We are providing our community with educational content and learning support.

WHAT WE ARE DOING:

• All schools have plans in place to facilitate e-learning. Many of our curriculum partners and vendors are making resources available to our teachers in an online platform so that educators and students will be able to continue to access teaching and learning while we operate as E49. 
• We are finalizing a plan to support families who may need assistance with computers and internet access. Watch for email and other communications regarding this process in the upcoming week.
• We encourage our families to support their students as they complete their assignments, although we want to reinforce it is our responsibility as educators to continue to facilitate learning during this period.
• E-learning will roll out district-wide on Tuesday, March 31, to allow our educators time to finalize their preparations with a day of work on March 30. 
• Your schools will reach out directly to explain their procedures and expectations. Please watch for these communications at the end of this week and beginning of the week of March 30 as we return from spring break. 
• We are preparing a resource page on each of our school websites, where you will find useful information to support the e-learning process. We will provide an update on where to find and how to access these pages when they are finalized. 

• Please provide a quiet learning environment as free from digital and personal distractions as possible.
• Check-in with your child about student learning/assignments daily.
• Establish routines to structure the day-with expectations for time “in school”.
• Allow access to technology.
• Reach out to teachers or your principal when you need help. 
• Communicate about your students' attendance and if they will be absent due to illness or other emergencies. 
• Be aware of deadlines, expectations, and norms.
• Look for school/district communications and respond when appropriate.

Our primary concern is creating productive learning time while respecting the needs of families and students during this challenging time. We will work with our families as needed and will continue our posture of serving the larger D49 Family while we diligently prepare our campuses for a safe return when we resume normal operations. Please stay alert for messaging through all our channels—the D49 App, our social media feeds, and our district website, where you will find updates and reliable information about coronavirus. Thank you for your attentiveness, partnership, trust, and understanding. 

• Our goal is educators will communicate the week’s schedule, lessons, and assignments by each Monday afternoon. We will repeat this rhythm as we continue our e-learning process in the weeks ahead.
  
  
• We will maintain a work-week routine that begins with Monday as a professional day for collaboration, planning, setup, and communication with families; followed by four learning days to work with students.

• Each school’s website has a page dedicated to E-Learning information and resources. Schools will post weekly updates for families here and educators should generally provide students with the week’s lessons and assignments.

• We will expect all assignments to be completed by midnight of the day due unless teachers make special arrangements for unusual circumstances.

• Individual teachers or teaching teams will designate set office hours for responding to student and parent questions, providing feedback and clarifying assignments. Our expectation is that teachers are available in real-time for at least three hours each day, with two hours in the morning and another hour later in the day in case questions arise.
• During those office hours, we expect educators to be attentive and responsive to student/family questions and concerns. Please contact your teacher for specific times.

• Some teachers will be using the apps, websites and learning management systems that students and families are already familiar with and are accustomed to using.

ELL students will receive support through their CLDE teachers. Daily check-ins and resource classes will be offered to students, depending on their language level.

For a complete overview of our E-Learning plan, visit https://www.d49.org/Page/8468.

If you are a limited English proficient parent, please reach out to your student's teacher to request an interpreter through our telephone interpreting services. 

Your child’s special education team will work to provide access to the distance learning framework while supporting IEP goals and objectives.

For more information, please refer to this link (not really a link yet).

State working on a possible solution for PSAT, SAT

CDE is working with The College Board to generate possible solutions for the administration of the PSAT and SAT tests, which offer unique roles in Colorado’s system in terms of scholarships and college entrance. Additional information will come from CDE as it becomes available.

CDE intends to engage with the U.S. Department of Education to address implications, including those related to federal accountability, and will complete waiver documentation as necessary, Anthes said.

"I’m a big fan of accountability and transparency in public education, but we will simply have to forgo incredibly useful data on student achievement for a year to help contain the virus,” said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. “Right now, students, families, and educators need to be focused on doing everything they can to keep families safe and stable. It is clear that COVID-19 will put extraordinary stress on our education system for the coming weeks and months. In order to ensure our schools and educators are able to spend as much time as possible on online instruction in a difficult situation, I support the decision to pause assessments and school accountability for this year only.”

Making the decision to pause testing now allows schools and districts to concentrate on determining ways to deliver continued instruction to the extent they are able during this unprecedented disruption in education, Anthes said.

The Department will continue working with schools and districts that are already identified for improvement to help support instruction, including options for instruction during and after school closures. 

CDE has compiled resources about Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) for schools and districts on its website here: http://www.cde.state.co.us/safeschools.

For further information on how the assessment pause will impact the state's accountability system, please visit this webpage.

CMAS

The administration of end-of-the-year assessments, including the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS), will be paused for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year due to extensive school closures throughout Colorado to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes announced today. 

“With the extraordinary actions we are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it’s clear that we need to press pause on our CMAS tests this year,” Commissioner Anthes said. “Students and educators need to feel a sense of stability and normalcy before state tests can be administered and produce valid results. This also means we plan to pause our school and district state accountability system as it relates to state assessments for a year.” 

We know it’s strange to get up and go to school without leaving your house, but that’s what we expect you to do.

Just as your teachers will “go to work” at some location in their house, you should set up a consistent location to start your day and proceed with your work.

It will help if you pick a place that isn’t distracting or in the middle of other activity.

We’re going to keep taking attendance by tracking if you participate in learning each day, so here are four ways you can show us you’ve been in school and in a class.

 

For elementary students, we expect you to engage with your classroom teacher every day, and then interact with your other teachers (specials, enrichments) at least weekly.

 

For secondary students, we expect you to engage with each of your teachers in one of the following ways:

 

• Turn in an assignment between 9:00 a.m. and midnight. 

• Message your teacher or interact with them in some way over Google Classroom, Schoology or another learning system.

• Participate in a group lesson or discussion with your teacher.

• Complete an assignment or activity with a trackable online component, like a quiz in Schoology, lessons in ST Math, reading in Lexia, or something else your teacher assigns.
  

 

That’s it.

If you do any of those things on a school day, then you’ll get credit for attending that day.

If you don’t do any of those things, we’ll count you absent.

If you’re absent again, we’ll contact you and your parents to make sure you can and will be able to attend.

 

Please remember, you are the student, so we are counting on you to take responsibility to be present in classes. If you have a question or concern with a teacher or assignment, it is important that you advocate for yourself first by contacting your teacher directly. If you still have concerns, then include a parent if you need to add them to the discussion.

 

E-Learning is hard, so you might be more tired or confused than you expect. Give yourself breaks, but don’t procrastinate or things will pile up too fast. Thanks for being flexible and patient as we work things out together!

Students will be responsible to make up the work when they are well.

However, we will all need to be flexible and understanding as we use e-Learning to address individual student needs.

Dear D49 Families,

We are committed to supporting you through E-learning and will continue to offer Chromebooks to families who could not reserve a device during the open registration periods. 

Please contact your school, or student’s teacher to reserve a device. You will find contact information on your school’s web page by clicking E-Learning under Classes and Activities, or by clicking on School Info and then Staff Directory. Your teacher will submit a ticket and provide you the ticket number, which you will need to pick up your D49 Chromebook. 

Please have your ticket number ready when you pick up a Chromebook. Beginning Monday, April 13, pickups will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. at the following locations:

• Odyssey Elementary School 
• Falcon Elementary School of Technology

D49 Chromebook Exchange 

Your teachers can also help you if you need to exchange or return a device. Please reach out and request a ticket number for:

• Chromebook device replacements
• Power cord replacements
• Chromebook returns

Exchanges can be made at either location for convenience. Our tech support team asks for devices to be returned in a plastic bag.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

Sincerely, 

School District 49 

One of our challenges includes the fact that some students do not have access to the internet in their homes. The following are free or low-cost options that will provide access for those who do not have it.

Home Internet Service

1. StratusIQ Internet Access - Will make special accommodations to facilitate basic internet access for students in need in any of our existing service areas. Have the students, parent or staff email us at StratusIQ-Sales@StratusIQ.com  with Student Needs Basic Access in subject and assure the address in the body of the request. We will evaluate these requests on a case by case basis and communicate to the sender what can be done for them to get basic access, even if that is a recommendation to another provider for their area or address.
2. Comcast Internet Essentials: First two months free, then $9.95 per month after that for qualifying households. Apply online or call 1-855-846-8376 during normal business hours.

Free Public WiFi

1. Xfinity WiFi hotspots: Find one close to you at this link. Available in Fountain and on Fort Carson. Until further notice, all Xfinity WiFi Public Hotspots are now open to everyone on the “xfinitywifi” SSID. Public hotspots can be found in small/medium businesses and outdoors in commercial areas. Non-Xfinity subscribers need to accept Terms and Conditions to access the network and repeat when requested to continue to receive free unlimited access.
2. AT&T WiFi hot spots: search your device app store for a hotspot locator to find these. AT&T hot spots are open to the public.

Cell Phone Carriers

1. Sprint: Sprint is providing Unlimited data for 60 days to customers with metered data plans and giving 20 GB of free mobile hotspot to customers with hotspot-capable devices (effective 3/18).
2. T-Mobile: T-Mobile Connect – part of the New T-Mobile’s 5G for Good initiative – is launching ahead of schedule for $15 per month, half the price of the company’s lowest smartphone plan. And Metro by T-Mobile is adding new, lower-cost options. Current customers also get unlimited smartphone data for the next 60 days (excluding roaming). Starting March 20, 2020, providing T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers on smartphone plans with hotspot data an additional 20GB of smartphone mobile hotspot (10GB per bill cycle for the next 60 days) for each voice line. (T-Mobile Connect excluded).

As you know, this is a rapidly changing situation, so this information will be updated on the district website as new information becomes available.

Get Connected:

To connect a Chromebook to your wireless home network:

• Connect your Chromebook to Wi-Fi
  
  
• At the bottom right, select the time
  
  
• Select “Not Connected”
  
  
• Find and Select your personal Wi-Fi network
  
  
• Type your Wi-Fi network password
  
  
• Select “Connect”

To connect an iPad or iPhone to your wireless home network:

• Tap the Settings icon.
  
  
• Tap Wi-Fi.
  
  
• Confirm that Wi-Fi is set to On. Choose your network from the list provided.
  
  
• Enter your network's encryption key if you're prompted and tap Join.
  
  
• Tap On to automatically join networks your iPhone or iPad has joined previously. If it detects a network it doesn't recognize, it will ask you before it automatically joins the network.
  
  
• Tap the Home button to return to your iPhone or iPad home page.

NEED ASSISTANCE?

• Contact your child’s teacher
• Your child’s teacher will put in a support ticket with our I.T. Department for the following issues:
  
  
  • Chromebook Hardware Issues
  • Reset Student Password

• Our I.T. Department cannot resolve the following issues:
  
  
  • Personal Wifi Password
  • Personal Wifi Connection
  • Xfinity Hot Spots (Public or Private)

You will need to connect a Chromebook to your wireless home network first:

• Connect your Chromebook to Wi-Fi
  
  
• At the bottom right, select the time icon
  
  
• Select “Not Connected” icon
  
  
• Find and Select your personal Wi-Fi network
  
  
• Type your Wi-Fi network password
  
  
• Select “Connect”

We understand you may have difficulty with a Chromebook or other device on loan from D49 during E-learning.

Tech problems are an inevitability, and one we are equipped to manage with our IT service partners.

If your student experiences a problem with their D49 Chromebook, or other D49 provided device, please follow these steps to request tech support:

• A parent or student should reach out to their student’s teacher to report the tech difficulty, and be ready to provide additional information that may be requested by your teacher.


• The teacher will gather all the necessary information to fill out a maintenance service request ticket with our IT customer service team.


• The IT support team will process the maintenance service tickets. 


• Teachers will work with students as necessary until tech difficulty is resolved.  

• NOTE: This is for D49 provided devices only. Unfortunately, we cannot provide tech support for personal devices.


We are in the process of preparing and making available more devices to share with students for E-learning. We are confident we can meet our families’ needs. Our teachers will make every accommodation necessary to remain flexible and work with students until the tech difficulty is resolved. Thank you for your patience and support as we walk together through this transition to E-learning. 

Sincerely, 

The D49 Tech Management Team

Access or Device Issues

Managed by both District level tickets, or by staff at each school depending on scope and severity of need.

• Contact your child’s teacher to see if they can help directly
  
  
• Your child’s teacher will put in a support ticket with our I.T. Department for the following issues:
  
  
  • Chromebook Hardware Issues
  • Reset Student Password

Our I.T. Department cannot resolve the following issues:

• Personal Wifi Password
• Personal Wifi Connection
• Xfinity Hot Spots (Public or Private)

Application Troubleshooting

Managed by both District level tickets, or by staff at each school depending on scope and severity of need.

Most 3rd party applications will have their own support system in place.

Passwords or Account Assistance

Managed by both District level tickets, or by staff at each school depending on scope and severity of need.

Start by emailing your teacher.