9/23 Cohorts, PE & More...

Our Guadalupe community is strong because we are a collaborative team working together to support one another. Don’t miss out on our weekly Wednesday meetings to hear about the updates on important school news. You can find the next meeting date/time and zoom link below as well as GHSC.NET.

Guadalupe Classroom Giving Drive

With the in-person becoming a reality for many families, the Classroom Giving Drive is still available on GHSC Toolkit for parents to make a donation. The suggested amounts were dramatically reduced this year and a reminder, the suggested amounts are not expected. Please consider donating the amount that best suits your household budget. 

Our moderators welcome parents and staff members to suggest topics / pose questions they would like to address in next week’s meeting by emailing -  parentgroup.ghsc@gmail.com

Small Cohorts on Campus: 2 Small Cohorts (12 students each) started on Monday 9/21, and so far, everything is running smoothly. There are four staff members in total. These cohorts are receiving support with distance learning from classified staff, but sre still fully participating with distance or online learning with their general education teacher.

SDC & Additional Cohort: The 2 Special Day Classes will return to campus on Monday 10/5 with both teachers and support staff. A total of 11 kids in the two classes. An additional Small Cohort will start on Monday, 10/5, with just five students.

District Reopening - Stage 3: As reported previously, stage 3 will include Kinder and First Grade. Mr. Jones said; currently, the district is still working on the plan for stage 3.

Other Districts: San Jose Unified and Cupertino have announced they will not decide about reopening till January 2021.

Guadalupe Survey Update: Mr. Jones reported on some early numbers from the survey sent out to parents 9/21 and again on 9/24. With 180+ responses received, 40+% intend to return to school. While 28% plan to stay with distance learning. Mr. Jones plans on sharing this data in the next week or two once he receives a good number of responses.  Mr. Jones is organizing separate surveys for students and teachers. He is currently awaiting approval from the district for both surveys. Here is the link to the survey -> HERE.

District Zoom Policy Change: The district has decided to restrict parents from hosting student zooms during school hours without the teacher's participation. This, unfortunately, means teachers cannot use parents to monitor breakout rooms. Student socials during school hours have to be attended by the teacher. Or the zooms need to happy after 2:30 PM daily. 

Students Working Through Recess Time: A few parents brought up the observation that students are skipping recess time or even lunchtime to continue to work on school work. Parents also noted the current schedule does not curate a dedicated break time for the kids. Mr. Jones also noted that he sees the same pattern happening on campus with the small cohorts the first two days of school. Students were late to going out for recess and even late to lunch. Some parents noted that some zoom classes run long, leading into the lunch hours especially. He's going to discuss this with the staff at their next staff meeting. 

Physical Education: We received a question from a few parents who want to see PE return to the classroom schedule. Mr. Jones says the focus right now it to bring Starting Arts back to the classroom starting the week of 9/28. Teachers are also utilizing familiar programs like Go Noddle and other stationary practices like yoga. 

Substitutes: Parents noted when staff is absent, they're either canceling meetings or shifting their class to another class in the grade. Parents are concerned as to why substitutes are not being used in their scenarios. Mr. Jones reported that the district is encouraging teachers to have grade-level peers cover for them for absences. The reason is that it's too hard for subs to pick up the tech pieces and manage Google Classroom or Seesaw. Utilizing peer teachers also allows kids to get a little social interaction with kids in other classes.

PARENTGROUP.GHSC@GMAIL.COM: Parents and Staff are welcome to ask questions or inquire for more information. If you are unable to attend the next community meeting, please feel free to email us your questions, and the moderator will make sure they're answered

With the return to in-person instruction growing closer and closer, we wanted to open the conversation with parents about their hopes or concerns with returning to in-person. Potentially answering questions like:

• What are you hoping to see happen?
• What are your concerns about the change? 
• How can the school community support one another throughout the transition?

If you cannot attend this meeting and would like to ask a question or share your thoughts. Please email Rachael using the email below.

We also welcome parents to share their suggestions as well, or if you would like to team up with Rachael to help curate these discussions, email her at parentgroup.ghsc@gmail.com..

To join GHSC Facebook Group -- CLICK HERE 

To find your Guadalupe Class Shutterfly Site -- CLICK HERE 

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If you need assistance with access to Shutterfly or Toolkit, 

please email communications.ghsc@gmail.com

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San Jose CA 95120

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