Dear OLG Families,
This week we celebrated St. Patrick's Day (pictured here is a little 3rd Grade "Lucky Charm's Math")! Many leprechaun traps and fun... and from green to blue, the next day we were all in dress blues for All-School Mass. The 4th grade class did a great job leading us along in our Lenten journey. Thank you Mrs. Wilson and the 4th grade!
As we move along in this year, there is plenty of info below regarding our April Day of Service, including our preparations going on now in the Homebound/Homeless Kit Drive (led by Student Council). In keeping with our mission, we share our gifts with others and our greater community. Our March 30th Online Safety Presentation is another way we strive to keep you and our greater community sharing the knowledge with each other.
And you have been sharing the good news! Enrollment is underway for next school year and classes are filling, many thanks to the referrals you've been giving! Please follow the link for re-enrollment that was previously sent to your family....on-time re-enrollment period ends March 24th! After this date we will start admitting new families off of our waitlists.
As we welcome new and returning students and families this spring, we also enter a time of saying goodbye to our 8th graders and others. As you saw in a staffing/development update email this week, we are saying goodbye a bit early to Rebecca Arcarese, our Development Director for the past 17 months. Rebecca has provided pivotal support to our school through these unusual COVID times and we are sad to be parting so soon. I have asked her to stay with us in whatever ways possible for her, and she has agreed to assist in transition these coming days ahead. I am working with School Commission and others to post an opening for this necessary position. Interested parties can find more information soon on our
website and through our hiring portals.
Finally a note around vacations, travel, and remote learning. Travel guidance in these COVID times continues to shift, but at this point our state and health department still recommends limiting travel, and following the best practice of 14 day quarantine after out-of-state travel. With variants still a large unknown, we at OLG recognize Spring Break plans are affected by this but we all want to stay safe and keep our doors open. If you are in need of a planned move to remote learning after spring break, please be in contact with your child's teacher to pre-arrange this. Moving to remote learning has significant planning and transition needs for teacher, student, and classmates. Spring Break is our window for next transitions (those needing to quarantine, and also for those returning to in-person who have been remote).
We have seen an increase in students reporting absent for a day from in-person learning for illness or other family needs, but then asking to be let into remote learning that day. Do not ask of your child or your child's teacher, to split their time between home/recovery needs and the learning. Whether remote or in-person, learners need to be able to focus on their school work for that day. In addition, as remarkable as our teachers are, they are not able to shift full support for the student at the drop of a hat from one mode to the other. Our attendance and absence policies (
see page 13 of our Family Handbook) continue to hold for making-up missed work and being present to our education whether in-person or in remote status. Please feel free to call the school office or join my
M/W/F 2pm zoom office hour if you have questions or concerns on this.
