Author: jzurfluh

Will start this eNotes with my thanks again to the entire community for your thoughts and words of encouragement during my convalescence. I’m happy to report, largely due to the positive thinking of all around me, that I’m recovering well and it seems I’ve accessed the 80% of cases that lack severity. I thought I had been pretty well read on the issue going into this illness, but have to admit that I’ve learned more yet again and continue to marvel at how we are growing in our understanding of this virus and how adaptable we are to the knowledge and the shaping of our behaviors. A few learnings to share…

It is futile to spend too much time trying to identify the source of an infection. For me, lots of thinking went into this without much result. As I shared early in the year, the parameters that we apply in our protocols are based on knowledge, but are not rules. That’s because viruses don’t follow rules. This is why our swiss cheese layers exist. “There is no 100%” became real for me last week when I tested positive. I know many in our midst who equally have struggled to identify source in the face of a new infection. Don’t worry about it. All focus needs to shift to recovery and wellness.

In the midst of the illness, there is much concern about worsening symptoms. I have a great doctor who provided necessary advice, so follow those directions carefully. Thus far I have also protected my wife from further consequence by isolating myself and Mrs. Z continues to test negative. Other keys, as suggested by our community in their loving messages to me, include hydration and rest, two critical elements of recovery and assuring symptoms do not emerge or worsen. Seek medical help at earliest signs of anything going awry.

Even with that, 20% of cases will be more severe. We experienced that statistic with one of our own school staff who is getting better, but required more expanded care. We continue to monitor each case through our health office for this reason, consulting with families to make sure that the recovery is going forward as hoped. Staying on top of each case, our nurses regularly try to make sure they offer support and ongoing advice.

Finally, be on the watch for the aftermath. Reading many articles this weekend on recovery, immunization after recovery, etc. There is much to be learned in the current data as millions around the world are immunized and tracked. We are all hopeful that vaccination is coming soon and the next couple of weeks will help us see this more clearly. What we know is vaccination will do a couple of things. Right away, it will reduce spread of the virus – that’s a good thing and helps us avoid further mutation. Second, vaccination reduces the seriousness of symptoms if you get sick – even after only one dose of vaccine. That’s a good thing for hospitals and caregivers. But, we need to avoid getting sick, too. I’m now going to be watching for future complications in myself, as everyone who has recovered should. Much data is emerging about what happens weeks and months later. This only confirms that our protocols remain important to keeping the infection rate low to avoid the longer term health consequences that we are still learning about.

Let’s sustain our diligence in the coming weeks. Colder weather continues through next week and this is the time or year that we always felt was most concerning. Our daily results would suggest we are doing OK, but need to stay focused. As we always suggested, making our practices automatic and woven into the way we do things is important to sustainability. Stay the course. And, thank you for being such a wonderful caring and loving community!!

All evidence points to my return to your midst on Monday. Looking forward to re-joining you on the path forward.

I mentioned during the last Town Hall that we had finalized our selection of our new High School Vice Principal replacing Laura Berntson starting next year. It’s my pleasure to announce that we completed our search just prior to the new year. 

Happy to welcome Luke MacBride to the Warrior team come August, 2021!  Along with this, we can also confirm that his wife, Alyson, has been selected for an open HS Math position.  We are very happy to have the MacBride family, which includes daughter Pearl, join us as our newest Warriors!! We’ll find out more about Luke, Alyson, and Pearl when we introduce all new Warriors as usual in my March introduction feature.

Many thanks to the members of the Search Committee and to all stakeholders who participated in our virtual events in December and added information to the process. We had a strong field of candidates and we are quite confident that the strongest were in the final stages making it both difficult and rewarding.

On other recruiting fronts, I’m happy to report we are almost done with recruiting for the next school year with both record retention of our current staff and a strong field of candidates for our few positions bringing us new Warriors that we will happily introduce in March.

Calendar

Reminder that our revised current year calendar is located HERE. The most important upcoming change to note (communicated back in October) is the move of our PD Day to March 1 on this calendar. We will be scheduling post vacation testing on that day as well as the weekend prior. We are not recommending travel and there is no current plan to change the calendar any further this year. The final change involves conferences in April. More on that later when we are closer to Spring Break.

Parking Lot

Please don’t forget what you have learned about our parking lot rules. Winter doesn’t change these rules. Dress warmly and remember the following that we are concerned about:

• Only park in marked parking spots. NEVER park and leave your vehicle in a Kiss-N-Go lane or ANY yellow curbed area.
• If parked for any period of time greater than one minute, turn OFF your engine. Protect our air!
• If a spot is not available in Kiss-N-Go, continue around the parking lot circle until a place or parking spot becomes available. NEVER stop and block traffic and please don’t stop on crosswalks.
• Make sure all pedestrians cross parking lot lanes at crosswalks only – model this for all students to make sure they see us following traffic and safety rules. If you take them across a road without using the crosswalk, they will do it inadvertently themselves in the future. Show kids we all know how to be safe together.

Not much to share this week other than it is good to be back in classrooms. I’ve wandered about the building starting with early childhood on Monday, some time up in design and library yesterday, and some 6th grade drama monologues today along with a stop in the cafeteria during upper school lunch. The vibrations of social engagement and learning were all around me. It’s good to be in school!

We have had a great round of testing and our strategy of taking a week to settle back into practice has served us well, despite my admonitions last night in a special update. It’s a good day when I cancel the Crisis Team and leave your email boxes empty of that afternoon message. We are on the right track and it’s good to be in school!

Activities are constantly developing to keep kids engaged, both in school and with all the supplements we can muster. Minds are churning over what can be added incrementally to make up for those things outside of school that may need to be put on hold for a time out of concern for health and safety. We know this is daunting and feels like a terrible loss of passions and things previously enjoyed. But, complacency cannot rule the day and the wake up call has been delivered. We will do everything we can to keep everyone safe because it’s good to be in school!

The silver linings are starting to emerge as we reflect on our accomplishments – what we have learned, what we have survived, what we have earned — and compare our results to the greater context. Truly a world challenge and all the more difficult when you choose a divergent path and have to work hard to prove what we believe has been achieved. Pride? Not quite yet. The proof will come in looking back, realizing that our insight and forbearance will confirm it was good to be in school!

Recipes! See below! Quiz Night! See below!! Town Hall! Tonight! See you there!

The New Year arrived and I know many felt a bit of relief that we could finally remand a challenging year of crisis to our collective history. This time, it was clearly about bringing something to a close – good riddance – and looking forward to the hope and potential of what we hope is ahead.

The snowfall this morning reminded me of the renewal often inspired by this season. Resting beneath the winter cold is the warm renewal of spring preparing to emerge when the temperatures allow. A wonderful metaphor for hopes and opportunity emerging from the cold harshness of fear and helplessness.

What we seek to embrace now are the silver linings. We have learned much about how we are resilient. If we have anything, we have bounce! Bouncing back is our true talent. We tackled a unique set of challenges and modeled for others how to wrestle it into submission and jump to our feet ready to run. We went to the vacation tired, but resolute. Together, we have committed ourselves to community collaboration and safety to protect each other and stay the course. We need to be proud of what we have learned about ourselves, about each other, and about what we can capably command.

My informed predictions for the year ahead in the moment:

• Our resilience needs to stay strong. As stated before, we are not at the end and we need to be cautious while being enthusiastic.
• Vaccinations are on the horizon. We will add this layer of swiss cheese to our protocol in due course. First will be our nurses, second our teachers, third the rest of our staff. After that, eyes will turn to larger populations including parents, and ultimately students. But, we won’t see too many of the general population other than at-risk populations and older adults in the current calendar year. We know that the rollout of vaccine will be challenging and much information being shared now will continue to change with dates pushed back as we understand the complications of distribution.
• We will follow our protocols (the other layers of cheese) through the remainder of the calendar year. Hygiene will become second nature to us and we’ll find better and better ways of protecting each other from potential spread, building on our success to date. More improvements and inventions will continue to emerge to help us mitigate the crisis more comfortably while vaccinations incrementally work toward protecting the greater majority of us. We will wash hands and wear masks for the foreseeable future, but we’ll see better and better options for doing this.
• We will work together to take on these challenges in true ASW collaboration and community.

Despite the challenges, we will see many creative options for activities throughout the months ahead. We have earnest work being undertaken by our students and they are engaged and involved in their learning. The messages we received as we went to break were inspiring. To those who sent words of praise for our work, thank you for how you encourage and empower us.

Stay well and cautious in the weeks ahead. You should all be proud of how you have protected yourselves and the community by following our guidelines. The result is not identified infections in 4 days of testing. And, given the messages and questions to ASW Health, I can suggest we are all trying our best to be thoughtful and make all of our decisions in the context of the greater good of the community. For that and your diligence you can be most proud.

Much information below in eNotes. As a foodie myself, very excited about the PTO Cookbook and happy to again recommend the ASW Foodies group on Facebook.

Looking forward to seeing students on Monday! Stay well, stay safe, stay Warriors!

As we come into the holiday and with more good news hitting us on a daily basis, it might be easy to think of our trek towards the Friday before break as crossing the finish line. Given that I value all the efforts of everyone in getting us to this milestone, I want you to soak in this moment and truly celebrate what we have accomplished together. The joy and spirit of the season are all around us in so many beautiful and powerful ways.

When the lights of our tree in front of our entrance were first turned on, I felt that tinge of excitement telling me maybe we could still make this happen – the spirit of the season – enveloping around us with a warm glow and the hug of humanity once again. Then I went to the plays and in both, felt the tears well in the sheer importance of seeing what I feared we would lose.

And then the decorations started appearing, first a tree or two and some twinkling lights. Then the Poinsettia – and cards – oh the joy of Christmas cards when you are in the grasp of despair, how they lift your soul and fill you with the honor of friendship and regard. Now, the season is all around us, including a makeshift fireplace that appeared in our hallway for staff to enjoy as they sipped a cup of cheer.

PTO deserves special recognition for their decorations around the building and their support of grade levels, each in a unique and powerful way that demonstrates the resilience of parental love and support. The cookies, the ornaments, the wishes of hope and inspiration – all a display of affection and profound investment in the future, knowing that our demonstrations now are the seeds of future aspirations. PTO – thank you for helping to make our dreams come true – including mine – I love the Twinkies!!

So, not the finish line. But, with gratitude, I offer you a victory lap and wish you all the best during the coming holidays. We are hopeful that all will stay safe and healthy during this time away from school. Please take a moment to hold those who have been sick from or who were lost to this virus, both in our community and around the world, in your thoughts and prayers.

It is my earnest wish that our fervent wishes will come true in the year ahead. It does feel like we are headed in the right direction and hope has returned. Embrace this and join me as we start the next leg of our journey together again in January. To those few who are departing, we wish you well in your next adventure and I know the whole community will step forward to welcome our new families as they arrive.

Additional note:

Please help us with one final task today! Send forward a message to anyone potentially considering joining the ASW Community and invite them to our Virtual Open House tomorrow. If they are considering relocating to Warsaw and are starting to consider schools, or if they are here in Warsaw and considering a change, this is a great opportunity for all of us to participate in spreading the word about ASW! Tomorrow’s session is particularly showcasing our PYP program. Send them this link to get more information and register to join us:

Link: https://www.aswarsaw.org/admissions/open-house

Carols are starting to ring in the holidays and the festive feel of the building is all around us. A Christmas tree was wheeled into my office recently. Found it a bit odd to have a tree on wheels, but the Christmas spirit that seemed to follow it was invaluable. I even had a short visit from an elf that hid behind my door, supporting the ES staff hunt. He’s a cute little guy and I miss him already. Congratulations to the intrepid hunters who found him in record time. ’tis the Season!

Much more to celebrate the holidays is coming around. We’ll be missing our usual programs this year, but still trying to be festive and jolly in the days next week with planned PTO decorations and plenty of classroom activities at all levels still trying to capture the spirit. We are thoughtful of the needed restrictions, but happy with the many things we can still capture in some fashion, always remembering how times like this bring perspective and insight into the things most important: family, friends, kindness, and hope.

A couple of items for your attention:

Flu Vaccine!!

Arriving today! With thanks to the US Embassy, we have our flu vaccine inbound and we start our flu vaccination journey TOMORROW! I sent a notice yesterday to those who filled out our advance survey about flu vaccination. As promised, they had early access to the appointment signup and have responded wonderfully. Now it is open to all. We are offering Flu vaccine in the form of Flucelvax Tetra which is the only egg-free vaccine available in the EU – approved in the EU for ages 2 and older. All the remaining details are on the signup form which is here:

There are appointments available between December 10 and 22. We will be vaccinating between 4p and 7p on weekdays and 9a to 4p on Saturdays and on the 21st and 22nd. Looking forward to serving you!!

Vice Principal Search

Please reserve Monday and Tuesday, 6p to 8p, next week for open virtual meetings in Zoom with our finalists. We will send information about our candidates at the end of the week, but please reserve the dates. We are hopeful that we can tie up these meetings with an opportunity to gather feedback on our candidates during these open meetings. Students, Parents, and staff are all invited to these open forums and we will offer a facilitated dialog with time available for questions from the audience. Looking forward to your participation. Details before the end of this week.

Building on the announcement last week, please be reminded of the following Holiday Plan:

• We have scheduled one week of virtual classes following the long vacation, January 11-15.
• Each division will provide directions for getting ready for this week before the vacation.
• The virtual week is a full week of school and daily attendance is required. Each day will have a synchronous activity for the purpose of attendance, but schedules will be dynamic, family-oriented, and conducive to our testing schedule.
• There will be a mix of synchronous and asynchronous activities throughout the week and screen time will be carefully considered in our planning.
• You will come to school two times during this week for drive-through testing. This will be family-based testing (family comes together), so appointment scheduling will be in PowerSchool as we did during the October Break.

This is the essential information and more details are included below in eNotes and in upcoming newsletters.

HS Vice Principal Search

We have started the process to search for our next High School Vice Principal after the announcement from Laura Berntson that the family will be relocating to Belgium where Laura will become the Head of High School at the International School of Brussels in August 2021. The Search Committee has already been formed and the initial screening of over 100 applicants has been completed. The Committee will begin first-round interviews in the coming days and once we have a list of finalists, we’ll move to a community-engaged process for interview of candidates with opportunities for students, staff, and parents to all have input into the process. Members of the committee will help in organizing this and we will be arranging virtual visits for our finalists to help them get to know the school while we get to know them. Look for more information soon regarding this process and opportunities for getting involved.

Recovered Students & Staff

The medical team’s recommendation last week to institute a “recovered” status had been talked about for a few weeks including before the October break. We did a comprehensive review of the literature and confirmed through multiple sources that there is general consensus regarding immunity post-recovery for confirmed COVID-19 cases. How long immunity lasts is still unclear, but there is enough data to confirm the 90-day period. CDC recommendations state that people who have had COVID-19 in the last three months and are without symptoms are not considered a risk to others. Further, these guidelines state that testing is not recommended during this period. Currently, there are only a few reported cases of re-infection across all identified recovered cases in the world and only one was within the three month exclusion period.

Therefore, students and staff who are recovered at ASW will be excused from testing during the 90-day period after their positive test. These students should continue to fill out the daily health summary, but their answers will not trigger an exclusion.

First, a shout out to everyone involved in UN Day today. We kicked it off with a wonderful starting virtual assembly this morning despite a few technical glitches. Thank you to the many of you who tuned in and the video is now available on our main UN day page. Look further down for the details on the country videos and the quiz competition that carries through the long weekend. Many thanks to all the parents involved in the country videos and the true inspiration of the PTO Board and their guidance throughout!! And special thanks to my team here, administrative, faculty, and support staff for making sure it all came together!

Vacation Plans Now Approved

Thank you to all who provided feedback on our initial planning and thank you for your input on the rolling survey and the staff survey on the projected plan for the upcoming holiday break. We reached our decisions yesterday firming up our plan and confirming this with the Board Executive Committee.

Let me emphasize at the outset that we are not suggesting nor recommending travel during either the coming weekend or during the long holiday break. It is very clear, with recent announcements from the government, that travel, except essential, is not recommended. This is the similar message from governments around the world as we continue to fight growing numbers.

Our plan below is more about managing our return and making sure that we are all safe when classes ultimately resume and we re-enter the building. This guidance is gleaned from our original opening in August as well as our success during the recent October break. These plans worked in a general sense, but with some tweaks, they should work even more smoothly.

We are announcing at this time that ASW will move into full virtual school mode for the week of January 11-15 immediately following the school holiday break. We will be following a mix of synchronous and asynchronous activities for all age levels while we provide for two rounds of drive-through testing of the entire school population. The schedules for this will be communicated well in advance of the holiday along with the plans to make sure that students are fully engaged at home for the week.

Along with this plan is a directive for you to plan to return home to Warsaw no later than January 8th in order to be ready to attend school on Monday, January 18. You should enter your date of return in the app and restart your use of the app no later than the 8th as well. We are following new CDC guidelines on exclusion relative to testing during the exclusion, once at about the third day after return and the other near the end of the exclusion. We believe January 8 gives us the best chance of effectively assuring that there are no infections as a result of any travel. Our testing schedule during virtual week will provide for the recommended two tests to certify this and will put all students back on our regular testing schedule. This schedule will also accommodate those who do not travel allowing for earlier tests on the week prior as well.

Tentatively, we have made similar plans for the two remaining long vacations as follows:

• February Break – we plan to move the PD day originally scheduled for April 2nd to March 1, the day following the break. We plan to do re-entry testing on Friday/Saturday/Monday before returning to school on Tuesday, March 2nd.
• April Spring Break – we are following the October model and moving parent conferences for both Upper School and Elementary to April 12 and 13 to provide for Saturday/Monday/Tuesday testing before returning to school on April 14.

These last items are tentative plans and contingent upon assessing the overall environment after the holiday break. We all remain hopeful of better circumstances that might allow us to relax our posture.

More details about the full structure of virtual school for the week in January will be coming as we get closer to the vacation. Look for communication from our divisional leadership as well as our talented Technology Team to make sure we are ready. Please plan accordingly with your own arrangements.

Please feel free to continue providing feedback on our plans through the rolling survey link in your morning daily updates. Happy to hear from you!

A final word…

Finally, a big shout out to Middle School Speech and Debate last weekend. They had a wonderful virtual tournament and I was pleased to be able to help judge and manage Zoom rooms under the leadership of Mr. James and Mr. Sidaway. It was a brilliant event and inspired performances in both speech and the spirited final debate. Thanks to one and all for a tremendous demonstration of resilience!

Hoping you all received the communication from the ASW Board of Trustees earlier today. In case you missed it, you can also view it here:

In the spirit of this letter, we are planning ahead now for the upcoming Winter Break and the other long breaks for the remainder of the year. Our experience with the recent October break has been reviewed and we expect to roll out our planning next week for your consideration. It is important to note that we are not planning any change to our calendar or days between now and our last day before the holiday on December 18. All of our planning is focusing on the period of time following the holidays and mitigation for safety. You have time to offer input on that decision-making this week. Just add a note in the rolling survey after our Town Hall meeting to share your thoughts on what you think we should do following the holiday. The rolling feedback survey is here:

We are always reviewing your comments in the survey along with your feedback on confidence in our decisions and our approach. The most recent charting of that is here with 96 responses during the last two weeks (1 is low, 10 is high):

I want to thank you for your positive feedback and hopeful we can continue to receive your support and guidance.

Finally, I want to thank our PTO and the many country representatives for their work in getting ready for our postponed United Nations Day next week. We have a live stream opening next week and we have opened the door to national dress costumes on the day which we encourage at all levels.

Our theme: Unity and Peace through Compassion Kindness, and Hope

An important theme for the current state of the world. I’ll send a reminder early next week with details on the Livestream presentation. I know we can’t gather like usual this year, but I expect that we can do many wonderful things here at school to embrace our diversity. Thank you to all who are helping to make this as special as possible.

Our thanks to PTO and all the creative minds of the community as you take on the challenge of our UN Day format. It’s important to continue to value and share our diversity this year under extraordinary challenges. But, we know the parent community is up to this and look forward to your contributions. Thank you in advance for your participation.

We have some drama productions that will still try to get on stage despite our inability to provide the robust audiences we would normally invite. We are following some strict protocols to still give our thespians a platform for developing their skills for the future. It may be different, but they are rising to the challenge. Look for virtual links of these important ac

Finally, I would ask you to please head to the rolling parent survey that I have in each Daily Update. I need a more robust data set this time to give me a picture of how parents are feeling in the moment and in advance of the board meeting on Monday. Please take the time to fill out this survey – it’s only three questions and you are already familiar with it: https://forms.gle/gfzyE3BAonpvHuam8

Finally, we have a board meeting on Monday, November 16, and information on the board packet and details on virtually attending will come out on Friday, as usual.

I hope all had a nice break that has refreshed you for the weeks ahead. We are looking forward to the period between now and the holidays, always with some of our most significant work of the year.

I hope you all had powerful parent conferences. I heard many great things about our virtual structure and how it was an important time with teachers talking about your student. Remember that teachers are available to you at other times in addition to conferences. If you have concerns, please reach out for additional time to talk and know that we try to make ourselves available to address any issue with expediency. As I’ve said at many new parent orientation meetings: Don’t wait! We want to make sure our partnership serves the needs of your children throughout the year.

Big thank you to PTO for their work in being creative once again with our Halloween celebration. Decorations at our entrances really captured the spirit of the season! And the contest on FlipGrid was amazing! We have some great pumpkin artists out there.

We had some wonderful dialog the other day about silver linings and looking for the many things we have learned and better understood through adversity. I came upon a Marilyn Monroe quote that seemed to fit the moment: “Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.” In the coming weeks, we may have to face some things falling apart in order to find the path to greater cohesion and capability. In that journey, we are all together and enriched by our daily accomplishments. Wishing you all the best and welcome back!

One of our core values that sits at the center of our aspirations is our understanding of resilience. We know it through the words of Bounce Back, but it has been the cornerstone of all of our work in recent months as we face the challenge of fear and crisis. There are many aspects to resilience, but often the most important is how we reach out to each other in important and special ways when things seem the darkest and most dismal. Even with six decades under my belt, I still don’t fully understand the equation that inspires us to climb from the depths and find new meaning and direction out of the ashes of disaster.

Some of you know that our new band teacher, Emily Cleghorn, suffered one of the most significant of losses on October 3. She was notified on October 4th that her younger brother Samuel had been killed in a fatal motor vehicle accident. She boarded an airplane hours later to rush home. His obituary is here:

https://www.foresthillspalmcityflorida.com/obituary/samuel-cleghorn

A newly commissioned ensign in the U.S. Navy, it was clear that Samuel was about to launch into an inspirational career. Emily was devastated. But, in the true spirit of resilience, she took charge of all the arrangements for her young brother, working through all the details that saw Samuel returned home to Palm City, Florida with military honors.

But, the sad turn in this tale is that the challenges of this have resulted in Emily deciding that it would be best for her and the family she must now care for to resign her position at ASW. Emily described it as one of the most difficult decisions of her life and she is heartbroken that she will not be returning to the classroom where she was just beginning to develop the bond we all hold dear as a new Warrior. There is much more to this story of loss that is private to the family, but after a long conversation with Emily, it was clear that her resilience in this instance requires that she follows a different path and I have accepted her resignation.

Bounce back does not always take the shape we expect. Sometimes resilience means we must follow a different path. I know that I’ll retain memories of Ms. Cleghorn’s energy and enthusiasm and, even though it was a short sojourn, we will still count her as a Warrior, now and always. Search for her replacement is underway and members of band will get additional information shortly.

A Special Treat

Speaking of things that help us through the most challenging of times, I received a special treat from the Haim Family today in the afternoon and I’m in Heaven! One of my favorites from my youth, Twizzlers, arrived for me just when I needed them most. I’m pictured here remembering my long lost love of that fruity flavor, rainbow style! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! It was a welcome repast!

Aspiring Board Member Training

I’m about to send my message to those who signed up for our session tomorrow but wanted to give one last opportunity for others to still join us. Before 8:00a tomorrow, please.

If you would like to participate, you can sign up by clicking here: 

https://forms.gle/h9VnAN1f32wSRTvo6

Each year, I offer training sessions for aspiring board members. This can include our Board of Trustees, who are always recruiting new members, as well as service on other non-profit boards for charitable organizations. There is general information about serving on the board and specific information about how ASW governance works.

If you would like to participate, you can sign up by clicking here: 

https://forms.gle/h9VnAN1f32wSRTvo6

The BoT is always seeking candidates as new Trustees (U.S. citizens and Non-U.S. citizens) who could serve to fill open positions mid-year or run for elections in the spring. This process, overseen by the Board of Trustees Governance Committee is ongoing throughout the year. The link to that form is here:

https://forms.gle/2XwED5usBYeL94BB7

EpiXpert Testing for Parents

We are ready to deploy testing for parents onsite starting on Monday. Parents can be tested at school for the following costs:

Individual antigen test – 179 PLN (valid for 7 days in OK4School)
Individual PCR tests – 399 PLN
Individual Antibody tests – 85 PLN

The results will be reported through the app and payment can be done at the time of testing at the main entrance. We expect the deployment of pre-ordering via the website sometime shortly after the break. Parent testing would provide for access to cohorts if parents are also compliant with daily attestation through “OK4School”.

Once the website is ready, parents will be able to subscribe to weekly testing for a further discounted price. If we have sufficient parents that choose to participate, we can move parents to pooled testing and lower the price even further for the subscription. More information from Epixpert coming soon.

Events

I want to thank PTO again for helping to manage as we change some of our plans for the time between now and the October Break. As the notes below will share, we’ll need to forgo traditional activities, but still find some joy in the holiday. I trust PTO and parents to find some creative options that are safe and viable under the circumstances.

Final Words

I need you all to be thinking about safety out there. We are getting close to our break and case numbers continue to rise along with the reported numbers today in excess of 6000. Warsaw is on the verge of being declared a red zone. We have our own illnesses that we are tracking, although isolated and contained. For the most part, all of you are doing a great job of reporting on the app and keeping kids home when they are ill.

Please take my words as literally as possible: now is the time to STAY HOME (yes, I used capitals again). We are OK at school and I know you are doing everything you can at home to protect the community. The cases are being largely caught at the door or early enough to prevent spread. Stay safe and stay cautious. We can get through this together.

A big thank you to PTO for their amazing efforts in keeping a tradition alive and well with a wonderful weekend Raffle. I hope our live event on Sunday wasn’t too jagged for you and that we got enough announced to make it a fun and engaging afternoon. Thank you to all of the bidders and for the final tally: US$6265!!

PTO is planning away for upcoming events and I value their energy and enthusiasm. They are working hard to preserve our traditions in new ways, consistent with the challenge of a pandemic — no easy task! But, we certainly have the right people to take this on. You only need to look at the banner on their new “chalet” to understand how we turn lemons into lemonade. Please join me in thanking them for their efforts. Best way to thank them? – Volunteer!!

Students, similarly, are trying to find the silver lining of our restrictions and plan new ideas and involvement. At MS Student Council, one of the big questions was how can we do charity work and continue to serve others. We might not be able to organize a dance right now, but we are still concerned about how we can give back. Many are seeking agency under a new set of limitations — let’s not call them regulations — and the ideas are flowing.

As a school, we welcome collaboration and resilience. We love life and learning at ASW, always looking for ways to bring meaning and coherence to what we do!