August 14, 2020

24 Av 5780

Dear PJA Families,

We were happy to see so many of you at our two informational Zoom meetings this week. Thank you for your questions and feedback. If you were not able to attend, we are sharing a lot of the same information in this letter.

PICK UP OF DEVICES AND MATERIALS

All tech devices (iPads for K-2nd grade students and Chromebooks for 3rd-8th grade students) will be available for contactless pick up at PJA on August 26, 27 and 28.
Teachers will prepare specific grade-level school supply kits during the week of in-service which will be available for contactless pick up at PJA during the first week of school, September 1-4.
More information about the pick up schedules will be sent next week.

DISTANCE LEARNING SCHEDULE

The official school day will be 9:00am to 3:30pm.
Grade-specific schedules will be sent to families directly by teachers before September 1st.
Students will meet with their grade level teachers every day.
There will be a common one-hour lunch/recess break every day for all grades.

LEARNING PODS

We understand that families will need to find creative options to accommodate work/school schedules and to support their children’s learning and social development. We ask all families to abide by appropriate health and safety protocols to keep our community safe.
PJA teachers are employed and busy teaching classes and are not available to supervise students or pods.

PJA FULL DAY CHILDCARE OPTION

Pending new Early Learning Division guidance, PJA Afterschool intends to offer full day, five day per week child care to PJA families this fall. If you would like to receive program details and a registration form next week, please enter your email address in this short survey. Click here for the survey. Space will be limited. Completing this survey does not guarantee enrollment.

TEACHER IN-SERVICE WEEK

Teachers return to work on August 24th and will participate in a week-long in-service that will include:

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Anti-racism training with Heather Clark
More training for teaching online
Time to prepare school supplies and materials for students to pick up the first week of school
Student information sharing by teachers, across grades
Planning/collaborating with grade-level teaching teams

FAMILY TECH SUPPORT MEETINGS

August 18th (Kindergarten-3rd grade families), 6:30 - 7:30 PM.
Zoom Link Here.
August 20th (4th-8th grade families), 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Zoom Link Here.

IN-PERSON SMALL GROUP GATHERINGS

We have received guidance from the Oregon Department of Education regarding the possibility of bringing small groups of students together for in-person social, community building, and/or learning experiences. We are evaluating those guidelines with our teachers and determining the best options for optional in person gatherings at PJA.

We end this letter again with a reminder to follow accepted mitigation protocols to safeguard community-wide health and safety (physical distancing, mask wearing, hand washing, etc.). Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh Bazeh—“The whole community is responsible for one another.” (Talmud, Shevuot 39a)

Shabbat shalom,