La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

The 2020-21 school year begins for La Conner students on Sept. 14. For the teachers and staff it began Sept. 2nd. For many in the administration and teaching staff, last year’s school year never ended before this new school year began.

With the end of the school year our state superintendent of public instruction made a public statement that all schools would open in person come September, but to be prepared for the possibility of full online learning, or a hybrid scenario, and to take immediate steps in the preparation for all three of those potentialities.

There is a group of individuals who spent their summer doing just as Chris Rykdal, the state superintendent, requested. They went to work for the students and families of our community to ensure the best and safest return to school come fall. These members of our school district deserve medals.

Four Zoom meetings took place in July, each two hours in length, with volunteer community members discussing best options for our district going forward. This group included students, parents, teachers, staff, Tribal members and administration. After hours of discussion and analysis a consensus was reached, to open 100% online in September. This consensus was brought to and approved by the School Board. (The outcome of this decision is outlined well in the newly distributed Lantern newsletter, also available on the School’s website, as is La Conner Connect, a very helpful link to the meetings and information developed by this group over the summer and going forward.)

With this conclusion this same dedicated group of staff spent countless hours of their free time to insure that come fall all students would have a full and fair approach to learning.

They spent their time reviewing, analyzing new learning management systems for the elementary and secondary school students.

They worked to synchronize the data platform all families have access to for grading and information, so that all would run in a straight forward manner.

Devices were purchased for each student (purchased through state and federal funding), each device individually set up with the selected platforms.

Broadband was increased and hotspots created so no student would have learning inaccessible to them.

Too many details to mention were covered to make this coming school year enriching and successful for all.

I am proud of our school district. It chose a path of its own, using the talent that lies within and creatively, steadfastly working for us, the students, families and community of La Conner and Swinomish. They did this selflessly due to their passion for educating. Safety and health were given priority. From this foundation will be constructed a path forward which is firm and comprehensible. We will have the building blocks that will allow progress to a smooth and concrete transition to hybrid and then to full in-school learning.

We are a fortunate district to have these dedicated individuals.

Katie Carson

Parent of a high school freshman

La Conner