Hello OLG Families,
Earlier today I mentioned the work with the Archdiocese and our West Seattle Catholic school peers. Attached is a letter explaining how our schools in the greater Seattle area are making sense of the Governors recent message.
Not mentioned specifically in this letter is our Early Learning Center. Our Preschool and PreK classes will continue to open as planned since distancing, PPE, and public health guidelines for Preschool/PreK programs are different than in K-8 classrooms. Many Preschool/Prek programs have never closed even in the highest peaks of the pandemic and we have learned and are applying all the necessary precautions for our program to reopen.
For our K-8th Grade programs will be opening in full remote/ Distance Learning mode. We learned a lot this spring running our distance learning from March 15th on... but we've learned more since as well. Here are several major changes we are making to our distance learning plan for this start of the school year:
- Our scheduled Supply Drop-off/Ice Cream Social for Aug. 26th is changing formats to mostly virtual, with accessibility for simple textbook/chromebook pickup.
- Our first week of instruction (Sep. 1st - 4th) is a time for teachers to meet individually with families and students (in a socially distant way) to establish a relationship, to continue to gather materials, and to learn all about how the specific grade level remote classrooms will be set up. We believe this meeting time to be essential in establishing a strong working relationship between teachers, students, and families given the nature of this remote start. Our county is currently in Phase 2 and we are able to see small groups of students (currently 4 students + teacher is the largest size group we can have). We will work with a SignupGenius similar to how we have done Student Conferences in the past in order to schedule these times... some teachers will make times available earlier than Sept 1st if you're available for them
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Sept. 8th every class will have synchronous zoom calls on a regular basis. Classroom platforms will be standardized (SeeSaw for K-1st grade, Google Classroom for 2nd-8th grade), teachers are streamlining and standardizing communication tools for families,
- When needed for physical supplies, books, or paper packets we will have weekly Friday/Monday pick-up & drop-off's available.
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GRADES COUNT! This isn't simply a "make it through the next 6 weeks". Participations in zooms, watching the recordings, etc will matter.
This is stress full time for all. As a parent myself I know the difficult decisions and challenges this presents. Starting school this way is not what we had hoped, yet this the time we as a community support one another. Last year we focused on how our Many Parts came together to make One Body of the OLG community. This year you, our families, teachers, students, staff, will continue to ride the waves of our times. Our resilience as adults will inform and help grow our children's resilience as well through this time. Our role modeling for our kids of the respect and compassion for those around us, for the health, safety, and well being of one another is so crtiical in this time.
Thank you for all of your patience and understanding, for rising to the challenge of the full range of emotions we are all going through. Our students will follow our lead as adults. Remain reassuring, positive, and calm as adults. It is especially important to raise our children in hope, as we know this stress will be with us now, but it is only temporary and will not last forever!
Yours in Peace,
Anton Kramer, Principal
