Greeting Tubman Families,

We welcomed educators and all students back to in person classes last Wednesday. We are grateful that the CTU and the district came to an agreement. We realize the return to school after winter break has not been easy for any of us. We want to remind our entire community that we are stronger together. We are confident that we can work collaboratively as we begin to heal our Tubman Community. We appreciate each of your partnerships to ensure Tubman is a safer place for all students, staff, and families.

All families and educators received the details of the agreement on Thursday, January 13, 2022, by email. It emphasizes practices that support community safety during the pandemic. In addition to this agreement I would like to share additional measures that we are taking at Tubman to ensure everyone’s health and safety.

Tubman established a strong and active School Safety Committee prior to my tenure as Principal. In December, we decided to move our School Safety Committee monthly meetings to weekly meetings to address health and safety concerns. Additional efforts are described in details below. 

In partnership,

Principal Gibson and Assistant Principal Moore

Efforts to help keep the community safe during the pandemic.

1. Vaccinations: If your child is fully vaccinated against COVID, please bring your child’s vaccination card to the main office or email our school nurses at creilly1@cps.edu and slcarey1@cps.edu .

2. Vaccination Clinic: Save the date for February 8th and March 1st from 10am-1pm. We have partnered with the district for a vaccination mobile clinic on site at Tubman. Please see flyers attached and sign up. All are welcome. Parents will be allowed to be present while their child receives the vaccination but are not required to attend and can complete an online consent form for their child. In the event a parent is unable to accompany their child during the event we will have staff available to support our students.

3. COVID Testing: Please click here if you would like to sign your child up for COVID testing. If a student has tested positive for COVID in the last 90 days, they are not to take a COVID test on site. This is to avoid false positive results. Please communicate with your child’s teacher and email our school clerk Janese Gordon at jrgordon@cps.edu if your child should pause testing for now. Our support staff did outreach calls during the work stoppage to increase our student test protocols, and provided reminders that Tubman surveillance testing is every Friday.

4. Contact Tracing: If your child tests positive for COVID, through school testing or another means, please report the case here as soon as possible.

5. Stay Home if Sick: Please click here for a list of symptoms that require a student to remain home.

6. Students exhibiting COVID like symptoms: If your child is exhibiting any moderate to severe COVID like symptoms they will be sent to the care room to await pickup. Their return to school will require one of the following: a negative COVID test, physician statement, or stay home and isolate for 10 days.

7.Additional masks for staff and Students: Alderman Tunney donated 1000 masks last week and we are so appreciative of his efforts to help keep our school community safe. In addition, the FOT has graciously voted last Thursday to donate an additional 5000 (1000 additional masks for staff and 4000 additional masks for our students) at the Principal’s request. Thank you FOT for your generous efforts to help keep our staff and students safe! These masks are in addition to the masks the district has agreed to supply to staff and students. 

8. Per CPS guidelines, close contacts (someone who was less than 6 feet away from an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period) must quarantine for 10 days, and students who test positive must be in isolation for 10 days.

Previous Communication Sent to all families on 12/31/21 regarding COVID protocols for return in person beginning January 3, 2022. 

Please find below various information to help clarify the district’s policies, and reinforce the protocols to help us stay healthy:

1. COVID Reporting Protocol: If your child currently has COVID, or did over the break, please report the case by clicking here. CPS Contact Tracing will then email you the date of the return to school for your child. Once you receive that email, you may forward it to your child’s teacher. They will then provide asynchronous work within 24 hours following your email.
2. Sick Protocol: Please have your child stay home if they are sick or have any symptoms regardless of their vaccination status. Click here for a list of symptoms that would require a student to remain home.
3. Travel Protocol: If your child traveled over the break, follow directions from CDPH’S Travel Advisory. If your child is unvaccinated, and traveled to an “orange” state, please have them get tested with a viral COVID test 3-5 days after travel AND stay home and self-quarantine for a full 7 days. 
4. Vaccination Status: Please ensure we have your child’s vaccination card on file if fully vaccinated. In the case of needing to switch learning to remote instruction students with vaccination cards on file can return to school once remote learning launches. Please stop by the main office between 8am-3pm starting this Monday to have their vaccination card inputted in our system. Fully vaccinated means two weeks after their second dose. 
5. Vaccination: Students ages 5 and up are eligible for COVID vaccinations. If your child has yet to be vaccinated, click here for support in signing up for a vaccination.
6. Reminder about delay for remote learning: Though asymptomatic, vaccinated students do not need to quarantine, educators are provided a 24 hour period to plan for remote instruction. If the district determines a full class needs to flip to remote instruction, all students in the class will be home during this 24 hour period. Then students who are vaccinated may return in person, while those unvaccinated, or sick, will access learning remotely. During that 24 hour window, the school will also pass out technology and materials for those learning from home remotely as needed.
7. COVID Testing: If you would like to sign your child up for COVID testing please click here. Generally, students are called out of class to come down for testing on Friday afternoons.

Currently #6 has become a big topic with some families, so I will discuss it a little further in detail. Our school surveillance testing is done on Fridays. Families receive their child’s test results between Saturday and Sunday. The building is closed on the weekends, and actions cannot be taken until Monday. 

Schools are given the autonomy to allow teachers 24 hours to prepare for simultaneous teaching per the CPS and CTU agreement. All parents were previously informed of this protocol 12/31/21. We want to ensure that all students and staff are safe in our building, and these health and safety protocols can help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We appreciate your continued partnership, understanding, and flexibility in helping us navigate health and safety protocols at Tubman during this global pandemic. 

Our Tubman Local School Council supports and partners in the important work of monitoring our Continuous Improvement Work Plan, approving our annual budget, and evaluating our principal. We encourage you to reach out to the LSC representatives as you have questions about these three areas.

CPS has advised that public participation is the most effective way to engage our community during meetings so that all LSC members can hear and respond as helpful. Prior to each LSC meeting community members can sign up for public participation, or during the meeting itself. This process then follows the Open Meeting Act procedures transparently. All are welcome.

The next Local School Council meeting is Tomorrow, Thursday, January 20, 2022, at 6:00pm.

LSC News

Tubman Local School Council (LSC) elections are coming up soon! Are you interested in serving Tubman by becoming a member of the Tubman LSC? The LSC consists of 6 parents, 2 teachers, 1 non teaching staff member, 2 community members and the principal of the school. Council members are elected by members of their peer group every two years and elections will take place in April. Applications to run are due March 3, 2022! Click here for more information from CPS about how to run. 

Local School Councils are responsible for:

• Approving the school based academic plan (CIWP)
• Approving the alignment of budgetary resources to the CIWP
• Engaging in the annual evaluation of contract principal’s professional practices
• Selecting or renewing contract principals

Important Dates & Upcoming Events:

• January 20: LSC Meeting at 6:00 p.m.
• January 24: Tubman vs Blaine at 4:30 p.m. @Blaine
• January 26: Tubman vs Hawthorne at 4:30 p.m. @Hawthorne (JV)
• January 26: Tubman vs Bateman at 5:30 p.m. @Bateman (Varsity)
• January 27: End of 2nd Quarter - (Report Cards will be distributed February 4, 2022)
• January 28: Teacher Development Day - NO CLASSES FOR STUDENTS
• January 31: Tubman vs Burley at 4:30 p.m. @Burley

Hello! I hope you are all well!

Due to the current circumstances, we have decided to teach our Mathematigals virtually this session (about 10 weeks). We would still love to teach students from Harriet Tubman and encourage them to pursue mathematics. Below is the link to our sign-up form and the informational poster.

Thank you,

Jolin

Mathematigals Sign Up Form