Dear EAMS Students and Families,
Parent-Teacher Conferences for the fall are on October 22nd from 4-8 PM. This year, conferences will be held virtually, using Google Meet. Scheduling conferences will happen through Skyward in two phases. Phase two will begin at 3:30 PM today. EAMS families will have the opportunity to schedule the remaining openings via Skyward. A video tutorial on how to schedule your conference is included here, and a video tutorial on how to access your virtual conference will be shared next week.
As is always the case with conferences, our staff has more students than time to meet with families on the night of conferences. Conferences are just one opportunity to connect with teachers. Families can schedule a virtual meeting or phone call with staff at any point throughout the school year. With the limited spaces, if you feel like you need to meet with more than one teacher, I would encourage parents to schedule one conference and email/call to connect with others.
This week our Monday lesson focused on Self-Advocacy in an academic setting. We believe it is an invaluable skill for students to be able to ask for help when they need it. Linked here is our lesson presentation and video. On Friday, our Olweus lesson centered on the concept of integrity; the presentation and lesson directions can be found here.
As well, I wanted to reiterate the following changes shared by Mr. Tadlock: As I outlined last week and as Mrs. Trottier discussed earlier this week, due to recent experiences and current practices from area medical providers and recommendations from the county health department, we have changed our isolation procedures. We now require people exhibiting symptoms at home who get tested for COVID to keep their household students home until results come back. To date, all of our positive COVID cases have been exposed outside of school. Our in-school exposures oftentimes occur as a result of a household member getting sick (usually a parent), they get tested for COVID and the healthy family members continued about their business while awaiting the results (which was protocol). In most of our student cases with COVID, the family member received a positive test result and then quarantined the other family members per guidelines, but unfortunately, in some cases, the family members who were students then fell ill themselves. This resulted in us needing to look back 48 hours from the time of the onset of symptoms, thus resulting in them exposing others during that window of possibly being contagious. By having students remain at home while a family member who is ill and is awaiting their test results we will lessen the likelihood of a student who is potentially exposed to COVID at home coming to school, getting ill and exposing others.
One other change is that we will now contact trace and quarantine based off of probable cases, not just positive confirmed cases. A probable case is when an individual has a known exposure to COVID and becomes ill themselves with COVID symptoms. Not all medical providers are testing everyone, especially if they are young and have a known exposure. They are simply recommending ten days of isolation, per the COVID guidelines and assuming that the exposed individual has COVID. This does mean that some individuals may be quarantined due to an exposure to a probable case, not just a positive confirmed case. We may revisit this later if the circumstances on the ground change, but for now that is the guidance we are receiving
As items come up that you have questions or concerns about, please do not hesitate to contact me, and have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Ryan McBurney
Principal
#YouBelongHere
