Dear Ivymount Families,
I want to thank everyone for continuing to keep our connections strong. MLN hosted several students for a Halloween-themed event last week and plans a similar on-campus gathering this Tuesday for high school students. The PTA also held its most recent virtual parent hangout. We will continue to create opportunities for social engagement within our Ivymount Community.
We hope everyone was able to review the message earlier this week, introducing our Phase One Return Plan scheduled to begin Nov 9. Please make sure to review the document, which includes essential information on student and staff safety, including testing and the necessity for safety plans to participate in on-site programming.
As we move toward phase one of our return to campus, I want to emphasize that our decisions and plans prioritize our student and staff's health and safety. As we announced in the Phase One Return Plan, this means we're starting with a smaller group of students, and we're tracking data to make informed decisions.
While we were pleased to share our return to campus with you this past week, we were also on alert as the week progressed due to the increased public health data at the county, state and national level. As we move forward with our plans, we continue to monitor public health data and other considerations to ensure it continues to be advisable to move forward with on-site programs on Nov 9. See below for a list of the national, state, and local information we consider each week.
As we've all experienced with local and regional decision-making, there may be times when the numbers and trends indicate a need to pause or alter our plans. This is especially relevant at this time of year - with flu season starting, colder weather leading to more time indoors, and holiday visits potentially reducing social distancing. We ask that everyone in our Ivymount Community continue to keep safety top of mind and to model flexibility for our students.
Have a good week, schedule your flu shots, keep social distancing, and practice wearing masks.
Sincerely,
Susan Holt
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Upcoming Events
Tuesday, October 20
MLN HS Pumpkin Painting
Wednesday, October 21
Mental Health
Information Session
Wednesday, October 28
PTA Meeting
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Ivymount Tracks Data in Determination Process
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As outlined in our Prevention, Preparedness and Response Plan , we are monitoring important data that will inform our decisions about bringing students and staff back to campus and then safely maintaining on-campus programming.
Our Primary Indicators are State and County New Cases per 100K:
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On Site Program Offerings: Using the Maryland Department of Health metrics to guide school reopening (see page 2, FIG 1) we monitor new cases per 100K in MD and MC; and a blended figure based on weighted seven day averages across MC, PGC, FC, and the DC (proportionally distributed based on Ivymount staff and student population). Assuming test positivity ≤5% the MD Heath metrics guides level of on site instruction (ranging from expanded in-person programs to limited in person instruction) for new cases per 100K ≤5% ranging to ≥15%. Level of mitigation plans and on site program offerings will be reassessed when the new case rate increases by 2 or positivity rate increases by 1.5% within a two-week period.
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Risk Level: Using the CDC Indicators for Dynamic School Reopening for new cases per 100K (calculated cumulatively over 14 days), we track four regions (Montgomery County, District of Columbia, Prince George's County and Fairfax County) across a five category scale ranging from lowest risk to highest risk.
Other considerations:
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School Trends: We will monitor the National Education Association School and Campus COVID-19 Reporting Site for MD, VA, and DC plus we have created our own tracking system to monitor national and international school trends using media reports and peer-reviewed journals.
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Availability of Community Resources: We monitor data on local testing and contact tracing capacity.
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Community Comfort Level: We gauge this through frequent surveys of families and staff, meetings with our board of directors, reopening plans of local school systems, and consultation with our health and education consultants.
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Availability of Ivymount Resources: We look at a variety of indicators such as staff availability, status of personal protective equipment, building readiness, and public school transportation availability.
These data points continually fluctuate and therefore, Ivymount School, staff, and families must be prepared for the possibility that plans will be altered.
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Mental Health Department
Presents Self-Care Part 2
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We’re all trying to take care of ourselves and our families during this stressful time, but doing so can feel easier said than done. Join us for Part 2 of our virtual presentation on Self-Care.
Wednesday, October 21
7 - 8 pm
We'll discuss why self-care really matters, what it can look like, and how it can enable you to care for your loved ones while also being kind to yourself (it IS possible!).
Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A session in which audience participation is encouraged. We hope to see you there!
Use the link below to join the meeting.
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Sign up for Best Buddies TODAY! |
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It's not too late to sign up for Best Buddies. As we've all become more familiar with online communications, Best Buddies is a great way for your student to meet new friends from the safety of your home.
This is the 20th year that Ivymount is partnering with Best Buddies chapters at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart and Georgetown Preparatory School. Best Buddies operates as a student-run friendship club, which creates buddy pairs between students with and without disabilities. We asked Lmya Ahmed (Ivymount Outreach Program Coordinator), who helps run the Ivymount program, to tell us more about why signing up for Best Buddies is a great investment of time.
What has been the mission of the Best Buddies and Ivymount relationship these past 20 years and what have been some highlights?
The mission of Best Buddies is to bring people together and facilitate social connections. Ivymount has partnered with two schools in the area – Georgetown Prep and Stone Ridge – and has developed a strong relationship with these schools over the twenty years. Their students couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity through Best Buddies, and we have had great participation and engagement from their students over the years. They are friendly and welcoming with Ivymount students, and they take time to plan fun events.
How will Best Buddies approach socializing during the pandemic?
The plan is for events to be virtual during the fall, then reassess depending
on health and safety conditions. Our Best Buddies chapter had two virtual events last school year after school campuses closed – both events went really well. The students from our partner schools did a great job preparing for these events ahead of time. Students played online games. As each student logged in, they were split into different breakout rooms and each breakout room was supervised.
What do you hope Best Buddies and Ivymount can bring to students this school year in particular?
During a year when social connections and daily life have been disrupted, we hope that Best Buddies can provide a friendly place where students from different schools and different backgrounds can connect with each other.
For Parents and Caregivers of MAP, MLN, Autism, and School to Work high school and post high school students, here are things to know:
To register, please complete the membership application at www.bestbuddiesonline.org. Students must re-apply each year even if they have previously participated.
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PTA Welcomes New Board Member |
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We would like to welcome Ivymount parent, Britton Cordill as the new PTA secretary. We appreciate her taking on this role, especially during what we know are challenging times for most of our families.
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Plan to Attend the Next PTA Meeting
Wednesday, October 28th
7-8 pm
We welcome all parent/guardian participation in the PTA. If you are looking to get involved in the PTA or would like to listen in on what we are doing, join us for our next PTA meeting. We'll provide a Zoom link prior to the meeting.
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Thank you for Attending our Hangout
Thank you to the parents who joined us for the October Parent/Caregiver Hangout. We appreciated having both current and alumni parents at the Hangout to chat, support each other and laugh together.
Our next Parent/Caregiver Hangout will be on
Monday, November 9, from 7 - 8 pm.
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PTA Listserv Update
The Ivymount PTA listserv will be moving to Groups.io in the next few weeks. This is due to an announcement by Yahoo Groups that it will be shutting down all groups as of December 15. We will be migrating members from Yahoo Groups to Groups.io. If you receive an email from Groups.io, you will need to accept the invitation if you would like to be a member of the Ivymount PTA Groups.io.
Our PTA listserv will continue to be a forum for posting upcoming community events, asking questions related to resources for our children and posting upcoming school events. The group includes current and alumni Ivymount families. If you are not on the current PTA listserv and would like to join the Groups.io Ivymount PTA listserv, please email Cindy Gottfried at [email protected] to receive an invite to join.
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Ivymount
School & Programs
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