Dear DSST Families,
I hope you are healthy and well on this Tuesday. I know the past 10 days have been challenging for many of you adjusting to quarantine, job uncertainty, securing food, and supporting your children and extended family. Our best wishes go out to you.
I wanted to share some important updates! We will be launching our DSST E-School on April 8 to continue school with your children.
DSST E-School Overview
- Governor Polis announced last week that in-person learning has been suspended through April 17. We have been preparing for this closure to last longer, which is why distance learning is essential.
- DSST is committed to living our mission and values as we strive to provide an excellent, equitable educational experience to ALL students via digital instruction.
- Our original calendar had students coming back to school on April 6th. However, the first day of DSST E-School will be April 8th to give us time to train our staff on our virtual technology platforms. We will be providing many more details about E-School, including schedules, on Thursday, March 26th.
- We are currently preparing our team to ensure each student has the tools and support they need to successfully engage in remote learning.
AST Staff celebrate Tropical Tuesday on a virtual meeting
What You Need To Do This Week
- Check that student laptop is ready: Confirm that your student has their laptop and charger, and that they are both working. If they do not, please click here for support.
- Confirm that you have internet access: Need internet access? Click here for instructions.
- Get ready for a virtual Advisory Lunch this Friday, March 27th: Your student’’s advisor will be hosting a virtual Advisory Lunch this Friday, March 27th between 11am and 2pm, in order to connect with students and prep them for what is to come in April. This virtual lunch will be held on Microsoft Teams, our video and chat platform. Your student will receive instructions tomorrow via their DSST email on how to log into Teams, and we will send you this information as well.
- Confirm access to Flyer - our parent communication tool: We will also be rolling out regular family communication via Flyer, a communication app for your phone. Some of you may already use Flyer to receive key communications from your school and if so, look for lots of details on the Flyer app. There are two important steps in gaining full access on Flyer. If you already use Flyer at your DSST school, please make sure you have followed the second step of verifying yourself to gain full access to private groups and two way messaging. You can find full instructions here.
Please reach out to your child’s advisor if you have questions. Thank you for your patience during these trying and unprecedented times. We are so excited to roll out DSST E-School across our network, and will do our very best to support each of our students and their families. There will be challenges along the way, but know that we will be here and truly committed to delivering a world class education to your children.
Bill