Like all of you, in March, 2020, we went remote,” said Dr. Ellen Perconti, Superintendent at the Goldendale School District. “Your kids will not be in front of you. So, let's do some projects you've always wanted to do. Let's involve our families like we've never done before. And what we saw were really cool things happening. Videos, pictures of our students doing things. And they were very, very proud of the work. There were comments from families about how they really appreciated the opportunity to be hands-on with their kids.

“So, we did that piece, really trying to do projects, things that were within our work, having a different way of interacting with our students. We also realized technology-wise, how far behind we were. We struggled to get 1:1 Chromebooks out. We struggled with connectivity. We knew that we had a lot of learning that we needed to do.

“As we moved into the following school year, one of the pieces that we brought forward were family connections. We started our year with three full days of our teachers meeting one on one with a family member. And our students, part of that was so that we could distribute our Chromebooks so that we could get those devices out. But the other part really was how do we connect with those families? We had the conversation around, who are you, what are your hopes and what are your dreams for your child? That information was collected by the teacher and then used instructionally throughout the year. As we started the year, we didn't really know what we were going to end up with. We created a model that showed we could be fully online. We could have small groups in our schools, we could go hybrid, or in person. And we did all of those throughout the school year. We started fully remote. By October, we were in hybrid. And then in April, we were able to have every student in every day. So, it was good to have that kind of model out there.

“This school year, we've worked on connection, really trying to help our teachers work towards connecting with our students. Does the student have a connection with their learning? Do they feel connected with school? Really trying to understand what it means to be connected. Really personalizing that learning and trying to keep the humans in the forefront along the way.

You’ll want to see every minute of this illuminating and inspirational video. Like many districts, Goldendale School District wasn’t handed a COVID operations manual when it was time to take the reins and make the best of a very challenging situation. But Dr. Perconti and her staff made some remarkable decisions, and the result is a much stronger, student-centric school district moving forward. What can you learn from their decisions? Plenty, and the good news is, it is not too late to implement a good number of them. So, enjoy! And take copious notes – you’ll want to bring this good news home to your own school or district.