It has been one year since Oregon’s first official, confirmed case of COVID-19. A lot has happened in the year. One year ago, we had our first ever virtual school auction, we transitioned to learning from home, synchronous & asynchronous became household terms and masks became the new norm. Since schools were shut on March 13, we’ve learned together how to perfect the art of distance learning and support our community through hard times. We grieve and persevere through the challenging times together as a community, with the hope that the vaccination timeline will help us have a summer and fall that are closer to pre-pandemic times.
When it comes to children, we know their health consequences aren't as dire. But they can be significant. Oregon lost its first infant to COVID-19 in February. Numerous children in Oregon have been hospitalized and asymptomatic children spread the virus.
These statistics are the outliers, but our role as a school is to take all lives into account and try to make the best decision for everyone. As a staff, we weigh each student's physical and emotional wellbeing when we make decisions and always try to make the best, most equitable decision possible for our community.
Last night at the Cottonwood School Board meeting, the board carefully listened to and considered reopening plans. They affirmed our intent to keep Cottonwood in Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL) through the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year with the addition of a robust Limited-In Person Instruction(LIPI) model so that after spring break students and families who are comfortable with in-person activities may have that option.
Thank you to everyone for completing our most recent survey. Every comment and need was read. We pulled out our BIPOC, SpEd and Free & Reduced Lunch cohorts to see if their needs aligned with the whole school. We read every comment and looked at every angle. Through our survey, we know that a significant number of our families intend to remain in CDL for the remainder of the school year, whether for safety reasons and/or because their students are doing well in it. But we also know that we have some students who are not thriving in CDL and need additional support. Cottonwood will begin offering LIPI after spring break for both academic support and social emotional support. Further, 89.9% of our families support their students gathering outside for social meet ups with their teachers and we will deliver on this.
We heard from our board, staff and families that we all will remain safer in CDL and that students will receive more and better instruction than in a hybrid model. A hybrid model, as explained before, combines CDL with in-person instruction for small cohorts. However, simultaneously maintaining both classroom and online instruction would likely lead to diminished instructional time and quality of instruction for students, as well as strain Cottonwood’s ability to provide adequate staffing. A LIPI model allows Cottonwood to continue providing high-quality, fully staffed CDL, while also identifying and helping our students who are in the most need of additional supports. Cottonwood has managed to stay ahead of trends and make decisions in a proactive manner during the pandemic. We want to continue in a proactive manner so that when we take two steps forward we don't need to take any steps back.
Thank you for your continued support. We are all in this together.
Amanda & Susan
