The Calcasieu Parish School System has announced another update for parish students and their families.
"As we’ve mentioned before, we are so eager to have our official first day of the 20-21 school year with all of our faculty, staff, and students. We have prepared for that day since March 13, and the excitement will be even greater when that time finally comes," a release from the system states.
Parish-wide, officials are still working on assessing the needs and situations of employees so that educational plans can be made for students.
Employees are reminded to please remember to check their email accounts for more information if they have not done so already.
All schools won't be coming on at the same time, because of varying levels of damage across the parish, officials say.
"As power begins to be restored across our parish, some of our schools will be reopening sooner than others and sooner than the 24 days we were out for Hurricane Rita. This will occur where minimal campus damage was sustained. Some of those schools may be reopening as soon as next week, but we will certainly keep families posted on that information as it is finalized," the release states. "We plan to bring back our employees to those sites first for several days before opening the doors for students. If your student’s campus does reopen for face-to-face instruction, but you would like for your student to participate instead in virtual learning, we will still have that option available for families."
For campuses that are not ready to physically reopen, virtual instruction will be offered as early as September 28. That's open for all students in the parish, through a program called Odysseyware and it will be optional.
"Even though power may be restored by then in most of the parish, we know that device and/or internet issues will still be present. We, at CPSB, are not immune to those same issues that many of you are facing," the release states. "Our districtwide network remains down at this time due to equipment damage sustained by our provider, therefore we will not be able to provide devices and/or internet for students for the time being. While this situation is not ideal for families or our district, the offering of some educational option is a step in the right direction as we try very hard to return to some sort of normalcy here in Southwest Louisiana."
If families have not completed the enrollment survey for a student(s), they are asked to do so here[linkprotect.cudasvc.com] as soon as possible. This survey will remain open until September 20 and provides the district with important information about our families as we continue finalizing educational plans. If there are specific questions about these plans, please send an email to virtual@cpsb.org.
"The Southwest Louisiana community may have sustained a devastating blow with the landfall of Hurricane Laura, but we are resilient. This will make our families stronger, our district stronger, and our community stronger. Thank you, Calcasieu, for sticking with us as we continue Rebuilding Foundations for the Future," the release states.
