March 12, 2020


Dear SMCS Families,
 
We write today with an update on our approach to COVID-19, specifically with regard to school closure. We will always consider closing our school a "last resort" for any difficult situation, as I know the hardship this causes for families as well as the missed learning experiences it results in for our students. At this time, SMCS will not be closed the week of March 23. It is entirely possible that this might change based on what the spread of COVID-19 looks like over the next couple of weeks.

This will not be a decision that we make lightly, nor will it be a response to outside pressure or the actions of other organizations. SMCS continues to have no reported or confirmed cases of students, faculty, or staff with COVID-19 or who have had direct exposure to someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19.

We do intend to have Field Day tomorrow as scheduled. 

Travel

With spring break beginning next week, we know many of you made travel plans. If you have not yet reconsidered your travel plans, we encourage you to do so in order to keep our risk of community exposure as low as possible upon our return on Monday, March 23.

In advance of our return to campus, we may ask all families to declare their recent travel. New information emerges daily about areas in which travel is unsafe-both domestically and internationally. It is, therefore, impossible to predict the list of locations that will cause us to ask families to self-isolate for 14 days before returning to school.

Please be aware that the CDC has recently included most of Europe in their Level-3 areas, and the Level-2 warning has been extended to travel throughout the rest of the world. The CDC has also published a   FAQ about traveling within the United States. We encourage you to regularly consult the CDC travel resources  and not put your family at risk of exposure.

Distance Learning

We are currently working with teachers to plan for distance learning. This instruction will look different in each grade, and students in 5th - 8th grades will require the use of their chromebook or a home computer. For our younger students, learning may look like parents watching videos with their child(ren) and leading them through provided exercises. For our older students, instruction may look like reading an assigned chapter, creating a summary, and reviewing against a provided rubric.  Specific instructions will be provided by teachers if we must begin distance learning. 

We are confident in our faculty, staff, students, and families. We will work together through this challenging, unpredictable time, and we will be stronger for it at the end. We continue to face choice after choice in which there is no "good" or "best" decision. Thank you for your continued patience as we respond to new information and consistently attempt to make decisions on what we believe to be best for our community.
 
Sincerely,

Dr. Cox and Nurse Diaz