Dear 10th Grade Students and Families:

We are looking forward to seeing our sophomores on campus next week!  The faculty and staff have been working incredibly hard to ensure a safe and smooth return for your child.  We have 22 10th grade students returning to campus with 11 choosing to continue to work remotely.   We deeply respect either decision.

Here are a few reminders for Monday, November 2, for those students who will be attending in person:  

• Before coming to school, please make sure your child is healthy, not exhibiting signs of illness consistent with COVID, and has no fever. Their presence on campus is your confirmation that this well-check has been completed.

• If your student is scheduled to be on campus but cannot attend in person for a particular day, please call the school office to inform them of such absence and whether they will be attending remotely.

• Please have your child bring their lock.  They will be using their lockers.  (If their lock is missing, Mrs. Margelofsky can provide them with another one in the upper school office.)

• Please have your child wear their mask when they arrive on campus. They may also want to have an extra one or two in their bag or locker, just in case.

• Please have your child bring their computer and charger and a pair of headphones (noise-cancelling are preferred).

• Please have your child bring their water bottle (labeled with their name). 

• Please try to arrive on campus between 8:30 and 8:45 (unless they have a zero hour class).  Students should be dropped off at the curb in front of Zeskind Hall. In the quest to keep not only our students healthy, but all of the adults on campus as well, we are trying to limit the numbers of adults on campus, so adults are asked to stay in their cars.  Staff members will be there to greet them and show them to their locker area if they’re new to our community.  We will assemble the 9th graders in the science courtyard, socially-distanced and masked, to welcome them beginning at 8:45.

• Students should be picked up at 3:40. Please check the map on our FAQ page to see where you will meet your student if you're picking them up.  We are staggering dismissal times due to the volume of traffic with no after school athletics or activities.  Thank you for accommodating our request. At the end of the day, we also ask that adults wait in their cars.  Students will be waiting for you, with adult supervision, at their designated area.

• Your child may bring a snack (optional).

• Students should bring all their class materials.

• Although we will be under a tent, your child will be spending a lot of time outside.  Please have them wear sunscreen and if they’d like, feel free to bring a jacket/sweater and hat.

• The schedule will be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday on campus.  Wednesday is a remote learning day for deep cleaning.  However, if your child has been on campus since the beginning of the year, then your child may be on campus on Wednesday.  We will be working most of the time under the tents outside, (unless of course, we have inclement weather).

We will be providing lunch.  If your child has any food allergies, please email the head of our SAGE dining program, Chef Ian Churchill at ichurchill@sagedining.com

Chef Churchill will customize your child’s lunch and label it appropriately, so there is no confusion at lunch.  Of course, if your child would like to bring their own lunch, that is fine, too. Lunches will be ordered the day before via Google Forms.

Finally, we would all appreciate your speaking with your child about the importance of keeping their mask on when asked (we will take mask breaks), staying socially distant, and the importance of washing their hands.   We are going to work very hard to keep everyone as healthy as possible. 

For those students who will be continuing to attend school remotely, the schedule should remain the same, in terms of when and how they have attended class to this point. We hope that the connections will be consistent with what they have been, but appreciate everyone’s patience as we move into this new phase. We continue to welcome feedback about their experiences, to help us learn and improve.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.  I’m currently working on plans to assign existing faculty and staff as student support personnel in the US and hope to make those specific assignments known next week.

Gratefully,

Julie A. Sherrill, Ph.D.