MY EDMONDS NEWS Posted: January 30, 2021 980
Edmonds School District Superintendent Gustavo Balderas (top right) speaks to other district leaders on Jan. 26. (Image via Youtube)
As Edmonds School District leaders prepare to reopen school buildings to students, they are facing concerns about disruptions to student learning and educators’ health that make parents hesitant to return kids to classrooms for the remainder of the school year.
Since schools closed last March, district staff have been juggling how to create methods for remote learning while developing plans to safely bring students back into schools. Last November, the district implemented the first stage of its four-phase school re-entry plan, returning nearly 150 students enrolled in special education and intensive support. Now, the district is preparing to move into Stage 2, which would bring K-2 students back using the hybrid learning model approved last July.
South Snohomish County superintendents ask governor to prioritize COVID-19 vaccines for school staff Posted: January 14, 2021 1494
Superintendents of the Edmonds, Everett and Mukilteo school districts have asked Gov. Jay Inslee to move school staff up in the state’s COVID-19 vaccination timeline to assist with the districts’ efforts to bring students back into the classroom.
Under the state’s existing guidance for Phase B1, school employees 50 years old and older will be eligible for vaccines starting in February. A larger group of educators would not qualify until April, under Phase B4.
The Jan. 13 letter, signed by Mukilteo School District Superintendent Alison Brynelson, Edmonds School District Superintendent Gustavo Balderas and Everett Public Schools Superintendent Ian Saltzman, notes that a typical elementary classroom teacher “will, at a minimum, be in a classroom with more than 10 students for several hours each day and be exposed to their ‘contact bu