Dear Terra Linda Families,

I wanted to share a change to what our school does related to Halloween and October 31. As you know, we have been working to create a more inclusive school community. In the past when our school celebrated Halloween, some students would either stay home, or when their class was engaging in the costume parade or the class party, they would go to a different space. This was because of concerns that the activities during the school day were in conflict with their cultural and/or religious traditions. Students felt different and left out of our community.

Last year, we were all on Zoom during Halloween, and we did not host any classroom parties or encourage students to wear costumes. This year we will transition to staff and students not wearing costumes at school. Instead, we will have a “Comfy Clothes Day” on Monday, November 1. Students can wear their favorite comfy clothes, such as sweat pants, school-appropriate pajamas, sweatshirts, etc. In addition, we are using the week of October 25 to support our community by having a sock drive. We will have bins in our lobby to collect new socks for local charities. As you may know, donation sites don’t accept used socks, and new socks are one of the top clothing items needed. We plan to make this an annual tradition to support our broader community!

Our staff decided to move forward with these changes for several reasons:

• We want to honor and respect all families’ religious and/or cultural beliefs. We don’t want any family to have to choose between their family's beliefs and the school's activities during the school day. This should not be the choice parents and families have to make in an open, welcoming public school.

• Families are still able to celebrate Halloween as their family chooses, after school when school is out for the day

• Students, staff and families will still have other "school spirit dress-up days" (like Future Apollo Day, Hat Day, Comfy Clothes Day, etc.) during the school year to dress up while still maintaining our regular schedule

• We will still have classroom celebrations during the school year that are guided by the classroom teacher and connected to what the students are learning.

We look forward to celebrating our school spirit on Monday, November 1 and to supporting our community with a New Sock Drive October 25-October 29.

In closing, I am sure there are some families and students who will be disappointed in this decision to no longer have time set aside to wear costumes at school on or around Halloween. I hope that each of us can consider the perspective of others and support our desire to prioritize inclusiveness. I have been so impressed with our Terra Linda community over the past seven years that I have been principal and the many ways in which we work to include all students and families in everything we do. I know that this decision is one more way that we are including all of our students in our school activities.

With appreciation,

Christy

Monday, October 11

Indigenous People's Day

Tuesday, October 12

Wednesday, October 13

Thursday, October 14

Tiger Trot for students who have PE today - students should wear shoes you can run/walk in and bring a water bottle with their name on it

Friday, October 15

Tiger Trot for students who have PE today - students should wear shoes you can run/walk in and bring a water bottle with their name on it

Parents/guardians should perform a daily health evaluation before sending students to school. If a student is exhibiting a fever, cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, a new loss of taste or smell or any of the symptoms on our Too Sick for School - Keep Ill Students Out of School flyer, the student should stay home.

For more information, you can also visit the Washington County Health & Human Services Department School Exclusion webpage for guidance, rules and communicable disease facts.

Below are some guidelines to help you make the decision about when to keep your child home from school. The recommendations are based on the guidelines provided by the Communicable Disease Program of the Washington County Department of Health and Human Services. They were developed to help prevent the spread of potentially contagious disease.

• Fever: With fever greater than 100.4° F; student may return when fever-free for 24 hours (WITHOUT use of fever-reducing medicine).
• Vomiting/Diarrhea: Any unexplained vomiting episode. May return 48 hours after last episode. Diarrhea equals three or more unexplained episodes of watery or loose stools in 24 hours OR sudden onset of loose stools. May return 48 hours after last episode.
• Cough: Serious, sustained coughing, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing.
• Rash: Any new rash accompanied by a fever. May return after rash goes away or clearance given by a health care provider.
• Skin Lesions/Sores: Drainage from a sore that cannot be contained within a bandage OR sores are increasing in size OR new sores are developing day-to-day.
• Other: Symptoms that prevent the student from active participation in usual school activities OR student is requiring more care than school can safely provide.

Home is the best place for a child who is ill. If your child is sick with a diagnosed communicable disease, please notify the school as soon as possible. This notification will greatly assist others who, due to medical reasons and/or treatments, have weakened immune systems and may require immediate and specialized care.

Here are some resources for teachers that you could also look through in case you wanted to learn something new as a family: https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/for-teachers/

They do not yet have enough students interested in morning care. If you're interested, please fill out the ParentSquare form that we sent out today. We will take all names of interested families and share with Club K. If we can get morning care started, you would then need to register with Club K.

Morning Care (if it is offered) would be available from 6:45am to 8:15am on school days. Cost for morning care would depend on the number of days needed.

ENGLISH

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Click on the button that says "translate" at the top and select your preferred language.

SPANISH

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CHINESE

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JAPANESE

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KOREAN

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VIETNAMESE

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SOMALI

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RUSSIAN

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Нажмите на кнопку с надписью «перевести» вверху и выберите желаемый язык.

ARABIC

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Options for contacting us at Terra Linda

• Call Terra Linda at 503-356-2490
• Go to ParentSquare and send a message to both Maria Anast AND Liz Sarles
• Fill out this form to send us an email.