The Superintendent & School Board Have Called for an Afternoon of Wellness
OLA Students & Parents,
I hope you are all well this second day of May! It's a little cool, windy, and predicted to rain this afternoon in the San Luis Valley. Hopefully the precipitation will help the state catch up on needed water.
As almost everyone knows, OLA staff serve two school programs- we are a multi-district online school (On-Line Academy) for 4th - 12th grade students around the state, and we are also an alternative education campus (The DELTA Center) for 9th-12th grade students in our local school district. This is one of the reasons why I believe OLA has an advantage over many other online programs- our instructors work onsite with students in the classroom, and they very strongly believe in building strong relationships with students (whether it is onsite or through cyberspace).
I'm reminding everyone of this because on the onsite side of our mission, the school district has been meeting some difficult challenges recently (including ongoing struggles with living in the most impoverished region of our state, high levels of drug addiction and depression among our community, high levels of staff burn-out and resignations). This year, our small district has experienced several challenges, and our district level leadership (the superintendent and school board) recognized the need to provide all district staff immediate support regarding our own behavioral health.
This afternoon starting at 11:30am, Superintendent Webb has directed all district schools to release students early (at lunch), and staff to participate in wellness training and activities; for some this will be training in managing secondary trauma, others will be participating in team building activities (to increase staff collaboration and support between schools).
I apologize that staff will be unavailable this afternoon. As district educational leaders (principals), we try very hard to interrupt student instruction as little as possible. In this case, district & building level educational leaders hope that this directive from our school board and superintendent will help us serve our families, in all our schools, better. As a new leader worried about the coming teacher shortage, I'm also hoping that this helps us retain quality educators, many of whom are on the verge of leaving education (no one at OLA, but in general in our district and districts across the nation).
If anyone has any questions for teachers this afternoon, please email them or leave voicemails, and they will get back to you asap tomorrow.
Thank you to everyone for your patience, understanding, and adaptability. OLA staff will be back to our regular routine tomorrow morning.
Have an excellent afternoon (even if it's a little rainy),
Mr. Wright