Dear Students and Families,
As we navigate through this unprecedented time, our first concern is for your well-being. We understand that you may have questions about the future and how the current school closure may impact your path to graduation and beyond. Career Tech High School is working to ensure that every high school student can access support for their well-being, ongoing learning, high school completion, and transition to career and college through this time. We remain focused on you and your future goals.
In order to continue learning and earning credits, we are providing you with opportunities for distance learning aligned to the state’s Distance Learning for All Guidance. We recognize that a distance learning model does not replace a full-school experience, and we continue to invest in our capacity to support you during this time.
Career Tech students in grades 9-11 will continue on with the same classes that they were originally scheduled with prior to the March 13, 2020 statewide school closure. Students are able to continue their studies through distance learning via a variety of modalities including Apex, Google Classroom, Google Meet, Google Chat, phone calls, email, learning packets and learning kits delivered to the home. The modality in which students learn is dependent on the class, instructor and the student’s individual circumstances. You will find contact information for each teacher listed at the end of this letter. Please feel free to reach out to Education Supervisor Rebecca Bahr or any of the Career Tech teachers with questions.
You will receive Pass/Incomplete marks for your courses instead of letter grades (A-F) or their equivalent. We want to support continued learning, but cannot proceed as if nothing has changed and must consider the severe impact the pandemic is having across our community. The Pass/Incomplete marks safeguard your opportunities to continue learning and earning credit without impacting your GPA. Public and private universities and colleges across the country, including Oregon’s colleges and universities, recognize the extraordinary nature of this event and are making temporary changes to their admissions policies to accept Pass/No Pass marks issued during the winter/spring 2020 term(s).
In this temporary system, you will receive a “Pass” and credit for a course once you demonstrate essential learning for that course during the Spring 2020 Term. If you are not able to demonstrate the learning by the end of the term, you will receive an “Incomplete,” and then we will partner with you and your family to create a Credit-Earning Assurance Plan by September 2020. You will have until the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year to make up the learning and earn credit.
Despite the fact that you will not be earning letter grades at this time, we strongly encourage you to stay involved and connected to learning as your knowledge and skills continue to build over time and the learning you do now will prepare you to meet your goals for the future.
Additionally, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) is not requiring Essential Skills and Personalized Learning Requirements for 2021, so current juniors will not need to meet those requirements to graduate. At this time, there are no changes to the graduation requirements for the Class of 2022 and the Class of 2023.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Bahr
Education Supervisor
Sean Larsen
Principal