Dear AF Crown Heights Elementary School Families,
Happy Monday! Here is an update on our plans to resume in-person, hybrid learning at our schools in March of this year!
| What is happening? We are currently planning to open our schools for in-person learning for all families who need their scholar to learn in-person on Tuesday March 9th. We know current COVID-19 cases in our community are high and we are closely monitoring the trends. While we are hopeful that the infection rates will begin to decline soon, your scholar’s and our staff’s safety remains our number one priority. We will make and communicate a final decision to you about re-opening in March no later than February 22nd. In the meantime, we need to know your preference for your scholar’s learning March 9th until April 30th. This information is critical to our planning for a safe and successful reopening. All families should complete the survey by the end of day on Friday January 29th. If you do not complete the survey by 1/29, your scholar will continue remote learning through the end of Chapter 3 (March 9-April 30). |
| Why? As we planned for hybrid learning in 20-21, we divided the year up into “chapters” so that families have the opportunity to choose whether they wanted their child to learn remotely or in-person during each chapter. We did this because we know that circumstances with COVID-19 are frequently changing and we wanted our families to have flexibility throughout the year. Our TOP priority is SAFETY We have set up all of our school buildings and classrooms to maintain 6 feet of social distancing (a requirement that goes above and beyond the state’s baseline requirements) as that is one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of the virus. Please see this document for a summary of the many safety procedures we have put in place in accordance with public health guidance, and this document for more information on our mask policy. Maintaining 6ft of social distance means… The consequence of this social distancing is that we can accommodate fewer scholars in each of our classrooms. How does this affect me or my child? While we will do everything we can to ensure that all families who want their child to learn in-person will be able to learn in-person at least 2 days / week, we may not have space to accommodate all in-person children 4 days / week. If more families want their child to learn in-person than we can safely accommodate, we will need to move to offering only 2 days / week of in-person learning. All scholars will learn remotely on Fridays. If you choose in-person learning, please know that you are selecting this option without yet knowing how many days of learning your child will actually be able to attend in-person. Also note that a shift to in-person learning will most likely result in your child having a new teacher from March-June. Additionally, to ensure that our staff and scholars can safely execute our safety procedures, families should be aware of the following: On March 3 – March 5, our staff will be in professional development preparing to reopen school; scholars will complete independent work on these days. In addition, March 8 is a day off from school. When/if school reopens on March 9, scholars will have a half-day of learning on March 9 and March 10 so that we have time to get acclimated to safety procedures. What happens if… I don’t complete the survey? Your child(ren) will learn remotely from March 9 through April 30. I take the survey? We will accommodate your request for whether your child will learn remotely or in-person. (Reminder: we may only be able to accommodate 2 days / week of in-person learning.) I want to change my scholar’s placement AFTER the survey ends? Once the survey closes, we will not be able to accommodate family switches from remote to in-person learning. You must complete the survey by January 29th if you want your scholar to have an in-person spot for 2 days / week. You can always switch your child from in-person to remote. Our ultimate recommendation: We believe our remote program is one of the strongest in the country, and that it is continually getting better. If you have the ability to keep your scholar(s) home for remote learning, that is the safest option. ACTION REQUIRED: Please complete THIS SURVEY for every scholar you have at an AF school. |
As always, we remain responsive to the public health situation both within our school community and within our broader city. If, for example, case counts in the state increase, we will need to shift our plans. In these circumstances, we will continue to communicate with you as proactively as we can.
Once we hear back from you and other families whether you need your child to learn in-person, we will get back to you with a more exact schedule by February 10th of exactly which days your scholar will learn in-person.
Thank you so much for your continued flexibility and partnership as we navigate this together. Please reach out with ANY questions!
Best,
Dr. Sadé Johnson (Principal) and Melissa Cantave (Director of School Operations)
AF Crown Heights Elementary School 