Dear St. Joseph Elementary School Families,
As we enter this long holiday weekend in honor of Memorial Day, we are also working to both wrap up this school year and plan for next school year. I have a number of updates for you regarding both of these tasks which we are working on simultaneously. I also have a request which you will read about below, and I am hoping that some of you can answer our school’s call for help and expertise as we prepare for next school year.
Staffing Updates
I have several staffing updates to share with you for the 2020-2021 school year.
I am excited to share that Mrs. Carlson will be returning to her primary role of our Learning Support Coordinator. Mrs. Carlson has served in this role for many years at SJES, and this year she served in a split role capacity as both the lead TK teacher and our Learning Support Coordinator. We are glad to have Mrs. Carlson returning to her primary role of Learning Support Coordinator so that she can continue to dedicate her time to working with small groups and individual students in Grades TK-8 who can use extra academic support and enrichment beyond the classroom.
Two of our middle school teachers, Ms. Chen and Ms. Thomas, will be switching Homeroom roles. Ms. Chen will continue to serve as our middle school Math teacher and she will now serve as the 7
th
Grade Homeroom teacher. Ms. Thomas will continue to serve as our middle school Social Studies teacher and she will now serve as our 8
th
Grade Homeroom teacher.
Joining our school’s Administrative Team is Ms. Thomas. Our Administrative Leadership team now includes Ms. Thomas, Mrs. Radecke, Mrs. Connick, Mrs. VanDerveer, and myself.
Ms. McGraw will be leaving her role as the 3
rd
Grade teacher at SJES to return to full-time graduate school at the University of San Francisco. Ms. McGraw plans to stay in the educational field but make a shift toward becoming a literacy specialist. This is not goodbye, though – Ms. McGraw plans to volunteer weekly at SJES to support our learning support program alongside Ms. Carlson. Ms. McGraw shares: “I am so looking forward to being a student again, but I will miss being in the classroom. I feel blessed to have had teaching experience in such a tight knit community. SJES has such a close, caring feel because dedicated staff and amazing families like you choose to engage, participate and make it a nice place to be. Thank you for the warmth and kindness you have shown me! SJES is a very special school, and I am looking forward to assuming a new role here.” We thank Ms. McGraw for her three years of service as our 3
rd
Grade teacher, and we look forward to welcoming her back as a volunteer next year.
We will plan to hire both a new TK teacher and a new 3
rd
Grade teacher. We are currently in the process of interviewing and hiring for both of these positions. I will make sure to introduce you to these two new staff members once they have been hired.
Field Day
Please see this message from Mr. Tully about Field Day:
We are excited for SJES Virtual Field Day 2020. The event will take place on Friday, June 5th. All information, equipment needed, and descriptions of the games participants will play are located on the top right corner of your Class Site. Please click the tab "ROYALS FIELD 2020" to view all of this information. Any questions can be directed to Mr, Tully at
stully@csdo.org
.
2020-2021 SJES Planning Task Force
In my eyes, one of the most beautiful things about our school is our strength as a school family with members who have expertise in so many areas.
When it comes to next school year, as I have mentioned, we are planning for 3 main potential scenarios in terms of the start of the school year – a relatively normal opening with significantly increased health and safety precautions, a revamped distance learning platform should this still be necessary, or a hybrid model. We will be working within the guidance and parameters given by local health experts and other local officials.
Our staff recognizes that as a community, we are strongest together. Thoughtfully and thoroughly planning for the many potential scenarios next year, with so many intricacies and considerations, is going to take a lot of work and expertise. We need your help with planning and execution so that we have the best chance of safely and healthfully reopening our school building when the school year resumes in the Fall.
Therefore, we are creating a Planning Task Force. We are looking for members of our community who are ready and willing to help serve on this task force. Members will bring their expertise to the team and will assist with
both vision and execution
. Potential areas of expertise include: medical, project management, risk management, communications and PR, epidemiology, technology, education, sanitation, environmental and engineering consulting, writing protocols, finances, and more.
The Planning Task Force will be divided into three main groups. One group will help Facilities, Health, & Safety Operations. A second group will help with Educational Platform & Curriculum Implementation within these various potential platforms. The third group will assist with Financial advisement. This larger Planning Task Force, composed of these three groups, will meet 1-2 times per week throughout June and July. It will include some staff members and also parents with key areas of expertise.
So, I am putting out an “all call” to see who from our parent community may be interested in helping. If you are interested in being considered as a member of this task force, please send me an email at
kfrancisco@csdo.org
and let me know what area of expertise you are ready and willing to bring to the conversation. After we have reviewed the areas of expertise for those who express interest, we will put together this task force based on our school’s needs. Again, we are strongest together, so I am
very grateful
to anyone who is willing to share how they may be able to help.
Drop-Off/Pickup Days – For Parents
In order to safely and efficiently exchange belongings between each student and the school, we have created the following protocol:
- On June 5, while students are participating in our SJES Virtual Field Day, our school’s teachers and staff will go into the school building to pack up each child’s belongings from their desk and locker. Their personal belongings will be pre-packed in a bag with their name on it. When school personnel pack up your child’s belongings, they will be wearing masks the entire time and also sanitizing in between packing each individual child’s belongings.
- When SJES teachers and staff are packing up each child’s personal belongings, they will be using a checklist of all school belongings that were assigned to each child at the beginning of the school year. This way, school personnel can separate a student’s personal property from the school belongings that are in the child’s desk/locker. By doing so, we will know what textbooks to expect you to return from home (since those were not being stored in your child’s desk or locker).
- Sometime on the afternoon of June 5, you will receive an email from your child/ren’s Homeroom teacher(s). This email will include a picture of the checklist for your child, so that you are aware of what school property that school personnel already retrieved from your child’s desk and locker, and what school property is still outstanding and we are expecting you to return to the school during your family’s assigned belongs exchange day.
- During the June 8-10 date range, students in Grades TK-7 will be assigned a time slot and day to pick up personal belongings from the school and also drop off any outstanding school belongings (the items indicated as missing on the checklist mentioned above). By assigning a timeslot by last name, this ensures that families with multiple children at SJES only need to come once for this belongings exchange. (Please note that 8th grade is an exception to this, since they have a separately assigned day compared to students in grades TK-7.)
- Having assigned time slots will allow for a staggered belongings exchange. We are assigning roughly 10-12 families per hour time slot. It is crucial that families come sometime during their assigned hour-long time slot, and not early nor late. There is no need to come at the beginning of your time slot, though – come anytime in your assigned hour-long time slot. By coming during assigned time slots, we are all helping to practice proper social distancing and we are also keeping each other safe. We need to respect the guidance given by local health experts and other local officials to ensure that the process runs smoothly and there is no group congregating. Thank you for your cooperation with this.
- During your family’s assigned time slot, you will drive through the Lafayette Gate and onto the school yard. You should pull up to the front entrance of the school building. If there are cars ahead of you, please stay in your car and wait in line. If a line does form beyond our tarmac area, cars should line up on Lafayette in our normal unloading zone until there is room to turn into the school year through the Lafayette Gate. Our goal, though, with the assigned time slots is to avoid any line of cars from forming. Also, we will be staffing properly so that more than one vehicle can be served at a time. If your child/ren who are enrolled at SJES are with you in the car, this may be helpful in case there are any questions regarding either personal belongings or school belongings that are being exchanged. However, please note that your child/ren’s presence is optional. We request that anyone who is in the vehicle wear a masks or cloth face coverings at all times while on our school property; this is optional but requested for the health and safety of all. Only immediate family members sheltering in place in the same household should be present in the car.
- Once you pull up your car to the school’s main entrance, you should stay in your car. No one except school personnel is permitted to enter the school building at any point at this time. You will provide your child/ren’s name(s) and grade(s) to school personnel who are waiting to meet you at the front entrance.
- School personnel will bring your child/ren’s belongings outside to your vehicle. After you have received your child/ren’s belongings, you will then present any school belongings you’ve brought from home to school personnel for a visual inventory and then placement into a bag provided to you by school personnel. Please make sure that all book covers are removed from textbooks prior to returning them to the school.
- School personnel will inventory the textbooks and other school belongings you have brought from home to return to the school. This inventory will be compared to the checklist that was used when your child’s belongings were being packed up by their teacher. Our hope is that between your child’s desk and locker, plus the school belongings you bring from home to return to the school, that all of the school belongings that were loaned to your child will be accounted for. If not, please note that “families will be billed the full publisher price for lost or damaged books that must be replaced” (St. Joseph Elementary School Family Handbook 2019-20, p. 39).
- After you have retrieved your child/ren’s belongings and returned to the school the textbooks and other property that was loaned to your child for the year, you will need to promptly leave the school property in your vehicle so that we can serve the next family.. You should leave through the Chestnut Gate.
- In addition to wearing masks at all times, school staff will ensure that they sanitize before and after interacting with each school family. We take the health and safety of all our school community members very seriously.
- NOTE: There will be no alternative days/times available for this belongings exchange to take place. Thank you for making arrangements to be present during your assigned day and time.
- NOTE: Should you or your child feel sick (cough, complaints of sore throat, or shortness of breath, or have a fever of 100°F or above), please stay home and send a representative in your place instead. You will need to inform the school in an email about the name of your representative. You can send this email to both your child/ren’s Homeroom teacher(s) and Ms. Foley in the school office. We can only release a student’s property to a parent/guardian or to a representative we are informed about in writing.
Monday, June 8
Time. Last Name
8:00-9:00am. A-B
9:00-10:00am C
10:00-11:00am. D
11:00am-12:00pm E-F
12:00-12:30pm. NO DROP-OFFS/PICK-UPS
12:30-1:30pm. G
1:30-2:30pm H-I
2:30-3:30pm J-K
Tuesday, June 9
Time Last Name
8:00-9:00am L
9:00-10:00am Ma-Mc
10:00-11:00am Me-Mo
11:00am-12:00pm N-O
12:00-12:30pm NO DROP-OFFS/PICK-UPS
12:30-1:30pm P
1:30-2:30pm R-Sa
2:30-3:30pm Sc-Sz
Wednesday, June 10
Time Last Name
8:00-9:00am T-V
9:00-10:00am W-Z
I hope that all of you enjoy this long holiday weekend in honor of Memorial Day. Please remember that there will be no virtual school on Monday, 5/25. I hope that the long weekend will give all of your families some time to get outside and enjoy this beautiful weather! We are in the home stretch with just a few more weeks of school left during this 2019-2020 school year. As always, I want all of you to know how much our staff continues to appreciate your partnership as we navigate all the newness that this time has given us.
Peace and Blessings,
