March 2020

March 17, 2020

Good Afternoon OES Families,

I would like to let you know some important information for our OES community.  Although schools are not open for regular school, we are here to support our families through this closure.  

This letter is to answer some questions you may have regarding remote learning and resources.  

Please look on our school website (https://orem.alpineschools.org/) and the Alpine District website (https://alpineschools.org/) for updates. 

ONLINE INSTRUCTION AND DAILY ROUTINE:

Teachers will be providing online instruction for students starting Wednesday, March 18, 2020 and currently running through Friday, March 27th, 2020. Yesterday and today of this week, teachers and staff are working to prepare remote teaching.

Parents will receive an email contact from their child’s teachers with instructions outlining school work and activities for students at home.  We encourage parents to set up a learning schedule for their children that best fits with personal home schedules. Teachers will be sending daily communication.  Assignments and activities may be given from the teacher daily or teachers may be sending them out as weekly assignments. As questions come, please feel free to email your child’s teacher for clarification.  Teachers will be checking their emails throughout the day to provide timely feedback and support.  

“Grab and Go” Meals:

Breakfast will be served from 8:00am-9:00am and lunch from 11:00am – 12:00pm on a “Grab and Go” curbside delivery.  Please drive to the back of the school where our smiling lunch ladies will be to help you. If there is inclement weather, they will pass the meals out through the gym doors on the east side. Students must be present to get their meal(s). 

Beginning tomorrow, March 18th, any ASD student may pick up meals at any ASD school; they do not need to pick them up from their assigned school.

CHROMEBOOK CHECKOUT:

For those families who do not have a device available at home for remote learning, we have a limited number of Chromebooks that will be available for checkout. As of right now, we are limiting the devices to one per family.  We will be checking Chromebooks out on Wednesday, March 18th during the following times:

Last Name begins with:

A-E   9:00am – 9:30am

F-H 9:30am – 10:00am

I-L 10:00am – 10:30am

M-P 10:30am – 11:00am

Q-Z 11:00am – 11:30am

If you need other time options, please contact Mrs. Park. 

*Note that you must attend with your student to complete our parent consent form that allows us to assign a device to your student.  We will also work with your student while on-site to make sure they can log into the device before you leave.  

Please do not take a Chromebook if your student already has access to a computer or tablet at home.  Please see the attachment for more information:

• Chromebook loans are temporary.  They will need to be returned to the school as soon as school resumes.  Parents are responsible for loss, damage or theft.

• Parental supervision is expected.  ASD issued Chromebooks are on the ASD network filters as though at a school building.  Filtering is not perfect.

• If you do not have internet access at home, Comcast is offering some assistance.

  • https://www.internetessentials.com/covid19

Here are a few online resources for book, audiobook and information:

 •Sora App – Online library for ebooks and audiobooks (flyer with info attached) I can make more copies to send home if you would like.

•Libby by Overdrive – this online library is available if families have an Orem Public library card (Download Libby by overdrive)

•World Book Online – we have a school subscription which includes a lot of helpful things. All of their nonfiction books are online, videos, compare places, animals and science projects, games, biography center, timeline builder. (bookmark info and login info attached)

•PBS Learningmedia.org – thousands of free teaching resources including videos, lesson plans, and games aligned to state and national standards.

•GETEPIC.com – the leading digital library for kids 12 and under.

•Utah’s Online Library – Onlinelibrary.uen.org Utah’s Online Library Databases

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This is new territory for most everyone.  Please let your child(children) know that we miss seeing and working with them every day. 

Feel free to email me at [email protected] , call the school (801)610-8116 or text/call my cell phone (801)860-5152 with any questions or suggestions.

Thank you for all you do.  Stay Safe!

Andrea Park

March 14, 2020

Good Evening OES Parents,

I just wanted to update you with our plans for the upcoming week. Monday and Tuesday, teachers will be in training, planning lessons that can be taught remotely.

I know there are a lot of questions that you may have. I will keep you updated along the way.

Questions about Breakfast and Lunch

Grab and Go Meals

District Nutritional Services will provide meals for all students at each school even though schools are not open. Meals will be “grab and go” during the following hours:

Breakfast between 8-9 AM

Lunch between 11 – Noon

The normal process will be used for meals. Students will be charged through their lunch account unless they qualify for free and reduced lunch.

Questions about Remote Learning and Devices

Chromebooks will be available for those who need one to continue their academic progress. I know that some families have limited resources, so we have some Chromebooks that will be available for checkout on Wednesday, March 18th, 2020. Please only checkout a device only if you are in need. More information will be coming about the checkout process next week.

Parents will need to consent to the agreement document linked from the form to get a device.

Internet use on district Chromebooks will be filtered, even at home. Students should be supervised as much as possible while working on the devices.

Parents are responsible for loss, theft, or damage.

School Counselor Availability

Our school Counselor, Rondi Jensen will be available through email and possibly Google Meet for meetings. She will continue to provide resources/social and emotional support as needed.

Preschool Information

1) There will be online lessons and activities for parents to access. The teachers will be involved in developing these as we go.

2) Teachers will have scheduled times each week for consulting with parents via phone or video conference. Special education teachers will also consult with parents weekly.

3) IEPs will be held as scheduled via Zoom or Google Hangouts.

We will have more information for you next week. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns. The Alpine School District administration is working hard to ensure that we are safe and education for our children continue in the best possible way.

March 12, 2020

Dear OES Families,

The Alpine School District has sent out an earlier email concerning the changed schedule for this upcoming Monday and Tuesday.  We will be holding school as a minimal day on these two days (March 16th and 17th, 2020). This is the same schedule that we will have tomorrow as well.  

Kindergarten and Preschool students do not have school Friday, Monday and Tuesday.  As of now, Kindergarten and Preschool will resume regular schedule on Wednesday, March 18, 2020.  Teachers in these grades will send home school work for the students to complete on these days. Students in grades 1st – 6th will have the following schedule:

Early Birds:  8:00am – 11:30am

Later Gators: 9:15am – 12:45pm

Our lunch schedule will change to accommodate the schedule, but lunch and breakfast will be served on these days.  

The reason for this adjustment is to further train our teachers for a potential need to provide online learning for students in the event of school closures.  

We will keep you informed as the situation evolves and conditions change. As always, parents may excuse their child from school for any reason. If you are concerned about your student’s safety, please exercise your parental discretion.

Our student of the month requirement for perfect attendance will not be a requirement at this time.  

There are a lot of questions and information that continue to come in. We will be working with district administrators, and other team members to make the best of any situation that may arise.  

If you have questions on how to talk to your child(children) about this virus and the accommodations made to help stop the spread, please see the following link from the Centers of Disease Control: 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/talking-with-children.html

Additional information and resources are available at Utah Department of Health.

UTAH COUNTY CORONAVIRUS INFORMATION LINE: 800-456-7707

Also, if you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to call the school or myself.

Orem Elementary (801)610-8116

Andrea Park (801)860-5152 – cell

March 5, 2020

Good Morning OES Families,

Here are our events for the month of March:

March 9 – No School – Teacher Professional Day

March 12 -Maturation for 5th and 6th grade students

March 13 – Minimal Day

Kindergarten and Preschool will not have school on these days. Teachers in these grades will send home school work for the students to complete on these days. Students in grades 1st – 6th will have the following schedule:

Early Birds: 8:00am – 11:30am

Later Gators: 9:15am – 12:45pm

Our lunch schedule will change to accommodate the schedule, but lunch and breakfast will be served on these days.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

March 16-19 – Battle of the Books

March 17 – Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night

March 19 – Book Buddies

March 20 – Final Battle of the Books

March 23-27 White Ribbon Week

We are fortunate to be part of the Orem Elementary family. In the past, students from our school have presented opportunities for our school to help others in and out of our community. We have collected school supplies for students in Africa, non-perishable food to help our local families, candy for our troops abroad as well as countless other smaller but just as meaningful acts of service and kindness for others.

For the next 2 weeks we will be supporting a 1st grade student at Orem Elementary. Emrys Nietes is a 1st grader at Orem Elementary who loves to serve other people and make them happy. He has been growing his hair for two years so that he could donate his hair to a child suffering from hair loss due to an illness.

Emrys will be visiting the Philippines for the first time this summer. He will be celebrating his 7th birthday there, and he has decided to start a program called “The Happy Feet Project”. Emrys’s goal is to collect shoes to donate to less fortunate children in the Philippines. He will be visiting elementary schools in some of the impoverished areas in his parents’ hometown.

Please support Emrys on his mission to provide happy feet to those destitute kids in the Philippines. His birthday wish is to put smiles on the faces of many children. He is accepting elementary student size shoes from 4 to 12 years old.

We will be collecting student size shoes until March 19th. If you wish to donate, please donate gently used or new shoes.

Next week is a short week. Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead 1 hour for Daylight Savings Time. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Have a great rest of the week!!!