With report cards largely written, we are squarely in that time of year where we are leaning into joy and celebrating community. This year more than ever, where people’s bandwidth for online learning is less and less by the day, please know that we don’t just understand (or have plenty of empathy!), but that we are doing whatever we can to provide your children with however many doses of positivity as we can however often we see them. Today is a great example. Despite its virtual nature, our Harry Potter-themed “Maccabiah 2021” was a wonderful day of ruach that hopefully makes another day of at-home learning a little more bearable with summer achingly within reach.
As we prepare for the final seven-and-a-half days of school, in addition to online joy we hope to spark, please be on the lookout for your child(ren)’s cohort(s)’s announcement about “Popsicles, Pals & Pickups”! This is our response to the province’s allowance for a final in-person gathering for all grades. We have received our guidelines and we will be creating a schedule for each cohort – most likely during the final week – to come back to school, to spend time together in person to properly wrap up the year, to return library books and other school materials, and to pick up yearbooks and personal belongings. More details will come from your teacher(s), stay tuned!
Here, in my little slice of the blogosphere, I, too, am winding down for summer. Today, I would like to share with you some preliminary thoughts about how we are preparing for next year. That leaves with me two additional posts before I go on a bit of a hiatus for summer. I will share out my words to this year’s graduating class and I have one final “Transparency Files” post in which we will announce the 2021-2022 OJCS Faculty & Staff.
We have received very little questioning about next year, which could be for all kinds of reasons. No need to speculate here. But I thought it would be helpful for parents to be aware of what reasonable assumptions we are using to plan for next year and what are our “known unknowns”. If either leave with you with questions or concerns, as always, please do be in touch.
Reasonable Assumptions
- With the reasonable expectation that every adult who works in the building will be fully vaccinated by the start of the school year, we are not planning for either a hybrid or hyflex learning program next year. We expect to fully return to in-person learning.
- It may be true in some grades for some subjects, however, that a child who is home sick next year could participate virtually or work asynchronously on planned lessons. However, our teachers will not be expected to produce fully hyflexed schedules and assignments at all times.
- We are planning for the return of regular PE and Tefillah as they would no longer constitute “high risk” activities.
- We assume enhanced cleaning protocols will carry over in some fashion.
Known Unknowns
- We have no current guidance as to whether or not the province and/or public health will have any masking guidelines (in any grades) or social distancing requirements.
- We cannot yet say whether or not multigrade experiences, whether they be as simple as recess or as complicated as the “Sukkah Hop” – with everything in between (like assemblies) – are returning next year. Ditto for the Middle School Retreat, the Grade 8 Trip, and field trips. We are planning for them all to return, but we don’t know yet for sure.
- We don’t know if we will need to continue to utilize three different entrances and maintain separate access to washrooms and water fountains.
These are just initial thoughts as we wait for the province to provide us with the official guidelines for safe reopening. As was true last year, we will – of course – send a detailed email to all our parents when we have a clearer picture. But for now, as we do our best to put at-home learning to bed for the 2020-2021 school year, we can also look forward to a return to in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year…and that feels great!
While we wait to announce the full faculty for next year, we do – here – want to share out that our own Linda Signer will be retiring after many years of quality teaching at OJCS when this school year closes. It has become a recent tradition to publicly celebrate retiring teachers with a “Retirement Tea” where we bring back former teachers and students, as well as inviting current staff, families and students to share in the moment. We don’t believe this lends itself properly to a virtual context, so we will be celebrating Ms. Signer’s retirement at the end of next school year when we can do it properly. However, those of you who know her and want to wish her well as she prepares to enjoy the next phase of her life are more than welcome to do so over these next weeks.
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