Lower School Late-October Updates

October 27, 2020

Dear Lower School Families,

I hope your family has been enjoying the fall and time outdoors. Students are getting lots of fresh air at school and hopefully their enthusiasm by being outside is transferring to your home life, too! I want to thank you for your vigilance in supporting our health measures by keeping your children home when they exhibit any COVID-type symptom. As the saying goes, “it takes a village,” and your support in helping our community of 479 students and 85 lower school faculty remain healthy is appreciated.

Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled for November 4-6. The scheduler opened last week, and I hope you have signed up to visit with your children’s teachers, including co-curricular faculty. All conferences will be conducted on Zoom. The schedule is below:

Wednesday, November 4th: regular school day with CASE available and conferences from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, November 5th: half-day for all students with dismissal at noon (CASE not available) and conferences from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Friday, November 6th: no school or CASE for students with conferences from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.

Halloween will be celebrated differently this year as we will not be able to invite parents/guardians onto campus for the parade nor into the classrooms to help with the homeroom parties. However, students will celebrate in a new and fun way while remaining in their pod groups. On Friday, October 30th, students may come to school in a costume, school spiritwear or fall-inspired clothing of their choice. It is important to note that they will be in their costumes all day, so they should wear something comfortable underneath. We are unable to allow children to change clothing in school due to a lack of space with our COVID measures. The parties will continue in the homeroom classrooms, and homeroom teachers will reach out to our PACA Room Parents to share how best they can support the activities. Specific plans for the day will be shared by homeroom teachers. Please note that we will not have a Forest Friday on October 30th. The costume guidelines are listed below:

CA spiritwear (or just maroon and gray)

Autumn motifs

Costumes

No weapons (real or pretend) of any kind allowed
Costumes must be respectful to other cultures and people
No blood or gory costumes
Faces must be visible (cannot wear a mask or makeup that hides face completely)
Costumes should be comfortable and able to be worn for the entire school day with ease

The carline continues to improve. Thank you for registering all cars that will be picking up your children as this is a major factor in not clogging the line waiting for a child to come from a homeroom class. It is also important that you are arriving before 3:30 p.m. to pick up your children as the carline is finishing many days by 3:40 p.m. now. If you are unable to pick up your children by 3:40 p.m., please park in the athletic parking lot and come to the lower school entrance to collect your children.

Your children continue spending lots of time outside learning since returning to school. It is very important that your children come to school each day with waterproof jackets that preferably have hoods attached and are warm. Boots, gloves and waterproof hats are all-important clothing items to have at school daily, especially now that the weather is getting cooler. In order to maintain proper social distancing, the carline and bus riders will be outside rain or shine, so it is imperative that your children be prepared to wait in any type of weather.

There is no school for students on Tuesday, November 10th. This is a faculty work day.

This week’s parenting article is from The New York Times and is entitled “Five Ways Families Can Prepare as Coronavirus Cases Surge.” It can be found using this link.

Finally, the last chance for school photos and retakes is on Tuesday, November 3rd, from 10:00 a.m. until noon.

Be well,

Mark L. Hansen

Head of Lower School