Sequim-area students may be returning to a five-days-per-week plan starting the fall of 2021.
The Sequim School District is planning an informational meeting on Zoom at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 6, when interim superintendent Jane Pryne will share progress on plans being made by the Fall Back to School Planning Team.
Register for the May 6 meeting at tinyurl.com/SSD21plan.
Families will receive a survey on May 7 to help inform the district’s plan, Pryne noted in a message to parents last week.
Pryne said the district’s plan is to bring Sequim students back five days a week with a number of health-related requirements set by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Clallam County Department of Health:
• All students in K-5 will need to be spaced 3 feet feet apart in classrooms
• All students in K-12 will need to be 9 feet feet apart in music, choir and band
• All students in K-12 will need to be spaced 6 feet apart during lunch
• All students and staff will continue to wear masks throughout the day
“We are carefully and thoughtfully working out these logistics at each of our buildings, with our transportation department and food services,” Pryne said.
The committee looks to have a complete plan ready for review by Sequim School Board directors at their regular May 17 meeting. The board will accept public comment on this topic at the meeting, Pryne said.
“We just need human connections,” the superintendent told school board directors at their April 26 meeting.
For more information, call Pryne at 360-582-3262.
Queen to lead at Helen Haller
Kristi Queen, assistant principal at Sequim High School for the past three years, will take over as principal at Helen Haller Elementary School in the fall, school district leaders announced on May 4.
Queen succeeds Rebecca Stanton, who is leaving at the end of the 2020-2021 school year.
Queen has worked as an educator since 1993 with the last 13 years as a successful building administrator, district representatives note. During her current three-year tenure at Sequim High School, Queen facilitated supervision and evaluation of teachers, managed facilities, lead school improvement initiatives, supervised student services among many other duties, they said.
“I am incredibly grateful, excited, blessed and humbled, to be able to serve as principal at Helen Haller Elementary,” Queen said in a press release. “I, along with the faculty and staff, pledge to build upon the foundations of excellence laid before us to provide the best education for the families of Sequim.”
Pryne said Queen’s “focused educational leadership” is outstanding.
“She will continue her journey to bring out the best in each stakeholder at Helen Haller Elementary School and, I believe, Helen Haller will bring out the best in her,” Pryne said in the press release.
Seniors get a break
Sequim students who are expected to graduate at the end of this school year but are short of the required 24 credits can get a waiver for some of those credits.
Sequim School Board directors on April 26 approved an emergency graduation waiver that allows students to waive up to four credits, including two core credits, if they are unable to complete their high school classes by August.
Students must have been on track to meeting all their graduation requirements as of March of 2020 to be eligible for the waiver.
Pryne warned that some students may have to take remedial classes at a college or university if they do not have 24 credits entering as freshmen, she said last week.
The district is providing after-school transportation services to help students make up lost credits, she said.
“We are doing everything in our power that we know (to help),” Pryne said.
