With the end of school not being an ideal situation and with so much ongoing uncertainty, we knew parents had a lot of questions. We had two goals for the virtual WHS All Parent Update:
- to provide a forum for Dr. Chisum and his leadership team to answer your questions; and
- to provide them with an opportunity to share with you all the hard work that has been going on behind the scenes at WHS.
They really have been working nonstop since the school was closed, both on completing this year and preparing for next year.
Thank you for your patience and understanding in regards to the technical difficulties that caught us all off guard yesterday morning. Wellesley Media had technical difficulties due to a software update. The good news is the majority of the update was recorded and can be watched here. (It is also scheduled for TV playback on Comcast 9/Verizon 39 over the next few days. Please check Wellesley Media Schedule if you prefer to view way.). Unfortunately, we lost the first 10 minutes of the update where Dr. Chisum gave an overview and provided context for the meeting. He has kindly sent us the following to make up for that lost footage:
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"Hello everyone. Because of technical issues the introduction I attempted to give on this meeting didn't get recorded so I'm just writing to set up the meeting a bit. What I know I talked about was that we are clearly living in unprecedented times. One of the things I think has helped me is to remember everyone has a heightened anxiety level when thinking about Covid-19 whether it is something we are consciously attending to or not. It's also easy to lose track of the fact that the entire world is going through this pandemic and it has changed how we do almost everything. It stands to reason that the ways we do school have had to change too, and like the rest of life that hasn't always been for the better. In fact, we are not as good at teaching our students remotely as we are in person. We lose so much of the interstitial tissue of schools that come from hello's in the hall, or short conversations after class about a dance recital or a tv show. Teachers and students both miss out from being in each other's company and we can't build relationships in a Zoom call the same way we do in person. Everyone misses that. So it is in this context that we attempted to answer fully the questions we could, and at least provide you with a framework for how we are approaching our decisions that require a certainty we don't have yet."
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Thank you to all the parents who sent in so many great questions for the session yesterday. And thank you to Superintendent David Lussier, Dr. Jamie Chisum and his team for taking the time out of their busy schedules to provide insightful answers. The update lasted for almost 1 hour and 40 minutes! Luckily you can pause and fast forward and go through it at your own pace!
If you have any additional questions or feedback after watching the update you can send them to us here.
We hope you find the session helpful and informative. It was a reminder to us that these are unpredictable times but if we are flexible and stay positive, it will all work out in the end.
Wishing you and your families all the best,
Connie Burton & Andra Jensen
Co-Presidents, WHS PTSO
whsptsopres@gmail.com
