March 23, 2020
Parents and Families,
As you may know, the Governor announced an extension of his executive order to close all face to face instruction at all NC Public Schools until May 15, 2020. We knew this was on the horizon but did not expect it to be for that long. East Wake Academy is a Public School, the order does apply to us and does impact our face to face operations.
As we close out our track out and move the school to online and at-home learning, our teachers will be hard at work making plans and looking at ways to best meet the needs of all students. Your family and our staff are on track out and we need to honor our current situation. With that being said, we will be asking the board to extend track out to include March 31 and April 1 as workdays. Teacher planning will be more formalized in teams and they will begin rolling out how your child will receive instruction and educational support from the school. April 2 will be our target for implementation. We will be providing more details over the next few days.
As we make our transition to our “new temporary normal”, we will be asking for patience, grace, and support. We understand that most of you are not educators, but you were your child’s first teacher! This will not be perfect, but we will all be in this together. Every NC family that has school-aged students in living this together. So many of you are having to work from home and are facing other family stressors. We do realize that the impact of home instruction and will keep this in mind as we roll out and move forward.
As we end our track out this week, what can we all do to plan for moving forward?
- Start making a daily routine for your child
- Set times for them to do tasks (that time will transition to schoolwork time)
- Set a time for downtime (time to chill)
- Set a time for play – being outside
- Set a time for family
- Set time for family discussions – talk about school/life
We all need to also understand that home instruction will not be from 8:15 to 3:00 every day. Your child will experience a mix of online, paper and pencil, and other learning opportunities. Expectations will be shaped and designed for their age level. Time invested by a kinder will be different from the time invested by a High Schooler. We will slowly ramp up instruction and engage every student, but we also need to understand the social-emotional needs of the students and families.
This is going to be a unique opportunity for everyone. This time will be finite and will end at some point soon. We need to embrace the positive side of it as we all are forced to slow down, spend more quality time as families and enjoy our kids. Personally, my daughter is home from graduate school, and it will be the last time my wife and I get to spend this much extended time with her. She may feel differently, but we are living that illusion and embracing the opportunity.
As an educational community, East Wake Academy has so much to be thankful for. Our biggest assets are our staff, families and wonderful students. We all face many challenges over the next few weeks, but remember we are all in this together. Remember that all formal information from the school will come from Mr. Gay, administration and the Board. We will be in contact more often as plans are finalized.
In this together!
Stephen Gay