March 31, 2021

Dear Capitol Hill Families,

There is a noticeable energy at Capitol Hill this week as we prepare for about 80% of our students to return to hybrid instruction. We are so excited to welcome your child(ren) back to school. With the whirlwind of information that has been provided just over the last few days, I am sure you have quite a few questions. I hope this email helps you as your child(ren) return to hybrid or continue in our Comprehensive Distance Learning program. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out.

Sincerely,

Aimee Alexander-Shea, Principal

Welcome

Our counselor, Mr. Z, created this welcome video for you to share with your child. We hope it helps reorient students who have been in our school and welcome those who have not been here before.

Health Screening

Before you bring your child to school or child care, please use this checklist to self-screen for any signs of illness or exp[osure to COVID. If your child is sick, do not send them to school. This guide will help you determine when it is safe to return your child to school.  

This Week

• Asynchronous: Whether your child is attending hybrid or CDL, they will be with their regular classroom teacher through the end of the week. Your child’s teacher has posted asynchronous work for them to complete. Teachers may only respond in a limited way to work posted this week. In-person or synchronous lessons will resume at the end of this week for K and 1, while it will resume on Monday for all other grades.
  
• K-1 Soft Start: For students who have opted into hybrid, in-person instruction will begin this week. I apologize for the mix up in the schedule that was sent previously. The correct schedule is:

Thursday, April 1 - Cohort A (8:00-10:15am)

Friday, April 2 - Cohort B (12:15-2:30am)

• Staff Training and Planning: This week, our staff is engaging in safety and health training, planning for in-person instruction, and working hard to create a warm classroom environment that is socially distanced for our students.

Next Week - Hybrid

• Hybrid Teachers: I am happy to announce that all of our hybrid students were able to remain with the teacher they had during CDL. Each of our teachers will be teaching two cohorts of students in hybrid on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
  
  
• Hybrid Schedules: Hybrid instruction will take place in two cohorts that meet on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Cohort A will be in person from 8:00-10:15am and Cohort B will be in person from 12:15-2:30pm.
  
  Wednesdays will be fully online. There will be one synchronous whole class meeting from 8:00-8:45 on Wednesdays and the rest of the day will be asynchronous unless otherwise indicated by the teacher.

Students who are participating in hybrid instruction will have half of their instructional day in person while the other half will be online. The schedules for each cohort will be:

• After School Plans: Every child who attends hybrid MUST have an After School Plan. This plan lets us know what your child is doing after school. Please make sure you have them bring a paper copy of this plan with them on the first day of hybrid instruction. If you need a paper copy, they are available outside of the main entrance of the school. If you sent a photo of your child’s plan or submitted it electronically, we need you to send a paper copy as we cannot print electronic versions of the form.
  
• Bus Routes (Prearranged only): School buses are available to students if they were prearranged when you signed your child up for hybrid. If you need transportation for your child but you did not sign up, please contact Student Transportation. Arranging a bus may take several weeks at this time.
  
  Please be sure to check the bus route As a reminder, your child should arrive at the bus stop 10 minutes before the scheduled pick up time. All Kindergarten students who ride the bus must be met by a parent or guardian for pick up. If no parent or guardian is present, your child will be returned to school where you will need to get them.
  
• Bus Tags: Every student in grades K-3 is required to wear a bus tag when riding the bus. If your child is riding the bus, please read these instructions and send a completed bus tag with them on their first day of hybrid. You can pick up a blank copy at the main entrance of our school if needed. Kindergarten bus tags must be yellow. Other bus tags are white. If you have a child who is not in Kindergarten and who needs to be met by an adult at the bus stop for pick up, please indicate this in your after school plan.
  
• Student Arrival: Parents are not allowed to enter the school building. Please be prepared to say goodbye to your child when you drop them off. Here is an arrival map to help you. In order to encourage social distancing, we now are using 4 entrances. Bus riders will enter the building through the doors in the playground area. Students who arrive at school by any means other than the bus (bike, walking, car, etc.) will enter through the front of the building.
  
  All Kindergarten - 2nd grade students, enter the building using the front door on the corner of Spring Garden and SW 17th.
  
  All 3rd - 5th grade students, enter the building using the main entrance in the front of the school.
  
  As children enter the building, they will be visually screened for symptoms of COVID. If a child appears ill, they will be brought to our symptom space where they will wait until an adult comes to pick them up.
  
• Dismissal: Since parents are not allowed to enter the school, we have arranged dismissal in a new way. Please refer to this dismissal map as you determine where you will pick your child up.
  Adults who are picking up a child MUST have identification with them and be on the child’s after school plan. If you need to make a change to the after school, you must let the classroom teacher know as well as the front office staff.
  
  Most of our Kindergarten through 2nd grade students who are picked up will wait in their classroom for an adult to arrive. Doors used for pick up will have a sign with the teacher’s name on it. The adult will go to the exterior door of the classroom for pick up.
  
  There is not an accessible door for Mrs. Standish and Mrs. Vo’s classrooms, so parent’s who pick up from these classes will do the following:

-Mrs. Standish: use the front door on the corner of Spring Garden and SW 17th Ave.
-Mrs. Vo: use the middle front door on SW 17th Ave.

Third graders who are picked up will be in the raised concrete area in the north parking lot.

Fourth graders who are picked up will be in the coned off area in the back of the north parking lot.

Fifth graders who are picked up will be between the kitchen and north parking lot at the front of the school.

• Food Distribution: Breakfast and lunch will be available to all children free of charge. Food will be given to students as they leave school for the day. Students may take additional meals for siblings at home. Please let your child know whether you want them to take meals home with them or not.
  
  Students who are participating in hybrid are not allowed to eat in the building or on the bus. Please make sure your child has a meal prior to arrival for hybrid instruction.
  

Next Week - CDL

• Teacher Introductions: Our CDL teachers are preparing to meet their new students next Monday. Students who remained in CDL will most likely have a new teacher.

Meghan Connelly will be teaching Kindergarten and 1st grades during CDL. Mrs. Connelly has worked in Capitol Hill as a temporary teacher this year in Mrs. J’s class as well as Mrs. Fronk’s class. She is an experienced primary teacher with a great deal of experience in CDL.

Robert Michaud will be teaching 2nd and 3rd grades during CDL. He is an experienced teacher who taught online and in Alaska for a number of years.  Here is a welcome letter from Mr. Michaud.

Jim Buchanan will be teaching 4th and 5th grades in CDL. He has been substitute teaching in PPS for over 20 years and is very experienced in teaching online. Here is a welcome letter from Mr. Buchanan.

• CDL Schedule: CDL schedules will be similar to the way they currently are, with part of the day spent synchronously with their teacher and part of the day spent independently in asynchronous instruction. One day each week will be an asynchronous day in CDL just like in hybrid.
  • Kindergarten: Synchronous in am; Asynchronous in pm; Monday = Asynchronous Day
  • 1st grade: Asynchronous in am; Synchronous in pm; Monday = Asynchronous Day
  • 2nd grade: Synchronous in am; Asynchronous in pm; Wednesday = Asynchronous Day
  • 3rd grade: Asynchronous in am; Synchronous in pm; Wednesday = Asynchronous Day
  • 4th grade: Asynchronous in am; Synchronous in pm; Wednesday = Asynchronous Day
  • 5th grade: Synchronous in am; Asynchronous in pm; Wednesday = Asynchronous Day

• Food Distribution for CDL Students: For the remainder of the year, grab-and-go meals will be available between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. on school days for all children in the community (PPS students and children not enrolled at PPS) ages 1-18.
  
  The sites for curbside distribution:
  • Beaumont Middle School, 4043 NE Fremont St.
  • Franklin High School, 5405 SE Woodward St.
  • George Middle School, 10000 N Burr Ave.
  • Harriet Tubman Middle School, 2231 N Flint Ave.
  • Hosford Middle School, 2303 SE 28th Pl.
  • Ida B. Wells High School, 1151 SW Vermont St.
  • Jackson Middle School, 10625 SW 35th Ave.
  • Jefferson High School, 5210 N Kerby Ave.
  • Lane Middle School, 7200 SE 60th Ave.
  • Leodis V. McDaniel @ Marshall High School, 3905 SE 91st Ave.
  • Tabor Middle School, 5800 SE Ash St.
  • Ockley Green Middle School, 6031 N Montana Ave.
  • Robert Gray Middle School, 5505 SW 23rd Ave.
  • Roosevelt High School, 6941 N Central St.
  • Roseway Heights Middle School, 7334 NE Siskiyou St.

Safety

• Face Masks: All students and staff are required to wear face masks while in the building. If there is a documented medical condition preventing a student from wearing a mask, the use of alternate personal protective equipment will be required.
  
• Water Bottles: Please send a water bottle with your child’s name on it to school each day. While the water fountains are operating and are cleaned on a regular schedule, they cannot be cleaned after each use because the neutral cleaner that is used has to sit for a period of time to be effective. In order to reduce the risk of spreading illness, we encourage all students and staff to bring water with them to school.
  
• Snacks: Make sure your child has a meal before they attend hybrid instruction. Students must keep their masks on while they are in the building. For this reason, they are not able to eat during hybrid classes. Please do not send food or snacks with your child to their hybrid class.
  
  Guidance for schools and daycare are different so students enrolled in Champions will have an opportunity to eat while they are with their Champions cohort.
  
• Volunteers Needed: We need volunteers to help students at the crosswalks in front of the school and on the corner of Spring Garden and 17th during Cohort B (12:00-12:30 and 2:15-2:45) at arrival and dismissal. If you are able to help, please contact Heidi Reichelt or Mike Eskew.

Childcare: Champions, our child care provider, will be operating during hybrid instruction. Champions is not a Capitol Hill program but a partner organization. If you have questions about enrolling your child, safety standards, or anything else, please contact Melodee Andrada or Aiko Sato. Also, the district has provided an FAQ that you might find helpful.

Reminder: There is no school on April 9 due to teacher planning and report card preparation.

Retention: Lately we have gotten a lot of inquiries from families about grade retention for next year. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges for schools since March of 2020. We recognize that, as a result, students at all grade levels have had a wide range of learning experiences in Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL). Because of this, we will be emphasizing Learning Recovery and Acceleration for all grade levels in the 2021-22 school year. We believe that students, despite varied CDL experiences, will benefit from progressing to the next grade with their grade-level peers in the 2021-22 school year. Therefore, we are not supporting retention as a learning recovery strategy at any grade level. The following is research that outlines some of the detriments of retention:

• According to research, students who are retained are at a higher risk of dropping out of high school (Bauer, Hughes, Kim & West 2017).
• Students who are at the highest risk of retention are Black, Latinx, Indigneous Students and English Language Learners. “On average, both Hispanic and Black students across grade levels are one and one half times more likely to be retained than White students'' (U.S. Census, 2015).
• Additionally, English learners are retained at disproportionate rates nationally. (Johnson 2018).
• The National Association of School Psychologists discourages retention and recommends instead “promotion plus” (NASP, 2007).