Reopening Timeline and Plan
Dear Brightworks Community,
We invite you to join us this evening at 4:30 for a town hall presentation of our reopening plan.
We want to thank our families for their patience this past week as we’ve worked with all parties to craft a re-entry plan that is caring, safe, and facilitates high-quality education. We know the best education happens when teachers feel supported. As we balance the needs of families, students, and collaborators we feel it’s important to take our time in order to get this right.
We have submitted our application to re-open the Elementary and Middle School. If we are approved, we will open for Elementary students on October 5th and Middle School students on October 14th. What follows is a digest of the most important points of our re-opening plan. Attached you will find a slide show with additional information including daily/weekly schedules, our outdoor learning plan, and the Brightworks pledge. Additionally, you can look through our revised Fall Plan on the website. We will be sending out a recording of tonight's event tomorrow.
Elementary Reopening October 5th
The first week (October 5th-7th) will be half days
Drop off in Golden Gate Park for 100% outdoor learning
BWX satellite HQ established in the park staffed by admin
Garnet, Lapis, and Citrine bands will be based in Golden Gate Park. We will establish a satellite HQ. This is the equivalent of the Brightworks Office in the park. There will always be at least two admin person working from this location. Satellite HQ serves several purposes including off-campus drop off location, health screening point, first aid, storage for extra supplies, and general support and back-up. Each elementary band will be supported by a support collaborator.
Middle Reopening October 14th
The first day (Oct. 14th) will be a half-day
Middle School drop off will be on-campus
Outdoor learning spaces will be available in the backyard
Coral, Amethyst, and Jade bands will be based on campus at 360 9th Avenue. They will be using both indoor and outdoor learning spaces as well as Mountain Lake Park. We will have a BWX campus HQ staffed by admin.
High School Reopening November (TBD) The SF Department of Public Health has not yet released a high school re-opening application. We will submit our application at the earliest date possible for consideration.
What families should do to prepare for the reopening
Fill out Survey indicating if you’ll be sending your student in for Arc 2
Review and sign the Brightworks Pledge
If returning from travel, quarantine for 14 days
We highly recommend getting tested the week before we return
This public health crisis has been a potent reminder of how each of our actions impacts others. As we come back together as a community it will be our duty to protect those around us--especially those who are more vulnerable--by acting responsibly and following public health guidelines both in and out of school. This starts in the 14 days before we return for in-person learning. We will be sending out our Brightworks Community Pledge for you to sign next week.
A distance learning option will be available for any student who is unable to join us in-person. We ask families to commit for the entire arc to their decision to use our distance learning option. Decisions about our hybrid learning model hinge on what students will be taking advantage of our distance learning option. We ask that you fill out the survey by next Monday, Sept 14th.
We will be testing our entire staff before returning to in-person learning. While we will not be collecting evidence of negative COVID test results from students in order to return to in-person learning, we do highly recommend families get their students tested in the week before we return. Here are some resources for finding testing locations: This map shows locations that you can get tested without a referral and this map shows locations that don’t require insurance.
Best Wishes,
Mackenzie and the Leadership Team