraced the challenge in a very short period of time, we delivered instruction within 72 hours of notice. We were one of the first schools to begin delivery of instruction to our students.
This demonstrated your commitment to students and to the school’s mission. The creativity demonstrated was beautiful and effective. We received many comments from our parents and board members about how pleased they were with your efforts and efficiency. We also heard feedback from parents of other districts about how impressed they were with the speed and nature of Morrill’s response.
You learned new tasks and implemented them quickly… you demonstrated the old adage that Necessity is the Mother of Invention. Video usage and Youtube channels, book readings and tournaments, News Program, Experiments, Hands on Demonstrations, Guided Discovery Activities and so much more…
You all were amazing.
I want you to know how pleased I am with all of you.
WHAT ARE WE DOING WITH THE GREAT SCHOOL 2021>span class="s6">GOAL?
We did not get to assess our students with NSCAS, NWEA or ACT in the Spring of 2020.
The processes we used in the 19-20 school year and the processes we will employ in the 20-21 school year will continue to make a GREAT IMPACT with our students.
We “lost” 10 weeks of “normal” instruction and there is really no way to know what the impact to learning was until we re-assess in NWEA, STARS, Dibbles, etc in the Fall of 2020.
We hope that some of the “loss” can be mitigated through our Summer School and Summer Day Camp programing.
We get to do summer learning face to face with studentskindergarten K-6 in our Early Childhood Building because we are a Licensed Day Care facility. So we will have 50 or more Elementary students in the summer learning program from 7:30 – Noon and more than 20 of them will be staying till 4 pm.
The Cares Act is paying the costs of this this summer.
The Secondary Summer School will happen remotely through our new online curricular portal called SCHMOOP.
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT UPDATES: talk from the updates page
NEXT YEAR FORECAST:
The State Nutrition Department has extended the flexibility to our meals program through August 2021. They also made available equipment grants, Stacy has already applied for the grants. These funds were provided for the equipment necessary to deliver meals to classrooms instead of students coming to the cafeteria.
The learning spaces MAY BE LIMITED to no more than 10 children per space in the fall as well. Which would require us to deliver face to face and remote transmission AT THE SAME TIME; and have which students attend face to face rotating daily or half day, or weekly…
The administration has met several times already talking about scenarios for next year. We will continue to meet and adjust our ideas to meet the Directed Health Measure and Limitations from the Governor and Commissioner of Education.
Our Focus will be to MAXIMIZE learning opportunities for STUDENTS and MINIMIZE the clumsiness or burden generated by the limitations to the STAFF.
The administration and school board will continue to focus on the mission for students yet provide the resources and support necessary for our staff.
We don’t yet know what we will be permitted to do with sports, class sizes, meals, or what impact COVID will have on areas yet identified.
Hence the need for the following statement:
Students, parents and staff need to find balance amidst the plethora of duties, uncertainties and challenges in order to navigate with perseverance and resilience while striving to meet district and state expectations.