Virtual Learning Update

A message from Mrs. Meghan Carter, Principal. - November 17, 2020

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With the approach of Thanksgiving and Christmas, Star’s leadership team is continuing to assess how best to keep our Star students and staff healthy and in school for in-person learning. 

Monday we emailed all of our families a Survey asking you to share your Thanksgiving plans: 1) Are you traveling? and 2) Are you spending Thanksgiving with multiple families?  The goal of the survey was to determine if there is a possible COVID health risk to our students and staff upon returning to school the week after Thanksgiving.  The results of the survey are 12% of our families will be traveling for Thanksgiving and 45% of our families plan to spend Thanksgiving with multiple families.   From these results, we are concerned with the strong possibility of COVID-19 being brought into our school by students after their Thanksgiving gatherings and travel. 

As I stated in my email to parents a few days ago, we have all worked together to keep our students and families safe, allowing us to remain in school for in-person learning.  Thanksgiving multi-family gatherings would more than likely reverse our hard work, possibly resulting in many students and staff exposure to COVID-19.  According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, “A COVID-19 outbreak is two or more cases with a link by place and time indicating a shared exposure outside of a household.”   An outbreak of COVID-19 in our school would lead to many grades or the whole school being sent home to learn remotely for 14 days. 

In an effort to avoid the strong possibility of COVID-19 entering the school after Thanksgiving, putting our staff and students’ health at risk and putting the school at risk of having to move to remote learning for 14 days, we will move to remote learning for the week after Thanksgiving, November 30 – December 4, 2020. 

This difficult decision was reached after much discussion, thought, and prayers.  The goal of this action is two-fold.  First, moving to remote learning for this week will help protect the health of our students and staff, and ultimately all our Star families.  Second, this move will  help us avoid any possibility of exposing our school community to COVID-19, allowing us to be in school the remaining two weeks before Christmas break – December 7 – 18^th. 

The expectation we have of our families and students in moving to remote learning is that families are home during this week and students are following their class's remote learning schedule.  We strongly request that families do not take this week to extend their time away or time spent with extended family and friends. 

We are expecting families to keep their family’s health in mind – watch for COVID symptoms and stay healthy – during this week of remote learning.  Any extension of vacation time and extended exposure to families outside our homes will negate the expected outcome we are hoping to have and would put into jeopardy remaining in school for the following two weeks.

Remote learning – students will follow their teacher’s remote learning schedule and the school’s Phase 3: School Plan - Distance Learning.  Teachers will schedule live Google Meet instructional periods each day that students are required to attend; attendance will be graded.  Teachers will be reaching out with more details on their remote learning plan.

Over the last two and a half months we have asked our Star families, students, and staff to go above and beyond our normal everyday teaching, learning, and lives to help keep our students and staff healthy.  Thank you so much.  We are now asking that while you spend some well deserved and needed time with family, giving thanks to God for all the many blessings in your lives, that you continue to keep health and safety in the forefront of your minds.  Families, please take the week of remote learning seriously and spend it in quiet time at home, allowing your students to work in a safe environment.  This will help mitigate any further exposure to COVID-19 so we all can look forward to returning to school for the remaining two weeks of school before Christmas break.   Each of our family’s decisions over the Thanksgiving holiday and during the week after will directly affect the health of our Star students and staff. 

I am so very thankful to be a part of such an amazing community of families.  You all will remain in my prayers, asking God for his protection, love, and guidance.

Stay safe and God Bless.
Mrs. Meghan Carter, Principal