Dear Parents/Families:

As we are busily planning for a safe and successful reopening next week, it would be wise of us all to remember that the best laid plans can and often do go awry.  This is new to all of us and we have to remember that we’re in this together, with each other and for each other.  Yes, there will be growing pains and that’s normal as we work to make everything go as smoothly as possible.  We are in the middle of a global pandemic and things can’t be the same and they won’t be the same – adaptibiility and flexibilty in our approach will serve us well.

Extra capacity on our school busses should be added by the end of the month and should alleviate some of the congestion that we are expecting on our lot, especially in the afternoons.  In the interim, to assist us in getting this as right as possible, there are things we can do to help.

• If you are dropping off your child(ren), take a minute between now and Wednesday morning and drive on to the parking lot and pull up through the kiss n’ ride lane to show them where they will be dropped.  We will have staff in front of the school on Wednesday morning to direct children to the front door and they will already know who their teacher is (e-mails will be sent to you on Tuesday morning from your child’s teacher);
• To make things easier, seat your child behind the driver in your vehicle as that is closest to the sidewalk and makes for an easier and quicker exit;
• Don’t store schoolbags in the trunk of your car – keep them with your child as this will speed up the drop off;
• We are working with the Town of Portugal Cove- St. Philip’s to secure some traffic control for the first day – please obey their directions;
• There will be neither time nor space to stop for photographs – please do this at home or drop back to the school parking lot at some point while school isn’t in session;
• While there is only a twenty minute window for drop-offs, we acknowledge that this may indeed take longer and we are prepared for that.  Safety is our goal and if it takes forty minutes, that will be fine; and,
• Afternoon parking will be a challenge but again, we are working with the town on traffic control.  Please consider carpooling or asking a friend/neighbour to pick up your child if possible – all we ask is that if someone else is picking up your child then you should notify the teacher.

With each other and for each other…that should be our mantra as we ease back into school life.  And, as always, if you have specific questions or concerns, it’s far better to direct them to us at the school so we can work through them together with respectful dialogue.