Dear Thompson Community,
Thank you for all of your patience and understanding during this trying time for our school district. We recognize that this is a very difficult and challenging time for our students and our community. As a District, we are committed to partnering with you to help navigate some of the uncertainties as it pertains to the education of your child(ren). As you are aware, on March 18, Governor Polis issued an Executive Order directing all schools to suspend in-person instruction through April 17, 2020 in order to limit the spread of Coronavirus 2019. At this time, it is not clear if this suspension of in-person instruction will extend beyond this date.
As a result, changes will be necessary for some important educational functions, such as the number of teacher-pupil instructional hours, special education and graduation requirements.
Waivers for instructional hours
The Colorado Department of Education has waived the minimum number of school days and teacher-pupil instruction hours normally required under state law. Instead, districts must make every effort to provide alternative learning opportunities during this time.
For Thompson School District, this means that we are not expected to extend the school year or start early next year to make up for lost in-person instructional time.
As a result of the possibility of an extended period of disruption of in-person instruction, we will transition to continuous learning through a combination of online and student-led/project-based learning. We are working with our schools to determine what continuous learning will look like for our school community.
Services to students with special needs
Our schools will make every effort to provide appropriate special education and related services for students with disabilities. We have been given some flexibility on how to provide these services. So we are thinking about other ways to meet the needs of students with disabilities based on the nature of a student’s disability and individual needs of the student.
To support students with identified IEP-related services, we will work with our schools to determine whether it is appropriate to provide alternative services or delay services in coordination with students’ parents and IEP teams. We may also determine whether we can make up for a gap in access to the curriculum or delay in services with additional opportunities in the future.
Graduation considerations
Graduation requirements across Colorado are locally determined by school districts and charter schools. This means that we have flexibility to adjust requirements for the class of 2020 based on this unprecedented time of disruption to our schools. At this time we have not yet determined what, if any, adjustments will be made to our school district’s requirements. Recommendations will be proposed to our Board of Education for consideration at a board meeting this spring. We are also looking into alternative options to in-person graduation ceremonies for the end of the school year. We want to ensure that our students and families still have a way to mark this important occasion. More information on this, as well as other scheduled events and programs, will be released in the coming weeks.
Thanks again for your support during these difficult times.
Sincerely,
Dr. Marc Schaffer
Superintendent
Thompson School District