Dear Umatilla Families,
Thank you for your incredible support and patience throughout the 2020-21 school year. The year brought unprecedented challenges; however, I'm proud of the way our community, board, and staff came together to provide the strongest options for education possible given the various restrictions.
As we move into planning for fall of 2021, I'm excited to see a more traditional school year with greater flexibility and local control. In Umatilla, we will be back to normal instructional hours and schedules on-site for all students this fall. I celebrate this change and cannot wait to welcome students back to school to a more "normal" school experience this fall.
School districts have been given local control on the mask conversation and just as we relied upon your feedback to ensure we responded to our community's needs over the past year, I'd like your thoughts once again. Please share your comfort level with optional student masks via this survey. We will collect responses through July 9th at 5:00 pm.
Please note that the other safety precautions such as air purifiers, hand washing, social distancing, etc. remain in place. It is also crucial to remember that Umatilla County Health is an important partner in our schools and they have the decision making authority on quarantining. Wearing a mask, or not, may impact their quarantine decisions.
The survey feedback will help us make the decision on mask requirements for the remainder of summer school (currently required for all but pre-k students) and this fall.
Thank you in advance for completing the survey. I appreciate your willingness to help us think through these challenging situations together as a community.
Sincerely,
Heidi Sipe, EdS
Superintendent