The Griffin: A Monthly Newsletter from the Head of School

Dear Garden Community,

As we round out our first month of school, we continue to feel fortunate everyday that we were in a position to open school this year. The credit goes to the efforts of the entire community from faculty who have taught and reinforced new routines, to students who have been incredibly compliant and understanding, and families who have respected the community pledge and honestly reported each morning on the wellness of the children.

It has not been easy, but we have made it through this first phase and our intention has always been to stop at logical inflection points to consider how we might want to tighten, relax, or right-size our approach. As we enter October, we are ready to reflect.

Fortunately, what we are doing is working so we do not have much to amend and therefore, almost all of our guidelines will remain in place for now. However, in an effort to think more dynamically about returning to school after a routine cold, opening more extracurricular opportunities to students, and increasing social access to children, we will be making a few minor alterations to our guidelines.

Under guidance from our team of professional advisors and consultants, we revised our return to school form to reduce the isolation period down to ten days and the symptom free return to school window down to 24 hours. For more specifics see the revised form and note from nurse Elena Sokolova below.

Additionally, we are exploring options for cross-grade (in-cluster) mixing to expand social opportunities during recess and academic grouping where appropriate. This means students within a cluster, who share restrooms, arrival areas, and some after school spaces, may have increased contact during recess and outdoor academic time. We will continue to isolate by cluster and avoid classroom sharing by grade.

We are pleased to announce the opening of several after school opportunities. The Athletics Department opens a training season of no contact Basketball and Volleyball. Student Government, Yearbook Ambassador’s Club, Ham Radio, and Model UN begin meeting along with Foundations courses, including offerings in Dance, Soccer, Art, Spanish, and Karate. Finally, we announce the launch of our SAT Prep classes so students can prep for testing here at school for a reasonable rate with teachers who know them.

While we are excited to reintroduce activities and make new offerings available, we do so with a close and careful eye on how things are evolving here and around the city. We appreciate everyone’s patience and thoughtfulness as we judiciously move ahead and look forward to reflecting on our systems again in a few weeks. Thanks again for the supportive and open approach and here is to a successful fall.

Best,
Chris

Due to campus restrictions, we are getting creative with this year’s Curriculum Night. On Friday October 16th, when school is scheduled to be closed for a Faculty Workshop, we will hold a Virtual Curriculum Night. More details are forthcoming, but mark your calendars. Families of children in grades N - 3, your virtual curriculum day will be held from 9 -10am. Families in grades 4 - 10, your’s will be held from 9 -10:30am. Families in grades 11 & 12, your’s will be held from 10:30- 12:00.

As we head into fall, with the most mild COVID symptoms commonly occuring, we are trying to be both flexible and stick to the rules. Repeat testing and remaining home for mild symptoms is a nuisance and though some measures have been imposed by choice, many are wrapped in city and state laws which tell us we must:
Screen everyone daily (COVID self-screening tool and temp checks), AND
Bar anyone with any symptoms, regardless of how mild, from entering campus, AND
Prevent reentry until a child with symptoms, regardless of how mild, has received a negative covid test AND written clearance from a health care provider OR has completed a 10 day isolation period and received medical clearance.

If your pediatrician does not perform testing, it can be done in any urgent care (Statcare, CityMD, GoHealth), in clinics associated with hospitals (e.g. Elmhurst hospital) or in NYC Health Clinics, and locations for express testing sites can be found here.

Returning to school requires two encournters with a medical provider - one for testing and one for clearance. To reduce the number of visits, the return to school letter can be signed with a doctor in urgent care (who may write " valid IF accompanied by negative test" or “return the following date IF test is negative". Also, video appointments or faxed doctors notes will help avoid that second visit. Again, we understand these rules are inherently disruptive to learning plans for students who may have intermittent absences. However, we may not deviate from the laws of the city and state.

The month of September was full of incredible ways to introduce this year’s theme of Striving for Equity. One of the key pillars of this theme is the celebration of all forms of diversity in our community and in the world. With September being Hispanic Heritage Month, our school has been filled with Mexican folk music, Salsa dancing, lessons on the Wonders of the Spanish-speaking world, a trove of artifacts from Hispanic regions in the Hallway Heritage Museum, a Mayan Pyramid study, Flags and Displays in our Diversity Gallery, and lots of classroom activities including literature, feature artists, and investigations of the rich cultures that come from a variety of Spanish speaking countries.

October is Disability Awareness Month and we are preparing ways to engage students in activities and discussions about individual differences in learning, cognitive, and physical profiles. This will include a study of artists and authors with disabilities as well as guest speakers from with backgrounds in the Arts, Business, and Leadership who will help students see the great success that can often come from those who might see the world differently because they navigate it differently. There is much more in the works, so stay tuned.

Several staff members recently participated in an Anti-Racism session offered by the University of Pennsylvania focused on shining a light specifically on the anti-Asian narrative that surfaced this year and on curbing anti-Asian aggression. Next week, several faculty will attend a NYSAIS session on Diversity in Children’s Literature with Dr. Jennifer Zwillenberg and then another session later this month on leveraging a diverse community as an extension of the classroom with David Zheutlin.

Picture Day is Thursday, October 15th for Nursery through Grade 12. Photos, compliments of Irvin Simon Photography, will be done outdoors under a tent (rain or shine). Don’t forget not to wear green. All necessary information was sent last week. Time slots for Remote learners and special instructions for Senior portraits, will come soon. Irvin Simon is even going the extra mile to digitally assemble photos for a class portrait! For all ordering information, please see the communications from Garden PTA. There is a retake day on Dec 2nd.

Garden Spirit Wear: Spirit Wear is now available in Garden’s new E-Store which is full of branded merchandise including tees, hats, embroidered hats, sweatshirts, and more. The store is only open until October 20th, so don’t miss out. Don’t forget that every Monday is. Garden Spirit Monday!
https://www.spiritwear.com/estore.php?eml=PTA@gardenschool.org