A Message from WAY Executive Director, Rich Klemm

March 24, 2020

To our WAY Partners, We hope this message finds you and your family healthy and doing well during this extraordinary time in our world. We know that you and your district have had to execute many different plans of action over the past week to ensure you can provide the best services to your communities. We want you to know we applaud you and stand with you as we move through the weeks ahead.

First, we want you to be aware we are running our WAY operations, with the exception of the in-person labs. Students can still access all the projects and services in HERO as normal. Online experts, mentors, and team leaders are all working each and every day to ensure our students receive the same high level of service as always has been provided. We have also been working with many of the on-site staff members to develop plans to ensure each WAY student has a point of contact.

The two-way communication feature in HERO has been expanded to document weekly interactions in the same fashion as count period communications to stay in compliance with the Pupil Accounting Manual.

According to the Pupil Accounting Manual, due to the classification of WAY Partner sites as 5-0-D programs that have already been approved and are currently providing services, it is our understanding that WAY services can continue unchanged. All work submitted will be evaluated and counted toward a student’s progress in the same manner as usual.

We encourage each partner site to reach out to their pupil accounting officer in order to answer specific questions for your district.

We have noticed a decline in projects submitted from our partner sites. This may be because staff and researchers believe their work may not count. We will encourage researchers to keep pursuing their educational goals by completing and submitting projects. More than ever, our WAY stands ready to assist researchers.

Sincerely,

Rich Klemm
WAY Program- Executive Director