Dear Trinity family,
After we sent tuition contracts this past week, several families emailed me to ask about Trinity’s plan for next year. Questions have included…
- What are the possible scenarios for next year?
- AM/PM shifts? Half the class in the morning/half in the afternoon?
- Alternating days? Half the class on Monday and Wednesday/Half the class on Tuesday and Thursday? Friday as a distance learning day?
- Will tuition be the same regardless of live-learning or distance learning?
- Is there any reimbursement plan if live-learning is not possible?
- When do you think you will be able to get us more information?
Great questions to be sure, many people are thinking about this. My answers to these questions have been consistent, and I’d like to share with you what our Trinity Admin team and I are thinking about today.
Throughout this process, we have focused on what we know, and have planned for what we don’t know. What we know today is:
- Trinity’s school will open on Monday, August 31 for all grade 9 and new HS students and on Tuesday, September 1 for students in grades K-8 and 10-12.
- Preschool and Junior Kindergarten will open on September 8.
- The TLCA program will be open beginning August 31 to provide child care for our families.
- We are planning on live instruction.
- We will prepare for shifting to distance learning, if deemed necessary, at any time during the school year.
- We are making investments to have classroom sets of learning devices for all our students in grades K-5 to complement the 1-to-1 program that already exists in grades 6-12.
- We are making investments to establish common learning platforms for grades K-5 and grades 6-12 to improve the ease of communication between students/parents and teachers.
What we don’t know today:
- How many students can we have in each classroom at any given time?
- If our students will be allowed to go to school every day, every other day, or some other combination like morning or afternoon?
- Will temperatures need to be taken daily?
- Will we need to wear masks?
- Will non-school workers be allowed in the buildings?
- Will there be a hot lunch program?
- Will the playground equipment be open?
As I shared above, we plan to open with live instruction. By the beginning of July, we hope we will have a much better read on what the opening of school will look like. We will publish our plan when we have more detail from the governing authorities.
You’ll notice in the tuition contract that we have refund guidelines built in this year:
- A full semester 1 refund is given if a family withdraws their child(ren) by July 31.
- A 50% semester 1 refund is given if a family withdraws their child(ren) by September 30.
- We have refund dates set for the second semester as well.
Today, we are not planning to vary tuition because our hope is to offer live instruction. We have provided more financial aid support for families to deal with the individual situations that occur through loss of income. We want our students to be able to remain at Trinity. And we want Trinity’s school to be able to serve Bend and Central Oregon for many years to come.
Our recent parent survey was very helpful as we continue to improve our digital learning experience. We had over 180 responses, which was so helpful. As we evaluate the distance learning experience now and what it should be in the future, we heard families ask for Trinity to:
- Recreate the closest reproduction of the in-classroom experience so that learning continues.
- Increase feedback on assignments.
- Ensure a consistent communication structure between teachers and the home.
- Increase support in assisting parents and students in managing the technology.
This is our charge. All of this week’s Trinity Online Auction proceeds will go to helping us with the investments we need to make to keep Trinity’s school providing a great learning experience and also loving and caring for our students and families regardless of the modalities we use for instruction.
We will finish this year well. Your child(ren) will be prepared for their next level of education. Thanks for the partnership, encouragement, prayers, and support as we navigate these waters.
be God’s,
Gregg Pinick
SDG!
Executive Director / Head of Schools
Cell: 714-728-5054
Email: gregg.pinick@saints.org