Dear Families/Caregivers,
Our first day of school instruction has been mandated by the state to be Tuesday, September 8th. This new date has remained a requirement for independent schools. We will be moving some of the activities planned for August 27th and 28th and for the initial week of school into an orientation week August 31st – September 4th. This week will have conferences and visits, as well as optional practicing drop-off and pick-up, orientation activities (including mask wearing and physical distancing), teambuilding time outside, etc. You and your child will have activities scheduled during the week of August 31 – September 4th with the first day of school instruction being on September 8th. On August 18th you will receive an updated schedule for the week of August 31st for your child’s program.
In summary:
– August 18th – you will receive an email with an updated orientation schedule – August 31-Sept 4th – Orientation week with conferences and visiting days, as well as optional activities planned for each program
– September 8th – First day of school instruction
We would also like to remind all families of the travel restrictions that are in place for Vermont and must be followed in order to attend school.
Agreeing to these travel restrictions is included in the Shared Responsibility Agreement that has been emailed to you as well as being included in your Summer Letter envelopes mailed out last week. Please note that the state requirements include that if a student travels to a “quarantining”
county (one with more than 400 active cases of COVID-19 per one million residents) they must quarantine for 2 weeks upon return to Vermont and will not be allowed to come to school during that time.
I want to be sure all families understand that we will be adhering to the health guidelines and daily questions very strictly, and students will not be admitted to school if they have any symptoms on the COVID list, if they have traveled to a quarantining county within the previous two weeks, or if they answer any of the daily health questions in a way that poses a risk to the community. I know this might cause some families inconvenience, and even hardship, and I realise that there might be some disagreement and upset over this, but what we are protecting (the safety of individuals in both our immediate and greater community, as well as the ability to continue to meet in person) is too precious and important to take a risk with. Families are counting on us to meet the Re-Entry Plan that was presented and we are committed to doing that. At least initially, teachers will be asking all the health questions in person of each family at drop off. We have evaluated some of the applications that are being marketed to allow for self reporting of this electronically and may move to one of those later in the year, depending on how things are going.
Please stay tuned for a revised schedule for the end of August orientation week. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Stay well,
Tamara