Context and Guiding Principles

Unique Met Context:    

We have a unique context at the Met that underlies our response to re-opening. 

• We draw students from a statewide catchment area - bringing in students from various communities that have different infection rates. 
• We send students across the state (and into other states) for internships. 
• We are a school that personalizes education for students and has a more decentralized approach to student work. We provide flexibility whenever possible to serve the needs of the student. 
• Our school design allows us 4 years with student/advisor relationships.  
• We have multiple campuses in different communities. 

Guiding Principles/ Core Values: 

As we move forward to determine our way forward facing unknown choices, we will return to these guiding principles.

1. We will make decisions that maximize safety for students, staff, and community partners. 
2. We will take into account mental health, socio-emotional health, and the needs of particular learning styles. 
3. We will minimize in-person interactions involving large numbers of students.  
4. We will utilize in-person learning, with appropriate safeguards, to build connections and relationships that support students in real-time and for the future. 
5. We will use confirmed scientific information to make decisions.  
6. We will educate students, families, and partners about safe practices to meet together.  

Our ultimate goal is a safe, engaging, and rigorous personalized education. As we make the decisions on how to re-open we will continue to hold to our Big Ideas: Communication, Collaboration, Holistic Learning, Consistency, Realistic Expectations, Relationships. Our hope is that we can do this well with a diverse student body from around the state that builds upon real work and mentor support. 

The Process of Building the Plan

The Co-Director and small administrative team first reviewed the guidelines along with the surveys and information that students, staff, and parents completed during Distance Learning. The Co-Director then involved the larger administrative team  (Business Manager, Communications Director, Facilities Manager, Curriculum Director, Director of Special Education, Director of MLL, The Director of Social Work, Director of Professional Development, Curriculum and CTE Director, and the school Nurse) to draft the elements of the plan.  

Experimental Mindset: 

• As an innovative CTE program and a long-time innovative school design, our community's character is to design and build together; then to assess and redesign.  
• During distance learning, our message to staff is, “We are engaging in a vast social experiment - we should work to maintain an experimental mindset working to design, test, and redesign as necessary.  We won’t get it right the first time.  Don’t panic. Don’t try to be perfect.” 
• Whatever program we roll out next year, we have the mindset, and the structures in place to face it as a design and learning challenge.