Greetings. I am Dr. John
Polm and I am honored to be
the new Superintendent of
the Puyallup School District!
It goes without saying that
this has been an unprecedented year on many levels.
I recognize the enormous
pressure this pandemic has
put on parents and caregivers. The pressure to protect,
care, love and teach children
during this time has been
exhausting. As partners in
education, we recognize and
feel these pressures alongside
you.
We want children back in
school in the safest manner
possible. This means we will
continue to work with state
agencies to request flexibility
in an effort to bring all students back full-time. However, we are required to follow
requirements set for us by
the state, Labor and Industries, and the Department of
Health (DOH). At this time,
the DOH is requiring students and staff to wear cloth
face coverings and maintain
six-foot distance when
seated in the classroom or
other learning spaces. They
are also requiring visitors to
wear face coverings.
Most of our classrooms can
accommodate about 15 students under the six-foot
physical distance requirement. Consequently, at this
time, providing a hybrid,
or part time in-house and
part-time distance learning
structure, is our most likely
scenario for most students
in the fall. Each week, certain days would be dedicated
to in-house learning, with
the remaining days dedicated to continuous (distance)
learning 2.0. This approach
has been termed the “A/B”
model. There are many unanswered questions as to
how the A/B model works
and what this hybrid instructional model will ultimately
look like. Extensive planning
will continue throughout the
summer and we are committed to keeping you informed.
If there is anything this pandemic has taught us is that
the education of our children
is a shared responsibility.
Henry D. Thoreau, a writer
and philosopher once said,
“One is not born into the
world to do everything but to
do something."
We recognize that as a community you have been asked
to do a lot. Thank you for
trusting us. We are all in this
together, and together we will
weather this storm and identify the best path for educating our youth — in healthy
and safe environments —
both now and in the future.
Thank you for your patience
and grace.