From the Desk of the Head of School- August 14, 2020

8/14/2020

Dear Harding Academy Community,

Well, here we go. Faculty and Staff arrived on campus on Thursday and the mad rush to prepare school for our students arrival has ramped up. Of course, it will be different this year and many things will look very different, but we discussed approaching the start of school with our positive natures, senses of humor and playfulness solidly intact and leading us in our craft. I know you will join us in that. I know my three kids who will be heading to school next Thursday are as eager to be back as all of yours and we have begun to model for them a positive approach to mask wearing and social distancing. Regardless of what is new and different, their excitement to be back endures.

Over the last five weeks, we have laid out the framework for what we will need to do to open in person on time as safely as possible. We continue to monitor information as it comes to us from medical experts and public health officials and reserve the right to update or change protocols/practices/expectations based on that new information. But what follows below is much more nuts and bolts and I hope can serve as a quick reference guide to all things we hope you will focus on over the next week in preparation for the start of school.

Below this letter are links to the Lower School Highlights page and the Middle School Highlights page. In each of these you will find more division level detail about what your child can expect school to look and feel like when they arrive on Thursday, August 20. You will also find details regarding grade level virtual orientations on August 19. If there was ever an email to “pin,” this is it. We will reiterate much of the information in our first Compass Connection of the year this Sunday, August 17.

Here we go...

Screening App: We will be starting the school year using the Magnus mobile app. We have been working with two vendors, Magnus and RUVNA to develop screening apps for our community. We have been working with these two because both of these vendors tie into our Blackbaud database and allow us to create reports that will help us with contact tracing and symptom management. Magnus was the first to complete their screening app, but RUVNA (which will be more user friendly, is close behind, although won’t be ready for the start of school.) So we will start with Magnus and switch to RUVNA as soon as possible.

You will need to log into Magnus via CompassNet and create a second set of credentials you will use for the mobile app. Once you do, though, you will be able to complete the COVID-19 screening for each of your children each morning by opening the app and selecting the icon. Once complete there will be a GREEN GO circle for students who may come into the school and this is what you should show to the Hook Up checker in the morning. If you have more than one child, I recommend taking screenshots of the three so you can quickly scroll through your photos. You can find a very helpful tutorial video for setting up the app from Matt Powers, Director of Informational Technology, HERE.

Hook Up Reminders: This year will be a different model of hook up. As a reminder

Carpool (or Hook Up) will begin at 7:28 AM, per usual.
Cars will not go past the corner of the Depot by the PreK Annex and will still load both lanes back to the blue barrel. We will have somebody behind the middle school waving you into both lanes. The quicker we fill both lanes, the quicker we check and move you on.
We have created 8 unloading boxes which will hold four cars per box. A faculty/staff member will be assigned to each box. Starting with Box 1 at the corner of the Depot by the PreK Annex and moving backwards once all cars in a box are parked, the faculty/staff member will be checking the Magnus App, making sure students are masked up, and then sending them directly to their classrooms. Once a box is cleared, cars will be sent on their way - no whistle.
We are working towards a goal of having a box cleared in no more than 90 seconds once the cars have pulled in and stopped.
We will still have a faculty/staff member stand at the crosswalk who will monitor bikers and walkers, check for their screening surveys, and make sure they are masked up.

Masks: As you may have seen from recent research, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that everyone on campus wear masks at all times. Please make sure your student has masks ready for the first day and beyond. Please send your child with two back up masks in their backpacks/bags on the first day. We will have extra masks at the ready and we have purchased reusable masks with clear mouth coverings for teachers of our youngest grades should they like to wear them. We will be enforcing the mandatory mask wearing policy of the school very tightly. Adhering to this policy will be a fundamental component of keeping each other safe. On a related note, we have also ordered air purifiers with H13 HEPA filters for every classroom to help ventilate our classrooms as best we can.

Tents: You will see many tents have been set up on campus to facilitate outdoor classes. They will remain up for as long as they are needed. The largest turf field tent is scheduled to be up by August 29.

Dress Code: You will have seen the link that Corby Lucas, Athletic Director, sent out late last week to order PE clothes that can also double as spirit wear in our new relaxed dress code. Please note that the link for PE orders closes on Monday, August 17. Please know that orders placed through BSN Sports will not be received on campus until after school starts. You can now also access the online school store by logging into Compass Net at the link HERE and selecting the School Store badge on the Parent Resource Page. Since spirit wear ordered through the PE link or School Store won’t be ready for the start of school, in addition to any spirit wear a student may already own, they may also wear athletic wear that is Navy or Grey (please NO plain white t-shirts) with a small logo and no writing on it. Please no legging or tights. All students should have sneakers. Faculty and staff are also allowed to come to school in this relaxed dress code.

FLIK: For any students in Grades Kindergarten through 8th Grade, we are now able to offer online ordering for a boxed lunch to be delivered to your child’s classroom for lunch. You are welcome to send your child with their own lunch from home. If you choose to use our food service provider, FLIK, you can review an orientation video from Assistant Head of School for Finance and Operations, Charles Maumus, in Compass Net on the Parent Resource page behind the FLIK Badge. Login HERE and it will walk you through sign up and ordering steps.

You can order ahead of time for meals and we ask you to order at least a week ahead of time. Please note that we will not offer the semester or annual meal plan for the fall. Families who choose to have lunch delivered by FLIK will have to pre-fund their child’s accounts and all lunches will be debited from their account each day. Our online portal for school lunches is EZ Lunch. It can be accessed through the FLIK Badge on Compass Net and offers single sign on so you don’t have to worry about another password as it is attached to your Harding account. Make sure to watch the instructional video.

Bus Service: If you are interested in bus service and have not already completed the survey that Charles sent out this week, please do so HERE. We will have four routes and parents will need to show a clear screening to the bus driver, students will be required to wear masks, and seated one person per seat (unless siblings are riding together).

Pursuit: I want to stress here that we are asking that you all consider Pursuit to be essential care this year. We are going to extraordinary lengths to maintain cohorts of classes during the school day as best we can and while we believe Pursuit to be an essential service and will continue to offer it, it does mean another layer of mixing within the grade level and therefore you assume a higher risk. More than any other year, understanding our numbers ahead of time will be really important. In an effort to make sure our ratios and spaces are adequately planned for, we are asking Lower School families to complete an attendance form each week to sign their child up for Pursuit if they think their child will be using it.

Please complete the form by Sunday nights at midnight to allow for our Pursuit team to plan for the week ahead. Again, please consider Pursuit to be an essential service - please use it only if absolutely necessary. In the rare case that this essential care will be needed without having completed the form, parents will need to let Mark Jones jonesm@hardingacademy.org know no later than 10:00 AM that day in order to provide adequate and safe supervision and space allocation. Please do not abuse this emergency use.

The Lower School Dismissal Form will be sent with the Sunday Morning Compass Connections email. Lower School parents can find the Dismissal Form link by clicking on the lower school icon. An example of the icon can be found HERE. PreK parents can find the PreK Dismissal Form link by clicking on the PreK icon. An example of the icon can be found HERE. Both icons can be found under highlights in Compass Connection. Lower School Parents can bookmark the Lower School Dismissal Form HERE. PreK parents can bookmark the PreK Dismissal Form HERE.

Early Care: This year we will have a weekly) sign up for early care. We can only safely accommodate 22 students in Early Care each morning in order to maintain social distancing. You will see that sign up form in Compass Connection each Sunday. Please sign up for the week ahead by Sunday for the upcoming week. The link is for Early Care is HERE

Medication Drop Off: Moira Clark, our School Nurse, will be available to receive medications that need to be kept at school on Monday, Aug. 17th from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, and on Tuesday, Aug. 18th from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM. She will be sitting outside of the lower school building to receive them. If neither of those times work for you please contact Moira directly at clarkm@hardingacademy.us. It is important that she have medications no later than 3:00 PM on Tuesday so that she can review and organize them in preparation for caring for our students once they arrive on Thursday.

We can’t wait to see you all very soon. Please stay safe and healthy and help our community stay safe and healthy.

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