DISTRICT: Principals were alerted about Governor Little’s stay-at-home order and teachers working in the buildings went home. The Admin Team met late this afternoon to discuss what this means moving forward for our educational delivery. Preliminary plans for parents and students regarding the start-up after Spring Break will be released on Thursday, 3/26.

TETON HIGH SCHOOL: New packets will be available on April 8th. Please send feedback to teachers about the amount of work appropriateness since this was our first week of experience with home-based learning. We are trying to simplify some of our processes to help everyone stay on a learning trajectory.

BASIN HIGH SCHOOL: Hello Basin Students and Families! We miss seeing everyone but we hope you are all healthy and doing well.  The Guinea Pigs and Teton say Hi!! As a reminder: Students should plan to complete 4-6 hours of academic work on each school day to stay on track.  Teachers are available M-F; 8-3 PM by call/text to the BHS Cell, Email, or leaving a message on the classroom phone. Parents requesting detailed progress reports should contact Ms. Lord [email protected] or Mrs. Moulton@ [email protected]

TETON MIDDLE SCHOOL: Students and parents can pick up packets through this Thursday. Teachers have been helping students with home-based learning assignments and will be available throughout the week. If you have a question about a specific class, please reach out to the teacher of that class.  If you need to reach out with a general question, please email your advisory teacher and they will call you right back. If you need something, they will make arrangements to get you what you need and will leave it at the front entrance of the school.

RENDEZVOUS UPPER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:  Teachers have been discussing options for after Spring Break. RUES planned to do a Teacher Parade on Thursday, with the teachers from Driggs Elementary, but have canceled it because of Governor Little’s stay-at-home order.

DRIGGS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: DES teachers have been making initials plans for after Spring Break. Although DES teachers were intending to do a Teacher’s Parade on Thursday, with the RUES teachers (and through the streets of Driggs), it was canceled after the stay-at-home order was made.

TETONIA ELEMENTARY AND VICTOR ELEMENTARY: At 10:30, we held the first-ever Tetonia Teacher Parade, including school buses and cars!  At 11:00, we had an All Staff TES/VES Google Meet Check in! Between 11:00 and 1:00, lunches were available for pick up at TES and VES. At 2:00, Victor’s Teacher Parade took to the streets, only in cars because it was after Governor Little’s stay-at-home proclamation.

MAINTENANCE:  All school buildings have been disinfected; the crews will start cleaning carpets tomorrow and Friday, practicing social distancing.

TRANSPORTATION: Crews continue to make repairs to buses, do 60-day inspections, sanitize TMS and THS, clean spare buses, and clean out the old VES. Bus drivers drove staff from TES around Tetonia in buses; the Victor parade start-time was after Governor Little’s proclamation so no bus was used for VES staff.

FOOD SERVICE: Free meals for those aged 1-18 will be provided during Spring Break, March 30-April 3; stay tuned for more details. A link to signup for next week’s meals will be available Thursday.

TSD 401 provided 601 free meals today and continued to distribute hand sanitizer donated by Grand Teton Distillery and New West Knifeworks. The link to sign up for meals for tomorrow is through the district’s website (tsd401.org) — please remember to choose your pickup location and sign up by midnight.

INFORMATION/TECHNOLOGY: Continued to research the purchase of hot spots for students who do not have Internet access at their home. Continued working to meet the hardware needs of students and staff. Prepared a comprehensive report to present to the school board at its Thursday night meeting.

TEA:  Teachers continue to prepare for the coming weeks after spring break as we move forward with home-based learning.  I am pushing out resources for free professional development opportunities and resources to help support home-based digital learning efforts. There is some stress on secondary teachers being able to keep up with the influx of communications and trying to respond in a timely manner, but I’ve seen some serious dedication to meeting that need. Being able to communicate effectively with elementary kids has been on the minds of K-5 teachers–brainstorming ideas there. We are definitely on overload but I think we will find our groove soon if we keep working as a team in each building.

SPECIAL EDUCATION:

  • A formal written notice of individualized special education services is going out this week to all parents of students receiving special services.
  • Information regarding special services, updates, and teacher/provider contact information is now available to parents on the TSD Home-Based Learning Portal.
  • TSD’s SpEd coordinator is communicating with the special education department daily regarding updates for SDE.