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Thursday, November 4th marked the beginning of Diwali, a five day Festival of Lights and one of the most celebrated holidays in India. Wishing you a bright and joyous Diwali.

CPS announced that schools will be closed on Friday, November 12th for Vaccination Awareness Day. Families are encouraged to use this day to get children vaccinated. You can find appointments by visiting vaccines.gov/search, text your ZIP code to 438829, or call 1-800-232-0233 to find a vaccine appointment. In the next couple of days, CPS will provide information about food distribution sites and CPS is working with the Chicago Park District Department and other partners to explore how they can provide safe spaces for children on November 12th.

I realize that cancelling classes on Friday, November 12th is presenting a hardship for many of our families who do not have the ability to access last minute childcare. I am in touch with central office and trying to create a plan to help families at Peirce who will need a safe place for their children to be at on Friday, November 12th.

Please complete the form below by 5pm on Monday, November 8th, those who complete this form will receive a follow up email by the end of the day on Wednesday, November 10th stating whether or not we are able to create a backup childcare support plan at Peirce.

Complete 1 form per student.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYTrNZ_yNGMyH3hM1qP8gKwhxVOaXMlF1MzIkab81HRAyY1Q/viewform

We are so fortunate that the weather remains warm enough for children to continue eating outdoors, but are not sure how much longer this will continue. We have not yet set a temperature by which we will bring students indoors for lunch, this is due to a variety of factors - for instance 40 degrees with sun feels very different than 40 degrees with wind and clouds. We are assessing the exterior conditions daily and would like to make it through the month of November outdoors as much as possible - especially since vaccinations for 5-11 year olds are now in place. This does mean that there may be some days over the next month when students are eating indoors, even though it is not raining. Please send your children with extra layers of outerwear in the coming weeks to help them stay warm.

Report Card Day is Wednesday, November 17th

11:00am - 3:00pm and 4:00pm - 6:00pm

Families will have the option to attend in person or virtual and teachers have sent out how to sign up for your conference time.

Those who are attending in person must show proof of vaccination or a negative covid test within 72 hours of arriving at the main entrance.

Shannon Jiamachello, Resident Principal will hold two information sessions on the new assessment screener, STAR 360 for 3rd-8th grade families at 11:00am and 4:00pm. Both sessions will be held virtually and a meeting link will be shared in advance.

Peirce is missing 283 chromebooks that were distributed during the pandemic. If you still have a chromebook at home, please return to school with your child along with the charger. You can also reach out to Ms. Andrade with any questions at baandrade@cps.edu

To mark indigenous peoples month, this November, Peirce learners will be participating in a schoolwide reading of both “Fry Bread” (Kevin Noble Maillard) and “We Are Water Protectors” (Carole Lindstrom).

In alignment with these activities, please join us on November 10th from 7:30-9:00pm in community to discuss stories and texts connected to Indigenous People's experiences. We'll talk together about how we can build the conversations happening within the school at home.

Register here (meeting link will be sent upon registration): https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0udOCrpzsjHdJTx6JW9trAct-866WDl6Kc

PEIRCE GEAR NOW ON SALE!
Friends of Peirce (FOP) has partnered with Tee-Mart, a Rogers Park family-owned business, to offer apparel and more. Many styles and colors are available and items can be picked up or mailed to you. A portion of each sale will go to Friends of Peirce. (Learn more about FOP and their mission of supporting our students HERE). Contact Kevin@friendsofpeirce.org if you have questions or suggestions on what gear YOU would like to have.

SHOP THE PEIRCE STORE

As part of the Peirce Service Organization, (PSO) a group of parent volunteers serve as Room Reps, individuals that work with the classroom teachers to build additional bridges of communication and community to the whole classroom. Room Reps would assist in coordinating volunteers, classroom material donations if needed, and assist with activities like teacher appreciation. Room Reps also build classroom directories to be shared with the classroom families so that parents are able to coordinate social activities and connections outside of the classroom.

If you have not already done so, please consider updating your contact information, identifying the classrooms your children are in, and giving your consent to be included in these communications that come from other parents directly. The communications tend to be geared to important information at classroom or grade level versus communications aimed at the whole school. Additionally you can indicate your interest to be included on communications that come from other parent led groups such as the Friends of Peirce (FOP), Peirce Racial Equity Parents' Group (REP), or the Bilingual Advisory Council (BAC).

English (link: https://bit.ly/PeirceUpdateContactInfo)

Español (link: https://bit.ly/InformacióndecontactodePeirce)

Questions or concerns? Please reach out to April Browning (april.browning.mcgroarty@gmail.com) the Volunteer Parent Database Manager, directly.

Join the Peirce Service Organization for their next meeting on...

Friday, Novemeber 12th

8:15am

Edgewater Baptist Church, 1401 W. Hollywood

CPS made the following update to the Sick Student Protocol:

1. Under new ISBE guidance, if the sick individual is tested within 24 hours of symptom onset, siblings/household members do not need to be sent home unless there is high suspicion the sick person has COVID-19.

1. Examples where ”high suspicion” exists = sick individual is a known close contact or loss of taste or smell.

2. Siblings/household members can remain in school and must wear masks both indoors and outdoors.

3. If the sick individual tests positive, unvaccinated siblings/household members should be sent home immediately.

If testing doesn’t occur within 24 hours of symptom onset, unvaccinated siblings/household members must be sent home until the sick individual has test results.

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If your child is sick with any COVID-19 Symptoms please do the following:

Call your child's healthcare provider and get the child tested for COVID-19. Your child should stay home while waiting for results. If you are unable to get your child tested, your child must stay home until they are symptom-free without medication for 24 hours.

• If the child is negative student should stay home until...
  
• Illness is over
• Symptoms have steadily improved
• Fever-free for 24hrs without medication
  
• No uncontrollable cough
• No vomiting or diarrhea for 24hrs
  
• If a child is positive
• COVID-19 case must isolate for 10 days from the start of illness; non fully vaccinated household members must Quarantine 14 days (from date of last contact or end of case’s isolation)
• ** CPS Cases should SELF-REPORT to cps.edu/covidresults. Parents or guardians report on behalf of their own children.

COVID Case Update

There have been a total of 5 classrooms quarantined this school year and 7 reported cases of COVID at Peirce, 6 of which were actionable. CPS has released an updated district data monitoring tool that can be found here.

COVID Testing

Shannon Jiamachello, Resident Principal, is coordinating COVID testing at Peirce and is in collaboration with CPS. You can reach out to Shannon with questions related to testing by email at sljiamachell@cps.edu.

If you have not yet signed up your child for testing you can do so by either:

• Complete the COVID-19 Testing Consent Form that was emailed to all parents and guardians from CPSnoreply@cps.edu on Friday, August 27, 2021 if you want your child tested.
• If you did not receive the email from CPS, you can complete the paper version and return to your child's teacher.

Click here for the online registration form

Click here for the FAQ Guide on Testing

Please be reminded that all students, staff and visitors to the school campus should wear masks while on school grounds. Students and staff wear masks at all times when they are indoors, unless eating. Students are able to remove their masks during breakfast and lunchtime.

Students can also remove their masks outdoors when they are able to maintain at least 3 feet of social distancing and are within their same cohort. Please know that there are few instances when this is applicable, therefore, many students will keep their mask on the duration of the day.

November

9th & 10th: Picture Days, schedule to be shared by classroom teachers

9th 8th Grade High School Admissions Test

9th Friends of Peirce Meeting, 6:30pm

11th No School - Veterans Day

12th No School - Vaccination Awareness Day

12th Peirce Service Organization Meeting, 8:15am

17th Report Card Day - No School for Students

18th Local School Council Meeting, 6:00pm

24th-26th Thanksgiving Break, No School

30th Picture Re-Takes

December

1st Open House & School Tour for Prospective Families at 9am

7th Make Up HS Admissions Test for 8th Grade

9th State of the School Presentation, 6:00pm

10th Peirce Service Organization Meeting, 8:15am

10th Virtual Coffee with the Principal at 9:00am

14th Friends of Peirce Meeting, 6:30pm

15th GO CPS Enrollment Applications close at 5:00pm

17th Progress Reports Distributed

Winter Break from December 20th - 31st

Classes resume on Monday, January 3rd

• PSO Contact Forms

  Español (link: https://bit.ly/InformacióndecontactodePeirce)

English (link: https://bit.ly/PeirceUpdateContactInfo)

• Pay Student Fee (through your parent Aspen account)
• School Schedules
• Parent, Educator and External Guide for Reopening
  
• Self-Reporting of COVID19 Positive Cases
• Family Handbook
  
• School Year 2021-2022 Calendar
  
• Safety Best Practices