Distance Learning Plan Update - 5-12-2020
Guidance for Students and Parents/Guardians
HLWW Public Schools is making some changes to our Distance Learning Plan, beginning May 26, 2020, in order for everyone (students, parents, and staff) to complete the school year on a successful note. We are not asking the HLWW School Board to modify or change the 2019-20 school calendar. Instead, we are making the following changes which we believe take into account the current environment of educational delivery, employee work setting, and the effect these are having on the essential completion of important tasks that come with a “normal” end to the school year.
Highlights of the Changes
The last day of structured Distance Learning, as we are currently delivering it, will be May 21, 2020 (May 22, 2020 is a teacher connection day with students as normal). No NEW content or curriculum will be delivered after this point.
Beginning Tuesday, May 26, any student who has not completed his/her work, or any student wanting to achieve a higher grade for 4th quarter, will have the opportunity to do so. Teachers will be offering retakes, retesting, and work completion opportunities. They will be connecting with these students, but we also ask that students and parents reach out to their teachers about the opportunity to improve grades.
Changes in Grading Procedures -
Our elementary schools will change the way they grade students due to the Distance Learning we have implemented. The HLWW School Board has approved this change. The change will eliminate the traditional, summative grading (A, B, C, etc.) and replace it with the format of “narrative progress reports,” that have already been used on a weekly basis for 4th quarter, identifying both strengths and areas of growth in the content areas. They will use a “NG” (No Grade/Not Graded) and state in the comments section of the report card that 4th quarter grades are marked NG due to distance learning.
Our High School will add the NC (No Credit) to the grading process. This allows a student that would normally receive an “F” grade to have time to finish the class at ALP or Night School instead of taking the entire course over. This is strongly recommended by the Minnesota Department of Education and was approved by the HLWW School Board.
The Middle School will use its current letter grade system, but all work will be “formative” and will not be weighted.
Food Service and School Age Care will continue every day (except Memorial Day) through June 4, 2020.
Schedule
- May 21, 2020 - Final Day of NEW content being delivered through Distance Learning
- May 22, 2020 - Distance Learning Friday - students and teachers connect about progress, lesson questions, etc.
- May 25, 2020 (Memorial Day) - - No School
- May 26 - May 29, 2020
Elementary Schools -
- 5/26-5/28 - Extension, enrichment, and exploratory activities provided for students who have completed all work; Remedial and intervention work, extended time for work completion to finish homework and projects; meetings scheduled with parents, teachers and administration for students struggling to complete the year.
- Scheduled times for 1:1 assessments conducted by staff with students
- 5/28-6-1 - Parent-teacher conferences via phone or other electronic means.
Middle School -
- 5/22 - Will post “preliminary grades” and then give students until June 2nd to improve grades or complete work to achieve a passing grade.
- 5/26 - 5/29- Provide instruction to students still needing to complete work; Remedial work for those students wanting to improve grades - (Full Submission by June 2nd); Meetings scheduled with parents, teachers, and administration for students struggling to complete the year.
High School -
- 5/26 - 5/29
- Makeup work for those students wanting to improve grades - (Full Submission by June 2nd)
- Remedial Work
- Meetings scheduled with parents, teachers, and administration for students struggling to complete the year, completion of items for seniors for final grading and graduation.
- Finals for HS on (5/28, 5/29) - for those teachers giving a final exam
- SENIORS - CHROMEBOOK COLLECTION WILL TAKE PLACE ON 5/26-5/28. Tuesday, May 26 - 3-6pm; Wednesday, May 27 - 12-3pm; Thursday, May 28 - 9am to noon. PLEASE BRING YOUR CHROMEBOOK TO THE HIGH SCHOOL TO MR. ELDRED OR MR. ROBERTSON.
- June 1 - 2, 2020
- All makeup work completed and submitted by June 2.
Elementary Schools -
- Continue parent teacher conferences June 1
- Final pick up for students’ personal materials, certificates and awards on June 2 (more details to come from the Elementary Principal)
Middle School & High School -
- Continue to support students in bringing up grades - - complete all student work by June 2nd.
- Family Connections - teachers asked to connect with parents and students to see if there is anything they need before final grades are posted - collecting information about how distance learning went this spring.
- Principals and counselors connecting with students and parents about finalizing things for struggling students.
- June 3-5, 2020
- June 3 & 4 -
- Middle School is planning a Student pick up of personal items and return of Chromebooks and other school items, for June 3 & 4 from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. During these times only the student should come to the Middle School entrance and return their Chromebook, library books, classroom books or any other school items they may have. Student personal items that were in their lockers have been bagged and labeled with their name and can be picked up at this time.
- Teacher Work Days and Professional Development (all schools)
- Teachers will be working to complete any final grading and will connect with families if needed.
- Teachers will need these days to modify their current distance learning plans, make final preparations to their classroom for summer, and will be completing professional development opportunities to learn more about how to deliver distance learning for students and parents, should schools need to implement this process again at some point next school year.
Considering the unprecedented situation we have all been thrust into, the HLWW School Board and Staff truly believes that these changes will be best for students, parents, and staff.
In looking at a “normal” end to the school year, many of the tasks listed above are taken care of over the last MONTH of school. We have not had the opportunity to do that, as our concentration has been on delivering the best distance learning for our students. We did not have students missing class time for MCA’s, field trips, activities, parent vacations, etc., which normally disrupt the final month of school.
We feel we have delivered instruction and curriculum as diligently and as effectively as we could, considering the abrupt change we were given. Everyone now needs these final days to finish up this important work and for us all to continue to support students, parents, and staff for a successful completion of the year.
During the final weeks of the school year, if you need anything, please do not hesitate to reach out to the appropriate department or your child’s school:
Community Ed – 320-543-4670 or shorsch@hlww.k12.mn.us; mmarketon@hlww.k12.mn.us
Educational Pre-K-12 -
- Elementary Schools – Humphrey 320-543-4680; Winsted 320-543-4690; or jolson@hlww.k12.mn.us
- Middle School – 320-543-4660; jschimelpfenig@hlww.k12.mn.us
- High School – 320-543-4600; jmix@hlww.k12.mn.us
- ALP – 320-543-1122 Ext 2173; eteorey@hlww.k12.mn.us
- Food Service - 320-543-4615; foodservice@hlww.k12.mn.us
- Special Education - 320-543-4646; lwharram@mawseco.k12.mn.us
- Health/Nurse – 763-219-2469; jholland@hlww.k12.mn.us
Please direct any questions you may have about grading, work completion, etc., to your building principal. They will be able to assist you.
Please also check your email frequently over the next several weeks for guidance from your building principal about such things as awards pick-up, Chromebook collection, graduation, and general guidance.
District Survey
Near the end of the school year, on or around June 5, please watch for a District survey to come out. We ask that you complete the survey at your convenience. The information collected in this survey will help our staff improve upon distance learning and prepare ourselves better, for the benefit of students and parents, should the need arise to again use distance learning next school year.
Summer Planning
At this time we are still waiting on guidance from the Minnesota Department of Education and the Department of Health, on the following items:
- School Aged Care
- Extended School Year Services for Special Education (ESY)
- Boost
- Summer School
I want to thank all of our students and parents for your hard work, your willingness to be flexible, and for your support during this time of distance learning. It has certainly not been easy for anyone, but by working together and supporting each other, we all can continue to make things the best they can be for the benefit of our children.
Have a great summer!
Thank you and take care.
2020-21 School Day Dismissal Times Will Change
On January 13, 2020, the HLWW School Board approved a change to the end of the school day release times beginning with the 2020-21 school year.
Beginning in September of 2020, the end of the day release times for HLWW Schools will be as follows:
Elementary Schools (Winsted and Humphrey) – 2:40 p.m.
Middle/High School – 3:00 p.m.
The rationale for this change is as follows:
- The shortening of the elementary school day and the lengthening the middle/high school day is more in line with Minnesota statute requiring grades K-6 to be in school for 935 hours and grades 7-12 to be in school for 1020 hours in a school year. Based on our current release times, our elementary students put in many more hours than are required, while middle and high school students, even though they put in more than are required, do not exceed by as much.
- This change allows coaches who work at the elementary school, time to travel to the Middle/High School for practices, while not having to shorten their teaching day or finding someone to cover their last hour of the day.
- This change means busses will be parked and ready before the elementary schools release. Currently some busses are still pulling in as school is released because they need to travel from the Middle/High School which dismissed first. This will help with efficient loading and supervision.
- Will create longer classes for Middle/High School students allowing for more teaching and learning.
- In the 2020-21 school year, HLWW Schools is changing to a new athletic/activity conference. The schools we will compete against are geographically much closer to HLWW. This will mean that participants will not need to leave as early for events which allows for us to then extend the school day.
The changes that will need to take place with the bus routes, have begun. 4.0 Transportation will be working closely with school officials to figure out how to reconfigure the routes at the end of the school day to make them as efficient and timely as possible. They will also be communicating as soon as possible, with St. James and Holy Trinity as to how routes will be coordinated for their students. Information about your child’s bus route will not be available until August of 2020
PLEASE NOTE THAT HLWW SCHOOLS IS NOT CHANGING THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL DAY START TIMES.
Thank you.
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News
Congratulations to the 2020 HLWW Senior Class!
We are so very proud of you!
Go Lakers!
Calendar of Events
SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE 2019-20 SCHOOL YEAR - JUNE 4, 2020 - STATE-WIDE CLOSURE DECLARED BY THE GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA - DISTANCE LEARNING PLANS IMPLEMENTED
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