Dear Lake Washington School District Families: 

We want to thank all the families who were able to complete our recent survey about “hybrid instructional models” for our return to school. We had more than 13,000 responses which are helping us as we continue planning for our return to school. We anticipate that we will be able to share a decision about the hybrid model next week. 

We also recently provided information about the option for families to choose a fully remote instructional model for students who may not be able to return to school for in-person instruction in the fall. Next week we will be opening online registration for fully remote learning for the 2020-21 school year. 

Below we’ve included additional updates and information from our Return to School Task Force efforts related the following topics:

1.    Hybrid and Fully Remote Models
2.    High School Athletics Fall Start Date Moved Back 
3.    Let’s Talk and Return to School Task Force FAQ

 

Hybrid and Fully Remote Models

There were a number of questions in the recent survey responses about the nature of instruction in hybrid or fully remote models. While we’ll be providing more detail in the coming weeks about each model, we wanted to share some of the features of each to help inform families’ decisions about fully remote learning.

Hybrid Model
In this model, students will be in school two (2) days per week and will participate in online learning three (3) days per week. Classes are divided in half, with one half of the class on an “A” schedule and the other half on a “B” schedule. This allows us to meet required social distancing guidelines. 

In person instruction will focus on building important relationships, the introduction of course content and skills, class discussion, direct feedback, hands-on learning, and other instructional approaches that lend themselves to in-person learning. Online learning will be more “asynchronous” where students will have time to work independently on assignments that were introduced in class. We are also considering ways in which students will be able to check in with teachers when working remotely, and how we can deliver services and supports to students individually and through small group instruction remotely.

The ability to return with this model will be dependent on state and King County Public Health guidelines and direction. 

Fully Remote Model
In this model, students will participate in online learning five (5) days per week. This will be an enhanced version of the learning that took place in the spring of 2020. Online instruction will be provided on a regular schedule with “synchronous” or live instruction, video lessons, and small group support. 

The fully remote option will also include “asynchronous” learning, where students will have the flexibility to work independently. Over the summer we are working with teachers, school administrators, Lake Washington Education Association Leadership and bargaining teams, and our Return to School Task Force members to develop guidelines for high-quality and consistent instruction with clear expectations and accountability for assignments and assessments. We’re also working to identify ways to deliver services and supports remotely to students individually and through small group instruction.

We are planning to use a single digital platform for our remote instruction in the fully remote and hybrid models.

 

High School Athletics Fall Start Date Moved Back

Earlier this week, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Executive Board took action to delay the start of the fall season until September 5 for football and September 7 for all other fall sports. We anticipate additional information from the WIAA Executive Board concerning the start of fall sports towards the end of this month.

 

Let’s Talk and Return to School Task Force FAQ

We know that we have not answered every question that our families have about returning to school in the fall. We are committed to providing you with weekly updates about our planning process. You can also follow our work on the Return to School Task Force webpage.

We’ve recently added a Let’s Talk button to this page. If you click on the blue button that says, “ASK A QUESTION: RETURN TO SCHOOL TASK FORCE,” you will get to the Let’s Talk page for the Return to School Task Force. There is also a link below, under my signature. Let’s Talk is a system that better allows us to track the questions that are coming in and allows us a tool to be able to answer you more efficiently. 

We are also taking any questions that are being frequently asked by our community and adding them to our new “Frequently Asked Questions” page of the website.

We will continue to provide weekly updates and expect to be able to provide much more detail in the coming weeks about what returning to school will look like this fall.

Sincerely,

Mike Van Orden, Associate Superintendent
Lake Washington School District
Have a Question? Let’s Talk