Published for the Arts Based School Community
April 8, 2021
How We Do It and Why
By Mary Siebert
“The kids will be about it the way you are about it.” -Old ABS adage
What a joy it is, to write about the return of our students! Tuesday and Wednesday mornings were warm and sunny as our specialists opened individual cars in the long line, happily recognizing each child behind their masks. The specialists were chosen for this greeting and health check responsibility because they know every child in the building, from a year of Zooms, and from previous years. (It’s a strange new world: we had not met our Kindergarten children in person, yet they and their teachers were already well acquainted.) There was a lot of jubilation as the Kinder and First Grade assistants helped the little ones with their heavy bags and led them to their rooms. Counselors and reading specialists pitched in to welcome the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders as they entered the building, and helped them travel the one-way hallways to their new classrooms. We found it difficult not to hug each of them, but we’re all skilled air-huggers now!
Parents were patient with the very long wait, a supportive effort that helped a great deal. We’re all working together to learn how to execute the new protocols. No matter how well you plan, putting the plan into action for the first time is challenging. (I don’t know how NASA can do it!) Parents and students, teachers, front office personnel, specialists and admin, our new nurses… it’s a coordinated effort, and it’s a labor of love, as we exit that hard year of isolation.
Within minutes, we had children on the playground again, and all was well with the world! I saw students drawing, along with their Zooming classmates, dancing, throwing scarves and clapping to rhythms, all with Zooming classmates. I saw a wild 8th grade drama class with students laughing and improvising together. There were picnics out on the field, field hockey games in the courtyard, and Kindergarteners walking, rope in hand, a perfect three feet apart. Everyone seemed to adapt quickly to the mask-wearing.
We’ll all get the hang of the dismissal routine—hang in there! We just need to keep working together until we understand the roles of parents and staff. When we frame it in a positive way, we can all make it happen in a positive way. It’s the difference between thinking of lunch outside as a picnic vs. thinking of it as protocol. If our teachers and parents were grumbling about things, the kids would be grumbling too—but we’re seeing just the opposite. We hope we are supplying the remote students with plenty of positive energy too, as they shift from the many asynchronous lessons to live ones. I saw teachers turning quite naturally to the remote students as they taught the kids in the room.
I interviewed several students and teachers about how things were going for them. With rare exceptions, everyone from little kids to veteran teachers said that they felt nervous at first, but once things got going on the very first day, they felt much better. Teachers are visibly more relaxed, now that the students are actually back. For myself, I come home exhausted, but it’s a different kind of tired from the bone-numbing fatigue we felt during isolation. This brand of tired is renewing.
What kids said:
“I think it feels exciting and kind of nervous. You get to meet all your friends again from a long time ago, in person.”
“I’m very glad to be back!”
“It’s kind of weird and unnatural being back in the classroom, but you just kind of adapt to it.”
“When it was virtual, I couldn’t finish all my work, so on Mondays I had a lot of work to do. But now I can finish all my work.”
“It kinda feels weird at first that you have to be absolutely quiet while you read, because at home you didn’t have to. But now it feels normal.”
“It’s pretty fun, actually. I was someone who never wanted to come to school, but now I want to come!”
“It’s easier to do my work, because I’m more accountable and I have to actually do it and not put it off.”
What teachers said:
“It’s going better than anticipated! The Zoom and the room at once… I thought that was going to be difficult. But it’s going really well!”
“I’m loving it! I love that I can see their eyes, even if I can’t see their smiles.” (A child replied, “You can tell they’re smiling by their eyes!”)
“I especially enjoy that they can all share their ideas at once.”
“It’s exhilarating, open and airy... and I know I’m going to take a nap when I get home!”
PikMyKid Dismissal
So far we have 64% of parents who have registered with the Pikmykid app. For families who have chosen to return to in-person learning, it is important that you download the PikMyKid parent smartphone app on IOS or Android. Once you have downloaded the app, you will press the “Register” button and follow the prompts to sign up. When you have successfully registered, please log in, allow notifications, and check to make sure that you see your ABS student(s) listed. If you do not see your child’s name, it is most likely because we do not have your mobile phone information. Please contact Stephanie LeFever at [email protected]
Morning Arrival
In the morning,
-Please have students ready to exit the vehicle on the passenger side.
-Please complete the health screening questionnaire prior to arrival.
-Stay in line, do not pass the car in front of you
-If walking up, student must be accompanied by an adult to complete health screening.
-You do not “announce” in the morning.
Afternoon Dismissal
Wow, what a learning curve for us all! The afternoon dismissal procedure is new for all of us and is taking some time to work through the glitches. Thank you all for your patience and support as we work to get your children safely dismissed each afternoon.
Quick tutorial on how it works:
-When you “announce” on your cell phone, your child's name appears on the teacher’s dashboard to alert her/him to send the child outside. Please do not announce until you are at the “STOP/ANNOUNCE” sign.
-Coach Bri then moves your child’s name into the line order in which the cars are lined up to aid in loading. Coach Bri may have to type in the number of the student if the parent can not announce, or look up the student if the parent does not have a car dismissal tag.
-If your child is delayed in getting to the dismissal area, we may ask you to pull out of the line as we go inside to retrieve your child.
-Once your child(ren) are loaded into the car, Mrs. Hollis or Mrs. Raper will “dismiss” your name from the list, moving the next students into the active line.
Here are a few pointers that would help:
-Do not press “ANNOUNCE” on your smartphone until you arrive at the STOP/ANNOUNCE sign near Coach Bri.
-Display your car dismissal tag in the front windshield so all staff can see. The color coding helps us know if you are picking up K-4 or 5-8 or both. If you do not have a car tag, please email Hannah Bethune [email protected]
-If you have already made delegations in the app, please go back in the app to delete those delegations and re-do them. There was a technical glitch with the company that placed those changed delegations into a Car Line that we do not have. If you have questions about this, please contact Donna Brown at the front desk, or email [email protected]
Safety First
Our ABS community looks for ways to provide our children and staff with stability, security, and a collective sense of well-being. The relatively small footprint of our campus as well as our entire staff’s knowledge of children and their parents not only nurtures our tight-knit community, but it also sustains a connectedness that enhances our children’s safety. Our community members know and support one another. Children’s safety is always our highest priority. As a result, throughout the course of the year we have several different precautionary drills that include fire, tornado, and lock down drills.
1) Fire drills are when we test our response time for evacuation of the building. We conduct these drills monthly. Students are taken outside for this drill.
2) For a tornado drill, students are inside away from exterior windows. They are seated with their heads down and hands over the back of their necks. We conduct this drill in March in coordination with the State’s Severe Weather Preparedness week in March.
3) For lockdown drills, teachers and students stay in the classroom, turn off the lights and must be silent. We practice this drill twice a year.
Our procedures are based on the state’s crisis intervention kit, provided to all schools. As part of our school safety and crisis plan, we conduct annual lockdown training for staff which includes the children’s orderly following of directions, lockdown “shelter in place,” and common sense decision-making. Full details of our lockdown plans are not shared publicly as recommended by security experts.
School Pictures
April 19 is our drive-thru picture day for all ABS students!
Here’s the link to sign up!
Welcome to our New School Nurses!
ABS is very pleased to welcome school nurses Olga Silva and Rebecca Isaac! The school has received funding through the state’s COVID relief to support these new positions. The nurse’s office is located in the MLK front office, and both MLK and 7th Street buildings now have designated rooms for sick students. In addition to caring for sick students, our nurses will help ABS implement COVID protocols, contact tracing, and manage our school COVID dashboard. One nurse will be on campus Monday through Friday, 7:30am-2:30pm.
ABS Before and Afterschool Care Program
Registration is now open for the ABS Before and Afterschool Care Program. If you're interested in registering your child and haven't received the information, please email Stephanie LeFever: [email protected]
ABS Summer Camps
We're working behind the scenes to put together an exciting summer camp experience for ABS students. A special thank you to all of you who took the time to complete the interest survey! Look for additional information to be sent out in early April.
Parent Council Meeting - Friday, April 16th at 12:00 PM
We invite all parents, caregivers, and learning coaches to join us for the parent council meeting on Friday, April 16. Please submit any additional questions or topics you would like to discuss via our parent council link or contact us directly. There are great opportunities to get more involved in the parent council as a board member. Opportunities will be discussed at the meeting, or feel free to reach out for more information!
ABS Regular Board Meeting
The ABS Board of Directors will meet on April 13, 2021 at 5:45pm using a virtual meeting platform. Board meetings are open to the public. If you would like to view the meeting, please email Principal Hollis [email protected] for the link.