We want to welcome you back to Hidden Hollow Elementary School for the 2020-21 school year. We are excited to begin a new school year and to have our students with us for face-to-face or as part of our Hidden Hollow on-line instruction. With either of these settings, your children are our students and we are grateful for your trust, support and involvement as we serve together as partners in their education.
As you know because of the concerns with the COVID-19 virus, some things will be done differently this year in public schools across the country. But what will not change at Hidden Hollow Elementary School are the following:
1) We will work each and every day to provide a safe, learning environment for all who walk through the doors of our school.
2) We will help each child to learn, progress and prepare for citizenship in our great country. This year the academic emphasis will be on reading proficiency.
This was determined by teachers, administrators and parent representatives on our School Community Council last Spring. Students who can read have a better chance at success in all school subjects.
Some things that will be different:
1) All children who attend our school will be required to wear masks or face shields. Masks must conform to dress standards, like any other clothes. The handbook that covers these areas is also on our web page.
*Exceptions to wearing masks are: while eating a meal, during physical activities at P.E., recess, or for medical reasons cleared with a doctor’s note.
2) We will practice social distancing at our school this year. In classrooms, students will be spaced further apart. In hallways, this will also be monitored and enforced. The same will also be true while they eat meals.
3) If at any time you feel that your child has the symptoms that are included in information that the Alpine School District has sent to you and posted on their web site or you can learn from your family physician, that include:
Fever, cough-not related to allergies, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing. chills, muscle aches, sore throat, can’t smell, no taste…….
You should keep your child at home for at least 48 hours. If we call you to pick up your child for any of these symptoms, you should plan to keep them at home for at least 48 hours.
4) If a member of your family catches the COVID-19, your child should be quarantined for 14 days. If COVID is brought into our school, we will work with our school nurse and the Utah County Health Department about what steps to take and will then communicate information as needed.
Note: Please ensure that your contact information remains current at all times, with second, third and even fourth options for our office staff to use should we need to contact you.
5) Teachers, aides, custodial staff and others will work each day to clean desks, tables, and all areas of the building that are accessible to children, employees and visitors. They are being trained, with monitoring and updates provided regularly.
6) Students and staff will sanitize hands throughout the day, ie, before lunch, after recess/p.e., etc.
7) Few items will be sent home since upon return they would have to be sanitized or quarantined. As such we ask parents to:
a) Send students with lunch bags of food instead of lunch boxes if they do not purchase school lunches. Why? Lunchboxes could become contaminated and bring germs into the building. Bags will be disposed of.
b) Meals for breakfast and lunch will be “Grab & Go”. It will be a sack with items like a sandwich, fruit, milk and a snack.
c) Only one book will be checked out of the library per student. When these books, or others like Guided Reading materials for parents are returned they must be quarantined.
8) Playground equipment, ie, slides and swings, does not have to be sanitized in the same way as what we will do inside the building. Classroom balls will be taken care of by classroom teachers and P.E. class equipment will be cleaned daily by the P.E. teacher. Again, students will sanitize their hands after usage.
9) Attendance will be taken daily for all students. If your child can not attend school or on-line on any given day, please excuse your child just as you normally do. However, attendance is encouraged every day for all students who are healthy. This optimizes learning.
10) Each student should come the first day with his/her mask on. We will also provide each student with a lanyard and another mask so he/she can keep the mask on it and not lose it. The lanyard will stay at school. As you provide one mask and we do the same, this will help parents with respect to when they clean one mask, and while the child is wearing the other one.
11) Students will be provided with a bottle of water on the first day of school. Each day they will take the bottle home to be cleaned that night and then bring it back with them the next day. Water fountains will not be used at school this year. Water dispensers on each floor and sinks in classrooms will be used to refill water bottles. This will prevent the spread of germs from water fountains.
12) We ask that parents provide children with ear-buds that will connect to computers instead of the headphones used by different students throughout the day. We have the headphones, but cleaning sets every time students use them is not practical.
13) We strongly encourage that pencils, pens, erasers and pencil sharpeners be provided by parents and left at school and a set of these things also be kept at home. This will maximize efficiency and minimize spread of germs as well. We suggest that you provide a pencil box or plastic holder for each child so that these things can be kept in it, and housed inside his/her desk, so that only he or she uses these items at school. If you are not able to do this, please let your child’s teacher know so that we can assist with these items.
14) A survey will be conducted as we start the year so that we can gather information in order that we can increase awareness and better ensure we know how to serve your child. Teachers and parents are encouraged to communicate by email as needed.
15) Grade level recesses will be staggered by grades to control numbers together. These recesses will last for 10 minutes and be supervised by personnel. Masks are not required by the Utah County Health Department during physical activities.
Note: Our school nurse will be training the faculty and staff before the school year starts regarding other specifics related to health and safety measures. She will consult with school administration regularly as issues occur.
16) More information will be coming from the school about on-line learning at Hidden Hollow ES. Our district curriculum department is completing work on this during the next two weeks and will send it to us to disseminate with parents, much like we did last March thru May.
17) Open House: It will be conducted online by each team this year. It will be on August 17th. Here is the schedule for each grade:
1st grade-9:45-10:15
2nd grade-10:30-11:00
3rd grade-11:30-12:00
4th grade-12:15-12:45
5th grade-1:00-1:30
6th grade-1:45-2:15
A link will be sent prior to the Online Open Houses.
Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers will communicate information as they arrange assessments and will be in contact with you.
18) We know that change is challenging and brings concerns. This sometimes results in stress for some of our students. Parents may want to contact our school counselor, Mrs. Erin Brown at 801-610-8721 to schedule appointments for students, as needed.
Together we have a common goal for your children, our students:
Keep them SAFE. We know that everybody wants this. Sometimes we need different options to ensure this. Alpine School District has provided families with different ones.
Something to consider:
As we often consider our rights and what we want to do or not want to do, particularly in this peculiar era where it can feel like we are being constrained at times, each of us needs to keep in mind want we really want which is:
ALL of US want to work together to be SAFE. If we keep this at the forefront of all we do, we will increase the likelihood that all of us will stay healthy. That is a GOOD thing.
Let’s make 2020-21 a great year for our students, our community and each other. Go Hornets!
Hidden Hollow Families and Faculty: