Dear PVES Families,
I hope you are enjoying the three-day weekend, and we are thinking of all of you who are celebrating Yom Kippur. At PVES, we are all celebrating a very successful month of September, and we are taking all measures to continue our wonderful teaching and learning in a healthy and happy school. Thank you all for keeping in touch with our school office or with our school nurse when you have any questions about your child’s cold symptoms or other illness in your home. This is keeping us all safe!
Each school day morning, you are asked to complete a very brief COVID screener on your phone or computer, accurately reporting any symptoms or contacts that each of your children might have experienced. We need 100% of you to complete this survey every day. Staff members are asked to do the same. Although this is easy to forget to do when everyone is healthy, putting a note on the refrigerator or an alarm on your phone might help you to remember to complete this mandated screener. Thank you so much for your help with this. We want to protect everyone’s health, and of course, we want our schools to stay open.
At PVES, we have begun our mandated fire drill practices which will continue throughout the fall. Our staff and students will continue to practice swiftly and safely exiting the building in an orderly way, at different times of the day. Our students do a wonderful job of staying silent and safe, while maintaining social distancing, during these brief drills. These students continue to amaze us, and we as a staff are always reassuring so as not to create stress or fear. We practice so that we are safe.
Thank you to our PTA volunteers who helped to facilitate a very organized and efficient outdoor Picture Day for our in-school learners. Our remote learners will have their outdoor Picture Day on this Friday, October 2nd, according to a set classroom schedule. We will help to guide visiting parents to organized parking for this event.
Nightly homework is now beginning at all grade levels (K-4). Although the workload is not heavy, these important homework routines help to reinforce content area learning from the school day and independence. Homework also helps a child to practice good learning and study routines, along with developing organizational, executive functioning skills. Thank you for helping your child to develop a homework routine (time and setting, free of distractions) that works for your child and your family. Our students feel so proud and confident when they start the school day feeling prepared. We want all of our learners to begin each day that way! Nightly routines should also include regular reading (independent or with you) and review of math facts. Thank you so much for your support!
I continue to be amazed at our school district and all that we are doing right now. Our teachers continue to impress us with their incorporation of new learning and the blending of simultaneous in-school and remote teaching. Thank you for being such an important part of our school’s success. Our PVES parents are incredible, and we thank you for your cooperation. Your children certainly benefit from our teamwork.
Looking forward to a terrific four-day week and a healthy, productive month of October!
Thank you,
Dr. Margaret Podesta
Principal