It feels so good to be back in the saddle with a new year in front of us!  We hosted a LiveStream kindergarten orientation event this week and are preparing to register and welcome our newest freshman to campus in the fall.  If you have a kindergartener starting with us next year, please be sure to check out the kinder links that we have provided on our O’Dea website.  All registration materials are now available online and can be submitted electronically as well. 

We have also been busily working to prepare for our return to in person learning on January 19^th and we are fielding many questions about how this is going to flow. 

I know many of you have questions about health and safety, so I am sending a few big ideas here:  

• Please send your child with a clean, filled water bottle and a mask each day. 

• Drop off students between 8:50 - 9:00. Please do not send students to school earlier than this window as there will not be supervision and we do not want the students playing on the playground before school starts.

• The breakfast table will be in the same location – front of building.

• Students will go straight to their classroom doors and will come in and wash their hands. 

• Students will stay in their classroom cohort all day. 

• We will continue with our frequent washing of hand, mask wearing, additional spacing in classrooms, and social distancing. 

• K – 3 Lunch will be eaten in the classroom. 4^th and 5^th grade students will be spaced out in our cafeteria.

• Recess will be in assigned areas and students will stay with their classroom group. 

• Specials and small group instruction will be out of the classroom, but students will remain in classroom cohorts. (If we ever need to combine students from different classrooms, they will be six feet apart)

• We are still unable to have parents, volunteers, or visitors in the building.

Important to note:

• Please do not send your child if they have any symptoms/illness. This is critical to help keep classrooms safe and open. If your child has any symptoms, we are required to send them home immediately.  You must be available to come and pick up your child so please have options in place. 

• If there is a positive case in a classroom, the entire classroom will shift to remote learning for a ten-day period of time as determined by the Larimer Department of Health and Environment. Please have an emergency plan in place just in case.  We will try to give families as much notice as we can…yet there may be times where it happens very quickly. 

We have been working hard to create a safe…happy…healthy environment for your children.  We are so excited that we get to have them back with us…please help us stay open by doing your part at home as well.  The more we work together…the more opportunities that we will be able to create together.  It is truly a beautiful occasion to take some next steps together.  I am looking forward to it.

As always…please reach out with questions…we are here to help and support you the best that we can.

Much love and support,

Laurie