Dear GMS Community,
Every step we take toward reopening GMS for in-person instruction feels both reassuring and daunting. We are tackling similar questions to schools around the country and the world, while we approach this work through the lenses of the GMS mission, our unique circumstances, and always with an unwavering commitment to the wellbeing of each member of our community. All of these factors carry great weight for me as I also balance them with the various degrees of excitement and anxiety that faculty, staff, families, and students are experiencing at the prospect of beginning to re-open. We are also working hard to insure that our policies and procedures reflect all of Santa Clara County’s latest guidelines, our evolving understanding of the novel coronavirus, and what will likely work best at GMS.
Without Further Ado
Our plan is to reopen under the Cohort Day Model during the month of November. Under the Cohort Day Model, students will be welcomed to campus from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm on the following days. All other school days will be in Remote Learning.
Cohort Day Model Summary
The Cohort Day Model is our most conservative plan for returning to campus for in-person learning. This model exceeds the most restrictive guidelines outlined by Santa Clara County Public Health and California Department of Public Health.* It also allows us to make modifications and improvements to our policies and practices as we look forward to opening more fully in the future. Most importantly, we believe it will be a welcome relief for students to be together in person with a teacher and some peers even on this limited basis.
If you decide that your child will attend in-person learning on these dates, there will be an on-campus orientation on Friday, October 30.
Making Your Decision
We want to give you as much information as possible in order to make a decision about your child returning to campus and in-person learning. Returning to campus is optional - students who will remain in Remote Learning will be able participate on Cohort Days to the greatest extent possible. given the technology and the nature of the lesson. If it is not practical to fully include them in an aspect of a lesson, they will be assigned modified or independent work.
By the end of next week, we will publish a full communication about our precautions and policies, a community pledge that will be required of all families who plan to send a child on campus, and answers to what we expect to be the most frequently asked questions.
Shortly after that, we will hold Community Conversations on reopening in both English and Spanish. There will be an opportunity to submit questions in advance of these events and we will endeavor to answer every question that comes up during these conversations on our FAQ.
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Saturday, October 17 - Community Conversation on Reopening (Spanish) 4-5 pm
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Monday, October 19 - Community Conversation on Reopening (English) 5-6 pm
We will ask families to make a decision about whether or not their child will be learning on campus in the Cohort Model by Tuesday, October 20.
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Tuesday, October 20 - Decision Deadline
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Friday, October 30 - On Campus Student Orientation for students who will be learning on campus in November
Handling the Holidays
We plan to return to fully remote learning in December and for the first two weeks of January. Our reasoning for this decision comes out of an abundance of caution. Thanksgiving and the Winter Holidays are festive times of the year when some families may choose to travel, welcome guests into their homes, or gather with loved ones. Rather than ask each family to restrict their celebrations or travels, we, like many other schools, are taking a cautious approach and returning to remote learning following these holidays.
Families To Do List
There are a few things you can do now to help us with our planning
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Fill out this brief questionnaire. Your response does not commit you to any option; we will simply be using the information to better inform our planning. If you have more than one child in the school, please submit one response per child.
- Get your child and everyone in your family a flu shot.
- Begin to think about how your family can reduce the risk to the novel coronavirus exposure. We will be asking you to pledge to minimize those risks to the extent possible two weeks prior to having your child learn on campus and for the duration of the time that she is learning on campus.
If you have read this far, thank you! We look forward to sharing more information with you in the coming weeks and to our continued partnership in coming back together safely.
Fondly,
Jennifer
*Link to Santa Clara County School Opening Guidelines:
