West Park Weekly Parent Update 3/26/21

Greetings, WPE families and students! 

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break!  We will see you back at Project Dream or WPE on Monday, March 29th.

*On April 7th, we will hold our WPE Virtual Celebration of Learning from 6-6:30pm.  Each teacher will run their Crew’s Celebration of Learning through their google classroom for families to attend from home – look for more information when we return from break!

As you may have heard, the LCSD school board voted to accept the instructional plans for 100% in person learning. For WPE  this means that students will attend classes at WPE all four days of the school week, with no change to class rosters.  This change only applies to the students who are currently attending hybrid, in-person at WPE, not to the virtual students of Ms. Perez or Ms. Seifert. The virtual program will remain the same for the rest of the year.  This change will begin on April 12^th allowing us time to practice new routines, hire staff, and re-organize classrooms.

We will continue to follow our important health precautions: required mask wearing, regular hand-washing, and keeping classes separated as much as possible.  As of 3/17/2021, Lake County is in the BLUE level on the COVID Dial.  We have developed our plans following the CDPHE guidelines appropriate for K-5 students. CDPHE guidelines allow for students at our age group to have less than 3 feet of distance between themselves and others, as long as masks are worn. We will continue to follow health department recommendations on quarantines, as well.  I am confident that our current safety measures have contributed to the successful year we’ve had so far with zero school-based COVID transmissions, and will continue to do so!

What is NOT changing?

• Daily Schedule:  Classes start at 8:10 and end at 3:15
• Classroom teacher
• Free breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner for all students
• District employees are the only adults allowed in the building (except for briefly in the front office)
• Current bus students may continue to still ride the bus
• Health screeners completed at home and sent with students each day
• General health precautions continue:  daily health screeners, soap and water hand washing, symptomatic individuals are referred to health care professionals, a dedicated room for symptomatic individuals, regularly cleaning and disinfecting, use of air purifiers and open windows (when warm enough), and required masks of everyone, except during meals and brief times for instruction

What will be changing?

• Cohorts A and B will combine into one Crew
• Devices will stay at the school, unless the teacher needs to send them home for at-home work.  Students will receive direct instruction from their certified teachers each day. We will shift from sending “at home” packets to some homework packets, according to each grade level’s preference.
• Breakfast will be served in classrooms until 8:00am.  If your child is dropped off after 8:00am and needs to eat breakfast, they will be supervised while they eat in the cafeteria and then sent to join their class. All busses are dropped off by 7:55.  This helps ensure classes start on time by decreasing the impact on teachers, who are cleaning up the areas, and transitioning into their first lesson of the day, which starts around 8:10.  
• Children who eat breakfast at home, should be dropped off by 8:10am to start class on time.
• Lunch will now be in the cafeteria with dividers for our tables so students can still socialize and eat safely.  Each class will have two sets of tables and they will wash their hands right before lunch.  We will practice eating in the cafeteria the week of April 5. 
• Playground will be open for one grade level at a time. Students will wash their hands when coming back in from recess.
• Project Dream staff will be incorporated into our schedule to offer enrichment and support activities – including students getting to go outside twice a week (weather permitting) during specials time!

• Spacing/Seating in the classroom can be less than 3 feet if students are wearing masks – this is within the CDPHE guidelines for both “safer at home” and “protect our neighbors” phases.
• When eating, students will be at least 3 feet apart and/or use dividers, since they will not have their masks on.
• Drop off and Pick up will expand to two moving lanes on each side of the island in front of the school.  Parking will be at Skyline field for parents who walk children up to the doors in the morning.  We will send out an updated map of traffic patterns the week of March 29, and begin practicing the week of April 5.

*Please continue to send your child with their health screener completed.  We have many students who do not arrive with a health screener paper; we hope to get students to class quickly and avoid congestion at our doorways.  If you need more screener papers, please contact your child’s teacher to send more home.

Rockies Rock announcement

Greetings, families! Get Outdoors Leadville! is excited to announce the dates for Rockies Rock 2021!  Camp is open to current K-7^th graders.

Session 1: June 28 – July 8

Session 2: July 12 – July 23

Session 3: July 26 – Aug 5

Enrollment will open on April 12th. Please call or email Tim Best with any questions at 719.293.0445 or tbest@co.lake.co.us Please also check our camp website for info and updates at: https://getoutdoorsleadville.org/summer-adventure-camp/

*We are excited to announce a FREE 3-part Family Learning Institute for parents and families of Lake County students. This series is a partnership between LCSD, Full Circle, and other health agencies in our county. The goal of this series is to give parents more knowledge and tools to promote health and wellbeing of the family. The sessions will be held virtually on April 14th, May 12th, and June 9th from 6-7:30pm. 

We will cap the series at 30 participants to provide us with enough time to answer questions and have good discussions. 

At the end of the series, families that attend all 3 sessions will receive incentives that promote health and wellness​*: 1) Farm bucks to spend on local produce at Cloud City Conservation Center, 2) A free one year family membership to the Get Outdoors Leadville Gear Library, and 3) a one-day family pass to the Lake County Aquatic Center.

Please help us spread the word! Parents use the following link to click on: https://forms.gle/bnv9hyNiDqPBAR3N9

*A few reminders to help your child’s day at school be as successful as possible:  

*Please drop off your children by 8:00am if they should eat breakfast at school, and by 8:10 if they have eaten at home.   We start class at 8:10 and students are considered tardy who arrive after 8:10.   

*School ends at 3:20. Please pick up your child after 3:20 each day. We really appreciate you waiting patiently in your car as your child will be called and will walk out to your vehicle. 

*If you have any end of day changes in plans, please let the front office know by 2:30 so that we can get them the correct message in time for dismissal! 719-486-6890.

*We play outside every day!  Please be sure to send your child with snow pants, jacket, hats, gloves, and boots. 

*Please send your child’s device with them to school each day – it is an important part of our school supplies, and it makes your child’s day more challenging when they do not have their device.

*If you have any tech concerns, please email helpdesk@lakecountyschools.net with a description of the problem.

*Looking Ahead:

March 22-26     Spring Break – school and Project Dream resume on March 29

April 5             Begin practicing new drop off/pick up and lunch routines

April 7             Virtual Celebration of Learning on Google Classrooms 6:00-6:30 pm

April 12           WPE Begin 100% in Person Learning Model

Please reach out if ever you have concerns or celebrations you hope to share with me.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Fitzsimmons and the entire WPE team!