Dear University Elementary Families,

I sincerely hope that this newsletter finds you all in good health and that you have developed good coping strategies for being cooped up for so long. Daily walks, weather permitting, have helped many people I know. This includes myself. The teachers and I are keeping pretty busy with closing up the school year but like so many we are more than ready to resume the life we once knew. Like you and your children, we experience good days and bad days. No one is exempt, we all experience a variety of feelings, frustrations and realizations. Please see our website link at the bottom to locate mental health resources.

At this point, a decision has not been made regarding the start of the 2020-2021 school year. There are currently a couple possibilities out there: 1) School resumes with half the class coming on Mondays and Tuesdays, Wednesday becomes a disinfecting day and the other half of the class comes on Thursdays and Fridays. 2) We begin the school year with Distance Learning. Currently there are still unknowns. CRPUSD is working collaboratively with the Sonoma County Office of Education. We will notify families of our plan moving forward once we have clear guidelines and a plan that meets the requirements set by the state.

If you did not have the opportunity to watch my recent Tuesday morning assembly on May 12th, you may be curious about your child/children wanting to howl at 8:00pm nightly. In this assembly I referred to our students as Mighty Seawolves. I shared that some people howl to show thanks for essential workers and that in Colorado they howl to connect with their pack. As Seawolves we are natural howlers and wolves live in packs. I told them we can howl to connect with our fellow Seawolves. I think it will help our students to understand that we are all in this together, no one is alone with their myriad of feelings. I also challenged students to create a sign for a window or yard that shows their love for our school. My sign is directly below.

Stay well,

Charlotte Straub - Principal