Thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate these crazy COVID times. Never in a million years did I think we would STILL be talking about COVID - wearing masks - and creating mitigation plans in the event we have too many staff out to deliver Bridge's personalized learning model of instruction. But, here we are, most of us wearing masks at school and admin and teachers creating "back up plans". Please read below for the COVID updates.

Have a terrific three-day weekend filled with lots of fun and laughter!

Lani Rounds

Principal

Our lost and found is sitting under the front portico. That is its permanent home. On Tuesday, we will bag the items and donate them. Since we are out of school on Monday, you have three FULL days to stop by and pick up the items that belong to your children.

Our newest shirt order is ready for you to begin ordering. This order will close on January 29. Shirts are NOT sold at the school and if you miss this order, the next one will be about March. All shirts are paid for online and will be delivered to the school around the middle of February. When ordering please remember:

1. Enter your oldest student's name in the notes. This will allow us to deliver shirts to the correct student.
2. Order the CORRECT sizes - there are no refunds or replacements. Kid sizes are prefaced with a "Y" for youth. For example, "YS" is a youth small while "S" is an adult small.

Shirts include short and long sleeved tees, hoodies and crewneck sweatshirts.

This is the link to order online.

https://www.customink.com/g/erz0-00cj-1xvd

PATIENCE - PATIENCE - PATIENCE - that is the ONLY way we can ensure the safety of students, families and staff as they navigate the parking lot. Erratic, inattentive, and impatient driving has created unsafe conditions several times. PLEASE slow down - do not try and slip through parking stalls - put away your cell phone - and be PATIENT.

I have been doing this gig for years at several different schools. Our parking lot wait times are not excessive. It may feel excessive when you arrive in the stacking lane at 2:30 and wait for an hour for school to get out. The reality is, at 3:30, Monday thru Thursday, our parking lot is emptied in 20 minutes. After BASE, it only takes 10 minutes. Fridays are a little more challenging as every single student is leaving at the same time. If you absolutely CANNOT wait and feel the need to be impatient, please arrive 15 minutes early, walk into the school, and check your child out. Fifteen minutes of lost instructional time is MUCH better than an injured student, staff or family member.

During morning drop off, especially around 8:15 when it gets busy, it is IMPERATIVE that you pull ALL THE WAY FORWARD to allow more cars curbside to drop off their children. I KNOW Johnny prefers to walk from the car straight through the front doors, however, even the furthest spot on the curb is less than 100 feet from the door.

If you are parking your car, you must walk your child to the front door. We do NOT let kids navigate the parking lot without and adult holding their hand or standing close to their side. Parking your car and motioning for cute Sally to come to your car is not safe.

I am sorry I am using my "teacher voice" through all the capitalizations, but student safety is our number one priority and we need cooperation from every single person - parking lot supervisors and adults in cars.

One final safety concern is the number of dogs that are at pick up. Although the dogs are on their leashes (thank you) not every single dog likes kids or other dogs. If possible, PLEASE keep your animals in your car or at home during after school pick up. We have been super lucky that a child or other animal has not been injured when a fur baby decides to be protective.

For two weeks your students have been tested extensively in reading and math. The data is invaluable as we evaluate our instructional model and make data based decisions such as grouping students for small group instruction. Students who have been absent will have the upcoming week to complete any assessments they may have missed. Data from the testing will be shared on the progress report sent home Friday, January 21. Because we are on a semester system and Aspire is on a term system, grades will not be uploaded into Aspire until the end of the school year. However, the progress report and PLP (grades 1 - 6) shared with parents provides an excellent view of how students are performing in regards to grade level expectations and how the have grown since the beginning of the school year. Additionally, you can always reach out to teachers to get an update on your student's progress.

Everyday we seem to get new rules regarding COVID procedures in school. We are doing our VERY BEST to stay on top of this rolling landscape and we are doing our very best, within state rules, to keep our staff and students safe. The most recent change to state rule includes "Test to Stay" and "Remote Learning".

Test to Stay was enacted whenever a school reached 30 positive COVID cases in a two week timeframe. With this rule students and staff must have a negative COVID test to come to school. Because of the excessive number of COVID cases statewide, the state does not have the capacity to continue the "Test to Stay" program and it has been discontinued as of Wednesday this week.

Remote Learning - At the beginning of the year schools were required to provide in-person instruction four days each week. Because Test to Stay ended and some schools have so many staff and/or students positive with COVID (or non-vaccinated and exposed to COVID at home) the state has now allowed schools who reach critical capacity (30 positive students/staff in a two week period) to move to remote learning if desired. Additionally, if a school reaches a level of COVID transmission among staff or students that schools feel they can no longer safely educate students, the local school board can give approval to temporarily move to remote learning.

At Bridge, based on data from last year, we KNOW that in-person learning is the best way to implement our model and help kids make progress. Because our model includes many staff in each classroom, we believe that between teachers and para-educators, we can continue in-person instruction even when many other schools have to close their doors. Our teachers have created contingency plans for in-person learning in the event we have lots of staff out and are running at a less than ideal staff level. Our contingency plan ensures we have at least a 1:30 ratio of staff to students. Though that is a high ratio for Bridge's model, it is actually not much different than the ratio of teacher to students in a traditional classroom.

As of the date of the newsletter we have had the following COVID numbers since our return from winter break:

COVID Positive Students = 10

COVID Positive Staff = 3

COVID Non-vaccinated Exposed at-home Students or Staff = 26

These numbers require that students potentially exposed, at school, to a COVID positive student or staff member, wear a mask at school for 10 days. Parents who do NOT want their child to wear a mask have the option to keep the student at home and have the student complete Imagine Learning reading and math daily or just remain and home on an excused absence.

On Tuesday the following grades need to wear masks until January 24. Monday, January 24, is the day they can return to school without a mask. Again, that is as of today, January 14. It may be we receive information from parents over the weekend that changes the grades/classes or extends the dates.

• Kindergarten - Mrs. Eschler's class only
• 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th grades

If you have a mask at home PLEASE send it with your student. The Governor sent us about 400 masks at the beginning of the school year, Triple Stop donated about 300 masks at Christmas, and we have purchased 500 masks. We still have a handful of cloth masks from last year available as well. But, with the current grades above, we will need about 1,600 masks just to make it through next week.

COVID EXPOSURE AT SCHOOL

When we learn of a student who tested positive for COVID, first we look at the child's attendance to see if they were at school for the previous two days as we are required to go back 48 hours. If they were at school, they had the ability to expose students who were within 6' of the student for 15 minutes (the minutes are added up and not consecutive), to COVID. It is impossible for us to know if YOUR student WAS exposed. Students are together during morning supervision, breakfast, lunch, recess, classroom, small group, restrooms, hallways, BASE, etc. making the ability for us to know EXACTLY who was near the COVID positive child impossible. Therefore, we notify the grade level parents that their child was "potentially exposed" to a COVID positive person. Because of private health information rules we absolutely cannot tell you the name of the individual that tested positive for COVID nor can we give you information that can help you rule in or out certain students. We are always asked, "is it a girl - is it a boy - do they usually play with my child - is is Sally or Johnny". Trust me, it would make it much easier just to tell you, BUT it would violate the child's privacy and break the law.

COVID VACCINATION FOR STUDENTS

If your student has been fully vaccinated (two shots) please bring a copy of the vaccination record to school. While this does NOT exempt a student from wearing a mask, it does allow them to come to school (wearing a mask) if they are exposed to COVID away from school.

If a student is NOT vaccinated and is exposed to COVID away from school, the student must quarantine at home for five days after the date of the last exposure, and then the student can return to school and wear a mask for five days.

Please understand, we are working really hard to keep students and staff safe while ALSO remaining open for those families who do not have the ability to keep their students at home.

None of us like COVID and the disruption is causes. Please remember - we do not get to make the rules - we simply get the privilege of enforcement.

The new round of Mad Science begins January 21. This program runs for six weeks on Fridays, 1:35 - 2:30 pm. The kids who participated in this hands-on science program during the previous session had an absolute BLAST! Mad Science is a private organization that rents space from Bridge. The cost is $79 for the 6 week program.

You can find more information, including a registration link, on our webpage at:

https://www.bridgecharter.org/community-events

FLEXIBILITY teaches students to "ADAPT TO CHANGE WITH A GOOD ATTITUDE".

Practice these "I WILL" statements with your student:

• Anticipate change
• Adjust when needed
• Look for the benefits
• Finish the job
• Do what is right

Our mission is to empower students to take ownership of their own learning. By learning, practicing and embracing these visible learning traits, students will have the skills needed to become accountable for their own lifelong learning. You can find the six Visible Learning traits on our website at Visible Learning