Friday, April 3, 2020
Dear Lemoore Union Elementary School District Families,
As we come to the end of our third week of school closure, I realize the information related to the COVID-19 pandemic has been overwhelming. It is dynamic and constantly evolving. As I shared previously, we will continue to provide critical updates as a means to ensure our families are fully informed regarding the impacts on our schools as information is received.
On April 1st during Governor Newsom’s Press Conference, he clearly stated, “…the expectation is that schools not reopen.” The Governor did go on to emphasize school is not out for the year, students will just not return to their physical school site buildings, but learning will continue by way of distance learning. Our State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond stated that although the Governor shared we should not reopen, it is a local decision. At this time, with the information known, the Lemoore Union Elementary School District sites will be closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. This is a collective decision by our Lemoore area schools and a commitment from our Kings County schools.
As we move forward, we will begin our distance learning model on April 14th – June 4th. This instructional approach, as shared previously, utilizes technology to facilitate student-teacher and student-student communication when working in the same physical space is not possible. Our teachers will continue to connect with our students and our families to ensure support is provided through this learning model. As we transition to this learning approach, it is important that you have picked up your Chromebook device this week. We have one final pick-up distribution day, today from 10:30 am-12:00pm and 4:00pm-6:00pm. Please make every effort to secure your devices as it will be essential as we launch our distance learning model.
Following Spring Break on April 14th, we will continue to provide our meal service to our students from 10:30am-12:00pm. Meals are available at each of our elementary school locations, Liberty Middle School and our Belle Haven and Sunset Vista Mobile Park locations.
We look forward to connecting with our students and providing them continuous learning opportunities using our distance learning format. Our site principals and teachers will be connecting with our students to provide specifics related to the launch and expectations of our distance learning model. We will also continue to communicate through our School Messenger calls home, our District and site Facebook pages and our District website at www.luesd.k12.ca.us.
As we look ahead to 2020-2021, our plan is to resume opening all Lemoore Union Elementary schools on August 11th, 2020. Again we appreciate EACH ONE of you for your ongoing support and partnership as we have made incredible decisions as a result of the national COVID-19 pandemic.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Hunt, Superintendent