COVID-19 and School Closure Updates
8 days ago
by Jeff Kottong - 5/20/2020
Parents and Students,
The Warden School District staff will be providing two meals in Thursday's, May 21 delivery. There will not be a food delivery on Friday, May 22nd nor one on Monday, May 25th because of the Memorial Day holiday. Meal distribution will then resume on Tuesday, May 26.
May 15, 2020
Dear Parents/Guardians and Students,
Due to the State’s Emergency Closure for on-site instruction, all districts are required to provide remote learning. State statutes direct school districts to meet the requirement of providing 180 school days and a minimum average of 1027 hours of instruction for K-12 students. Because of this law, we must submit a waiver request to OSPI due to the impact and restrictions that the State’s Emergency Closure had on our students pertaining to reduced instructional hours.
Under these circumstances, OSPI stated that full funding will remain for all districts that submit a waiver request, and add five (5) additional school calendar days. Our School Board has approved our Resolution for an Instructional Hour Waiver, which included adding the five (5) additional school days (see attached revised 19-20 calendar). In addition, the School Board postponed our High School Graduation, which was scheduled for June 5th, to be rescheduled later in the summer. Our senior parents and board members expressed their desire to postpone the graduation date, possibly until July, with the hope of providing an in-person ceremony that is as close to traditional as possible.
Our previous 2019-20 calendar stated that our last school day would be June 11th. Our revised last school day is now June 18th. Please note the bolded items on the revised calendar pertaining to June dates:
1. *June 5th SENIOR GRADUATION HAS BEEN POSTPONED BY SCHOOL BOARD TO SUMMER 2020 (TBD)
2. *June 12th TEACHER WORKDAY EARLY RELEASE
3. *June 12th – 18th 5 - SCHOOL DAY ADDITION DUE TO STATE INSTRUCTIONAL HOUR REQUIREMENT
4. *June 18th LAST DAY OF SCHOOL EARLY RELEASE (185TH Day)
5. *July HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION (TBD)
Please contact your building principal or district office if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Dr. David B. LaBounty
Click here for a link to the revised WSD 2019/20 school calendar
by Jeff Kottong - 5/4/2020
Dear Parents/Guardians, and Community,
Below is a link to our Continuous Learning Plan update with our attendance and grading procedures for the remainder of this school year. The document is in both English and Spanish.
Our high school students, who indicated a need for a laptop, have been contacted to pick up their devices, as well as middle school students as of this past Friday. Presently we are surveying our elementary students pertaining to their technology needs and should have that completed by Wednesday. We will begin to distribute devices to our fifth grade students this coming Friday. Further information will be provided on which additional elementary grades will be receiving laptops and connectivity.
Thank you for all your efforts as we continue to work through this crisis and these challenging times.
Sincerely,
Dr. David B. LaBounty
Link to: Continuous Learning in the Warden Schools document
by Courtney McCoy, Scott West, Kelly Cutter - 4/21/2020
Greetings Students and Families,
We hope you’ve remained home and healthy as much as possible. You have been missed by your teachers and staff. Starting Monday, April 27 students are encouraged to return completed enrichment activities at the designated meal drop locations or bus routes.
Please return your work in the envelope we provided with Monday's enrichment packets, so we have your student’s name, grade, and teacher for the returned packets.
Student learning is important to us –we want to view completed work and provide feedback.
If you have questions, please feel free to contact the district office.
Thank You –Warden School District
by Gary Brandt - 4/21/2020
Athletic Department Announcements:
Spirit Gear Available for Pick Up
Anyone who purchased spirit gear for spring sports may pick it up Wednesday, April 22 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at a drive through station on the north side of the HS gym. While picking up your gear, please follow the traffic lane marked by cones to the distribution tables and remain in your vehicles while it is brought to you.
Attention Athletes: Please Return Your Uniforms / Equipment
Athletes should return their uniforms on Wednesday, April 22 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm to a drive through station on the north side of the HS gym. While dropping off your uniforms, please follow the traffic lane marked by cones to the drop off tables and remain in your vehicles. Staff will be available to receive the uniforms.
Golfers may use the same process to return clubs and bags.
by Jeff Kottong - 4/17/2020 6:00 PM
Warden Parents, Students and Community,
The Technology Department has been working with our district admin team since OSPI Superintendent Reykdal announced schools would be closed for the rest of the school year. We discussed our ability to provide technology to support continuous learning for our students. We feel we can support a blended learning model and utilize technology we already had in place to support our teachers to be able to provide instruction to students at home. The district plans to use paper packets, laptops, phone, email, video, and other supports to provide continuous learning in a blended learning model for our students.
To be able to do this, technology is planning a staggered rollout of support to our teachers and students.
For students, we will be surveying them to determine computer and internet needs for our students to be able to provide digital learning for them. We will be providing laptops to students who do not have access to a device for online learning in grades 6-12. We also have purchased 100 cellular hotspots to provide internet access to students currently without. As we roll out this plan in stages, starting with the seniors, we will be having conversations to determine to what extent we can provide digital learning to our elementary students and what that will look like.
Our timeline for deploying laptops to students who do not have a device available at home is:
· Week of 4/13/20
o Finish surveying seniors and make arrangements to distribute laptops to approx. 5-10 seniors who need them on Monday, 4/20
o Have secretaries call students grades 9-11 and check for technology needs
· Week of 4/20/20
o Distribute hotspots to seniors who need them
o Prep and distribute technology (laptops and hotspots to those who need them) to grades 9-11 on Friday, 4/24
o Secretaries will survey middle school students for technology needs
· Week of 4/27/20
o Prep and distribute technology (laptops and hotspots to those who need them) to grades 6-8 on Friday, 5/1
o Meet with admin team and discuss how the implementation has gone and review with elementary school to see if a deployment for any grades is viable and plan accordingly.
o Survey students as determined by team
· Week of 5/4/20
o Prep and distribute technology to any elementary grade levels it was decided to support by end of week
And finally, we know there are many more questions that you may have that were not addressed in this letter. We ask your patience as we develop guidelines, how-tos, trainings and try to get devices to students quickly and efficiently. This is new territory for you as well as technology and together we will provide quality instruction the Warden students.
This Friday, April 17 in honor of all Warden High School seniors in the class of 2020, Warden School District will join with other schools around the state of Washington and turn on the WHS Stadium Lights at 8:20 pm (20:20 military time). The lights will remain on for 20 minutes until 8:40 pm. We will be joining a number of other high schools in our conference giving tribute to the senior class of 2020.
Additionally, the scoreboard will display a time of 20:20 and a score of Home 20 – Visitors 20 during this time.
If you choose to view this celebration for our seniors, PLEASE continue to practice social distancing guidelines and remain in vehicles at all times while viewing this event.
by Jeff Kottong - 4/14/2020 3:45 PM
FOOD DISTRIBUTION IN WARDEN - Thursday 4/16/2020 9:00 - 2:00 - Warden Community Center
Fighting Back with Food!
Michael Foods has partnered with the Warden School District and the City of Warden to provide over 900 meals for families in the Warden area. They will be having a drive-by Food Distribution on Thursday, April 16 from 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM at the Warden Community Center.
We are asking that families wishing to receive meals please stay in their cars, drive by the pickup site, and we will deliver a box of food to each vehicle.
At Michael Foods, our strength comes from the people in the communities in which we operate. We’ve never needed that strength more than we do now as we all battle the COVID-19 outbreak.We couldn’t be more proud of the support our employees have received from their friends, families and neighbors during this time of crisis and are very excited to feed the very people that will see us through!
We hope this collection of foodservice products helps support your family during this difficult time and that we are able to enjoy them again – together – at our favorite restaurants very soon!
by Courtney McCoy - April 10, 2020
Greetings Warden High School Seniors and Families,
I hope you all are healthy and safe. The purpose of this communication is to let you know we have been meeting and planning to care for each of you during this unusual time of mandated social distancing and school closure. Our hearts go out to all of our students, but especially to our seniors. The Warden School District Staff will miss getting to see you participate in the final stages of your Warden High School Education. Many of us have watched you, for years and years, grow into the outstanding young adults of Warden that you are. We are saddened, knowing you, as well as the staff, will miss out on our typical culminating springtime activities, events, and celebrations.
Please know your School Board, Superintendent, Counselors, Teachers and Support Staff are working on the details of how you will finish the school year. We are looking at the graduation requirements of second semester and exactly what graduation will look like. We care about you, we will support you, and though it may look different than past ceremonies, we will have a graduation ceremony. The School Board met last night to address your graduation needs; they will continue their work on Monday, April 13th pertaining to the newly adopted State Board of Education (SBE) waiver considerations.
It is critical you engage with your classes you are enrolled in and any credit retrieval contracts you may have been on. Our senior support team, consisting of Ms. Theriault, Ms. Crow, Ms. Reyes, Ms. Massa, and I, are scrupulously reviewing your transcripts and teachers are communicating through email, canvass, google, and academic packets. Please act now, engage with your teachers, ask them questions, and complete course work.
We are currently working on getting computer devices and internet hotspots available to any senior who needs it. I know you can and will earn your diploma! Stay the course: do whatever work is assigned. Please let us know if you have questions or circumstances creating further difficulties.
As we all work on this new method of continuous learning, please know that we will make the necessary adjustments to meet the needs of our students. Know that we are here for you. We appreciate your patience and you reaching out to us if you have any questions, please email or call.
You can do this! We will do this together – whatever it takes! Know that we are here for you.
Warmly,
Ms. McCoy
by Jeff Kottong - 4/8/2020 4:00 PM
Warden School District Community,
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) published on 4/6/2020 that "The WIAA has received clarification that the order issued by Governor Inslee on Monday includes the cancellation of all in-person extracurricular athletics and activities through the end of the school year. This will include all regular season contests and practices as well as all postseason tournaments and championship events." Their complete update can be found at this link -
by Dr. David LaBounty - 4/6/2020 4:45 PM
Parents, Guardians and Community,
This afternoon, Governor Inslee and OSPI Superintendent Reydal announced that all school facilities in the State will remain closed for on-site instruction for the remainder of this school year.
As we experience our first day of Spring Break, we will be continuing our committed services to our students, families and community on April 13th. We have our academic packets packaged ready to go out to students when we return on April 13th, as well as our meal deliveries.
As we all continue to apply efforts of social distancing and staying home, as much as possible, our focus with the State is to “flatten the curve” on this health crisis. This news of an extended school closure has been expected due to the amount of health impacts that we are experiencing across our State. This means that we must move forward in a non-typical manner.
This Wednesday, April 8th, the State Board of Education (SBE) will be meeting to address potential educational waivers for seniors that are in line to graduate this year. Our district and Board of Directors will be discussing and reviewing those recommended waivers.
We are aware that many questions and concerns are being expressed. Some of those questions pertain to “my child’s education”, “my senior’s graduation”, “how do we move forward”, as examples. Let me assure you, we have a committed and dedicated team of staff working hard to provide the essential services in a remote manner. We are transitioning and adapting as quickly as we can. We have systems and services in place from an outstanding group of employees.
Our focus will remain on remote learning, providing meals, and childcare services. We will continue to provide our best as we continue to obtain further guidance from the State, OSPI, and from our regional partners. We anticipate more details, instructions, and guidance to be coming out. We will keep you informed as information becomes available.
Sincerely,
Dr. David B. LaBounty
by Jeff Kottong and staff- 4/3/2020 4:00 PM
Warden School District Community,
Our transportation and classified staff put together and delivered almost 8000 meals this week. On Thursday and Friday our teams delivered our Spring Break support packages. On Monday, 900 enrichment packets went out to students. We want to remind families that there will not be meals nor enrichment packets going out next week, April 6 – 10, due to Spring Break. When we return from Spring Break, we will start meals and enrichment packet delivery on April 13th. A big thank you to our classified staff for all of their hard work!
The academic support team of classified staff and admin processed and organized enrichment activities for students this week. These will be delivered Monday after Spring Break week. Without their dedication and commitment to serve, the enrichment activities would be an impossible task to accomplish – THANK YOU!!! We would also like to acknowledge teachers for developing enrichment activities for the academic support team to process each week!
As you may of noticed, the staff members that work in the public are following the Health Department's recommendation to wear some sort of face mask. This would be a great opportunity to explain to your child how the COVID-19 virus is spread through mouth and nose droplets. These droplets can infect another person by breathing them in or by touching the face. It is too bad the masks cover the big smiles of our wonderful staff, but please know it is a necessary precaution to protect them and you. All employees and guests entering our facility must be screened on arrival for COVID-19 related symptoms; temp of 100.4 or higher, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, etc. Our school nurse is available during the work day for screening and all concerns.
Please have a safe and healthy weekend.
by Jeff Kottong - 4/1/2020 5:20 PM
Warden School District Community,
Warden School District Updates – 3/27/2020 3:00 PM
Our maintenance, transportation, food service, and classified personnel have been very busy. They have been creating routes, making two meals a day per student, packing and delivering to all of our students. We have nine routes running bringing food and academic enrichment packets to our out of town students and Jeske and Volunteer Parks for students living within city limits. We are serving over 1200 meals per day, for an approximate 8400 meals, and delivering weekly academic enrichment packets to our students on routes and at Jeske and Volunteer Parks.
The State has directed us to provide meals during Spring Break. As we prepare for Spring Break, it will be a little different. In support of this, we are preparing a larger box with enough food for up to four school days. Next Monday and Tuesday, we will be collecting information from our students and families at the parks about their ability to carry the larger packages home. These packages will be heavy. We will be organizing deliveries to some homes. We would like our drive up parents to continue to do so. These will be available Thursday and Friday. Because we are adding more meals, our bus route deliveries might take a little longer and some delivery times might change.
Our academic support team continued to put together packets of teacher’s materials for students for our upcoming Monday delivery. Our system was much more streamlined this week and we are excited to deliver the packets to students on Monday for Week Two of academic support. Enrichment envelopes will be available in each student’s lunch pick up or drop-off location. Thank you to our teachers for the increased volume of enrichment activities.
There will be no deliveries of meals or enrichment packets during Spring Break, April 6 – 10. We will be posting more information about our Spring Break meal and academic enrichment packages on our website www.warden.wednet.edu and Facebook.
Graduating Class of 2020 Information
Yesterday the State Board of Education (SBE) met to discuss their temporary solution for school districts to address the impact of the statewide school closures on our graduating class of 2020. The SBE is in the process of granting school districts authority to waive some state credit requirements for individual students, who were on-track to graduate, this school year and were unable to complete required state credits despite a good faith effort on the part of the district to help the student earn credit. The SBE also stated that local school boards could create their own policies for their own unique/local credit requirements. The SBE will be seeking public comment on their work until April 7th and plan to adopt the rules and potentially a resolution on April 8th for a planned press release on that day. If adopted, the rules will become effective April 9th.
On March 26th WSD participated in the afternoon SBE introductory webinar pertaining to graduation requirements. Warden School District will continue to collaborate with the State Board of Education and our North Central Educational Service District (NCESD) partners to create proposals for the Warden School Board to consider, in order to be prepared for the SBE waiver application, currently scheduled to open on April 16th.
Please be aware that this is a continually changing situation without precedence. The state continues to reinforce that we must be flexible and patient as numerous groups address and work through these challenging issues. We will continue to keep you informed as we receive more information and guidance from the NCESD, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), SBE.
Health and Virus Updates
The District is staying up to date with the evolving health recommendations from the Grant County Health Department. We are planning and practicing precautions to minimize transmission of the virus. Decisions are being made every day to keep our students, their families and our staff safe as we prepare and deliver food. Please refer to the Grant County Health website at http://granthealth.org/updates-for-covid-19-in-grant-county/
School Closure and Athletics Update
OSPI has shared the desire for school districts to still plan for the return to school on April 27. Depending on the progression of the virus and the “flattening of the curve” decisions will be made later if that date can be met. We will be continuing to follow the state’s guidelines and WIAA’s recommendations for athletics. The WIAA has a FAQ for Spring Sports available here - http://wiaa.com/news.aspx?ID=681&Mon=3&Yr=2020
From the entire leadership team,
Dr. Dave LaBounty
by Jeff Kottong 3/24/2020 4:45 PM
Warden School District Community,
by Jeff Kottong 3/23/2020 4:30 PM
Warden School District Community,
The District handed out academic enrichment packets to students today with meal bags. We have had an increase in the number of meals handed out each day. Teachers, please remember to submit your enrichment handouts to your principal by Thursday, March 26, to have them included in next Monday's delivery.
Our Online and Phone Question and Response document has been updated. The latest questions are listed first on the document. If you submitted a question online, you should have received a response through your contact email.
We are asking parents who are driving to Volunteer and Jeske Parks in the city to please queue in a line and drive-by to pick up meals and packets rather than park and walk to pickup the items. We are mindful of social distancing requirements and would like to minimize the number of people standing and waiting in groups.
The District received an eleven page bulletin from OSPI titled "Guidance for Long-term School Closures as of March 20, 2020." Included in the bulletin was guidance and supports for high school seniors. Our staff will be reviewing this document as well as participating in a webinar meeting with the Department of Education later this week, and will be meeting to discuss planning for seniors and graduation.
Our administration has been working to facilitate the state's request provide food service, childcare and academic enrichment for our students within the framework of social distancing, protecting the vulnerable, and to minimize the transmission of the coronavirus. Each day assessments are being made to determine how we can best achieve this and protect our staff and students. Decisions are being made to allow additional staff to work from home and to rotate personnel working at school to minimize exposures.
We continue to thank all those providing support for our students in one way or another.
by Jeff Kottong 3/20/2020 4:20 PM
Warden School District Community,
We had additional students pickup meals today. Staff finished preparing enrichment packets to be delivered to students with their meal bags on Monday.
We have collected and answered the questions asked by phone or online. They are available to view on the website in the "Questions and Answers" block. Please take a moment to view the answers provided.
Some questions are not able to answered in detail as we continue to receive guidance from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Department of Education, the Federal Government and the county and state health organizations.
We have started to share some pictures on the Warden School District Facebook page -
by Jeff Kottong 3/19/2020 4:30 PM
Parents, Guardians and Community members,
Washington State Superintendent of Schools Chris Reykdal sent a letter to district Superintendents on March 17, 2020. Dr. LaBounty would like to share this document with you. The "...letter is intended to highlight priorities to be addressed as you identify local solutions for serving your communities in response to the Governors's proclamation and guidance from the Department of Health (DOH)." Please click this link to download the complete letter - https://drive.google.com/open?id=19wlcnuyORFNdBT2j9pDJGdgvzDL2pQaN.
Thank you for your support of the Warden Schools and our students.
by Jeff Kottong 3/18/2020 4:45 PM
Parents, Guardians, and Community members,
posted by Jeff Kottong 3/17/2020 4:55 PM
Parents, Guardians and Community members,
We are in our first mandated school closure day. Our classified staff is focused on and invested in finalizing our Meals for Student deliveries and Childcare Services to begin on this Thursday. We are ready to prepare 1,780 meals per day, consisting of a breakfast and lunch, for our 890 students. This will total 8,900 bagged meals per week and 44,500 meals planned for the next six weeks. We have established assembly lines to package meals while utilizing our Transportation fleet and drivers as our delivery service. Out-of-City students will be receiving their two daily meals around 10 am – 11 am via their scheduled bus route. In-City students will receive their meals at Jeske and Volunteer Parks in Warden, depending upon where the students live. The district will send out an Auto Call Wednesday informing parents and guardians of the Thursday meal deliveries. Busses will use their horns to signal “come get your meals” at each bus stop. A notification flyer will be added to the meals for parents to cancel their students’ meal deliveries if they desire not to receive them. We will also be utilizing our meal delivery system to get educational enrichment materials out to students that teachers provide to their principals. We have a designated team of classified staff to make copies and package those materials. We plan on having those education packets go out on Mondays, with March 23rd as our first scheduled delivery.
Our childcare team is finalizing on the students needing services, as well as, scheduling their daily activities. Students must receive prior permission to get into the program and must meet the criterion for service. Requests are made through Michele Cram at 509-349-2366. All childcare students will receive a daily health screening before entering the building from our nurse. Transportation will be provided for childcare students if they need transportation and if the student resides in a typical transportation route area. In town families will need to provide student transportation to and from school. The program will be from 8:15 am – 3:00 pm Monday through Friday. We will be implementing social distancing in the program with a focus of five students per classroom with two adult supervisors. All exterior building doors will remain locked for district personnel entrance only. Parents are instructed to remain outside in their vehicles. Students will be brought to them.
The district will have four phone-in calling centers activated on Thursday pertaining to the following services: 1) Health service through our district nurse, at 509-349-1864, to get questions answered and provide health information, 2) A Question and Answer service for parents and community by phone at 509-349-1880, or through our website to obtain information. The Question and Answer responses will be posted on our website daily, 3) Meal delivery cancellation and/or meal response center at 509-349-1872, and 4) the Warden District Office for all other information at 509-349-2366. The phone centers will be available for personal contact Monday – Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
A special shout-out to all of our staff that have assisted in planning and creating these supports for our students, families, and community. All are demonstrating a passion and care for our community in these challenging times. Please stay in regular contact with district email, website, and Facebook for updated information.
Sincerely,
Dr. David B. LaBounty
by Jeff Kottong 3/17/2020 11:20 AM
We have been asked about translation to Spanish for information on the website. The website has a "Translate" link at the bottom left corner of the page. Google Translate is available to translate webpage text into a language of choice.
We will try to make as many handouts and letters available in Spanish and they can be found by clicking on the "Covid-19 Information" found on the district webpage Top Link bar. In the "WSD Information" block is a section of "Links in Spanish" and copies of information sent out will be available in both English and Spanish in the "WSD Notices and Information" block.
The most current information and updates will be found in this section each day. Thank you.
posted by Jeff Kottong 3/16/2020 6:40 PM
March 16, 2020
Dear Parents,
Our three areas of student support during the current school closure are food service, childcare for select groups (as directed by the state) and academic enrichment.
The District will begin food service on Thursday, March 19, 2020. Breakfast and lunch “to go” will be provided for all Warden School District students. Students on bus routes will have food delivered by their regular bus driver beginning at 10:00 AM.
Students that live in town may pick up their meals at one of two designated locations. If you live west of County Road, meals can be picked up at Jeske Park, on Grant Avenue, between the hours of 10:00 and 11:00 AM. If you live east of County Road, meals can be picked up at Volunteer park, on Maple between the hours of 10:00 and 11:00 AM. Parents/guardians or students may pick up these meals.
Childcare will be provided from the hours of 8:15-3:00 for preapproved families (those of health-care workers and first responders). If you have not been contacted and are a part of one of these groups, please call the District office at (509) 349-2311, ext. 1582. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for those students. In addition, transportation can be arranged if needed.
The academic team is still formulating enrichment supports for students and more information will be provided at a later time.
Although schools will be closed, the school system will not shut down. We appreciate your ongoing support and patience. Please look to our District website and Social Media for continued updates, along with communication that will be provided with meal service.
In support of your students,
Warden School District
by Jeff Kottong 3/16/2020 3:00 PM
The Warden School District has been participating in regional Zoom meetings, meeting with union representation and meeting as planning groups to prepare information to our students, parents and community concerning the next steps we will be taking to meet the directive of the State of Washington school closure. We expect to have a planning document available on the website by the end of the day with information concerning plans for the coming days.
by Jeff Kottong 3/16/2020 2:15 PM
The School Board meeting scheduled for March 16, 2020 at 7:00 pm has been cancelled in compliance with the Washington State directive and Grant County Health suggestions to limit gatherings of people.
The Warden School District will be preparing a process to submit questions you may have had online and we will be reviewing them and posting answers the following day. We expect to have this available on the website by March 18.
Additionally, by March 19, we will have a dedicated phone number to reach the school nurse to be able to ask questions about the coronavirus.
