Sept. 8, 2020
Dear Students and Families,
On Friday, I met with IMESD Online staff and we celebrated as we hit send on emails that would communicate La Grande Virtual Learning Academy (LVLA) schedules and login credentials for our various curriculum offerings to students and their families. I left for the weekend very proud of our team and very grateful that we had met the timeline we had shared in our communication and at our orientation. However, over the weekend, I received various emails from families that they had not received the promised login credentials, and early this morning I came to the fully realization that most of our students did not receive the emails IMESD sent on Friday and students did not have access to any of their classes.
The issue was a simple one, our network security for does not allow students (particularly K-5 students) to receive any email from outside the district. They are blocked by our firewall. In previous years, we enrolled all students in our online program within LGSD Domain so this was never an issue or a concern. By moving to services with Acellus and Google Classroom through IMESD, we did not realize that all email communications were being blocked. I am very proud that our staff spent all of today individually emailing families and students to make sure account information was accessible to our students by the end of the day. Additionally, the IT Departments of LGSD and IMESD have spent most of today working on a resolution to this issue for a long-term solution. This is certainly not how we had hoped the first day of online programming to go and I appreciate the patience that many of you shared with our staff today as we resolved this issue.
On a positive note, as classes officially start today, I wanted to reach out and make sure you are aware of how to navigate your online classes in our various online platforms and how to get help if something is not working and share some supports or resources that will aid you in starting the school year.
Acellus Login (K-12)
Students with Acellus classes should have received a Acellus login card via email. This card provides essential login information (i.e. website, username, and password).
To access Acellus, students go to Acellus.com and click on the “Students/Parents” tab on the top right. They then provide their Acellus ID and password, and login. Once logged in, student should immediately see their classes. Students then click on the class they wish to participate in and get to work. Acellus, has a built in timeline function to support your student and prompt them on how much to accomplish on a given day so they can complete courses by the end of the year or semester. These classes are self-paced and need very little support outside the videos and tasks inside the Acellus classes. However, these classes are supported by regional teachers should your child need assistance at any time.
Google Classroom (K-12)
Students with Google Classroom classes should have received a welcome email from their online Google Classroom teacher in connection to their school email account. Students were automatically rostered in these classes using their school email. See the resource The Parent’s Guide to Google Classroom found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g-0F_xa9WSocHxHz8aJylaFnj-XQVNN8/view. We hope this resource helps students and families access classes if they are new to Google Classroom.
This resource is also linked on our website at: https://lla.lagrandesd.org/o/lgla. Students will only need their school email and password for Google to access these classes.
Google Classroom classes are organized by date and supported by regional teachers of record. Teachers may have live or recorded video content to support student learning in addition to practice, quizzes, projects, and tests. If you need support, we ask you to email the class teacher directly as they are the best contact to resolve questions about their particular class(es). If you do not get a response in 24 hours, then please email one of our staff members listed below.
Graduation Alliance (Grade 9-12)
Students that are assigned Graduation Alliance classes received a welcome email that included a link to the class portal (https://app.gradally.com/), username, and password. Much like Acellus, classes are listed on the student’s homepage and from there students can click into the class and start working on course content. Graduation Alliance also have a built-in timeline to prompt students in completing classes. Students should strive to complete coursework in alignment to this prompting.
Support
We know that there are bugs in any system that has multiple people completing large amounts of data entry. Our LVLA staff will be contacting families over the next few days to check-in, resolve issues, and answer questions. You are welcome to email our support staff if you have any questions. Your best contacts are:
Grades K-3 & 7 Students
Megan Banes
(541) 663-3227
Grades 4-6 & 8 Students
Kelly Richards
(541) 663-3243
High School Students (Grades 9-12)
Chelsee Rohan
(541) 663-3308
Student Services
Some of you have already started to reach out regarding Students Services (i.e. IEP, 504, EL, TAG Plans, etc.). If your student receives Special Education Services, your student’s district case manager will be reaching out to you to schedule these appointments. If you have questions about who your case manager is and their contact information, you are welcome to email me at scott.carpenter@lagrandesd.org.
For all other services, I will be working to support these needs and/or plans. My current focus is to help all students and families access their online classes, but within the next two weeks I will be contacting families regarding 504, EL, or TAG Plans to schedule meeting and updating annual services plans and making sure your student has the tools to access learning within the LVLA online program.
Conclusion
Lastly, I am excited to kick off the year and re-engage in learning. Over the coming weeks, I will be continuing to reach out to our families to help you explore learning tools available through LVLA and La Grande School District. We want all students to access the full suite of programs and services we have available to support your student’s learning and growth over the coming school year.
Sincerely,
Scott Carpenter
Director of Education Program, LGSD
Scott.carpenter@lagrandesd.org
(541) 663-3203