COVID Update – Oct. 15, 2020
Dear MA Families,
Thank you for your patience and support as we made our way through the first six weeks of school. This was no easy task, but we all did it together, and this provided a successful start to the school year.
Recently, we have observed there has been an increase with parents gathering at pick-up times at our Elementary location. We acknowledge that parents want to connect socially during this time, but with the current recommendations of Middlesex-London Health Unit and the rise of COVID cases, we have the following requests:
- All parents at all levels and locations: Please wear a mask during drop-off and pick-up times once you are on the school grounds. Our Toddler and Casa families started this practice at the start of the school year, as teachers and parents potentially could come into close contact when passing an upset child between each other. Since students are more independent at the Elementary level, we didn’t stipulate this for parents, however we are now extending this school-wide seeing the larger number of parent interactions.
- Once you have your child, please head to your cars. It is a short period of time in the day, however dropoff and pickup times in the school are when we have the largest gathering of adults and, at times, not all are physically distancing.
- Our students in Upper Elementary and Junior High are required to wear masks. Our students in Lower Elementary are not required to wear masks, but it is now encouraged for Years 1-3, as well as our oldest Casa students. If you choose for your child to wear a mask, they will also need something to store it in when outside. MA belt bags are available at the main office to purchase, to support this process. Although the belt bags may be too big for our Casas to wear, it does provide a place to store masks when not worn.
We understand that since our drop-off and pick-up process occurs outside, many may feel masks are not necessary, as long as you are distancing yourselves, however due to the nature of our processes at times, this can be a challenge.
We also realize finding ways to connect with one another in our community is important for everyone’s well-being and encourage you to find socially responsible ways to meet this need for your family outside of the school.
Our COVID Parent Guides will be updated with this information and added to the school website and the Parent Portal under the Resources tab by the end of the school day.
Thank you for supporting the school’s COVID policies and processes, and helping to keep our community healthy.
Be well,
Tina Sartori, Executive Director