Easley Weekly Update
Everything You Need to Know for the coming week.
February 20, 2021
a note from the principal
Hello Easley families,
I hope you had a great weekend and are ready for the week ahead.
APEX Fundraiser Update
Thank you to all the families who have supported our school through participating in the Apex Fundraiser! We still have a week to go to raise funds for teacher grants, technology enhancements, our media center, level bookroom, and more!
It has been brought to my attention there are group texts, emails, and chats on Facebook pages regarding questions and concerns around the Apex fundraiser. Thank you to those of you who reached out directly to the PTA or me to express your concerns and get your questions answered. I always appreciate open and upfront communication and pride myself in being a communicative and transparent leader with the whole school community. I put together a document of FAQs you may access by clicking on this link. The document answers the following questions:
Where have the APEX funds benefited Easley and at what cost?
What cut does APEX take and how much money do we actually make.
What do we get out of partnering with APEX?
Why can’t we just do the typical wrapping paper and cookie dough fundraisers?
What did we do before partnering with APEX and why did it change?
What about the students whose family isn’t able to make donations to the Apex Fundraiser; don’t they feel left out of the fun?
Where are the funds from the district and federal government? Why are we doing such extensive fundraising at the school level?
Historically, one of the things that has made Easley such a strong school, is the high level of parent involvement and supportive school community. We tend to rely on our PTA to provide supplemental funds for additional school projects and enhancements as our state and local funds are used to fund our daily operations such as supplies and materials. I have also included a link to the PTA 2022 budget in the FAQ document. Take a look at the budget that was created and voted on by the PTA in the fall of this year. All PTA meetings are open to the public and we welcome, and encourage, you to attend; it’s a great way to let your voice be heard and stay informed. Should you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
PAAC (Parents of African American Children) Meeting
Our next PAAC meeting is this Wednesday at 5:30 PM via Zoom. The Zoom link is in the Sunday email.
PTA and SIT Meetings
Our next PTA meeting is tomorrow evening at 6:30 PM via Zoom. You may access the Zoom link in the Sunday email.
Our next SIT meeting is also tomorrow evening at 5:30 PM via Zoom.
Our Battle of Books team will be competing this Thursday.
Easley Covid Numbers
Last week Easley reported 1 positive COVID case, 0 close contacts were identified, and there were 0 class closures. Communication to families whose students were identified as close contacts were completed. If you have not already been personally contacted, it means your student was NOT in close contact with any of the COVID-19 cases. Instead of doing daily calls, the district will send out daily emails and the weekly numbers will be reported in this Weekly Update.
Next Year Intent Form
We are currently in the process of planning for next school year. In doing so, we need to have an accurate count of the number of students who are planning to return to Easley next school year (2022-2023). Accurate student numbers will ensure that we do not lose teaching staff and instructional positions. Thus, your participation in this brief survey is very important. PLEASE NOTE: We have also included a section for you to provide any information you think we need to know about your child when making class placements for next year. Please do not make requests for specific teachers. The only exception is if an older child had a teacher and you would like us to consider placing the sibling with the same teacher, or not. We do our bests to honor sibling requests, but please know there is no guarantee as we have a very involved process for creating classroom rosters. Please complete this survey by Friday, March 4th. Thank you!
Easley Intent Form for 2022-2023 School Year - ENGLISH
Easley Intent Form for 2022-2023 School Year - SPANISH
SIT Meetings @ 5:30 PM
February 21
March 7
April 18
May 16
June 6
PTA Meetings @ 6:30 PM
February 21
March 7
April 18
May 16
June 6
COVID Information
Register your child for weekly testing at school
Links to community testing sites
Covid -19 information and resources
Covid Exposure
If a student is directly exposed to a Covid positive individual they must quarantine for five days from the date of exposure. The only exception is if they are fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated students may return to school after an exposure as long as they are not showing symptoms.
The Safe Schools Toolkit states that students who have an exposure to someone in their household may return to school without quarantine, if they are fully vaccinated. While this is listed in the toolkit as the protocol, and is well within your rights to do, we are asking that you consider keeping your fully vaccinated child home for at least five days when someone in the household has tested positive. It has been our experience, in almost every case of someone in the household testing positive, that the other members test positive within 5-6 days.
Siblings
Just a reminder if one child in a household is home due to experiencing COVID symptoms, then all the siblings in that household should stay home until the child with the symptoms has a negative Covid test.
Communicating a Positive Result
If your child has tested positive for Covid or needs to be out due to an exposure, please be sure to let the classroom teacher and school administration now. We will need the following information:
a screenshot of positive test result
the date symptoms started
Accessing School While on Quarantine
Students who are out for mandatory quarantine will be provided with asynchronous work from their classroom teachers. There will not be live Zoom for students who are out for those five days. On occasion, a teacher maybe able to Zoom them in for a small group or morning meeting but that is always a case-by-case situation and is not the expectation.
Students who are being kept home out of an abundance of caution will be considered unexcused and we will not be sending home asynchronous work for them. While I understand the concern, it is important that students are in school when they are healthy so they can benefit from the direct instruction and peer interactions.
PTA News: Update/Membership
To purchase PTA memberships or make a donation, please visit: https://easleypta.memberhub.com/store
Easley Spirit Wear
Spirit wear Store. Get all your Easley gear here.