January 4, 2021
Dear WHWS Families,
Happy New Year! We are hopeful that 2021 will bring a much smoother school year, and that our careful and thorough health protocols will keep our school open for in-person learning and our community as healthy as possible. We are writing to you today with our next step towards bringing more in-classroom learning to our students.
- Beginning January 25, we will be adding additional time to the school day for grades 2-8. Arrival will continue as usual with the drop off window from 8:40 - 9am, and main lesson starting at 9am. Dismissal and pick up will change to 1:15pm with the expectation that all students will be collected by 1:30pm.
- The existing Grade 1 schedule will shift slightly to an 8:45am start and 12:45pm pick up.
- Our EC schedules will continue unchanged.
We are very grateful to be able to offer more in-person contact hours for Grades 2-8 students, which will allow for the addition of specialty subject classes. Grade One will have two handwork classes per week with Mrs. Papritz, and Grades 2-8 will each receive two Handwork classes with Mrs. Papritz and two Movement classes with Ms. Tabor each week. We see both of these subjects as especially therapeutic after the isolation and decrease in purposeful movement the pandemic has brought for many children. Class teachers will still be sending skills practice and finishing work as “homework” for the afternoons and Fridays.
We will continue to closely monitor the health of our school community and track Whatcom County Covid data. Our goal is to continue to increase classroom hours and days in a safe and managed manner. Our next steps will be towards moving to four full days per week with a 3pm dismissal, and adding in Fridays. These next steps will likely depend on an increase of enrollment to allow for additional staffing.
The plan to increase hours starting January 25 will remain in place as long as we have the support of our local health department, and are inline with Governor Inslee’s most recent guidance for school openings which you can find here. It is still possible that we may be asked to reduce hours and increase online learning as appropriate and in consultation with County health officials.
We want to express our gratitude for your patience, encouragement and continued support of our school! If you would like to contact us with any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to reach out to your class teacher or to contact us directly using the email addresses below.
Warmly,
