March 19, 2021
Dear Dorchester Parents,
I hope remote learning is going as smoothly as possible for your children, and I appreciate your flexibility during our recent shift to remote learning.
Thank you to everyone who completed the survey I sent out a few weeks ago about the schedule for remote learning during our school closures. Based on the feedback on that survey, we will be making a change to our remote school closure schedules beginning this Monday, March 22. Our new schedule will be live core instruction 8:30-12:15, with special area classes remaining at 1:30-2:30. This revision moves the 1:00 - 1:30 period to 8:30 - 9:00 daily. I appreciate your patience as I know it would have been ideal to make this change starting on Wednesday when your children transitioned to remote learning. The Department of Health’s closure of our school came as a surprise to me as much as to the rest of the community, so I needed some time to get the schedule documents ready to send to you.
Please note: This schedule change does not impact the fully remote classes (Welch, Nowak, Storms, Buscema, Blauner, and Callari). I will reach out to those families separately.
Here are printable versions of this revised schedule for each grade:
We are making this change based on the following feedback from the survey:
- The majority of parents at all grade levels favored this schedule option.
- Additionally, most of the parents who have children in multiple grades responded that they would prefer that all of the grades have the same schedule as one another.
- The majority of parents with children at both Dorchester and Woodcliff Middle School said that they would like the schedules to line up as much as possible between the two schools, and this change will make the schedules more similar.
- Lastly, many parents commented that they would prefer for the in-person schedule and remote school closure schedules to align more closely, and this change serves that purpose as well.
I appreciate all of the additional feedback you left in the comments on the survey, especially the overwhelming gratitude toward your children’s teachers. Several parents also left feedback or asked questions about the special area classes.
- Many of you asked if special area teachers could post their lessons by 12:15 so that children can begin the assignments right after their core classes if they chose, and we will be making that change moving forward.
- To clarify, students can complete their special area assignments any time before the next session of that special area subject. This gives families flexibility for children to complete their lessons during evenings or weekends if needed.
- Several parents asked why our special area lessons are not live. Earlier in the year, many working parents asked us to provide recordings instead of live sessions so that children can complete their specials at any time when their parents are available to support them. As a school, we also offer reading/math/word study intervention classes and special education related services during the afternoon. Because the specials are pre-recorded, the students who take part in these supports can still take part in the specials lessons later. Additionally, the special area teachers typically see all of the classes across the course of the day during a normal instructional year. Having all of our special area classes concentrated into the 1:30 - 2:30 period means that each live session would include 65 - 100 students, which would pose challenges for true interaction at the elementary level. If your children benefit from live interaction with their teachers, I encourage them to join the Zoom sessions that special area teachers offer during the class times.
I am grateful for our open communication because it is only through your feedback that we can continue to improve your children’s experiences at Dorchester. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions, concerns, or suggestions.
Sincerely,
Stefanie Marsich
Stefanie Marsich
Dorchester School Principal
201-930-5600 ext. 166
