Hello Harding Community,
We have had a relatively successful school reopening. While we continue our focus on student social and emotional needs and we introduce academics, it has become clear that the overriding concern is keeping our community healthy. We are doing everything we can in accordance with district policies aligned with the CDPH, but we need every family’s cooperation or the system will break down. Until children can be vaccinated:
- Families should not plan trips during school time: we lose money when students are not in school, students lose the instruction, if independent study plans are requested, we still only get 40% of the money and the teacher as well as office staff have added work to an already difficult workload.
- The state has limited independent study days to 15 total for the year. These may be needed for cohort quarantines if there is an exposure and will only cover one or two quarantines.
- For any trip or event, families need to consider how many new contacts they are getting exposed to and in what kind of environments – are they high risk? If you are choosing to have your children out of school an independent study request may be denied and your child(ren) will be truant.
- The office staff and I are getting calls and emails describing various social and travel situations and requests for permission to participate or advice on what to do. We cannot help every family assess their social/travel plans; we don’t have the time or the expertise. I recommend you ask your pediatrician or other trusted medical professional if you must join a larger social gathering or travel, and err on the side of caution.
- Please think about the collective well being since the staff and I are doing everything we can and so many of you pushed for in person learning. The state has no provision at this time for schools to provide virtual/distance learning, so we have to keep in person learning as safe as we can.
Thank you for your support. And remember, stay informed and stay connected as information will continue to change regularly.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Takimoto