December 18, 2020

Dear SDFAS Community,

Holiday Well Wishes

Today is a special day for us all. It marks the beginning of 16 days of break from our daily school routines. It ushers in a period of family closeness and memory-making for our children. We also celebrate four months of fearlessly “doing school” in this abominable Year of Covid.

• We admire and acknowledge the accomplishments of 72% of our student body learning on-campus and 18% of our student body learning from a distance.
• We laud our faculty and staff. Every one of them. We thank them for their commitment to each other, to educating our children, and to our school’s mission.
• We thank our parents. For your courage, your confidence, your trust, your patience, and your support.
• We thank everyone in this community for your disciplined adherence to virus prevention guidelines and school protocols.
• We thank our Board of Trustees for their unwavering support.
• We thank the visionary professionals at UCSD who made the Excite Lab program a reality.

Return-to-Learn (and Campus) Plan for January 2021

There is a slight change to our previously announced plan. It presents a regrettable additional day of inconvenience for many. The UCSD Excite Lab will no longer be able to guarantee a 24-hour turnaround time for test results. For this reason, one that is well beyond our control, we will have TWO days of campus closure with distance learning PK-8 upon our return in January. All students and staff will still be tested on Monday, January 4. If we have all of the results on Tuesday, January 5, our plan is for the school day to begin at the normal time on Wednesday, January 6 for those learning on-campus.

If, however, we do not have the test results back on Tuesday, in that case, we will return to campus for in-person learning on Wednesday, January 6, but with a one hour and forty-five minute delayed start. We will inform the community by Tuesday, January 5 at 5 pm of the need, or not, for a delayed start on Wednesday, January 6. Why the possibility of a delayed start on Wednesday, January 6? The special schedule is needed in the event a Wednesday morning Covid+ result be of a nature requiring the school or families to make adjustments before welcoming everyone back on campus.

Click here for the January return-to-learn (and campus) plan and special Wednesday delayed start schedule (in case of need).

Testing Schedule for Monday, January 4, 2021 (all on-campus persons to be tested in one day)

Please click here for the testing schedule for all on-campus persons PK-8 for Monday, January 4, 2021. Click here for the form to authorize a trained SDFAS staff member to manage the swabbing process for your child(ren). If you’ve already completed this form once in the past, you do not need to do it again.

Je vous souhaite à tous et à toute de très joyeuses fête de fin d’année et pour nous tous une très belle nouvelle année. Rendez-vous en 2021!

Mark