Shawnee Middle School Pivoting to Distance Learning Jan. 19, 2022
January 18, 2022
Dear Shawnee Middle School Families,
I wanted to let you know it has become necessary for us to make the difficult decision to pivot Shawnee Middle School to distance learning on Wednesday, January 19. Our decision is based on the number of staff currently affected by the uptick in COVID-19 infections. SMS students will be expected to access their course work through the online learning platform Canvas on Wednesday. Feel free to email your teacher any time during the normal school day if you have any questions. Our hope is that we will be able to have students back face to face as soon as possible. We will assess the situation each day, continue to make site-by-site decisions, and work to make the next right decision with our local school data.
While I know this news may be disappointing, we made this decision based on what is best for the health and safety of our students and staff. The growing number of staff absences continues to strain our ability to effectively cover classes. All Shawnee staff are making exceptional efforts to keep our schools open. Every employee at Shawnee Public Schools continues to cover additional classrooms. We know that being in person with teachers in classrooms is best for students.
While we will not have in-person classes at Shawnee Middle School on Wednesday, we do hope to keep our extracurricular activities as scheduled. Please continue to consider wearing face coverings when social distancing is not feasible, wash or sanitize your hands frequently, and monitor the health of your family daily. Thank you for your support and understanding as we make these tough decisions for our student and staff safety.
Sincerely,
April Grace, Ed.D.
Superintendent