Dear Families,
Happy Friday! A huge thank you to all the grown-ups responsible for organizing today’s Holiday Bazaar, those of you who came and shopped, and the wonderful merchants who supported our school. With the bustling Holiday Bazaar as a great background, our students enjoyed community meeting this morning with a drumming performance by Jessica and Luis’s fifth grade class.
A big thank you to all of our students and families who participated in honoring World AIDS Day. The AIDS remembrance tree is lit up in the lobby now and will be there all next week for people to post any memories they would like to share.
We started our week with our first-ever harvesting of the new hydroponics lab. Students in third, fourth, and fifth grade harvested the lettuce and other crops they had grown and each student received their harvest to take home and enjoy with family. I hope you will enjoy a few pictures from the harvest.
We have had a very high absence rate from illness this week. If your child does not feel well, please do not send them to school. Fevers treated with medicine at home in the morning come back during the school day, the students don’t feel well and are sent home, and then they have exposed many other students to their illness. We have a significant number of cases of COVID, flu, and RSV. Many labs, including the LabQ van on Ave A and 1st Ave which have no out-of-pocket cost for anyone with any type of insurance, do one swab that now test for all of these illnesses with next day results. Please consider a lab-based PCR test if your child is not feeling well before returning to school. Even if negative, they must wear a mask at school for 10 days from the start of their symptoms.
Do not throw away your “expired” Flowflex rapid COVID-19 test kits As a reminder, all of the Flowflex COVID test kits we have sent home have updated expiration dates from the FDA – they no longer expire based on what is printed on the box. Kits should be stored away from heat, extreme cold, and moisture. From the FDA website:
Flowflex Rapid Test Lot Number | Printed Expiration Date on Box | NEW Extended Expiration Date |
COV1100041 – COV1100088 | October 2022 | July 2023 |
COV1110071 – COV1110266 | November 2022 | August 2023 |
COV1120041 – COV1125011 | December 2022 | September 2023 |
COV2010001 – COV2010100 | January 2023 | October 2023 |
COV2020003 – COV2030010 | February 2023 | November 2023 |
COV2030011 – COV2030023 | March 2023 | December 2023 |
Calendar Reminder: Friday, December 16 is a half-day, noon 12pm pickup time for all students due to a PROSE half day.
Have a great weekend!
Warmly,
Maria
