5-8-20

Spanish Translation:   Para español, haga clic aquí 

Somali Translation : Guji Halkan 

Dear St. Louis Park Public Schools Elementary Families,

Thank you for your partnership with us during the COVID-19 global pandemic. There have been a lot of questions about what distance learning could and should look like. At the same time, there have been questions regarding how we should be reporting student learning, in particular there have been questions about the traditional report card at the end of the year. We hope this communication will outline our beliefs and actions for this spring semester.

Throughout our learning and continued conversations, what has been revealed within our school community is a commitment to our St. Louis Park District Mission and CoreValues. We are grounded in our collective belief that community is most important, and both relationships and rigor drive our decision making for student learning. We want to recognize that our plan for distance learning has been in alignment with our belief of keeping our students at the center. In SLP, we know that we must have and maintain strong relationships with our students before any purposeful instruction can occur. Maintaining relationships continues to be the priority during distance learning. Staff members have continued to plan and offer engagements that encourage and support remote learning through a variety of ways.

In our full humanity, we have all experienced a wide range of needs, worries and hopes during this time. We acknowledge the varying degrees of access and student independence related to distance learning. We fully appreciate the support and partnership from families.

We believe that recognizing the brilliance of your child(ren) can and should be done differently during this time of distance learning. National educational and local observations, along with our beliefs, also tell us that grading using traditional report cards at this time is most likely not the truest reflection of your child's learning.

Therefore, at the elementary level, we will not be using the traditional report card this second semester. In its place, we will provide each family with a summary of content delivered and a summary of student learning offered during the second semester. We will also have an opportunity for you and your child to connect and reflect with your child's teacher(s) at the conclusion of the school year.

Please share how you and your child would prefer to connect with your child's classroom teacher at the end of the year; please indicate your preference by clicking HERE before Friday, May 15th.  Please fill out one survey per child.