February 26, 2021

14 Adar 5781

Dear Middle School Families,

Happy Purim! We hope you have enjoyed some Purim festivities. We are writing to share detailed information about our Middle School reopening plan. We recognize that we are sharing A LOT of information with you these days. We thank you for your patience and for reading through all of our emails. If you ever want to go back and review something we have sent, you can find all of our earlier communications regarding reopening school here.

Our faculty and staff have been working tirelessly to develop a reopening plan that meets the needs of our students, families, and faculty. We are proud of the plan that we have developed, and we are confident that it provides for a safe environment to which students can return.

We recognize that many challenges lie ahead. There will be new technology to master, new protocols to follow, new ways to use the spaces on our campus, new ways to engage with our students. We are relying on your continued support as we face these new challenges to offer hybrid learning.

What does hybrid mean?

Students whose families choose on-site learning will be in-person, Monday - Thursday, following a similar schedule to the pre-covid times, while following all of the guidelines provided by the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Education. You can see all of the guidelines in the Ready Schools Safe Learners manual. (As a private school, PJA is only required to follow sections 0-3.)
Students whose families choose to have their children continue with distance learning will participate in the classroom lessons with the use of technology as much as possible. There will be times when children in distance learning will be engaged in asynchronous work, off the screen while their classmates who are in-person will be doing similar work in the classroom. Students who are in distance learning will not be expected to be on their devices on Zoom all day. Synchronous time will happen in every middle school class so that students at home and in school may learn together in community.
We will send a survey early next week asking every family to commit to either in-person or distance learning for their child(ren).

Middle School Reopening Schedule

Middle School students will return to in-person learning on April 12, one week after Passover break. This affords us all time to adjust back to school following the break and gives those who may have traveled out of state an opportunity to quarantine.
To prepare for in-person/hybrid learning, our faculty and staff will participate in technology training, learn new procedures for arrival and dismissal, train in sanitizing areas of the classroom, and will learn new ways to move through the building safely. We will use the three upcoming inservice days for these trainings and to prepare for the return of middle school students to campus. Upcoming inservice days are March 5, March 18 and March 19 (these last two days are inservice days for middle school only).
Middle School students will be on-site in-person, Monday-Thursday beginning April 12. Friday will be a virtual day. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, students will be in school from 8:45-3:30; on Wednesday, they will be in school from 8:45-1:00.

Arrival/Dismissal Schedule and Procedures

We are working on our arrival and dismissal schedules and procedures. We must accommodate the staggered arrival schedules of the Early Childhood, Lower School and MJCC schedules. Middle School students will enter the building through the main entrance of the MJCC. We are working with the MJCC staff to ensure that we will not be crossing paths with members entering the building. Dismissal will take place between 3:20 and 3:40. We will share more detailed information about arrival and dismissal closer to reopening in-person.

School Calendar Adjustments

As a reminder, we will not be holding Spring Conferences this year. We will be using the two days intended for conferences - March 18 and 19 - as inservice training days for middle school teachers. Lower school students will be in school those days.

If you wish to meet with your child’s teacher regarding your child’s progress or any concerns you may have, please contact your child’s Middle School Advisor to schedule a time to meet virtually or by phone. The decision to cancel conferences was not taken lightly. We appreciate your flexibility and understanding.

Early Release Wednesdays

March 17 will remain an early release date with a 1:00 dismissal time.
Beginning in April, every Wednesday will be an early release day with a 1:00 dismissal. This provides our teachers with the additional time they need to prepare to offer daily lessons for both in-person and distance learning students.

Safety Protocols for on-site learning

Please read our safety protocols here.

2021-2022 School Calendar

As we prepare for these coming weeks of reopening the building, we are also looking ahead to next year. A more comprehensive school calendar will be available soon. For now, we have the bones of our school calendar to share with you.

August 23, 2021 - Teachers return to school for inservice.

August 31 - School begins

November 22-23 - Family-Teacher Conferences

November 24-26 - Thanksgiving Break

December 20-31 - Winter Break

January 3, 2022 - Return to school

April 14-24 - Passover break

June 10 - Last day of school

We know this is a lot of information to absorb. We are hosting open admin hours on Thursday morning, March 4 at 9 AM to answer your questions. In order to use this time as efficiently as possible, we request that you submit questions in advance through this form. If time allows, we will take questions during the session, but we will prioritize questions submitted in advance. The Zoom link for the meeting is here.

Thank you for your continued support and cooperation throughout this challenging school year. We look forward to seeing our students back in the building soon.

Happy Purim and Shabbat shalom,

The PJA Admin Team