|
OLOL Families, It is the first day of Fall and we have been blessed with some exceptional weather. We are so lucky to have this weather as it allows us to spend more time in our outdoor learning spaces. We are into our second full week of school and everyone is working to support one another, faculty and staff, students and families, all while being as safe as we can and trying to keep everyone healthy. Important News & Updates to Share: Additional School Day Coming: As we have evaluated our reopening plan, the effectiveness of on campus instruction, and the manageability of maintaining high safety precautions, we are ready to open on campus instruction for a 4th day each week for the month of October. Starting Friday, October 2nd we will have on campus instruction resume. We will continue with virtual Monday classes as we are doing now, with the exception of the two closed days in October: Columbus Day on Oct. 12 and ADW Professional Day Oct. 26. Getting Back to Mass: We will also be working with Father Rob and Father James to schedule Friday Mass for our students. We will consider our options to ensure distance and total students involved, and share our plans next week. We are so excited and grateful to gather as God's family to celebrate Mass together. Back to School Night: It is starting to feel like a real school year as we seem to be racing toward the end of September just ahead of us. This week we will join together for Back to School Night at 6pm, Thursday, September 24. This night will be an online meeting using Zoom and we will bring you information on how the year has started, introduce you to our faculty and staff (without their masks), and pray together as we begin our school year. Zoom link information: Back to School Night https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86337725851?pwd=Z29NNkdyVmpMMjJBQjVHejZOYnVBdz09 Meeting ID: 863 3772 5851 Passcode: BTSN2020 We are altering the format of our evening to offer our families the best use of their time and to bring you the information you need. Our methods of communication between teachers, administrators, and families has drastically changed over the years and so many of the things that were important about a Back to School Night, such as sharing classroom information, schedules, routines, and procedures, have already been shared. The best part about Back to School Night was welcoming everyone back into the building and sharing your child's learning spaces, meeting the teacher in his/her workplace, and connecting with other parents. In this time of distance we are finding new ways to connect parents through the HSA and parent Zooms, small in-person events, and creative new ways to keep in touch. Our teachers miss the chance to meet face to face with their student's parents, which so often occurred before morning prayers or quick conversations at dismissal. This year we will have a general meeting for all parents, faculty and staff at 6pm. Then at 6:30pm the middle school parents will remain for a 15 minute meeting with the middle school teachers and administrators. Following that meeting, the 8th grade will have a High School Preparation meeting with Mr. Dwyer, Mr. Long, Mrs. Helms, and myself to discuss the process ahead, dates and details. The parents of students in Preschool 3's through 5th grade will have an opportunity to sign up for "Meet & Greet" conferences with their child's teacher. These are optional conferences available for parents to meet the teacher, introduce themselves, share a little about their family and their child, and check on their child's transition back to school after such a long time away. This is an opportunity to make a personal connection with the classroom teacher and share information about how the school year has started from the parent and teacher perspectives, and not the academic conferences that will be scheduled later in the year. We hope that these changes will help us all to reconnect home and school at this successful point in our reopening plan. Click the Agenda for BTSN meeting times and conference sign ups for parents in LG - Grade 5. If you would like to attend a "Meet & Greet" please sign up ASAP, the deadline to sign up for these scheduled conferences is this week, Friday, September 25. It feels like old times at OLOL because we are also planning our first "FUNdraisers".
Thanks & Reminder: A note about Family Finance Survey for Federal and State funds. Thank you all for doing such a great job, we had 98% of our families participate. A+ job. Thanks for your help with this important information to ensure we get our share of any funds available. Don't forget to read the Parent/Student handbook and fill out the parent acknowledgment form by Sept. 30. We need 100% of our parents to do that and have that form on file for each family. The parent handbook is on our private parent page - One MOORE thing.. Daily Edition. Check your email for the password.
 Wow, one partial week down, how many more to go? ... but seriously, it was a terrific start to a new school year during a difficult and unprecedented time for all of us! The building was full of happy voices and beautiful smiles. OLOL is blessed to be back at school, both on campus and off campus! We have worked very hard to get back to what we remember as "school". Our teachers and staff are working diligently to keep the highest level of safety for themselves, all our students, and our families. We are getting used to different schedules, more breaks, wearing masks, more time outside, scheduled cleaning and bathroom breaks, and so much more. We are doing all of these things with patience and a positive attitude. Next week we start a full week of our blended and distance learning models and we look forward to a few weeks to settle into a routine. Routines make things start to feel more "normal".
Today we remember the devastation our country suffered on 9/11 and we pray that people around the world will open their hearts and minds to the beauty of life, freedom, and the gift that God gives us to live a human life as brothers and sisters, so that this kind of terror will not happen again. We remember all those who lost their lives, all the heroes who ran into danger in the hopes of helping someone else, and all those who served and continue to serve to protect our great nation. Today we pray for peace, we pray for safety, and we pray for the strength to live our lives in the presence of God and reflect His love to all those around us. Coming up:
Have a wonderful weekend! May God go with you, Ms. Moore What an amazing accomplishment! We made it back to our beloved home at OLOL! Our faculty and staff continued to shine this week as they welcomed back students to both on campus and virtual learning. I am so appreciative of all the hard work it has taken to bring us all back together, whether in person or online, as one OLOL family. This continues to be a difficult time for all of us, but we strive to make the most of every day and every opportunity God gives us.
Orientation week was a success and beginning the year slowly was thoughtfully planned so that we could evaluate and change those plans as needed for the safety of all. After evaluating the effectiveness of the procedures for arrival and dismissal we have made significant changes to plan. This week we were only working with two classrooms at a time, but we found the carpool line to expose our children to dangerous situations with moving vehicles at both arrival and dismissal. We hope that these new changes will provide the best precautions for safety and in utilizing our resources. Please CLICK HERE for all the details about our new plans. We will practice this new system next week when we have roughly half of our students on campus for two days for preschool through 4th grade (Sept. 8 & 9) and two days for 5th through 8th grades (Sept. 10 & 11). There is a new page on our private website that will hold all the virtual schedules you will need for next week and for the following weeks when we have our Monday & Friday virtual learning days. SCHEDULES FOR VIRTUAL LEARNING If you ordered uniforms they will be available for pick up next week:
Thank you for all your support. We are looking forward to our first full days of on campus learning next week! Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend! Best, Ms. Moore |
