Town Hall Forum

What

Town Hall Forum

When

12/2/2020

Where

Valparaiso High School, 2727 N Campbell St, Valparaiso, IN 46385, USA

Dear Valparaiso Schools Community Members,

Please join us on Wednesday, December 2nd at 5:30 pm for a virtual town hall meeting with limited in-person capacity at the VHS Cafeteria.  Teachers and other stakeholders have identified various benefits in extending Wednesday eLearning Days through the end of the second semester beyond the original December 9th end date (those benefits are listed below); however, the recent community survey revealed potential hardships for students and families associated with this model. In order to design a system with the best outcomes for the most people (including teachers, families, and our in-person, remote, and quarantined learners) while also maintaining a healthy environment, the administration requests your feedback on the specific challenges that the current system has created for your student or family. We believe it is important to hear from multiple perspectives in order to either extend and improve the current model or design an alternative system for the second semester.

For background, the current system of Wednesday eLearning Days was implemented in September to provide professional development opportunities for teachers to design and deploy quality dual platform teaching and learning. By many accounts, this end has been accomplished; however, the time for task management associated with the dual platforms has been identified by both teachers and administration as a significant increase over traditional teaching models and needs to be addressed in this next model design.  Additionally, the time on Wednesday without students has allowed for a midweek deep cleaning of every building to maintain the health and safety of the learning environment.

Since Porter County is currently in RED STATUS according to the Indiana State Department of Health, the in-person attendance at the VHS Cafeteria will be limited to 25 individuals (should Porter County be in ORANGE STATUS on December 2nd, the in-person attendance will be limited to 50 people); however, we have multiple ways for the public to engage in this process: 

• Anyone unable to attend virtually or in-person can submit their comments prior to the event at the following link: VCS Town Hall Public Participation Form which will close at 4 pm on December 2nd.  
• Additionally, a  ZOOM link will be provided to those who wish to supply live input and provide the opportunity for any follow up dialogue with the administration.  Note that ZOOM participants will be muted until they are called on to add their input and will be limited to three minutes.  Sign up here to receive the ZOOM link for live public participation.  
• Finally, the Town Hall will be broadcasted for viewing on the VCS YouTube channel for anyone who wishes to only watch the proceedings. Access the Youtube link here: https://youtu.be/mXzU3B-Mb8Y. 

Thank you for your continued partnership as we move forward together through this difficult time.

Identified Benefits to Extending Wednesday eLearning Days