Watch San Juan Island Community Network Forum on Schools’ COVID Responses

From San Juan Islands Community Network

San Juan Islands Community Network invites you to watch its second virtual forum that explored how the islands’ schools are responding to the health and educational challenges posed by COVID-19.

The response so far has been very positive and we believe many more islanders will benefit from the rich conversation. Those who did not attend the forum can view the recording, at their leisure, here. 

A short survey is also linked in the video description on YouTube. We would greatly appreciate if people complete the survey after viewing the forum recording. This feedback will help us improve our forums in the future. Here’s a direct link to a survey.

Here are some of the comments we received:

“I was very impressed with the variety of questions asked – and with the administrators’ responses. The program gave me a much better grasp of the county-wide responses to the challenge the pandemic has posed, along with the particular problems each of the administrations has faced. As a former 5th grade teacher at Orcas Elementary School and currently the grandmother of our last graduating senior, I was particularly pleased with Eric Webb’s contributions to the discussion. I also very much appreciated your moderating style and tone. I can’t recall a program of this type, where interested County residents from all the islands could listen together to a topic of vital and common interest in the area of public education. We’ve tended to operate in silos – except, of course, in sports. Ah, sports . . . sigh. Thanks to all of you for putting this together.”

“This provided a superb overview of information about how schools are dealing with the pandemic, but even more importantly (because this is more difficult to come by), how our education leaders are feeling about this experience, how they perceive the experiences of students, parents, and staff, and what kind of support they wish for from the community.”

“The value of hearing voices from each of the main school district’s within our island community.”

“Well run; enthusiastic participation by a number of administrators; focus on a number of aspects of navigating this challenge; focus on what has been learned that can improve our schools going forward.”

“I could see that these school leaders have a strong working relationship with each other and also much respect. The forum exemplified the complexities of the work these leaders have had to face this year; we are lucky to have each one of them.”

“It is a good place besides a school board meeting for the public to learn about what is happening, not only within their district but in surrounding districts.”

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