Hello Everyone,
I hope this letter finds you and your loved ones healthy and coping well. I think we can all agree we live in interesting times.
To our families, I certainly hope you are weathering this current “perfect storm”. Schools are closed, restaurants and entertainment gatherings are shut down and to be honest we don’t know when things might return to “normal” or perhaps even what “normal” might look like when they do. How many of you have just watched a show on television and cringed as the actors shook hands, thinking they shouldn’t be doing that? What do we tell our kids about proper greeting in a time when the social norms may be changing right before our eyes? Not to overstate the obvious but these are also unprecedented and uncertain times as well.
We understand that so many things seem uncertain. Information is changing so quickly that plans made in the morning are often obsolete by afternoon. We don’t know what will happen, we don’t know when. As we listen to each update, things that seemed unimaginable suddenly become possible, sometimes in not so positive ways.
Here is a certainty, Spectrum is here for your students and Spectrum is up to these challenges. After learning of the mandated school closures the Spectrum staff and teachers took time during spring break to craft an individualized, world class online learning program for our students. This is not a canned or purchased program, not a few assignments put online, but a program that utilizes the same principles and thinking as our everyday activities at Spectrum. As I write this, we are only four days into this program and I have already received feedback from families, some long time Spectrum families, that are amazed with the content and the quality of the program as a whole. As is everything we do at Spectrum these programs are child centered and tailored to your student in a way most schools can’t imagine.
We have often said that Spectrum is not a place but rather a mindset, an opportunity realized to help a child discover that learning is one of the greatest joys in life. Well in the past two weeks our teachers have certainly brought that statement to another level. So once again I have to send out an enormous THANK YOU to our teachers and staff for all they have done. There is no doubt we are all in this storm together, now Spectrum has built a great life raft for your kids. I couldn’t be any prouder of what our people have built. I have no doubt this program will help us all ride out this storm, taking care of our students and helping them grow along the way.
As always please keep communicating with your teachers. We understand that each of us will feel stress in our own way and we want to help support students through stressful times. And please be assured that Spectrum will be here for your family and your students to continue our mission of developing lifelong learning skills.
On behalf of the Spectrum Board of Directors, thank you for being part of our Spectrum family.
I hope that each of you comes though these times healthy and well.
Charles Barnes
Spectrum School Board President (2019-2020)
