Activities are ramping up at the Del Norte Unified School District. Superintendent Jeff Harris updated the community in his weekly Monday video address.The first day for certificated staff was actually last Wednesday, Aug. 19, Harris said.“We had about 253 certificated staff who joined us for the first day of professional development and looking at the safety procedures and protocols we’re putting into place for COVID-19 making it safe for our staff to come back.”#placement_573654_0_i{width:100%;max-width:550px;margin:0 auto;}var rnd = window.rnd || Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);var pid573654 = window.pid573654 || rnd;var plc573654 = window.plc573654 || 0;var abkw = window.abkw || '';var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=573654;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid573654+';place='+(plc573654++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];document.write('');Staff also touched on distance learning requirements under SB98 that families will experience and what standards will look like on the first day for students Aug. 31.Harris said most of the district’s classified staff returned to work Friday, Aug. 21, focusing on safety and COVID-19 training and responses.“As of today, all staff are engaged in planning the best start we can have to the start of this year,” he added.He reminded parents that the Board of Trustees approved the entire district to start in full distance learning. Beginning Sept. 14 the plan is to transition to allowing small cohorts in classrooms for distribution of materials, interventions or special education services.The goal after Oct. 2 is to further transition to the blended model with 50% of students attending at a time, two days a week in person and three days in distance learning.Harris said the district began distribution of Chromebook notebook computers last week continuing this week. Parents with questions, should contact their school office. Office hours are posted online at dnusd.org/learningoptions.Finally, due to outside complications, Harris said the administration is about a week and a half behind in mailing out first day packets.“We’ll be getting first day packets and authorization forms out to you as soon as we can,” he said.Paperwork can be returned in the provided, postage paid envelopes or dropped off at school offices.On Wednesday, district staff provided a webinar to help parents better understand how distance learning will work when school begins next week. A considerable amount of information for parents is available on the "Families" tab of the district's website, https://www.dnusd.org/ googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1515727'); });