Dear LASD Community, 

Yesterday, we welcomed our first cohorts of TK-1st Graders back to campus! It was a wonderful day of learning as students and teachers greeted each other in their classrooms. With TK-1st graders and SDC students on campus again, we offer a huge thank you to our amazing teachers and staff for their hard work in this amazing endeavor.

While we're very pleased with this milestone, there are a number of challenges that come with implementing complex health and safety measures to help prevent the spread of illness and keep our entire community healthy.  We appreciate everyone’s attention to and cooperation with the LASD Community Expectations for Healthy Schools. 

Revised Reopening Schedule
We have always believed that a slow and measured approach to bringing students back to school for in-person learning will give us the best chance for a sustained reopening and continuity of instruction for all of our students. For that reason, and now that we better understand the logistics required as we return students to campus, we have revised our reopening schedule for the rest of the grade levels. Each returning group of students will continue to have at least a three-week separation of return dates to ensure health and safety protocols are in place and operations are running smoothly.  

We have made three important changes to the return schedule: 

1. We are shifting the return dates of the 2nd through 5th grade return back by one week to better align with the academic calendar, including the end of the first trimester and the Thanksgiving break. 
   1. Second and Third Grades will now return November 9 instead of November 2
   2. Fourth and Fifth Grades will return December 7 instead of November 30
2. We are moving the return date for 6th through 8th graders to January. The decision to delay was not taken lightly, but the instructional programs for grades 6-8 are much more complex than for our TK-5th grade students. Students in grades 6-8 have multiple teachers specializing in each subject, which is very different from the single teacher lower-elementary stable cohort model. Thus, it is taking longer than expected to determine the best way forward to ensure safety while delivering the best possible instruction. 
   1. Sixth Grade will now return January 11 instead of November 30
   2. Seventh Grade will now return January 20 instead of November 2
   3. Eighth Grade will now return January 20 instead of November 30
3. We are altering the "program switch dates." As you may recall, our prior plan allowed families to switch between the Blended and Virtual models every six weeks.  With experience we have learned that such a cadence is not sustainable for students, teachers, staff and the district office.  Under the new plan, families can change their child's program to Virtual or Blended prior to their child's grade-level return date and then on two additional "program switch dates" available to all grade levels. We believe that this reduction in frequency of program switches will provide much more stability for all teachers and students.

Please take a look at the updated table of return and notification dates below.  A reminder:  to change your child’s program to either Blended or Virtual, please email your principal by the Notification Deadline noted below.

We recognize that these changes may cause an inconvenience for our families and understand distance learning is difficult for many of our students. However, we also know that our families share our commitment to a safe return to campus with an excellent instructional program to continue our students' success.

As we continue to move forward, our principals and I will provide additional information on the detailed plans for our 6th-8th grade students, including a presentation to the Board of Trustees at its meeting on Monday, November 9th. We will also plan to hold Parent and Staff Town Halls to answer questions and concerns before the Thanksgiving Break (tentatively, the week of November 16). Please stay tuned for more information. 

Thank you as always for your partnership. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at jbaier@lasdschools.org.

Sincerely, 
Jeffrey Baier
Superintendent
Los Altos School District