Dear EVCS Families,

The Mayor and Chancellor announced on Sunday that elementary schools across the city will resume in-person learning on December 7. Since schools first opened in September we have demonstrated that we can offer in-person learning safely and responsibly, and we know that many of our students really depend on coming into school for blended learning, so this policy shift comes as welcome news (whiplash notwithstanding). We are ready and looking forward to opening our doors again on Monday morning.

The Mayor’s announcement included some confusing messages however, about “phasing out blended learning” and students coming in for in-person learning 5 days a week. Given that schools must continue to maintain social distancing requirements in classrooms, many schools – including EVCS – will not be able to phase out blended learning due to the number of students enrolled in blended learning and limitations on space and staffing. Therefore, on Monday we will continue blended learning in our 2-cohort model. We will also be creating opportunities for a very limited number of students on each grade level to come in for in-person learning more frequently. These opportunities will be offered individually according to need, based on a range of criteria.

As an additional safeguard to keep our schools safe the DOE will be ramping up the COVID testing program in schools. Consent for COVID testing will be mandatory for all students and staff coming into school buildings, and a randomly selected group of students in grades 1-5 and staff from each building will now be tested each week.

Additionally, the DOE has updated it’s policy on travel outside of the city to be in line with New York State policies. Students and staff who have recently traveled outside of New York to a place on the State’s travel advisory list must quarantine for 14 days or test out of the 14-day quarantine based on the State’s guidance, which can be found here. Staff and students should continue to complete the health questionnaire daily.

Monday December 7 is a B Day, in case you were wondering, and here is the blended learning calendar for January – June.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I hope you and your families remain in good health and good spirits.

As ever,
Bradley

Dear EVCS Families,

By now you may have heard that the Mayor and Chancellor announced that all school buildings will be temporarily closed for in-person learning. Beginning tomorrow November 19, and until further notice, all students in New York City public schools will learn remotely. You can read the Chancellor’s letter to families here.

EVCS students should log on to Google Classroom in the morning to access their agendas for the day, as they would on any remote learning day. We know that even though we all saw this coming it still feels disruptive and many of our students who have been coming in to the building for blended learning may feel really upset at this change in plans. All of our teachers and staff will be extra sensitive and vigilant in the coming days to make sure that our students feel taken care of and that there is minimal interruption to their academic and social emotional learning. We will be in touch soon with more details about our plans for this time.

Thanks for your understanding and support.

Yours,

Bradley

Dear EVCS Families,

Today we shared our first School-Wide Morning Meeting of this school year. Of course nothing compares to gathering in the auditorium and singing loud and proud together, and hopefully we will be able to do that again one day soon. In the meantime, we will put together and share a SWMM video roughly every other week that will feature different classes and community members. This week’s SWMM features our A and B cohort 3rd graders playing ukulele and singing and also includes cameos from some of our 2nd graders. I hope creating and watching these videos will help us to feel connected to our community and that it can be a way for all of us to be together in spirit.

Our School-Wide Morning Meeting House Band will continue to kick out the jams, but we’d like to include a range of our community members in these videos as well. Please consider creating a video of your family performing one of our SWMM songs and send it to me so I can share it in a future presentation. And if you’d like to listen to iconic versions of some of the songs in our SWMM repertoire, I’ve put together this playlist.

Let it shine,

Bradley

Dear EVCS families,

I hope your parent-teacher conferences over the last week have been meaningful and informative. If you have not had a chance to meet with your child’s teacher for a conference yet, please contact the teachers directly to schedule one. While the parent-teacher conferences are an essential opportunity to talk with your child’s teachers about their strengths, progress next steps and goals, it is certainly not the only one. All of our teachers have open office hours to talk or email with parents every day from 2:00 – 2:20. Parents are our most important partners in our students’ learning, this year especially, and communication is key to having a strong partnership.

Please be reminded that the window to change your child’s learning preference from fully remote to blended learning closes this Sunday November 15. According to the latest guidance form the DOE this will be the last official enrollment period for families to opt in to blended learning this school year. However, please note that if your child remains in remote learning now and you decide to change their learning preference later this year, we will do everything we can to accommodate your requests on an individual basis as long as there is space. If you are not switching your child’s learning preference there is no need to fill out the survey.

The new cycle for blended and remote learning will begin on Monday November 30. If you have changed your child’s learning preference you will be notified of their new schedules, teachers and groups before our curriculum share events on November 24. For students not changing their learning preferences, we will make a great effort to keep the schedules and groups consistent. More on the curriculum share coming soon, but please mark your calendars for November 24 from 2:20 to 3:00.

Enjoy the balmy November weather and the day off today!

Yours,

Bradley