March 31, 2020

Dear NWPS Parents/Guardians, 

On Saturday, March 28, 2020, Governor Pete Ricketts issued a Directed Health Measure for the Central Health Department.  With additional directives for businesses, it extended the closure for all schools in the Central Health Department region to May 6, 2020.  

We will extend our building closures to match these new requirements.  The Directed Health Measure remains in place until the Governor or health department cancels it, lets it expire, or extends it.  If there is a change in the directive, we will pass that along as soon as we are notified.

Learning Opportunities beginning April 6, 2020:

As we move into online learning, we are all adjusting our teaching and learning methods.  This is a new process for everyone; students, parents and our teachers. Thank you for being patient in this process.  We understand there may be issues with internet services, conflicts with schedules, parents working, etc. Our hope is to provide learning opportunities for our students to help them continue to grow without adding undue stress at this time.  We will continue to adjust and modify as we move forward. Please do not be afraid to ask questions, please email teachers and administration with any questions or concerns you may have. 

Zoom: 

Zoom may be a term you are hearing a lot about and is a great tool for our teachers to not only communicate with each other but also our students.  With any newer tool, there are always questions and issues. Please know that teachers will communicate links, tutorials and support with students and parents.  As always, feel free to contact Heather Callihan (hcallihan@ginorthwest.org) with specific questions or concerns.

K-8 Message: Monday, April 6th, we will begin the online learning opportunities including live zoom sessions.  The zoom session schedules for K-8 students can be found here.  The schedule will also be shared on our NWPS Home Learning site later this week.  Teachers will continue to communicate students learning opportunities via their Google Classrooms (3rd-8th) and SeeSaw (K-2), Remind and other online tools.  The zoom schedule shows the daily times teachers will be online in a Zoom, or video recorded mini lesson for your child to watch or participate in if live. Please know these times are not mandatory.  Teachers will record and make available their sessions if any new instruction is given. Teachers in grades 6-8 will also be available later in the day for Question and Answer sessions or check-ins. Students or parents may also email teachers with questions.

Every Sunday, teachers will have updated lesson plans for students and parents to review for the upcoming week.

Message from the High School: Beginning April 6th, we will start teaching new material. Each teacher will provide 2 lessons with a check for understanding included in each lesson that your students will have to do. The checks for understanding assigned to the students will be due on Friday, April 10th at 3:30 p.m. The lessons will be posted on the NWPS Home Learning site. Teachers will also communicate lessons and checks for understanding through their google classroom page.  If you are interested in seeing the lessons, ask your student to login to their google classroom for you to view. In order to earn semester credits, it is important that your student completes each learning opportunity to the best of their ability. We will continue teaching new material until we are allowed back in the building. Every week, new material will be posted with a due date of Friday at 3:30 p.m. 

If your student does not have internet access, please contact the office.  We will have a file folder ready for your student to pick up to work on from home.  When the packet is done, it will need to be turned back into the office by that Friday (Office closes at 3:00 p.m.).  We will continue to function like this on a week to week basis. 

Student Devices:

If you are having technology difficulties or have questions with your school device, please contact Brian Gibson (bgibson@ginorthwest.org) or Heather Callihan (hcallihan@ginorthwest.org).

Update on Breakfast and Lunch:

Grand Island Public Schools is providing meals for anyone 18 years old and younger. 

Starting on Thursday, April 2nd, free meals for both Thursday and Friday will be offered.  There will be no meal pickup on Fridays.  

This decision was made for the safety of staff and to limit their exposure.  We will continue to make improvements for the health of our staff and our community.  

Meals will be offered Monday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at eight locations.

• Walnut Middle School; 1600 N. Custer Ave.; Door 23 (east entrance)
• Knickrehm Elementary; 2013 N. Oak St.
• Seedling Mile Elementary; 3208 East Seedling Mile Rd.
• Dodge Elementary; 641 S. Oak St.
• Howard Elementary; 502 W. 9th St.
• Lincoln Elementary; 805 N. Beal St.
• Starr Elementary; 1800 S. Adams St.
• Shoemaker Elementary; 4160 W. Old Potash Highway

Local Events:  

We are still postponing any major activity (Musical, Prom, etc.). Depending on the length of school closure, if a date can be identified to reschedule, we will make every attempt to do so.

Graduation: 

Graduation is still scheduled for May 17th, and at this time, we have not moved or rescheduled graduation.  As the date comes closer, we will make the necessary modifications to the date, format, etc.  based on recommendations from our local health departments.  We will communicate any changes as the time grows closer.

I continue to thank you for your patience as we continue to work through these closures and postponements and the new directed health measure.  It is creating different challenges across our community. We miss having students in the buildings and look forward to the day we can welcome them back!  If you have any questions, please let us know.

Sincerely, 

Jeffrey E. Edwards, Ed.D

Superintendent