An announcement of Keystone's plan
for Nov. 30-Dec. 19
Dear Keystone Families,
 
We hope you’re staying safe. Before we share with you the plans for the period between Thanksgiving and Winter Break, we’d like to take a moment to thank you for all your support in keeping our community as safe as possible. 

Due in large part to your efforts, we have seen only a single positive test of the coronavirus among students, faculty and staff since school began. More importantly, up to now, there’s been no transmission within our community. In large part, this is because of your commitment to safety and vigilance. Thank you!

Even though there have been many exposures among our students, faculty and staff, our community is doing excellent work in taking precautions by wearing masks and maintaining distance. Your children have been great, and we applaud them. 

Still, we note with alarm the rising positivity rate, the growing hospitalization statistics, and the increasing number of cases in San Antonio, throughout Texas and across the country. In addition, we are concerned with the likelihood of transmission among our families resulting from travel, hosting relatives, and welcoming home college students. 

On our campus, we were sending out notifications of COVID exposure or COVID-like symptoms almost daily over the past week, giving us even more reason to worry about transmission. Based on all the information we have gathered from experts in the medical community, we believe the situation in San Antonio will worsen dramatically in the coming weeks.

Please know that our decision-making process continues to be rooted in a profound care and compassion for your children, your family, and concern for the well-being of our faculty/staff. 

We want to share with you our plans now so you can have time to make arrangements for the coming weeks.

In an effort to prevent even more exposures and possible transmission of the coronavirus at school, we will implement a model that has some children on campus and some in distance learning for the next rotation from Monday, November 30-Friday, December 19. This plan is grounded in what we know from the most recent medical science and data concerning the spread of COVID.   

In addition, one of our guiding principles for dealing with COVID since last spring is to try to do what works best for each division while keeping in mind the needs of the overall school.  

For the rotation beginning Monday, November 30 through Friday December 18, we will have children in grades PK-3rd Grade on campus, and children in 4th grade and above in distance learning mode.

9 Keystone students win Young Pegasus poetry contest
Congratulations to Keystone's nine Young Pegasus poetry winners. They will be published in the 2020 Young Pegasus Anthology.

Little School supports San Antonio Food Bank
Wow -- students at the Little School collected 327 pounds of food for the San Antonio Food Bank, and an additional 58 pounds for the food bank's DaisyCares Pet Food Program.

Representatives from the food bank came to the Little School this week to pick up the donations.

Great job, little Cobras!
4th grader teaches classmates yoga
This week, 4th Grade Wellness held a session in the front yard outside Founders Hall. 

The instructor - Pia, a fellow fourth grader.
She taught her fellow students a lesson about the historical origins of yoga, and then led them in some yoga poses.
Upper Schoolers relax before break
With classwork done for now, Upper School students and teachers spent the last day before the Thanksgiving break in a variety of activities.

Among them: Sports trivia, movie trivia, international affairs Jeopardy, sharing pet cameos and stories, debating the virtues of K-Pop, and showing off their musical and charades talents.

Mr. Spedding relayed special shout outs to those who participated in an impromptu poetry slam and for our World Languages teachers who led students through cooking a few sweet desserts.

Keystone donates hay to Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation
Most of the hay and pumpkins used for fall decorations now has a new home and new purpose.

The school donated it to Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, an organization that aims to rescue, rehabilitate, and release native wildlife on its 200-acre compound in Kendalia.
Alumni parent co-edits book
Alumni parent Kalpana Mukunda Iyengar, an instructor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at UTSA, is releasing a book this spring.

She and co-editor Howard L. Smith have compiled works that aim to provide an understanding of the experiences and perspectives of different cultural communities.

In a time when it seems that so many of us are talking past each other, this may be a book that could help us start important conversations and works.

It's scheduled to be published in the spring.
Billy's Blog - From our Head of School
“Everyone needs to have access both to grandparents and grandchildren in order to be a full human being.”
–Margaret Mead

Grand Friends Day is a special time on our campus. There’s something heartwarming and life-affirming in seeing the unconditional love that grandparents and grandchildren have for one another.

Grandparents, and older relatives and friends play a crucial role in the lives of children. They provide youngsters with a sense of time and continuity. Children learn that they come from a long line of predecessors who have seen their own difficult times, and life goes on in spite of the problems we face.

Important events and notes
Keystone gear available at Vivroux Sports
Stock up on Keystone gear in time for the holidays with a quick visit to Vivroux Sports.

On their retail floor, they have:

  • White and Black Adidas hats
  • White Comfort Color t-shirts in all sizes adult and youth
  • Adidas grey and white t-shirts some youth and adult sizes
  • Cardinal and black full and 1/4 zip Adidas jackets in select adult sizes
  • And a few Adidas black polos

Vivroux Sports is open 10am-5pm Monday-Friday, at 2222 Breezewood, just off New Braunfels Ave. north of the McNay Museum.
Junior College Night- Dec 2

A College Night for 11th graders and their parents will take place on Zoom from 7-8:30 p.m. on Dec. 2. Zoom details will be emailed separately to junior families. 

Ms. Christiansen will cover all aspects of the college application process including a testing calendar, how to research schools, the application process, financial aid and more.

All juniors and their parents are encouraged to attend this event which kicks off the college search process for the Class of 2022.
Hot lunches now available
Cafeteria procedures may have changed, but hot lunch is still available.

Now it's packaged in to-go containers and students eat either in their classrooms or outside.



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Support Keystone while you shop
If you're getting school supplies or adding to your home office from either Office Max or Office Depot, please mention Keystone. As part of the Give Back to Schools program, the stores give 5% of the purchase price of qualifying school supplies in credits to Keystone for office supplies. Be sure to include the school's ID number when you make your purchase. Keystone's school number is: 70100727.
If you're purchasing items from Amazon, please consider supporting Keystone with your purchases and use AmazonSmile. Just designate Keystone as the beneficiary and a portion of your purchases will go to the school.

Make sure to install the Smilematic browser extension. It works with Firefox, Chrome and Safari and automatically redirects users to AmazonSmile when they visit Amazon. Here's the tool: https://couponfollow.com/smilematic.
We want to hear from you!
If you have news to share about the students, alumni, faculty or staff at Keystone School, please send it to: etijerina@keystoneschool.org.
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