Dear DSST Staff,
Good afternoon, I hope all of you are feeling healthy and doing well today. Settling into a new reality of quarantine is not easy. Many of us are stretched with caregiver responsibilities for children, extended family, sick family members, while trying to work and make sense of what is coming next. Please extend grace to our team members as people are doing their best to juggle all of this and do the planning for the next phase of DSST going into the spring.
I realize that there is a lot of uncertainty about what is next. When will we go back to school this year, if ever? What happens to student grades, assessments, TCP, graduations etc… These are challenging times for all of us, including myself. Many questions remain, and we don’t have answers to most of them. We are trying to make informed decisions based on the directives of the city, state, and federal government. We are currently working on what the next phase of the 19-20 school year will look like after our Extended Spring Break, and once we have a solidified strategy, we will be communicating that out to all of you.
In the meantime, love your neighbor, and care for your loved ones, advisors, connect with our students, and keep relationally connected to your school teams.
Today, I would like to share a few key things regarding payroll, academic resources, and state testing.
Early Payroll
Based on requests received from staff members and our desire to support the DSST family, we would like to run payroll early this month, Wednesday, March 25th so team members and their families can utilize those funds to respond to COVID-19 challenges. We are eager to act on this request but need your help.
Action Requested: In order to run payroll we need team members to ensure that their time-off & leave is accurately tracked in Workday by Friday, 3/20 (in alignment with the new time-off & leave guidance issued yesterday).
See Workday support website for information on how to enter or modify your time-off or leave.
Optional AP Resources
Today, our Academics team has finalized Optional AP Resources to be shared with AP students. A special thank you goes out to all of the teachers who dedicated considerable time, expertise, and effort to pull this important resource together so quickly. We hope these resources will support our students in high stakes classes and help them move forward as much as possible while school is out.
State Testing
As you have likely heard, the CDE announced yesterday that all state testing was “paused” for now. We know this announcement raises many questions as these tests are a critical element of our teacher evaluation system. Please know that our Home Office Human Capital team is already working on this and will be working with School Directors on a solution to ensure teachers are rewarded for their performance this past year. Your School Director will be in touch soon with more information.
The College Board has also announced that SAT exams scheduled for May have been canceled. We have not heard an update on AP exams, but their website promises an announcement on March 20.
We hope you are all hanging in there and enjoying our daily email updates, whether it’s the inspirational video clips, Pet of the Day (#QuarantineQT) or resources to use as we shift into working from home and spending less time out in our city. Feel free to continue to send us wacky pictures from working from home, fun resources, and of course, your pets.
Take care,
Bill
