Dear 5th Grade Parents and Guardians,
I hope you enjoyed a beautiful weekend and got to spend some time outdoors. As I wrote in Friday's letter, we are thrilled to be able to welcome all K-5 students on site beginning in March. The ease and excitement of watching children reconnect with peers and teachers in person, whether full time or for visits, have given us so much joy these past few weeks and renewed the spirit of working with children. As we work toward an expanded return to campus, please see these important details below about upcoming 5th Grade Visit Days and on-site testing. Friday, Feb. 26: ALL 5th Grade Students to Visit Middle and Upper Campus The opportunity to bring more students back to the elementary campus necessitates the rearrangement of furniture and spaces. To accommodate this, all 5th grade visits for Friday, Feb. 26 will take place at the middle and upper campus. Please follow the regular drop-off and pick-up schedule. Click here for the middle and upper campus route map.
Looking ahead, the desire to bring back as many children as possible will have to be balanced with space limitations at the elementary campus. We will be using these next two weeks, with the expanded K-4 onsite schedule, to determine the best possible configuration—with the hope that K-5 can be held entirely on the elementary campus. As a reminder, conferences are March 4-5, so there is no Visit Day on Friday, March 5. COVID-19 Testing Update New Testing Company for 5th Graders During School Hours This Friday, Feb. 26: To accommodate the need for increased testing on campus, we have partnered with an additional lab, Mend Urgent Care. In order for your child to have COVID-19 testing done with this new lab on-campus this Friday, Feb. 26, please note the required items below:
Please Note: Testing will be billed to your health insurance carrier as if the test were performed at your doctor's office. If a student does NOT have health insurance, testing fees will be billed to the Federal CARES-HRSA ACT for payment. You will be asked for insurance information during the Mend Urgent Care Lab registration process. New Guideline from LACDPH Our full return of K-5th grade students to our campuses will be based on new guidelines from the L.A. County Department of Public Health, which now requires that students be able to always maintain a minimum of 4 feet distance, along with a physical barrier, from each other when 6 feet physical distance is not possible. Part of the work of preparing our campuses this week and next will involve compliance with this new guideline.
These new guidelines also no longer limit the number of children within a group/cohort, so long as distancing measures can be followed. Some of our classroom spaces allow for this, so we will be combining some class cohorts back into single classes, which the LACDPH is calling "stable groups." We will provide more information on which classes and cohorts have been adjusted later this week.
We thank you for your continued flexibility and look forward to seeing our 5th graders soon.
All our best,
Katie Rios Director of Elementary School Wildwood School |