Plans and Updates

Dear TGS Families:

As promised last week, I want to start this week’s message providing some clarity about our planning for the rest of the semester, with the top priority continuing to be that of student and staff safety. Given where Pima County is now in terms of the relevant metrics, recommendations from the Pima County Health Department, input from medical professionals and the Board of Trustees, as well as the information provided by all of you in our family surveys, the administrative team is currently planning on the following:

1. Remote learning will continue through the first quarter, which ends on October 16th (parent teacher conferences are October 15th and 16th), while small groups of students will meet on campus, as is appropriate from a pedagogical and social-emotional standpoint, including for athletic conditioning, farmyard, community garden, yoga, music groups, etc.
   
   
2. Beginning with the start of the second quarter, on October 19, we plan to increase the number of groups that will be brought to campus, thus staggering our start of in-person learning. This gives us the time to put more of our in-person learning tools in place (more tents, air filters, etc.), evaluate their effectiveness, and model appropriate distancing and other healthy behavior. Our ultimate goal is to have all students who request in-person learning be on campus at least several days each week starting in early November (subject to the metrics continuing their current trajectory).  We are working on the specifics of these plans and will provide logistical updates (e.g., schedules, safety protocols, etc.) in the coming weeks, prior to requesting a commitment from families for their individual intentions about in-person or remote learning.

As you can imagine, the transition from our current learning situation to in person will require significant effort by our faculty and staff, so I want to thank them in advance for their continued amazing efforts for our students and families. We are grateful that our teachers continue to provide creative and engaging lessons at all grade levels, and I know that work will continue. I am very proud of our TGS community!

Speaking of our community, thank you to our families for continuing to be our partners in this remote learning adventure! We appreciate the positive feedback received in the surveys relative to improvements that have been made since last spring, as well as for some constructive suggestions for further improvements that we can work towards. We have also sought feedback from our faculty about how remote learning is going for them. In response, they offered some thoughts about how our parents and guardians could be even more supportive of their student’s work, so we thought we would share the following, which we are affectionately naming our “Parent/Guardian Zoom Norms”:

1. Please refrain from attending a tutorial class to speak to the teacher; instead make use of parent-teacher conferences and teacher emails.
2. Please refrain from serving breakfast or lunch to your child during the Zoom class (as their norms involve not eating during class).
3. Please discourage (or remove) the opportunity for your child to engage in “gaming activities” during class.
4. Please refrain from talking to your child during class, which distracts your student and takes the student away from the activity or discussion at hand.

We recognize that we’re all experiencing a continued learning curve, so we thank you in advance for your help with the above suggestions.

As always, I am grateful to be part of this community, and I thank you for your continued support and partnership.

Sincerely,

Julie A. Sherrill, Ph.D.
Head of School