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    Letter to Parents regarding Blue Ribbion Task Force: June 3, 2020 (Español)

    June 3, 2020

    Dear Amphitheater Community:

    We would like thank everyone who applied to participate in the planning and input process for the reopening of our schools. This committee process, now formally named “The Amphitheater Unified School District Blue Ribbon Task Force for Restoring and Reopening Our Schools” (“the Amphi Task Force”), is already underway and we wanted to provide you with an update.

    As we hope you are aware, we solicited volunteers to participate in our Task Force a few weeks ago, and we were very fortunate that we received 230 applications from individuals throughout our community who were interested in doing so. This will allow for broad input into the many issues we need to consider in determining the methodology and conditions for bringing our students and staff back.

    To tackle all those issues, we have formed 10 Task Force subcommittees. They are:

    o Health Protocols
    o Instructional Design -- Elementary
    o Instructional Design -- Secondary
    o Special Needs Protocols
    o Facilities Operations
    o Social-Emotional Issues
    o Financial Considerations and Technology
    o Transportation
    o Workplace/Human Resources
    o Extracurricular/Enrichment Programs

    Each of these subcommittees is led by a District facilitator and includes a mix of teachers, support staff and parents. Some of the committees also include student members. Although not all volunteers who applied to participate could be placed on subcommittees due to size constraints, all the volunteers will still be invited to participate in the process. All of the volunteers who were not placed on the specific subcommittees will serve as members of the broader Task Force Advisory Panel. This larger advisory group will serve as a sounding board for all of the proposals and recommendations developed through the subcommittees, providing the additional feedback and input into the process.

    Because we recognize that not everyone’s responsibilities and time commitments allowed their participation in a task force process, we also plan to send some surveys to our community and constituent groups from time to time during this process. Our website will also be highlighting the Task Force process as their work progresses. It is our intention that our Task Force process will conclude by the end of this month, and subcommittees have already begun meeting in earnest today.

    When I last wrote you on May 22 regarding this process, I noted that the Amphitheater Task Force would begin its work following the conclusion of the Arizona Department of Education’s separate task force process. That statewide effort culminated in a report issued just this Monday, June 1. Please visit our District webpage to review the report and other guidance documents from ADE’s Task Force. They are helpful to our local conversation.

    We will continue to communicate with you as our reopening and Task Force process moves forward. In the meantime, if you have ideas, suggestions or questions, please send them to our email hotline, answers@amphi.com. We always do our best to respond to submissions within 24 hours on workdays.

    Sincerely,
    Todd A. Jaeger, J.D.
    Superintenden    t

    Links to previous Parent Communication (Español)