Category: school

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!

I know you are probably sick of me writing it, but the reality is clear that we are not normal yet and it is likely that we will have to adopt a new normal for the long term. With another case identified today, we are reminded that the prevalent nature of potential infection is always with us. There were major milestones that hit around the world in recent days and yet many questions remain unanswered. We are trying to understand something that may not be understandable. We are struggling to do our best and harness the odds.

I fear we will now find ourselves in a constant cycle of identifying new cases and doing our best to minimize exposure to the rest of our community. There is no one solution that is possible, but it is clear that the path of infection is impossible to predict. Thus far, we have stopped further spread in its tracks and our protocols on that front are working. But, the odds that we would see nine infections by this point in the year were low. This means that community spread is higher than what is reported and there is risk that exists around us. Our learning from recent cases is not crystal clear.

Some were certainly travel related, either by a relative or a family member. Travel increases risk, that much is clear. With some planning trips even this coming weekend, I can only offer a word of caution and note again the stipulations of our rules adjudicated through our survey. October Break brings another layer of challenge to this and we are hopeful of your attention to these parameters.

Some of our infections were simply community exposure. As we move about, we need to be thoughtful about risk in the general public and avoid outside activities that bring potential harm to the community. We can never be sure about where this might emerge. The government announced changes to address this by lowering the number allowed in public gatherings from 150 to 100 – an attempt to limit these vectors of potential exposure. Our OK4School app is about informing and educating you on these potential lines of concern so that you can protect yourself.

At school we can’t avoid risk entirely. We stated that at the outset and students are here in these hallways through informed consent, with parents understanding the risk.

On the long weekend, we will be making updates to the OK4School application and will communicate these tomorrow after final checking. It will tighten some areas and make some parts easier for you to address. We are growing as a community in our response and our thoughtfulness. Step back to assess as numbers climb and understand the difficult task we face of unifying around a new normal of consistent practice and holding our families and our community close and protected.

Recent Evening Events All Successful!

Want to thank everyone for their participation in key orientation events provided by both the Upper School and Elementary, the traditional Back-to-School. Many thanks to the teachers for their creativity and energy in delivering this content in a new format and to the administrators, coordinators, and counselors who all had a hand in making it memorable and relevant. As always for virtual events of this nature, many thanks to the IT folks in the background working hard to make all of this function effectively! And, thanks to parents for your interest and your partnership again renewed.

Remember that the side benefit of doing these virtually includes being able to watch this content over and over again in the video archives. Please ask if you don’t know where to find it or check eNotes in the relevant sections below for guidance.

Testing, Conferences, and October Break

First, we have been working over the last couple of days with our planning relative to the upcoming long weekend, the October break, and our original plan for conferences for both Elementary and Upper School. I’m going to try, in the next few paragraphs, to capture the details of our planning that finally came together this morning with collaboration and final decision this afternoon.

We have three issues that we are trying to address:

1. Generally, maintain our COVID testing schedule to minimize expirations and keep re-testing within a grace period of no more than 3 days after the expiration date.
2. Minimize time out of school and coordinate days for families.
3. Provide for transition back to school after a longer vacation.

So, our most immediate concern is the upcoming 4-day weekend that includes a professional day for staff on Thursday and a three-day weekend for all of us to take a well-deserved break. For this and future 4-day weekends (or, with slight differences, 3-day weekends), we will do the following relative to COVID testing:

• Students normally scheduled on Thursday will be tested the day before on Wednesday.
• Students normally scheduled on Friday, will be tested on Monday.

This means that the Thursday students will expire one day before their regular day the following week. Friday students will be expired for two days before their Monday testing. We can’t adjust the app for the expirations, so we will inform you of this consequence and you can send your child to school even though the app might show that you are not OK4School due to an expired test. This will be the same plan for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend in November and our general strategy for three-day weekends when they occur.

For conferences, we want to combine tackling this along with our plan for returning to school after the October break. With this message, we are changing both our ES and US parent conferences to the same dates right after the October Break:

CONFERENCES for ALL GRADES are now November 2 & 3!

These are the two days right after the October Break. This is different from prior communication from both principals and they are correcting their messaging now to communicate this change to all families and staff.

We had long considered that we would need to have re-entry testing for students after long breaks and many parent comments in our surveys pointed this out. It took us a bit to put all the pieces together and this is our plan.

First, all conferences are virtual and had already scheduled for students to stay home while teachers connect with parents via virtual connection appointments, similar to our Spring meetings with parents. Second, while we have typically scheduled upper school and elementary conferences at different times, there is nothing that precludes us from doing them together and we believe this is better for families with students in multiple divisions.

Next, during November 2 & 3, we will arrange for the transition back to school by setting up for drive-through testing for all students, family-style during these two days. With extra support, additional stations, and extended times, we think we can accomplish the large task of testing the whole school during this time period. So, for two days, each family will plan to do the following:

• schedule and participate in online conferences for all Upper School children in the family
• schedule and participate in online conferences for all Elementary School children in the family
• schedule one family appointment for drive-through testing at school

To be clear, our advice for October Break is that we do not believe travel is warranted at this time. But, if you or a family member travels during the October break, you must be aware of the following:

• If you travel, you must return 72 hours prior to your family appointment for drive-through testing. If you are scheduled to test on Monday, you must return by Thursday.
• If you travel and you visit high-risk countries, you must wait 7 days before testing and return to school

I know that some will bristle at the suggestion, but there is still no clear evidence that travel is safe at this time. Numbers are still climbing and most areas are seeing significant increases in the number of cases. I’m hopeful that most of our families will remain in or near Warsaw for the upcoming vacation, as I have suggested previously. To that end, if you do not travel during the break, we will have additional drive-through testing appointments scheduled for Friday, October 30, during the break to relieve some of the stress the following week. We will have all the times and details out shortly along with directions on scheduling both testing and conferences.

Fire Drill

We will have our first official fire drill on Friday this week at 10:30a. This is our only announced fire drill of the year. Last week’s bad sensor didn’t count and not everyone was here, so this is the annual test of our procedures. Students at various levels have already been practicing, so we feel we are ready for this. If you are in the parking lot on campus or attempting to enter, please be prepared to wait until the drill is complete before you will be allowed to move. We will also send a test message from our Emergency SMS system on the day.

U. S. Election (for U.S. Citizens only)

If you are a US citizen and still have not sent your absentee ballot, we are pleased to inform you that, like four years ago, ASW, in consultation with the Consular Section of the US Embassy, is offering an opportunity for US-citizen members of our community to turn in their absentee ballots at ASW. Given the unusual circumstances, this year the Consular staff will not be able to assist you in person with registration or casting a ballot. Therefore, to assist you in voting, ASW will put out a ballot box at the main entrance area where you can drop off your ballot during school working hours (8:00 a.m. through 4:30 p.m.). Outside of school hours, you may still hand your envelopes to the security guards at either gate who will then bring them to the school and add them to the ballot box. Please make sure that you have properly sealed your ballots and placed them in a correctly addressed envelope with proper postage attached. You can print a postage-paid label HERE!

The deadline for turning in your ballots at ASW is September 30th, 4:30 p.m. The ballots will then be collected by the Consular staff and dispatched via diplomatic pouch.

Please find here the Embassy’s most recent message addressed to U.S. citizens about voting and their website at https://www.fvap.gov/. Should anyone still have questions, you are welcome to e-mail the Consular Section of the US Embassy at  ACSWarsaw@state.gov or call +48 22 504 2784.

Let’s take a break from our COVID conversations and enjoy our stability for the moment. Testing is stable, response to infections has worked, wristbands largely adopted, surveys going well. So, let’s talk learning!

This week and next, you’ll have virtual opportunities to learn from teachers about our program this year. Similar to my message about getting into our stride, we are ready to help you understand our programs in more depth so that you can interact with students at home. Open houses will necessarily take on a virtual format this year, but that means you’ll have content you can also watch that is recorded and you can go back and review. Each division has its own program and structure, so watch for messages to explain and eNotes from principals below should help you navigate.

Knowing more about the learning your child is attempting should lead to conversations at home that gives you greater understanding of accomplishment. Find ways at home to have these conversations and use listening starters like “I heard you say…” or “Can you tell me more about…” and let your child expand their reflections. Use SeeSaw at Elementary and Google Classrooms Guardian Summaries in the Upper School to chart the learning path in more depth or help you with questions you can ask. Watch or participate in the Open House or Back to School together as a family and think about how you will create a habit for reflecting on school each week – where does it fit and how best to make sure you take the time for it. Research has shown that reflecting on learning is critically important for kids to see value in their efforts and connect parents to the partnership. We value all of you in this process of building meaning together!

One key measure from the annual Parent Survey just before July that continues to be a strong measure for us is this statement: My child is engaged and interested in learning at school. 97% of the ASW community either agrees or strongly agrees that this is the case. And, for this statement “The ASW curriculum provides my student with the knowledge, skills, and understanding for the next stage of education.” we have 92% either agree or strongly agree. Both of these are strong indicators of engagement and the framework for accomplishment to thrive. Thank you for your feedback as we work to continuously improve in all areas!

One additional note: We had an impromptu fire drill today just about dismissal time. Most elementary students were already gone, but most of Upper School was just about to be released when it went off. Our scheduled drill is next week, so this was a bit unexpected even though elementary just got done practicing yesterday. The alarm was caused by a faulty sensor in a middle school classroom, so there was no concern and we evacuated both the building and the buses to our safe areas while the usual checks were performed. My thanks to the parents who waited patiently in the parking lot while we completed our protocol.

It is usually about this time that we celebrate finding our stride for the year as we complete the “getting to know you” phase of our annual journey. No more poignant than this is the assessments we do to determine readiness for the tasks ahead of us.

One of our usual tools for this is what we refer to as the MAP test. This is the short name for the Measures of Academic Progress that has helped assess and understand the dynamics of the academic growth of students over many years in our school along with other students and schools around the world. We use this tool in conjunction with other measures of student progress to plan and tune our program each year to meet the specific and special needs of students. This year, in particular, it is an important benchmark for how kids are doing despite the circumstances of our challenges.

There are many instruments of this nature that we refer to as achievement tests. An achievement test is most easily understood as a comparison between your child’s level of performance and the average range of thousands of other kids of similar age and accomplishment who have taken the same measurement. It’s a statistically measured test that uses mathematical formulas to estimate current placement and growth over time. We never use the MAP test by itself in measuring academic growth, but look for MAP to help inform us along with other classroom measures and teacher observations of student performance. But, MAP can help us look both at individuals for greater understanding and at groups of students to determine how we might focus our attention for support, professional training, and resources.

Remember that we are also equally focused on social-emotional growth, so measurements of this kind should inform our teaching and learning, but should never be used in isolation as a grade or judgment. In order for instruments of this nature to be accurate, we must remove all stress associated with the activity and allow students to demonstrate the best of their true abilities. The best decision coming from this, or any other assessment, is to plan more effectively for the next best learning activities.

Middle School is partway through this process and High School and Elementary will follow shortly. We look forward to sharing our insights from these tools as part of our ongoing collaboration with you through meetings and conferences in the near future.

Cafeteria is Serving Up a Great Lunch!!

I just want to offer a shout out to our cafeteria, Solivoda, for the wonderful job they are doing under difficult circumstances. For elementary, they are serving individually packaged lunches with extra care for our youngest learners. For Upper School, kids have a selection of lunch choices served in special containers consistent with our hygiene protocol. I can’t applaud them enough for their efforts in bringing a healthy competent lunch to us and following all of our guidance for packaging and safety, including the compliance of all their staff for testing and daily survey. Please consider reviewing the menu and joining the program online at https://asw.solivoda.com/