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.
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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.
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Recesses will be staggered by grade level. Therefore we will only have one grade level at a time on the playground.
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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.
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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.
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We will have designated stairways for students to enter and exit the Media Center. The Media Center has hand sanitizer at each entrance.
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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.