August 2020

August 18, 2020

Welcome Back to School!

We have had a wonderful start to our school year today.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for the support.  It was wonderful to see students in the classroom.  We are making adjustments as we go along. 

1. There will be a bike rack on the West side of the school outside of the fence.  Please remember to bring a lock for your bike or scooter.

2. Lunch has assigned seating and today it went really well.  Some of the students needed more time to eat.  For those who needed more time, they were asked to finish outside in a designated area.  We had to do this so the lunch room could be sanitized in between grade levels. 

3. Masks:  Last Friday, the governor mandated that all students must wear masks.  If your child has a face shield, you will need to switch to a mask by the end of the week.  Please make sure the mask has your child’s name on it.  Even though we have lanyards to keep the mask with the student at all times, we have already had a few turned in with no owner or identification.  

4. 1st Grade line up will be adjusted so they are not the only students on the west side of the school.  The new placement will begin Wednesday. 

Here is a message from our PTA:

Hello wonderful OES families! We are excited to be going back to school. This year is going to look quite different than years past, but we are committed to making it a great year for our students. Because we aren’t having in-person back to school night, we have set up a store on member hub where you can purchase everything you normally would purchase at back to school night. Here is what you can purchase in our online store and the link to get there:

 1) PTA membership – We encourage everyone who is able to join PTA. PTA was founded as an advocacy group for students. PTA members have a voice when it comes to our budget each year. We would love your support and input. 

2) Yearbooks – If you purchase before October 1 they are $10 each. After October 1 the price increases to $12 each.

3) Orem Elementary masks – Show your school spirit by sporting an OES mask.

4) Breakaway lanyards – Don’t want your students to lose their masks between home and school? Attach them to these lanyards, available in our school colors. 

5) Donations – We cannot hold carnival this year which has historically been our only fundraiser. We would love to still run as many programs as we can this year and show our teachers our appreciation, but we don’t have the budget to do everything we normally do. We welcome any donations you’d like to make for these causes.

https://oremelememtary.new.memberhub.store/store

 Do you shop on Amazon? Click on this link and Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to our PTA every time you shop on Amazon Smile. This is an easy way you can help us raise funds for this year. Thank you for your support!

https://smile.amazon.com/ch/87-0451128

 The following is community information:

Stronger Families Project: Fall 2020 Stronger Families (1).pdf

Fall Parenting with Love and Logic:2020 Fall Parenting with Love and Logic (1).pdf

Once again, thank you for your patience and support.  Please let me know if you have questions or need additional information.

August 14, 2020

Welcome Back to School OES Cubs!!!

This is Orem Elementary’s virtual Back To School Night.  The folder attached to this email has been created to let you “get to know” the teachers at Orem Elementary.  When you open the folder you can click on a specific grade level’s video.

Back to School Videos Folder

If you have a student new to Orem Elementary, you can schedule an in person meeting on Monday from 2:00pm – 4:00pm. Kindergarten students will not need to schedule a meeting as they will meet their teachers next week during the KEEP testing.  

Students who have chosen the online option, their teacher will be contacting you Monday.

We are encouraging students who bring a home lunch to bring it in a disposable container, so we can reduce the spread of germs. (Anything that can be thrown away when they are finished.)

The cafeteria microwave will not be available to students, so please plan accordingly. 

 We are really trying to keep personal belongings to a minimum.  We don’t have a place to store lunch boxes in a way that is sanitary.  We also are trying to eliminate the need to have students in the halls after lunch.    If a bag is not a workable option, students can take their lunch box outside during lunch recess and remember to bring it in after recess.

We are just trying everything possible to keep our students and staff safe.

Thanks for understanding.

We are encouraging students to bring their own water bottle, mask and backpack.  If you need assistance with any of these items, please let me know. 

We are thrilled to see your smiling faces next Tuesday, August 18, 2020. 

August 11, 2020

Dear OES Families, 

School is almost ready to begin – Next Tuesday, August 18, 2020.  Skyward is updated, and you can log in to see who your child’s teacher is.  Please update your information in Skyward before school begins.  Please see this link for a tutorial on how to do this. Student Information Update 

I wanted to let you know of our initial safety plan for when students come back to school to learn face to face next Tuesday. We are adhering to the safety requirements sent out from the State Health Department and Governor as best we can.  We have had to make some changes to our regular school year schedule and plans.

1. Masks are required at all times during school except for during recess, lunch and PE.  The state of Utah has provided masks, one (1) for each student. These will be provided to the students who chose face to face instruction on the first day of school.  It would be a good idea to have multiple masks for your child. Students will be expected to wear a mask coming into school the first day, they will then receive their mask from the state when they get to class. Face shields and shields that fit onto a baseball cap are acceptable at this time.  However, most students should plan to wear a mask during transitions to PE, recess and lunch.  Face shields could be difficult to use/store while in PE, recess and lunch.  We will work with individual students and families to do what is best for each student.

Each student will receive a break-away lanyard that they will be able to attach their mask to.  Students are not required to wear the masks during recess, lunch or PE. This way, students can take off their mask, but still have it attached to the lanyard. The lanyard will also provide limited identification, so if students lose their lanyard, they can be returned to the correct person. 

2. Recesses will be staggered by grade level.  Therefore we will only have one grade level at a time on the playground.  

3. Lunch schedules have been changed so that only one grade level will be in the lunchroom at a time, and there will be time in between lunch schedules to sanitize the lunchroom.  

4. All classrooms have hand sanitizer.  Students will be asked to use the hand sanitizer before and after they go to and come back from recess, lunch and other transitions. 

5. We will have designated stairways for students to enter and exit the Media Center.  The Media Center has hand sanitizer at each entrance.

6. Our custodial staff will continue to be fastidious in their cleaning and they will also be cleaning high traffic areas more often as well as touch point surfaces. 

In past years, we have had an in person “Back to School Night”.  This year we will have a virtual Back to School Night.  Grade level teachers will be working together to create a video for Back to School night.  The video will contain specifics on where to line up, grade level expectations and grade level specific information.  Students who are new to Orem Elementary will be able to contact their teacher and schedule a time to come into the school.  We will have limited times available on Monday, August 17th, 2020.  

This Friday, August 14, 2020, I will be sending an email with the Back to School videos attached. You can contact your child’s teacher with any questions that you may have. 

In order to keep everyone as safe as possible in these unprecedented times, if you are planning to walk your child to their class on the first day of school, or any other day, we ask that parents walk their children to their class pick-up places outside.  There will be specific places for students to line up outside before school begins.  We would like to limit, as much as possible, the number of adults in the school.  I realize that this is not ideal, but until we get into a routine, please help us with the safety of our students and staff.  

Thank you for your support, consideration and trust you have with Orem Elementary.  We are all excited to be back to school and to see and interact with our Orem Elementary family.

Good Morning OES Cubs,

The following is a message from our PTA:

OES PTA is considering selling masks ($5-8 each) with the school logo and lanyards ($3-5 each) in school colors from Alphagraphics. If you would be interested in buying 1 or more masks, would you please fill out this google form so that we have an idea of how many to order? The price depends on how many we order and when we submit the order.

Orem Elementary and the PTA worked together to provide a free yearbook to every student last year because of Covid-19. However if you ordered and paid for a yearbook before we made this decision, We have three options for you to consider. Please fill out this form to let us know what you would like us to do by August 7th, 2020.

The first option is for you to consider your payment a donation to the OES PTA. We don’t think that we will be able to hold carnival this year, so we don’t know what our fundraising will look like. We would really appreciate any donations that you are willing to give to the PTA.
The second option is to roll over your payment to pay for a yearbook for 2020-2021.
The third option is to request a refund. We will mail a check to you within the next month

We will be holding our first PTA meeting of the year on Tuesday, August 11 at 10:00 am in the gym at the school. We will be approving our budget for the year. Please join us!