New Opportunity! Before Care to Start September 19

Dear Heilicher Parents,

We are pleased to let you know that we will offer before care at no cost to parents. The before-care program will begin on Monday, September 19. This is a drop-in program, and at this time we will not require preregistration.

Before care drop-off will be from 7:30 to 7:45 a.m. No drops-offs will be allowed from 7:45 to 8 a.m. (Heilicher’s normal drop-off window begins at 8 a.m.).

Before care will be supervised by a Heilicher staff member in the Dining Room, and activities will include board games and art. Students may also read or do homework during this time.

We ask that you use your parent access card to enter the building, walk your child to the Dining Room, and sign them into before care. You may not drop your child off outside the building, as we will not have staff at the entrance to ensure they get to the Dining Room.

We will not provide food during before care. However, you are welcome to send a dairy or parev (non-dairy/non-meat) breakfast for your child to eat before school begins.

At 8 a.m., all students in before care will be sent to their classrooms.

Please email beforecare@hmjds.org if you have any questions. We are glad to be able to offer this service to our Heilicher parents.

Torah Thoughts from Doc

Read a brief message about this week's Torah portion, Parashat Ki Teitzei. There are four traditional lenses through which to understand the Torah; they are represented by the acronym PaRDeS.

Mark Your Calendars!

• Tuesday, September 13 - Back-to-School Night (see details below)
• Monday, September 26 - NO SCHOOL: Rosh Hashanah
• Tuesday, September 27 - NO SCHOOL: Rosh Hashanah

View the full Heilicher calendar online

Key Dates for 2022-2023

Back-to-School Night

All Heilicher parents are invited to our Back-to-School Night on Tuesday, September 13, at Heilicher. This is a parent-only program. The schedule is as follows:

6:30-7:15 p.m. → Grades K-4

7:15-7:45 p.m. → All School 

7:45-8:30 p.m. → Grades 5-8

Back-to-School Night is an opportunity for you to hear from your child's teachers about the grade-level curricula and educational goals and to build relationships with faculty members and fellow parents. Grades K-5 should meet in your child(ren)'s classroom at the assigned time. Grades 6-8 will be together in the Fiterman Beit Knesset. If you have questions about how to best split your time with multiple children, please reach out directly to their homeroom teachers.  

During the all-school portion, you'll have a chance to speak with our specialists, meet senior administrators, and learn about ways to get involved at Heilicher, including through the Parent Teacher Organization. Specialists will be available in the auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. for any grades 5-8 parents that want to stop in before the all-school portion. They will remain in the auditorium until 8 p.m. for any K-4 parents that want to connect more following the all-school portion.

Building Access ID Cards for Parents

Now that the building is back open for parent visitors, all Heilicher parents will be issued an access card to enter. Each parent will receive their own access card, which will be activated for the 2022-23 school year. Please use your access card to enter through the main (south) doors of the JCC for visits to Heilicher anytime from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

If you already have an access card (if you were at Heilicher prior to COVID), we ask that you try to locate it and fill out the ID card form with your name and card number. We will then reactivate your card, which was deactivated when the building shut down 2.5 years ago. 

All parents who do NOT have access cards will receive them at Back-to-School Night on Tuesday, September 13. If you are not able to attend Back-to-School Night, please contact Mike Madigan, and he will arrange to have a card issued to you.

Volunteer Opportunities

Sign up to help with All-School Lunch and/or All-School T'filah.

• All-School Lunch: Help set up and clean up our all-school lunch on Wednesday(s) in the auditorium 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

• All-School T'filah: Help us set up for all-school t'filah Monday(s) in the theater 8:15-9 a.m. 

Grade-level volunteer opportunities will be sent out by room parents.

Communication Best Practices

If you need to get in touch with Heilicher faculty, staff, or administrators, please send an email or call them to set a time to meet. Drop-off and pickup are not the right times for such communication, as staff members' full attention cannot be focused on the conversation as they ensure drop-off and pickup run smoothly. Thank you!

COVID-19 Protocol Clarifications

Good news: There are no COVID cases at school! Please read our clarified COVID-19 protocols for future reference.

If your child is a close contact with a positive COVID case at school, we will email you. A COVID rapid antigen test is required five days after the exposure. Your student will also need to wear a well-fitting mask at school for ten days following the most recent exposure to the positive person. During these ten days, monitor for signs and symptoms. All close contacts will eat lunch in a separate but supervised area in the lunchroom for those ten days.

If your child is positive for COVID, they will need to isolate at home for five days. Day 0 is the day symptoms began or they tested positive, whichever came first. If they feel better and have been fever-free for 24 hours, they can come back to school on the sixth day and wear a mask for a full ten days after diagnosis. They will also eat lunch in a separate but supervised area in the lunchroom for those ten days.

As always, please use the Heilicher Communication Center to report close contact exposures (outside of school) and positive cases, as well as potential COVID symptoms. This report will go to Nurse Katie, who will be in touch to discuss next steps.

Update: After-School Contacts

Contact information for extracurriculars has been updated. Please refer to the After-School Pickup Procedures for this revised information.

Heilicher Sweatshirt Sale

Order a Heilicher sweatshirt! Orders are due by Monday, September 19. Sweatshirts are expected to arrive to the school in mid-November and will be distributed at that time.

As the school year gets going, we will open a spirit shop with water bottles, hats, shirts, and more.