Dear WES Families,
I am saddened that my first message to you in the new year was one of loss; Dawn Harding was a key figure in our community, and we deeply mourn her passing.
We believe that the news of Dawn’s passing is best shared with children by their parents, and we want to support you in this process. Early Childhood Counselor Debbie Weinberger will be leading a Zoom session tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. to provide tips on how to discuss grief and loss with young children. You can join HERE.
You may also find these resources helpful as you have these conversations with your child::
In the coming weeks, we will provide ongoing grief support for our students as we also make plans to honor Dawn’s life. We will share details about those plans once they are in place. If at any time you or your child could benefit from one-on-one support, our counselors Debbie Weinberger and Meghan Keller and Chaplain Kristen Pitts are available. Please reach out to them.
No School Tomorrow & Virtual Learning This Week
I also need to provide some scheduling updates for this week. Due to the inclement weather, our testing results have been delayed and our faculty are still in the early stages of grieving a much beloved colleague. Consequently, there will be no school tomorrow, Tuesday, January 4.
Also, although we are still awaiting testing results for a significant number of members of our community, at this time we have 12 faculty/staff members and 24 students who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are required to quarantine. Some of these positive cases occurred over break. The impact on our staffing has caused us to make the decision to learn virtually Wednesday-Friday of this week (January 5-7).
A few notes:
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Early Childhood and Elementary families should come to campus at 4 p.m. tomorrow (January 4) to pick up their virtual learning materials. Middle School students were sent home with their Chromebooks before the break, but Grade 7 and 8 students should also come to campus to pick up English assignment packets. Division Directors will also be following up with more details about virtual learning.
- Synchronous teaching will end at noon on Thursday (January 6) to allow students to come to campus between noon and 4 p.m. for the required COVID-19 testing. Some teachers may choose to offer asynchronous learning for the afternoon.
- All students and employees are required to participate in Thursday’s testing this week, except for those who are quarantining. Quarantining students and employees can return to campus after 10 days if they are symptom free.
I know this news is disappointing, as we are all eager to return to our classrooms. We look forward to resuming on-site learning on Monday, January 10.
Also, please remember that we have a community forum tonight at 6:30 p.m. in case you have any questions for Nurse Bailey or me about our newly implemented COVID-19 safeguards for the next few weeks. You can join HERE.
Sincerely,
