The Olive Branch 1.21.21

Dear OMS families,

Thank you for helping us to make Thursday and Friday wonderful days for our in-person and remote learners. We welcomed back 568 in-person learners this week and the excitement was palpable. We ask for your continued patience during our drop-off and pick-up times. We forgot how many vehicles are dropping off especially in the winter. Please know that if our car line is backed up we do not mark students tardy. For example today, we did not mark tardies until after 9:10 am.

We would like to thank our PTA picture day chair and the parent volunteers that were able to help us on Tuesday and Wednesday. We had a lot of smiling students.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend, stay warm!

Erin and Julia

Valentine's Day parties will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 10th in the afternoon. Our teachers and PTA room-reps will make sure that our remote learners are included in the fun and feel very much a part of the event. Please keep in mind that these are much smaller celebrations and only last for an hour, unlike Halloween where we celebrate the entire afternoon.

Next Wednesday, Jan 27 is a pretend Monday. This means that we will follow our Monday specials class schedule for PE, music, LMC, and art. If you have questions about your child's schedule please contact the classroom teacher.

This year we have decided that we will not be switching lunch shifts. There have been so many changes we are looking to build consistency in our day.

For the remainder of the year:

1st, 4th, and three 3rd grade classes will eat from 12:15 - 12:45 and then have recess from 12:45 - 1:15.

2nd, 5th, and three 3rd grade classes will have recess from 12:15 - 12:45 and have lunch from 12:45 - 1:15.

OMS is in a unique situation compared to other schools in that 93% of our families have selected in-person learning. This means that the vast majority of our classrooms do not have any remote learners and our teachers are no longer Zooming on a daily basis.

Moving Forward we will utilize the following guidelines:

For families that take a vacation - our teachers will do their best to provide your child with some assignments/alternative activities to complete while they are away. When you return, we will allow your child to Zoom into the classroom in order to follow the recommended quarantine guidelines by IDPH. Please contact our school nurse to determine a date of return.

For children that are sick and/or are required to quarantine - please contact the school office to report the absence and based on direction from our school nurse and administration, we will determine if your child can Zoom until they are cleared to return to school. Please keep in mind that teachers are not automatically on Zoom anymore so arrangements will need to be made. Children can no longer just jump on Zoom if they stay home.

Questions? Please reach out to your OMS teacher or your administrative team.

OMS Staff Directory

Ms. Erin Davis, Principal edavis@sd25.org

Mrs. Julia Pemberton, Assistant Principal jpemberton@sd25.org

Website: https://www.sd25.org/Olive
Location: 303 East Olive Street, Arlington Heights, IL, USA
Phone: 847.398.4282
Twitter: @ahsd25Olive