Returning to School

Hi All,

Wow! What an incredible turn of events over this past week or so. This has been a devastating fire and has impacted the entire county in one way or another.

I just want to take a few minutes to update you on where things stand and what our plans are as we move forward.

As you already know, all Butte County Schools have been closed this week (November 13-16). We will continue to be closed (as planned) for the Thanksgiving holiday all of next week (November 19-23).

We have been told by the County Superintendent of Schools to remain closed the week after Thanksgiving (November 26-30), with some limited exceptions (I'll explain below). This is to allow air quality to return to normal, ash to stop falling, and school sites to engage in cleaning up residue from the fire after the Thanksgiving break. It also allows state and county officials to tour schools to ensure there are no health hazards to students.

STREAM and most Butte County schools are now planning to return to school on Monday, December 3. We will follow a regular schedule, including After School Program.

Office staff will be available on Monday, November 26 from 10am to 2pm, if you need to pick up instruments, jackets, or other items that were left while schools have been closed.

In the meantime, we are planning to invite students to come to STREAM voluntarily on Friday, November 30 to meet with teachers, classmates, and counselor if they wish to have a touchstone to process thoughts and feelings before starting back to school on Monday (Dec. 3). Friday (Nov. 30) is not a regular school day, but a voluntary day. We will send a schedule out soon.

We will also have staff available on Friday, November 30 to meet with parents to answer questions you may have. We will also send this schedule soon.

We will also have a few changes in our normal calendar and will send out an updated December calendar soon.

Tim Taylor, our county superintendent held a press conference today and you can watch a livestream on Inspire High School's Facebook page or, likely, on various news services pages.

Thank you all for your patience as we navigate an unprecedented event in our county and state.

Don