Good Afternoon Beverly Parents, Guardians and Families,
This is Dr. Charochak with an update for all of you. We hope that you are settling into your routines and are developing strategies that are helping you cope with the school closure. I want to take this opportunity to share with you once again that our main goal throughout this closure is a focus of the safety and well-being of all the members of the Beverly school community. Many of our teachers and administrators are parents of young children, adolescents, and teens, and as such, share the same pressures you are all facing as you attempt to balance your work life, parenting and caring for extended families, many of whom may be particularly vulnerable during this time. It is our hope that the remote learning plan that we have developed provides some form of connection and engagement for your children. Please remember to reach out to your child's teacher, principal or Central Office with any questions or concerns throughout this time period.
Today, I am sharing with you a letter from DESE Commissioner Jeff Riley. The letter addresses the remote learning recommendations from the Department of Ed and is the basis from which we created our remote learning plan. As you are aware, we launched our Beverly Keeps Learning website as a home base for you and your child throughout the closure. We will continue to utilize this platform until we return to school (hopefully on May 4th). The Commissioner’s new guidance, dated March 30th, will be used to further define our remote learning plan for the extended closure. You will find that our focus continues to be on connecting with each other through the use of Google Classroom and Moodle, as well as communication tools such as Zoom and Google Meet. Teachers are encouraged to continue to provide enrichment and deeper learning while introducing new content when appropriate. As we have emphasized all along, remote learning encompasses a wide range of activities and tools. We will be sharing the details and guidelines of our Remote Learning Plan at the end of this week as well as our ideas regarding the next phase of implementation.
One area I would like to clarify is the question regarding grading for Trimester II for all K-8 students. We have decided that grades for students in grades K-8 will close on Friday, April 3rd and will be posted in Aspen on Friday April 10th. The grades will include work assigned prior to the closure and no students will be penalized for missing work that is unable to be made up. In some cases, if necessary, a grade of incomplete will be applied until such time as there is a chance to ensure that all students have an equitable opportunity to submit their work. We will provide further details about the grading of high school students (Q3 and Q4) later in the week.
Finally, Here is a link to a newsletter from our nursing staff with some helpful tips to keep you safe! Once again, we thank you for your partnership, particularly in these unprecedented times. Please reach out if there is anything you need.
Thank you,
Sue Charochak, Ed. D.
Superintendent of Schools
