The Edmonds School District on Monday said parents should expect to hear from their children’s teachers via phone this week, as remote learning resumes following last week’s spring break.

Gov. Jay Inslee announced April 6 that K-12 schools would remain closed through the end of the school year in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a message to parents, Superintendent Kris McDuffy also said the district has received questions from parents regarding how students will be assessed and graded as well as inquiries regarding graduation requirements. To address these, the district’s Continuous Learning 2020 Task Force will focus this week on reviewing both federal and state guidance and “also look to see what we can learn from educators around the state and country,” McDuffy said.

Remote learning will continue through Monday, June 22 — the end-of-school date originally set to address earlier snow days. Plans are also underway for summer school options, McDuffy said.

The superintendent’s message also addressed other questions, such as how parents can pick up their belongings and medication from school and the reminder that food service will continue, with free meals available Monday-Friday at various locations.

We have included the full message from McDuffy below

Dear Edmonds School District families,

We hope you and your family are doing well! Continuous learning jumps back into action today after honoring the district’s scheduled spring break last week. Please find the latest updates below.

Phone calls from teachers

Starting today, teachers may begin to check in with their students over the phone. Please be aware that these numbers will be out-of-area phone numbers. We are providing our teachers with Google Voice phone numbers so they may show up as unfamiliar numbers and not an area code you would recognize. Please try to answer the phone, as it may be your student’s teacher.

Phase 4: Continuous Learning 2020 Task Force
Today launches the planning for Phase 4 of continuous learning outside of our school buildings. We have put in place a task force made up of incredible educators who are working diligently on this next phase of learning.

In Phase 4, the Continuous Learning 2020 Task Force will determine the district’s approach to many of the questions you’ve had, including the following:

• Assessing our students

• Grading

• Graduation requirements

The Continuous Learning 2020 Task Force will ground themselves in both federal and state guidance and also look to see what we can learn from educators around the state and country. The task force will be working on these guidelines this week. We know many in our community are wanting answers now, but we ask for your patience as we make thoughtful decisions in the best interest of all our students.

Last day of district-lead continuous learning is Monday, June 22, 2020

We want to make sure families are prepared for continuous learning to go through Monday, June 22. This last day of school date has been set since we experienced snow days earlier this year. Plans are underway for summer school options, please stay tuned.

How do I pick up my student’s belongings from their school? And their medications?
The district is developing a plan for families to pick up their student’s belongings from their school, including those who still have medications at their school. In addition, we are preparing to provide more school supplies and materials to families as needed.

If your student has medication stored at the school, the building nurse will be contacting you within the next three weeks with further details. Parents and guardians will be responsible for picking up their student’s medication. Nurses will properly dispose of any medication left in the building following the last designated day for pick-up.

Please watch for further details and times available for pickup.

Food service 

We continue to offer free meals for students Monday through Friday. Please be sure to check out our Grab and Go meals website for all the information. Also, we want to let our families who will be observing Ramadan later this month know that our Grab and Go meal sites all have vegetarian and no pork meal options and these meals can be refrigerated for later consumption.

Share your artwork!

All Edmonds School District families are encouraged to celebrate their student’s artistic side by entering one piece of work to be considered for the 2020-2021 ESD Calendar and Family Handbook.

Approximately 35 to 40 photos of artwork will be chosen to represent K-12 student art from all over the school district. All suitable artwork will be considered for this, and/or be used to celebrate student art in other school district publications and on social media.

Entry details:

• Artwork must have been created solely by the individual student.

• Artwork must have been created at school or home during the 2019-2020 school year.

• Parental permission will be needed to complete the online application.

• A student email account or gmail account must be used to upload the photo of a student’s artwork.

• Deadline for submission is 10 p.m. Thursday, May 7, 2020.

To apply, follow this link https://forms.gle/Kt7w6ePayJjEotFt8

Any questions, please contact Barbara Childs, Community Arts Program Coordinator at ChildsBa@edmonds.wenet.edu.

Thank you!

Again, we can’t say thank you enough to our families for their patience and support. There truly is remarkable work happening across the community.

We have a lot of details to continue to iron out, including how to honor our graduation seniors. Together (virtually, of course) we can tackle anything.