OK, Friends. HOW! ARE! YOU?!?!? I certainly hope and regularly pray that you are enjoying your summer and I'm grateful to say, it's only July. We have a lot of time to enjoy some more travel and peaceful mornings to share a cup of coffee in God's presence. Every time I read about teacher anxiety regarding the return to school in the news or on social media, my heart goes out to you and I once again lift you in prayer. I wonder how you're feeling and what you're thinking. I look forward to talking with each of you again. I feel apologetic about approaching you in the summer months again and again. This, to put it lightly, is a summer full of pivoting and opportunities! Eric Forseth is settling into life at HC and I am confident you will find him to be a wise, energetic, creative, Christ-centered leader for our community. I'm grateful to say that after a lot of prayer, discussion, listening and decision-making questions marks are being turned into periods. I'd like to share what we KNOW at this point. I'll be informing parents of this information soon as well. I don't want to "dump" this on you and walk away! Shall we plan an informal Zoom on Monday for you to ask any questions or suggest creative ideas if you'd like? This is not a mandatory staff meeting. I will record our Q & A time and send the link to you if you'd prefer to view it at a convenient time. As more information becomes available, I anticipate we'll do this again before our return to school week of learning as well.
Zoom Link For our Q & A on Monday at 4:00:
Miska Rynsburger is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Return to School Q & A Time: Jul 27, 2020 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us04web.zoom.us/j/74447282639?pwd=K3lJUDJSUjhiTkVyZmpQdUhMckJMdz09 Meeting ID: 744 4728 2639 Passcode: 2CCU7f
Back to School Planning
Under the direction of Dr. Eric Forseth, our new Head of Schools, a Back to School Coordinating Council has been created. That Council consists of 5 sub groups (with 7-8 members in each) from across the district that have been working to unpack the Governor’s Return to School Road Map. The role of each group is to review the parts of the Road Map that are required as well as the those that are strongly recommended. Our goal, in consultation with West Michigan CSI schools, the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District, Michigan Association of Non-public Schools and the Ottawa County Health Department, is to develop the framework to implement all of the required components and as many of the strongly recommended items that are feasible to implement with fidelity. In the message sent by Dr. Forseth yesterday he shared the following update.
What is currently required:
Facial coverings: Facial coverings must be worn by staff and students in 6th-12th grades. Facial coverings may be homemade or disposable. Facial coverings are not required for prek-5th grade students unless they are in a common area. We are asking students to provide their own mask. The school will also have disposable masks on hand as necessary.
Hygiene: The school will provide supplies to support healthy hygiene behaviors including soap, hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol for safe use by staff and students, paper towels, tissues, and signs reinforcing proper handwashing techniques. The schools will also have portable handwashing and/or hand sanitizing stations to set up throughout school buildings. Staff will be trained on how to best clean our buildings and classrooms. More details will be shared soon.
Health screenings: We are working with the Ottawa County Health Department regarding student and staff daily screening protocols. Once we have these, we will send them to you. This will likely be a self-screen at home each morning and include taking your child’s temperature and reviewing symptoms to make sure your child is symptom free before going to school.
We will work with the Ottawa County Health Department if a confirmed case of COVID-19 is identified, and in particular, must collect the contact information for any close contacts of the affected individual from two days before he or she showed symptoms to the time when he or she was last present at school.
What is strongly recommended/recommended that we intend to implement:
Your building principal will be sending you safety protocols for your child’s building. This includes information on classroom configurations, traffic flow, and signage for each building to best allow for social distancing; visitor guidelines, field trip requirements, recess protocols, etc.
Medically vulnerable students: We are reviewing current plans for accommodating students with special healthcare needs so we can update their educational plans.
What I can tell you today is that the above requirements will be followed with fidelity and we are working to finalize how the strongly recommended/recommended items will be implemented. One thing that has been decided is that we will need to reconfigure our classroom furniture arrangements so that all tables will be situated in a direction that allows for all students to be facing the front and when possible chairs will be positioned at the ends of each table to allow as much distancing between students as possible. I know many of you currently have your rooms set up in groups so please begin thinking about how you will rearrange your room to meet the new configuration. I know there will be situations where this will not work perfectly but we will do the best we can to get as close as possible to this goal.
Given the requirement that we can not have more than 50 people gathered in one room/space indoors and not more than 100 people gathered outdoors we have made the following decisions.
Classroom Visit
Traditionally teachers welcome students into their new learning spaces and meet them during an ice cream social. Each of you have met with your kids so often over the summer months with planting parties, playdates etc. we will not need to host a separate event for children to meet with you and see their learning spaces before school begins. Feel free to carry on with your playdate schedules.
Parent Night
Another event that must pivot due to group size limitations. Teachers, will you please create an official welcome video recording your happy self in the classroom? This video will provide parents with the traditional (just as you have in previous years) information pertinent to the school year. Digital copies of the classroom information packet can be linked with the video clip email. Paper copies could be provided at the classroom visit on the 20th. In the video, we're thinking teachers will offer a greeting to the child and parent. Then the child can be "dismissed" and parent will receive the "nuts and bolts" information. Teachers might close by offering to answer any questions parents have at the Classroom Visit night on the 20th. As you think this through, might it be possible to send this video via email to your parents on Tuesday, August 18? This will give them time to view the clip and formulate questions for their time with you on the following Thursday evening. I'll be recoding and sending videos from Rose Park with school information soon as well. Our movie star days are not behind us yet! 😛 But this does mean no big parent presentation night the first week of school. We'll have to encourage each other to see the positives in these changes as they come! We can talk more about this during our Zoom or separately if you have wonderings or concerns.
Walk A Thon
Due to group sizes needing to be 100 or less, walk a thon will take place by grade level during the week of September 22 rather than one great big event. Each grade level will decide how they would like to celebrate the support from donors by walking at the location of their choice for approximately 45 minutes. We can think this through creatively to make it fun and celebratory!
Grandparents Day
Group size requirements changes this one too. I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise. I will let parents know this change soon. Actually, I suspect this will come as a relief to many grandparents. It's not highly recommended for older folks to come into an elementary building at this time. BUT! We can still celebrate the love and support of grandparents for our children! In time, let's think this one through as well. Each child might engage virtually with their grandparent on the day previously designated as grandparents day for their campus. Children might zoom with their grandparents and read a story. The class might zoom together and sing several songs. We will brainstorm this one through during a staff meeting to decide on the best way based on class make up and grade level to engage with grandparents virtually.
Chapel
We will be able to hold chapel in our amphitheater in the Forest. Our group size maxes out under 100. I'll get that schedule to you during the week of August 17!
I'm sure I'm not covering everything. I'm constantly writing lists to keep track of what we need to work through. Don't hesitate to do the same and kick questions my way! We'll be working to keep communication flowing to parents more readily in the coming days and keep you in the loop as well.
Have an amazingly toasty summer weekend! Know that I am SO grateful to serve with and for you! I'm eager to start welcoming our blessings back to our mix!
See you soon,
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