Back To School
Now begins a new year. As noted during the last academic year, the goal was to make big changes that feel small. Alongside our preparations over the summer to keep our students and staff safe throughout the present, much thought and preparation have been given to the future. Amidst unprecedented times, we have undertaken unprecedented efforts to improve our facilities, our curriculum, the ways in which we communicate with our families, and to intentionally develop our community. I look forward with great eagerness to a new beginning in the year to come, and I hope our community feels the same.
Prior to the first day of school, Ridgeview emailed parents additional back-to-school information that I would like to reiterate in an effort to keep our students, faculty, and staff safe and informed.
1. Please check your spam folder to ensure that you are receiving communications from Ridgeview. Our weekly notes (Nuntius) and other important communications are principally distributed via email, and it is critical that we can reach you. Please be sure that you have added Ridgeview to your ‘safe senders list’.
2. Remain at home if you believe that you or your children might be sick. Our ability to avoid quarantines and interruptions to learning are largely contingent on our self-policing. If you think your children might be sick, please keep them at home until they are well or receive a negative test for COVID.
3. We may have to teach remotely if larger numbers of students are required to quarantine by the County. If less than seventy-five percent of a class is present due to a quarantine imposed by the County, we will ask our teachers to broadcast their lessons and update materials to Edsby. Broadcasted lessons will not be recorded. If a student tests positive, they will be asked to quarantine for ten days. If a student has a potential exposure, which will be determined by rosters and seating charts, they will be asked to quarantine for eight days. These quarantines will be directed by the County, and it may be that if a student was masked at the time of a potential exposure or if they have been vaccinated, they may not need to quarantine.
4. If students or visitors would like a mask, masks will be provided for them. Every family, guest, and student’s situation is unique. Some students have medical situations that dictate that they wear a mask, others will wear masks in solidarity with their friends, and so on…whatever their reason, bullying on the issue of masks, like any other issue, will not be tolerated, and masks will be provided to anyone requesting one.
5. Tutorial will begin Monday, August 30. The earliest students will be allowed into the building is 7:10am with tutorial beginning at 7:15am for the upper school and 7:30am for the elementary school. Please note that tutorial is designed to provide students with additional help in their classes. If your child attends tutorial, they should anticipate either working with their teachers or working quietly on their own.
6. If you are looking for ways to meet other parents and be involved, please consider attending a parent reading group. We will discuss Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron in room 306 at 8:15am on Wednesday, September 1, and our first monthly parent reading group will discuss Voltaire’s Candide in room 306 at 8:15am on Friday, September 10. If you are looking for something to read that might inform how you help your child with homework or study skills, we would strongly recommend the short book the faculty read over the summer by William Armstrong entitled Study is Hard Work. Copies of the book are available for purchase in the Ridgeview Bookshop.
Thank you for your support, kindness, and patience as we begin another remarkable year. While there remains much that is beyond our ability to control, we are happy to have our students back in the classrooms and help them continue learning and building memories in the weeks and months to come.
D. Anderson
Headmaster
