Yellowstone Families,
September greetings from Yellowstone! We are now in our third week of our home learning and we are so grateful for your partnership with us. Next Monday, September 14th, we will begin on campus instruction for families in both Yellowstone Academy and Yellowstone College Prep who have chosen to return to campus. Read on for important details about next steps:
- Be on the lookout for additional communication from your school and your child’s teacher regarding your class times, links, and any changes to the schedule and/or your teacher assignment.
- Please note: if you choose home learning, you cannot change your mind and start sending your child to school. You will have an opportunity the first week of October to decide about second quarter. Until then, your student will continue in our home learning program.
- We are still figuring out our plan for beginning of year testing, and will reach out as we have more details about how your student will participate in this process, even if you have chosen home learning.
If you are choosing on-campus instruction, it is the expectation that you will send your student to school every day. Your student will be assigned to a classroom and the pace of work and activities may be different than those students who are participating in home learning. You will have the opportunity the first week of October to decide about your plans for second quarter. Until then, we will expect to see your student on campus every day.
Please read through these notes carefully so that you can be prepared for next Monday. For an overview of our Pod System and how we are ensuring your child’s safety throughout the day, please click HERE.
Be Prepared!
For on campus instruction, make sure your student does the following:
- Comes to campus dressed in school uniform
- Brings their fully charged chromebook and your plug for recharging throughout the day
- Brings a refillable water bottle (students will not have access to the drinking fountains)
- Wears a mask: we will be providing a washable mask for each student and we will have disposable masks on hand as students need them. For the first day, they should bring their own mask for entry into the building.
- If you are not planning on using our meal plan, students must bring a lunch that does not have to be refrigerated or microwaved.
Arrival and Dismissal Procedures
Each grade level will enter the building through a different school gate. Click HERE for our arrival/dismissal map.
We will begin letting students into the building at 7:30 for Yellowstone College Prep and 7:45 for Yellowstone Academy. Until then, students must stay with you in your car. Starting at the appropriate time, a staff member will come to your car to take your child’s temperature and make sure they are prepared for the day.
If your child has a fever or is exhibiting other COVID like symptoms, they will not be permitted in the building. If you have multiple students in multiple grade levels, you can drive from one gate to another to complete the process for each student.
Please be patient and expect the process to take longer the first few days as we work through the routine. Under no circumstances should you drop off your child before they have been temperature checked and are cleared to be on campus.
Dismissal will begin at 2:50 for Yellowstone College Prep and at 3:00 for Yellowstone Academy. Proceed to your student’s designated gate and a staff member will radio the classroom to have the student exit as quickly as possible. If you have students in multiple grade levels, you will repeat this process at each gate. Please be on time to pick up your student. With everyone’s cooperation and patience, we can move through this process quickly.
A Final Note for Families with Students in Both the Academy and College Prep
Please note that our arrival and dismissal process will begin with our older students first. We will have to follow the timing and routines for each grade level gate to keep the integrity of our Pod system and keep every student and staff member safe. There will be no exceptions to our process, and we appreciate your patience and partnership with us.
In the unlikely event that a student or staff member contracts COVID, we will follow these steps if we have a confirmed case:
- We will notify any student, staff member, and grade level pod who has been in direct contact with the infected person and ask them to be tested and/or monitor their symptoms for the days that follow. Any siblings of the infected student will transition to home learning for the required quarantine period.
- If necessary, we will convert that grade level pod to home learning for several days while we thoroughly clean the area and also ensure there is no further spread before allowing students and staff back in the space. Families in non-affected Pods will also have the choice to switch to home learning during this period if they so choose.
- At each step of the process, we will communicate with the entire Yellowstone community (whether your student was impacted or not) to keep you updated and alerted to our next actions.
We want to assure you that we have been monitoring the ongoing trends in Harris County and updated health guidance from both local and state authorities. You can click HERE to see the ongoing trends in Harris County and see the very positive progress that is being made across the region.
We will continue to keep the health of your students and our staff as our top priority as we move into the next phase of our re-entry planning.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our front office and we will be happy to talk through your concerns. Thank you for entrusting your student to Yellowstone, and we look forward to seeing many of our students on Monday!
