Dear Parents,
Just two more days and we all begin our new routines! Thank you to those of you who filled out and returned our Student Support Checklist sent to you this past Thursday. If you have not yet filled it out, you can find it on our Parent Portal and submit it from there. We are here to partner with you for the smoothest transition possible for your child(ren).
Today was our second Annual Family Fun Event: Virtual Zoomtopia! It is with much hope that all who participated experienced some joy, connection, and downright fun this afternoon! I am looking forward to hearing about which family was the winning team! A special thank you to our amazing team; Lauren Curnutt, our new Parent’s Association President, Ilene Kosoff, our previous past Parent Association President, and Rebekah Weinberger, our Director of Advancement for working so hard to make sure we started off the school year in a fun and interesting way!
The School Handbook is complete and can be found here. This handbook outlines our new (IN RED), and our updated (IN PURPLE) policies. Please review all policies and know that some of our new policies have already been updated since we last sent them to you weeks ago.
Tomorrow between 8:30am and 10:30am will be School Supply Drop Off and Alternate Remote Learning Options (ARLO) Pick- Up. Please come through carline, and pop your trunk, and we will take out your child(ren)’s labeled school supplies or put in their take home supplies. We will also hand each family a hard copy of the School Handbook, and ask that you read it and sign the last page labeled Acceptance of the School Handbook and bring it back to school on Wednesday when you drop your child off in carline. The School Handbook will also be posted on our Parent Portal later this week for easy reference from your phone or computer.
As mentioned in previous emails, so much about how we will conduct school will be different this year. Arrival and dismissal are two things where we will require your support and partnership. Because we need to check if health screenings have been submitted (Rebekah will send you a remind text with instructions for Pick Up Patrol, the app that we will use for health screenings in the next few days) and because temperatures need to be taken before a child enters the school building, l fear that carline will take longer than usual. Please make sure to read the arrival and dismissal policies of the School Handbook so that you are familiar with our new traffic pattern (entrance for arrival and dismissal carlines will be the entrance closest to the soccer field on our campus). We ask you in advance to have patience, as we will have all hands-on deck and will do our best to move carline along as quickly and smoothly as possible.
As promised, Joshua Rutsky (teacher and father of 2 day school students, and alumni of the NEMJDS), will be presenting a parent technology workshop called Intro to Google Classroom for parents of students in grades 2-8 this Wednesday the 19th at 7:00pm. Please RSVP to acarter@nemjds.org so that you may receive the Zoom link for this parent information session.
And lastly, Laura DeCastra, will substitute for Ms. Katherine’s Yoga and Mindfulness classes through December, until Katherine can return. Katherine is going to miss our students so much and will be in touch with Laura to assist her in any way that can be helpful. Laura is a trained elementary school teacher and yoga/mindfulness instructor and is as excited to join our faculty as we are to have her.
Wednesday is just around the corner and all NEMJDS employees look forward to welcoming you in carline beginning at 7:30am! Have a great last two days of summer!
Warmly,
