Dear East Whittier City School District Team,

I hope this email finds you and your family well. As you know, over the course of the past four months our dedicated team has been working diligently to be able to offer our parents and community choices when we return to school on August 11. Although we had robust plans to offer either the new Virtual Academy or In Person instruction, we have no choice but to open the 20-21 school year in a complete 100% Distance Learning model based upon the Governor’s order and the latest information coming out of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. While we are now shifting our focus to the finalization of our Distance Learning Plan, we will continue with the development of the In Person Instructional model so we are prepared to make the transition whenever that time presents itself.

Dr. Vargas and our Personnel team will be working with our staff to ensure that we are doing everything possible to meet the individual needs of our team. While we are asking that everyone physically report to their worksite, our Personnel team will be working to make accommodations for those staff members with health issues, childcare issues or any other special considerations that may arise in these challenging times to make sure everyone feels safe. We are grateful for the amazing collaboration with the leadership teams from CSEA and EWEA. This collaborative spirit has put us in a great position to support our entire team. I realize that many of our CSEA staff members are concerned about their positions given that we will not have students back on campus. Please rest assured that we will be doing everything possible to ensure that we are creative in finding ways that our Classified team can support our Distance Learning work.

At our upcoming July 27th board meeting we will be covering the next steps we will be implementing to support our students, parents and staff as we begin the new version of our Distance Learning Plan. In order to make sure that everyone is informed and up-to-date with the latest developments we are going to be continuing with our Town Hall meetings to begin the school year. I will be including specifics in my July 31st update to the community. Additionally, we will be sending out the FAQs we gathered over the past few weeks tomorrow, so please check your emails if you are interested in that information.

Both the Board of Education and I would like to once again express our admiration, respect and appreciation for our entire community as they have supported us throughout this very challenging time.

Sincerely,

Marc