Dear Win-E-Mac communities:
As we enter the early stages of the 2020-2021 school year, we wanted to share some additional information about how our district will make decisions regarding our learning models throughout the school year. Many of you are familiar with the COVID-19 bi-weekly case rate shared on the Minnesota Department of Health Dashboard, (https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/stats/index.html), and Governor Walz’s (https://mn.gov/covid19/assets/safe-learning-plan_tcm1148-442202.pdf) plan regarding our school learning models. Please understand that these are starting points intended to guide and steer our discussions and thinking.
In reality, determinations in our district will be made based on data points to ensure our decisions are data-driven. We will use local, regional, and statewide data which will be sorted by age, demographics, population, zip codes, etc. We will consider local differences such as social distancing and masking habits, student attendance and illness numbers, building and space capacities, facilities, and other local disparities. We will use our local decision teams, local public health, our regional support team facilitated by the Northwest Service Cooperative including two epidemiologists, and a COVID testing coordinator appointed by the Minnesota Department of Health. These data points and teams will help our school administrators and Board of Directors make a local determination to monitor, adapt, and adjust our learning plans as needed throughout the school year. In the end, our primary goal is to keep our students, staff, and community safe. Our other goal, of course, is to continue to deliver a world-class education.
Sincerely,
Randy Bruer, Supt.