Peak Families,
As referenced in the communication on Sunday, I want to keep you up to date on the most important information to start the school year. If you have not already done so, please complete the new online registration process so we have the required information for each student to start the school year. We have made adjustments to forms, so you should be able to submit more than once if you have more than one student at Peak.
Click here for online registration:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LVCUL5hjN4HTCLPQkP9_YzjSwFVbasdfpCMi83oecVI/edit?usp=sharing
Click here for registration guidance video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPhOZ5c7C-o&feature=youtu.be
Next, we want you to be clear about our school wide plans for the first two weeks of remote learning. In alignment with JeffCO's district wide expectations, we are starting off with a smaller amount of required time then a normal school day and building up to our full school day on September 8th. Here's what you can expect school wide next week starting on Monday August 24th:
*Remote learning starts at 8:30 for all students and we have a required synchronous CREW and morning kick off to start our day. This will help us get to know our students, establish our CREW character norms, and have an initial online lesson.
*Students in grades K-1 - will have 1-2 hours of learning per day in the first week.
*Students in grades 2-5 - will have a second required synchronous meeting in the afternoon at 12:30. Students in grades 2-5 will have 3-5 hours of learning per day in the first week.
Our goal is to build up student engagement throughout the first two weeks. We know that coordinating support and the logistics at home can be challenging, which is why our required hours are far less than a normal school day. In the second week, we are planning two flex testing days (Monday 8/31) and Tuesday (9/1) where each student will need roughly one hour to assess basic academic skills. If your student is fully remote and you do not want them to come to the school building, we will coordinate a remote testing process through an online platform. Sign up for flex testing will come from each teacher through a sign up genius process. Students will enter the building from the exterior doors of the classroom and parents/family members will need to wait outside until the testing is complete.
We will also have the following optional in person orientation days in the second week:
*Wednesday September 2nd - Kindergarten & 3rd Grade
*Thursday September 3rd - 1st Grade and 4th grade
*Friday September 4th - 2nd Grade and 5th Grade.
The optional orientation days are a full normal day of school from 7:45 - optional breakfast, 8:15 arrival for screening, 8:30 start of school and 3:30 end of school.
Since we are having flex testing and orientation, those 3 days in the second week will not have live online synchronous sessions, instead they will have independent asynchronous options for learning.
Today, each teacher will email you directly with a brief introduction and a time they have established this Friday to connect with you and answer questions about the first two weeks. If you have questions about our in-person learning process, please make sure to read our Peak Restart Implementation Guide at the link below and email me directly if you need support:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r_1hZKbsgnV1RYm7ph-KyqcCjPB7datyOsZ--70ZGSY/edit?usp=sharing
Some quick updates to our Peak Implementation Guide:
*If you plan to have your student eat breakfast at Peak, they need to arrive at school at 7:45 am sharp, this will give us enough time to coordinate the breakfast process safely with each cohort so that they can arrive back at their outdoor classroom by 8:30. Temperature checks and symptom screening will be done by our paraprofessional staff at each grade level for this group when they arrive at the designated exterior entrance for their class. Entrances are marked on the Peak map in our restart implementation guide.
*All students that are not eating breakfast at Peak can arrive between 8:15 and 8:30 and not earlier because there will not be supervision for students since we will be running breakfast each day, and most days outside.
*Dismissal- we received great feedback on the challenge that a staggered dismissal creates for families with multiple students at different grade levels. A solution we have created is to have families with multiple students at different grade levels, pick up at the earliest grade level time of their students (i.e. K, 3, 5 students in your family - can all dismiss at 4 pm during Kindergarten dismissal).
Wow- that is a lot to process and we are here to answer questions and provide support in every way possible. I wanted to make sure you have as much information as possible to plan for the support of your students and families during the start of school. If you have any questions about the logistics above or our restart plan, please email me directly. If you have any questions about enrollment or registration, please email our Business Manager Ms. Melissa Bustamante at mbustama@jeffco.k12.co.us.
Thanks for your continued support of Peak, you are an amazing school community and we can't wait to see you starting online next Monday!
Make it a great day!
Sincerely,
Mr. Tim Carlin
Principal of Fun
Peak Expeditionary School
at Pennington