Dear Villa Community,
The days leading up to the beginning of a new school year are always exciting times for children, staff, and administration. It is with heightened anticipation that we prepare to welcome our students back to campus. Below are some items for your special attention.
Face coverings:
Local health officials are urging the use of face coverings in schools regardless of vaccination status. We have over 500 students not yet eligible to be vaccinated, making them an especially vulnerable population.
The state legislature passed a statute (A.R.S. 15-342.05) that was signed by the governor prohibiting public schools (which includes charter schools) from mandating face coverings. As a result, we anticipate classrooms will have students with and without masks. Villa will strongly urge masks on campus but permit families to opt out of mask-wearing. Parents may elect to opt their child out by emailing
amoskoyes@villamontessori.com. This will allow teachers to manage the wearing of face coverings in their classrooms appropriately. If a parent does not opt-out in writing, we will assume that their child is to wear a face-covering while at school and support the student in doing so. Though potentially inconvenient, wearing masks has been proven as effective protection against transmission and will aid us in avoiding possible Covid interruptions of in-person learning. Unfortunately, Covid exposures may require us to close a classroom, so exposed persons can be appropriately quarantined.
You also may have heard about the controversy and a pending lawsuit regarding the implementation date of ARS 15-342.05. It was intended to take effect on July 1, 2021, but may not take effect until 90 days later, on September 28, 2021. This question of law is expected to be resolved by the court at the end of next week. We will continue to monitor this and community Covid data to determine Villa’s policy and remain responsive to community needs. We will also continue to communicate proactively.
Other mitigation strategies:
We will continue to follow other effective mitigation strategies implemented last year such as ventilation procedures (including HEPA filters in A/C and classroom air scrubbers), cohorting of students, physical distancing, following guidance for contract tracing in combination with quarantine and home isolation from MCDPH, maintaining a low tolerance for illness, additional cleaning, and disinfecting procedures, etc.
Please note that we will no longer be doing health screenings upon arrival. Instead, we ask that the screening be done at home before coming to school. Please print and refer to the home health screening question sheet below and
HERE.
Details regarding all of the mitigation matters are contained in our mitigation plan, available below and
HERE.
Traffic Issues:
Camelback High School is back to in-person learning for its 2,300 students for the first time since March 2020. Accordingly, please anticipate a high volume of traffic on 28th Street. As usual, Villa will have off-duty police officers on-site during the first week of school to direct traffic and to ease congestion wherever possible during drop-off and pick-up. Traffic challenges such as these are faced by every school located within a residential area. I ask for your patience until things smooth out in the coming weeks, as has been the case in prior years.
Important Links:
It is an honor to serve as Villa’s Head of School for another year. On behalf of all the teachers and staff, I appreciate the trust you have placed in us.
On behalf of the children,
Margo S. O’Neill, M.Ed.
