September Parent & Community Letter (9/25/18)
September 25, 2018
Re: Parent and Community Letter
Dear CCSD Families;
As CCSD is coming close to wrapping up the first month of school, I want to ensure our parents and community members are aware of some of the projects CCSD is involved with to improve our students’ educational experiences.
CCSD clearly recognizes the importance of having a strong, blended academic program that includes student access to high quality core academic programs and career and technical education (CTE) programs. Given our size it is difficult to provide our students access to CTE programs in a traditional seven period schedule. Our high school staff have done some preliminary work on building a course structure that will allow more students to access CTE courses and to increase the number of CTE offerings we are able to provide without compromising our students access to core academic programs. CHS has explored a number of scheduling options that would allow this improvement to take place. It would be a shift from our “traditional” high school schedule and it would require time for our staff to build these courses. As we move through the first semester more information regarding what a high school schedule could look like will be shared with our families. It is imperative that we keep building our CTE offerings and tie them to local industries. The research on how CTE course enhancement can improve the educational outcomes for students is pervasive. As this work progresses through the first semester, information will be shared with our families and students so that any concerns, questions, or issues can be addressed upfront and transparently. CCSD is extremely excited about the possibilities that this shift can provide our students to strengthen their educational experience and prepare for post-secondary and career opportunities.
Furthermore, our PACE staff has been working hard to improve the academic options for students attending our homeschool/correspondence program, especially for our students on Prince of Wales Island. One core aspect of the program, in our Anchorage and Ketchikan PACE Learning Centers, is the option for students to attend their local or private school and also access additional educational options through our homeschool/correspondence program. As we move through the year, the district’s intent is to ensure that each of our PACE Learning Centers (Anchorage, Ketchikan, and Craig) provide our families as wide array of educational options for our students. One key aspect of this work is for our families to have as many educational choices as possible to ensure their child(ren) has the strongest, most well-rounded Student Learning Plan possible with the option of developing a Student Learning Plan that blends a traditional homeschool/correspondence model with our community school model. CCSD’s intent is to ensure all of our families have the flexibility and options to develop an academic learning plan tailored to the needs and interests of each student.
More information about each of the items noted in this letter will be shared throughout the school year. CCSD thanks our parents and community members for the feedback and support you provide so that we can continue improving and better meet the needs of our families and students.
Sincerely,
Chris Reitan, Superintendent
creitan@craigschools.com