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We recently had a presentation at Community Montessori discussing our Woods program (high school). If you were unable to attend feel free to check out the presentation recording and slide deck linked respectively. This is a great opportunity to see how the Woods incorporates Maria Montessori's Philosophy and in-depth perspective of what their schedule might look like and how we help them transition out of high school and into the world! Click here to view the presentation slideshow: Woods presentation slideshow

With families not being able to visit our building as much this year, we wanted to share a few pictures from all of our studios for you to enjoy.

Check out our PIP Workshop from Thursday, Dec. 16th by watching the video here! We are so excited to get started with the conceptual designs for our new outdoor master plan - starting with a natural playground philosophy and in partnership with Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds.

Visit this link to view a recording of the call, and read on for more details and information on the updates and adjustments. Many of us are hoping for a safer environment soon with the recent announcement of vaccination of children aged 5 and above. Fingers crossed!! Please remember, you can visit www.ourshot.in.gov to sign anyone (including all people ages 5 and up) for a free vaccination at many locations throughout the state. To bring us in closer alignment with the current recommendations of the CDC, and help support the families that choose to participate in the vaccination effort, we are sharing some changes to our COVID Plan effective Monday, 11/29 with relaxed protocols with respect to COVID and contact tracing for vaccinated people. A summary of the changes beginning on Monday, Nov. 29th is given here: A NOTE ABOUT COVID VACCINATION RECORDS IN COORDINATION WITH OUR NEW COVID PLAN ADJUSTMENTS: BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY TO KEEP THE CONSTANTLY CHANGING COVID VACCINATED RECORDS UP-TO-DATE, FULLY VACCINATED LEARNER RECORDS MUST BE SHARED EACH TIME YOU ARE REQUESTING LEARNERS/SIBLINGS TO COME ON CAMPUS AND - CM MAY ADJUST THE PLAN ON A CASE-BY-CASE SCENARIO DEPENDING ON SYMPTOMS. THESE RECORDS WILL BE EMAILED TO THE STUDIO TEACHERS AND YOU AGREE NOT TO BRING LEARNERS ON CAMPUS UNTIL YOU HEAR BACK FROM THE STUDIO TEACHERS. SIBLINGS OF FULLY VACCINATED LEARNERS: For VACCINATED symptomatic learners, their siblings will not need to stay/be sent home with the symptomatic sibling. Only the sick learner will stay home. Email your teachers with the vaccination record and symptoms when you are reporting your absence. For UNVACCINATED symptomatic learners, ALL UNVACCINATED HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS, INCLUDING SIBLINGS OF THE SYMPTOMATIC LEARNER SHOULD STAY HOME. However, VACCINATED siblings or household members could return, but need to agree to send their vaccination record to the teachers each time and test the unvaccinated symptomatic learner for COVID as a part of the return process.​​​​​​​ FULLY VACCINATED LEARNERS WHO ARE CLOSE CONTACTS OF A COVID POSITIVE: CM learners may choose to share vaccine documentation with the school. If this documentation is shared BY EMAILING THE RECORD OF FULL VACCINATION TO THE STUDIO TEACHERS EACH TIME and the individual is considered a close contact of a person who has tested positive for for COVID then:​​​​​​​ They may return to campus immediately. They should CLOSELY monitor for any symptoms developing for up to 14 days from the date of close contact. And families agree to Enhanced Precautions (per Indiana Dept. of Health guidelines) while at school:​​​​​​​ Close contact must remain masked AT ALL TIMES during the school day. Close contact must maintain extra (at least 6ft) distance from others during lunch because this requires them to be unmasked. School staff should encourage as much social distancing as possible throughout the school day, and also prioritize hand hygiene (as already established in the CM plan.)​​​​​​​ They are recommended to have a PCR test on days 5-7 after exposure. If they develop symptoms, they should not return to campus and they may do one of three things to return to campus:​​​​​​​ A negative COVID PCR should be shared with the studio teacher, or the family will provide a note that states that the illness is NOT COVID from a medical professional, or the learner should not return for 14 days.​​​​​​​ The learner should also be fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications and improvement of symptoms before returning back on campus.​​​​​​​ STAFF COMMIT TO MONITORING ENHANCED PRECAUTIONS: For those learners returning as vaccinated close contacts as described above the school will follow Enhanced Precautions (per Indiana Dept. of Health guidelines). The staff commit to monitoring these additional precautions for the full 14 days after a potential close contact. Please remember, IF YOU ARE TRAVELING NEXT WEEK, per CDC guidelines, here are recommendations for domestic travel for unvaccinated people on public transportation (e.g. bus, plane) OR if individuals have been in large crowds while travelling (where 6ft social distancing was not kept) families are recommended to follow these two parameters: Get a Covid PCR test 3-5 days after travel and share it with your child's teacher, AND​​​​​​​ Self-quarantine at home for a full 7 days before returning to on campus learning. (The day you return from travel will be day 0.)

We invited the News and Tribune to visit Community Montessori this week, and they published a wonderful, inspiring story about our new exchange teacher in Turquoise Studio, Joy Elaigwu and her husband Johnson. They joined us on a J-1 exchange visa from Nigeria and we have loved having them as a part of our school community. Visit this link to read the story.

UPDATE: Families interested in subbing for the 2022-2023 school year can watch the video linked below but MUST also participate either in person/watch the video online to be part of the subbing list. The Parent Volunteer and Sub Workshop for the 2022-2023 school year is scheduled for August 30th. More information to follow We LOVE involved parents and we have a great process to get families set up to substitute. Even if you have subbed in the past, please attend this workshop every year for updates and reminders. AND, remember another teacher is also in the studio with you -- so, you will just be assisting them. For those that were unable to attend, please see linked below the video some of the presentation materials that were shared during the workshop, as well as instructions on how to complete the steps to become a sub or volunteer. Powerpoint presentation in PDF Format - to follow along with the video Communications Hints Handout Please view the entire video and complete the questionnaire here (it will submit online). Once we receive the form, the Curved Desk will complete a background check so that you are added to the pool of substitutes that teachers can reach out to. Tracy Pickman-Yates is our staff substitute coordinator and will be reaching out to the parents on the list of approved substitutes. You will be added to this list once you complete all steps in the process. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF OUR SCHOOL!

Thank you for your continued participation in the dialog about Community Montessori's COVID Safety plan for the 2021-2022 school year. We hosted a call on August 25th giving an update on Covid in our community and sharing some tweaks to our plan. You can view that call here: Also, on the call we discussed options for Covid PCR testing in our community and shared a Google Sheet of options that can be found here. Please feel free to make comments about additional sites that we can add to the list. For those of you who were with us last year, we will be reinstating the Family Support Program (FSP), to support staffing absences and any necessary reduction to on-campus learning due to increased infection. This program will only be used if necessary. Although we are not able to reduce any fees at this time for the paid programs like our early education program (3 and 4 year olds) or our extended learning program, we will remove families from our extended learning program without notice if you request to do so. If you want to re-enroll, you will most likely be placed on a waitlist. What is the Family Support Program(FSP): This program is for families on the main campus, not enrolled in the Community Nurtury. The FSP program is for families who are in the most need for their children to be ON CAMPUS when we need to reduce the number of children on campus. PLEASE, only enroll in this program (by using this survey) if you have an exceptional need - ie. you do not have back up childcare and both parents work outside the home. If a child is enrolled in the FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAM (FSP) they can attend M-F during their regular school hours through the Family Support Program. This program will be filled on a first-come basis through September 3rd. If you feel you have a secondary need you can sign up to be on the waitlist through the same survey. There are limited spots for the FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAM available that will be filled on a first-come basis. There is no additional cost for this program. When all the spots are filled, any new enrollments will be added to a waitlist. If FSP learners need to be at school before or after their standard school hours, they will need to enroll in the Extended Learning Program. (If they are not already and if spaces are available.) You can email Prerana to check for available spots for your learner(s) or to be added to the waitlist. Families who are not in need, but would like to be considered for this program if spaces are available, can enroll on the waitlist for the Family Support Program on the survey. Interested families can request participation in the Family Support Program for each of their enrolled learner(s) here. Please know that you must submit one survey for each enrolled child/teen to be added to the list for the Family Support Program. To reduce the chances of needing to enact the Family Support Program(FSP), we are moving up our Substitute Workshop to this Tuesday, August 31st at 5:00pm. You can RSVP here and the link to the workshop is here. If you already signed up for the workshop, you will receive an email from Signup genius with the changed date for the workshop.If you are pre-registered but unable to attend due to this change, we will reach out to you with a recording of the workshop! We are also making arrangements to provide Chromebook devices for learners that need to be off-campus either due to a quarantine situation or because of illness. Families that need Chromebooks can email Glenn requesting one and he will support you with the next steps.

Thank you to all the families that participated in the New Family Orientation that was held on Tuesday, August 17th. We shared information about our school, Montessori information and answered questions. If you were unable to attend, a recording of the meeting is available here to view:

An update on the COVID Safety plan and pandemic impacts for Community Montessori. Check out all the information here:

This virtual workshop focused understanding and supporting Anxiety Among Children and Adolescents. We are happy to share the recording of the July 21st family workshop - Supporting Anxiety Among Children and Adolescents. Thank you to those who were able to attend! We hope you find the information and strategies useful as your family prepares for the school year ahead. We are also excited to continue the growth of the Courage Cabin, our partnership with Lifespring - click HERE for all the info on how to get your family connected with professional mental health services.

You can find here the recording of the CM family update held Wednesday, July 15th, 2021. Please take the time to read our plan in detail by clicking the link below. We have also linked the Family Handbook for all other important information regarding the operation and philosophy of the school. COVID SAFETY PLAN FOR THE 2021-22 SCHOOL YEAR This document will be used as an addendum to the Family Handbook.

Please find here the recording of the CM family update held Monday, May 24th, 2021. In summary: We discussed possible plans for the next school year, and the responses from the May 2021 Family Survey. Plans will be adjusted throughout the summer as the staff works to finalize the details.