REOPENING JANUARY 2021
Good morning Bridges Preparatory School Families,
We have certainly enjoyed a successful year of growth and continuation of educational services during a very challenging time. We have successfully delivered synchronous learning and given our families the option of returning to school when they are ready. We have adjusted our schedules and identified key practices to cut down on large crowds and gatherings. We have taken measures to upgrade our facility to combat airborne and multi-touch surfaces with micro shield 360 and our GPS filters, as well as providing sanitation practices in all classrooms.
We have created classroom schedules that avoid multiple contacts of students during the day, and we have mitigated break and recess times to keep cohorts of students together.
We have moved to a deep clean once a week to ensure that our staff and students return to clean and safe environments.
No school is immune to ridding itself of all cases, but the measures that we have committed to have made a tremendous difference in reaching our overall goal of:
Having our staff and students engaged in a safe and caring environment.
I would like to thank our board for their support and commitment to creating a wonderful environment for all of our stakeholders.
I would like to thank our amazing teachers and staff who have engaged and supported our students in the classroom and in a virtual platform.
Lastly, I would like to thank our students for their commitment and true love of learning. Your efforts and flexibility do not go unnoticed.
Our goal in reopening our campus after the break is to maintain our number one goal: The safety of our faculty and students.
Our goal is to keep our students in school. We did an excellent job of contact tracing and quarantining students after their return from Thanksgiving Break. Thank you to our nursing staff and supportive families in understanding why we needed to quarantine close contacts to a positive case. This support cut down on the number of cases that we had.
With our goal of returning to school safely and staying in school, the board voted to return to school for face to face learning on the following start dates:
K-5 January 5th 2021
6-8 January 11th 2021 - virtual begins on 1/5/21
9-12 January 19th 2021 -virtual begins on 1/5/21
Staggering our return after the break will give us the opportunity to identify and limit the number of exposures from gatherings over the break. Students that are potentially exposed to the virus over the break may show symptoms while at home.
Please be sure to report any positive cases to our head nurse (Christy Phares). Please limit large gatherings, and please refrain from sending students to school with any symptoms.
Another recommendation is to continue with our Wednesday’s as a virtual day for the 3rd quarter.
With cases on the rise, I do not believe the timing of a change to our school schedule is justifiable at this time.
We can assess case numbers toward the end of the 3rd quarter to make a decision about 5 days face to face for the 4th quarter.
The safety and well-being of our school community socially, emotionally, and academically is and will continue to be our priority.
This has certainly been a challenging school year, but with the commitment of all of our stakeholders, we have created plans of action that have allowed us to be proactive, rather than reactive when it comes to delivering a high quality education.
Happy holidays to everyone, and thank you for your commitment to our amazing school!
Gary S. McCulloch ED.S
Chief Executive Officer
Bridges Preparatory School