JANUARY 23, 2022
ATTENTION Orca and Coyote families,
We expect to reopen on Tuesday. We are still waiting on a few test results.
ATTENTION TREE families,
We expect to reopen on Tuesday. We are still waiting on a few test results.
ATTENTION RIVER families
We expect to have more information regarding reopening by Tuesday.
Thank you for your patience.
JANUARY 21, 2022
ATTENTION - EVERYONE:
Masks - THANKS to everyone who switched from cloth masks to N95, KN94!!
We are doing everything we can to prevent reintroducing COVID into our school ecosystem. We understand that everyone is tired and we appreciate your transparency. We kindly ask that families be extra vigilant over the weekend. There will be diminishing community spread and there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Note: Filling out the Wellness Questionnaire is helpful to us and required for everyone. It takes less than 60 seconds to complete.
Thank you so much and we are looking forward to seeing many of you on Monday!
ATTENTION - Orca and Coyote families,
You will receive an update by Sunday evening, latest, unless we have certain news before then.
ATTENTION - Tree and River families,
Our hopeful wishes are with you; expect a Remind update as we get more information over the weekend.
Please notify us immediately if your child or anyone in your household develops any symptoms. Please begin with a home test. An asymptomatic child CAN pass the virus to other family members.
If you haven't ordered your FREE Covid tests yet, here is the link to do it. It takes 2 minutes.
JANuary 20, 2022
3:10pm - Clarification:
If your family was asked to test at the point of closure, simply send the test. Normally, the kids are in pods so we can close just those who may have been compromised. This time, the criss-cross of siblings from every other room in both Elementary and Preschool made that impossible.
If your family was not specifically asked to test, there is no need at this point.
Everyone - Please fill out the Wellness Questionnaire
We are still missing teachers but have worked out coverage for tomorrow for the Hummingbirds and Eagles only.
We cannot invite siblings (Coyotes or Orcas) back yet, again due to short staff. We cannot invite children who have siblings in closed rooms.
Again, we will bring everyone back at the earliest possible moment.
The Laurel team
JAN 20, 2022
Hummingbird and Eagle families
Your classrooms can reopen tomorrow! We will be a little short on staff; nonetheless, we can manage and are happy to invite healthy, symptom-free children back to school.
Please note - we won't be able to offer aftercare tomorrow. We anticipate a normal schedule beginning next TUESDAY when we are almost certain to be fully staffed again.
Before you come back please do the following:
If you have test results you have not yet submitted, please do so now to both emails:
Please respond to this short Wellness Questionnaire
Orca and Coyote families
There is a fair chance we will have sufficient staff by Monday. It will be close timing, and presumes negative test results. You will receive an update by Sunday evening, latest, unless we have certain news before then.
Before you come back please do the following:
If you have test results you have not yet submitted, please do so now to both emails:
Please respond to this short Wellness Questionnaire
Warmly,
The Laurel team
FOREST AND GARDEN ROOM Families
Hello FOREST and GARDEN families,
Your classrooms can reopen tomorrow! If you would like for your child to return tomorrow, please ensure we have complete information for your family.
Please note - we won't be able to offer aftercare tomorrow. We anticipate a normal schedule for next week.
Before you come back please do the following:
If you have test results you have not yet submitted, please do so now to both emails:
execdirector@llmontessori.org
admin@llmontessori.org
Please respond to this short Wellness Questionnaire
It will be a pleasure to welcome you all back!
Warmly,
The Laurel team
JANuary 19, 2022
FOREST AND GARDEN ROOM UPDATE
Hello FOREST and GARDEN families,
We are optimistic about a Friday reopening, if we have sufficient staffing.
At this time, definitely no school tomorrow.
We will post an update by 5pm tomorrow.
Thank you for the understanding and support.
Warmly,
The Laurel team
JANuary 18, 2022
UPDATE FOR PRESCHOOL AND ELEMENTARY
Unfortunately, as of this evening, due to additional reported confirmed exposures, we want to inform you that we will be closed school-wide tomorrow. All Preschool rooms and all Elementary pods will NOT be in session.
Garden and Forest: If there is sufficient staff, those rooms could reopen as soon as Thursday as we are simply awaiting teacher test results.
Tree and River: These rooms experienced additional exposures today and will not reopen until next week sometime, pending sufficient staff.
Today is Day 0
Test no sooner than Sunday the 24th (unless symptoms appear before then).
Plan to reopen - TBD teacher test results.
Elementary: It is possible that we will not be able to resume until later next week, given the daisy chain of exposures. Teachers are awaiting results while others are awaiting their day to test. See the chart below: we have multiple Day 0s.
ALL. An initial notification will come from Remind - please make sure you have added yourself to the Little Laurels account if your child is in Little Laurels Montessori Preschool and to the Laurel Academy account if your child is in Elementary and to both if you have kids in both locations.
Little Laurels Link to Join Remind - https://www.remind.com/join/8fdegh
Laurel Academy Link to Join Remind - https://www.remind.com/join/4dheg3
You will be prompted to check the website for updates.
JANuary 18, 2022
RIVER AND TREE ROOM UPDATE
Hello River and Tree room families,
We are so sorry to have to share that we have a confirmed close contact (positive test result) from this morning. Each Room and Elementary pod is now officially closed due to various exposures. There is no rush to pick your child up as the remaining individuals are not yet at risk. It may be at least 2 days, perhaps as many as 7 days if your child has picked up COVID. Either way, please plan to follow the chart below.
Today is Day 0
Test on Sunday the 24th (unless symptoms appear before then).
Plan to reopen - TBD once teacher tests come back.
JANuary 17, 2022
Urgent - Elementary closure tomorrow and likely Wednesday due to a significant staffing shortage.
We are hoping to reopen pods as we get negative results from teachers. If there is a positive result, we will reevaluate next steps. Here is what we know right at this moment:
Campus-wide we have 6 preschool and 4 elementary teachers out quarantining and testing; none are ill, all have been exposed to one child or another. Based on the timeline, teachers could not yet have passed this virus along to children.
We have 2 preschool rooms (Forest, Garden) closed with confirmed cases of COVID-19.
We have multiple probable exposures (this means a confirmed POSITIVE family member). Reliable test results automatically add time. This is compounded by the delayed presentation of symptoms. See the table below.
Testing before Day 5 has produced a number of false negatives in our community - mostly with at-home tests on asymptomatic people or a child with very mild symptoms. These tests are VERY helpful for symptomatic people/children in seeing a POSITIVE result so that we can alert the rest of the families in your child’s pod.
Symptom-free does not mean COVID-free.
We have 22 families with siblings school-wide, across all classrooms and pods; this makes tracing complex, especially when the contagious period and asymptomatic days are considered.
Our staff is appreciative of our families’ diligence in trying to keep everyone safe; unfortunately, this current wave of COVID-19 is simply many times larger than what we have experienced in earlier ones.
For tomorrow, the Tree and River Rooms are the only OPEN rooms.
JANuary 14, 2022
FOREST ROOM UPDATE
Hello everyone,
The Forest Room will remain closed tomorrow.
The earliest you will be able to test is Saturday unless your child shows symptoms. The best time to look for appointments is first thing in the morning as more time slots get released. Please send results as soon as you receive them to admin@llmontessori.org. If your child did not attend school on Wednesday, no need to test.
Please keep us posted on any symptoms within your household over the long weekend.
We plan to reopen on Tuesday and will update you if additional information becomes available.
JANuary 13, 2022
RIVER ROOM UPDATE
Hello families,
Great news! The River Room will be OPEN tomorrow - Friday. See you all tomorrow.
JANuary 11, 2022
RIVER ROOM UPDATE
Positive results
As we expected, our River Room student tested and received a positive result for Covid this morning.
What this means is:
River Room is closed for the remainder of this week (siblings in other rooms will also stay home). The 10-day quarantine period ends on January 14th, by the calendar.
At-home tests are not proving helpful when NO symptoms are present; we have received at least 2 false negatives where the child later tested positive.
There is no way to know how robust the spread in the River Room may or may not have been. One teacher managed an appointment yesterday and another found an appointment later this afternoon. We are awaiting those results but expect nothing back until Wednesday, soonest as labs appear to be running slow.
Due to uncertainty in this particular timeline, and difficulty in getting testing appointments, we did not ask parents to schedule tests for their child today or tomorrow. If no teachers are available while awaiting test results, the classroom would be closed, in any regard. Testing too soon or using at-home tests when no symptoms are present is wasted effort and often produces false negatives.
By the time River teacher tests are back, your children will already be well into the 10 day quarantine. Presuming everyone stays SYMPTOM-FREE the return date would be Saturday the 15th, unfortunately a weekend. Reminder, it’s a holiday weekend so classrooms reopen on Tuesday, January 18th.
The “7-day quarantine then test protocol” would in a few circumstances PERHAPS open the door to a couple of children, but only if teachers test negative.