We had a great first few days back and it was wonderful having all the students back in the building? Thank you for doing your part to make sure sick students stay home and are picked up from school if they become ill during the school day.

COVID Information

As you know Mako is providing optional testing for students and staff at Easley on Wednesdays. We currently have over 60% of our students participating in the testing. Typically, the school and parents are notified of the test results early Thursday morning and Mako then comes out to test any students who were in a positive pool. Students who were in a positive pool still return to school the next day knowing they will be tested. Then the individual students who test positive follow the quarantining process.

With the abundance of testing happening all over there have been delays in getting the results. The tests from Wednesday did not come back until late Friday night. Students who had tested positive on Wednesday would have been asymptomatic and therefore would need to quarantine for five days from the date of the positive test. So even if we retested the students on Thursday morning, they would be permitted to return to school this Tuesday since they first tested positive on Wednesday. We are still going to retest students who were in a positive pool but in the meantime, students should still return to school unless they are experiencing symptoms.

Student Quarantine

The guidance around quarantining has changed from ten to five days. If a student tests positive, they need to quarantine for five days after the date the symptoms started. If they are asymptomatic, then the five days start the day after they were tested.

Covid Exposure

If a student is directly exposed to a Covid positive individual (outside of their household) they must quarantine for five days from the date of exposure. The only exception is if they are fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated students may return to school after an exposure as long as they are not showing symptoms and it was a onetime exposure (meaning not someone they are living with daily).

Lunch

We will continue to eat lunch outside when weather permits. Our cutoff temperature is forty degrees. On days colder than 40 degrees students will be eating inside. Please be sure to send your child with appropriate cold weather clothing as forty degrees in the shade while eating can feel very cold. If you need help with getting a warm winter coat, please don't hesitate to reach out and let me know as we can help make that happen.

Breakfast and Snacks

Students are still eating breakfast in the classroom but are at least six feet apart to the extent possible. Many classrooms are eating snack outside but that isn't always an option. Teachers are being very mindful of the exposure students have to one another when unmasked and students are not talking when eating indoors.

Siblings

Just a reminder if one child in a household is home due to experiencing COVID symptoms, then all the siblings in that household should stay home until the child with the symptoms has a negative Covid test.

Communicating a Positive Result

If your child has tested positive for Covid or needs to be out due to an exposure, please be sure to let the classroom teacher and school administration now. We will need the following information:

• a screenshot of positive test result
• the date symptoms started

Accessing School While on Quarantine

Students who are out for mandatory quarantine will be provided with asynchronous work from their classroom teachers. There will not be live Zoom for students who are out for those five days. On occasion, a teacher maybe able to Zoom them in for a small group or morning meeting but that is always a case-by-case situation and is not the expectation.

Students who are being kept home out of an abundance of caution will be considered unexcused and we will not be sending home asynchronous work for them. While I understand the concern, it is important that students are in school when they are healthy so they can benefit from the direct instruction and peer interactions.

MLK Holiday and Teacher Workday

There is no school on January 17 in honor of the MLK holiday. Tuesday, January 18th is a teacher workday so there will be no school for students.

Easley Literacy Night

We hope you can join us for our literacy night on January 27th from 6:00-7:15 PM on Zoom. Cozy up in your pajamas for a night of reading with some of your favorite Easley teachers. More information will come home on Bloomz.

Report Cards

Report cards will go home this Friday. You can also view them in the Parent Portal.

SIT Meetings @ 5:30 PM

January 24

February 21

March 7

April 18

May 16

June 6

PTA Meetings @ 5:30 PM

January 24

February 21

March 7

April 18

May 16

June 6

We are Kings and We are Queens

We are Kings/We are Queens are looking for volunteers. If you would be willing to come in and be a guest speaker for this week or in the future, please contact Jeff Bugajski or Farrah Boggan. Each month we try to have a conversation around a character strength. jeffrey.bugajski@dpsnc.net or farrah.boggan@dpsnc.net

Our next meeting is this Friday, January 21st at 7:50 AM. We plan to have a celebratory meeting with both groups in the morning with some light snacks.

PTA News: Update/Membership

To purchase PTA memberships or make a donation, please visit: https://easleypta.memberhub.com/store

Easley Spirit Wear

Spirit wear Store. Get all your Easley gear here.