Wintery Bees!
Greetings Parents and Community Members,
It’s an exciting time to be a Brandon Bee! Our PC students have now been back in session for 6 full school days and each day I am happy with the progress we’ve made in improving our logistics and implementing our mitigation strategies. I am also more than excited to welcome back our 3rd-5th grade students that chose face to face learning next week! We also continue to monitor and support all of our students that continue to learn virtually, many of whom are with new teachers. A gentle reminder that tomorrow, February 4, our MC virtual students will transition to their new virtual homerooms with the exception of DLI. This is a great opportunity to get to know new classmates, new teachers and new rules and routines prior to our February 8 kickoff to Phase II of Return and Learn. During these two days prior to February 8, face to face homeroom teachers at the MC will be showing our MC reopening video. You can also watch it HERE.
I’m also excited for our first Virtual Homerooms Town Hall on February 19 at 11am and want to invite all of our virtual families to attend. Together, we will discuss virtual learning, ways we can support our virtual students, Intent to Return forms for Quarter 4, and virtual engagement activities. Town Halls and informational sessions will always be recorded and shared HERE.
I’m also excited to announce that in partnership with Atlanta Public Schools and Viral Solutions, we had a great launch of our COVID-19 surveillance testing plan. We were very excited to see that over 30% of our Primary Campus students participated in this antigen test (which is different from a PCR). The goal is to catch students in the asymptomatic but highly contagious period, before symptom onset. In addition to the 120 students, we also had several staff that participated and set great examples for their students. As a father of a Kindergarten student, I too had questions around this new normal. Planning the logistics and watching all 120 students participate yesterday gave me some answers. I’ve compiled a site based (Morris Brandon only) FAQ that can answer some of your questions HERE. This is not an exhaustive list nor one to replace the Atlanta Public Schools FAQ that can be found HERE but should hopefully shed some light on our processes and procedures. I also want to invite you to a Surveillance Testing Parent Informational session on February 19 at 10am. I will have representatives from both Viral Solutions and APS health services to help guide the conversation.
As we move into week one of face to face learning for MC and week three for PC, we want to continue to refine and adapt to this ever changing environment. We have recently purchased the PikMyKid digital carpool app to help streamline our dismissal process and will be sure to share all the information needed prior to its launch in just a few short days. Dismissal is a monumental task with multiple buses, hundreds of cars, and walkers to boot. This app will allow us to streamline this process with a simple notification from you when you arrive. It can also help us manage our change in dismissal. Until the app is up and running, I want to remind you to please email the office staff (dcole@atlanta.k12.ga.us or mary.plumer@atlanta.k12.ga.us) and cc your homeroom teacher with any changes to transportation.
Lastly, with Valentine’s day right around the corner, we’ve set some rules and expectations to help us celebrate this fun holiday safely as outlined in this flyer.
As always, please feel free to reach out to myself or a member of our admin team with any questions or concerns.
Talk soon
J