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Wow, what a wonderful virtual celebration thanks to our Parent Involvement Partnership, with leadership from the PIP Council. A beautiful celebration of community, hope and learning! You can see the full 56 minute experience here: Or check out the individual level learner performances here:

Please find here the recording of the CM family update held Wednesday, April 14, 2021. In summary: Today’s family call gave all of the context and other discussion regarding the current status of COVID in our local community and its impact on our school. The call also discussed the extension of the school day for on-campus learners. The new dismissal times will be as follows: Please remember all on-campus safety commitments, and please review the 20-21 Pandemic (Working) Plan by clicking here.

Please find here the recording of the CM family update held Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021. In summary: CM is delaying the opening of Hybrid until Monday, March 15th. Today’s family call gave all of the context and other discussion regarding the current status of COVID in our local community and its impact on our school. We also discussed two important changes for on-campus learners: Rapid Negative Antigen tests cannot be used for a symptomatic learner to return to on-campus learning. The negative result must either be verified by a PCR test, have a doctor’s note that the illness is non-covid related, or stay off campus for 14 days. All on-campus face masks must be 2-layers or more. One layer face masks (like some gaiter or scarf-style masks), should not be worn on campus. Let us know if you need face masks for your learner. Parents that are COVID positive that cannot completely quarantine from their child, must have their child quarantine for an additional 14 days after the child’s last exposure to the parent during the parent’s 14 day quarantine. (Could be up to 28 days, total quarantine.) CALENDAR CHANGE Friday, March 26th, originally scheduled as a Staff Professional Day, will be an Asynchronous Learning Day. To support the dozens of hours of Professional growth for staff this year, we are reinstating this day. This means that learners in all programs will be OFF-CAMPUS on Friday, March 26th (Extended Learning and the Community Nurtury will also be closed). For most studios, they will work on catch up work or assignments from the Google Classroom - there will be NO live lessons The schedule below could change at any time due to community spread and CM needs. EARLY EDUCATION is open for Hybrid and FSP learners, including Extended Learning for those enrolled. ELEMENTARY AND TEEN FSP LEARNERS CONTINUE ON-CAMPUS, including Extended Learning for those enrolled. ELEMENTARY AND TEEN HYBRID LEARNERS OFF-CAMPUS the week of March 8th. Anticipated re-opening of elementary and teen Hybrid programs on 3/15/21. We will let you know on March 12th if there is any change to this timeline. Please review the the linked hybrid schedule we will utilize for all levels for the Wednesday schedule. As we approach Spring Break, please keep in mind the CDC recommendations and the international travel quarantine requirement for our school families. Please review this requirement in the CM Pandemic Plan for a 7-day quarantine after International travel by ANY HOUSEHOLD MEMBER for learners returning to on-campus learning after Spring Break. We also ask our on-campus families to consider the impact of any other potential travel plans and planning for reducing the impact of any exposures to our school family. Please review the 20-21 Pandemic (Working) Plan by clicking here.

Please find here the recording of the CM family update held Monday, February 22nd, 2021. In summary: Some of you may have heard about adjusted guidelines from BOTH the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Indiana State Department of Health (IDOH) regarding guidelines for reopening schools to in-person learning. Our staff have reviewed the recommendations and have made adjustments to our pandemic plan in response to these recommendations. All of the details of the new guidance can be found at the following links. For the CDC guidance, please visit this document, ED COVID-19 Handbook Volume 1: Strategies for Safely Reopening Elementary and Secondary Schools and for the IDOH guidance, click the link here. Defining Community Montessori’s social distancing/grouping process and groupings of children. CM has been validated by the level of mitigation that we do, in that we have had no community spread that we can identify. However, we do want to be clear with on-campus families that before- and after-care (Extended Learning) enrolled children are in the physical presence of varied children and adults. During the school day, children do stay in stable studio groupings (you may read about his method as “pods” or “cohorts”), with the exception of adults who may rotate in the space for breaks and such as necessary (i.e. if there are staff quarantined, out ill, or absent for other reasons). Community Montessori will still use 6ft to contact trace for any positive cases, and the only quarantine length for symptomatic individuals or close contacts will remain at 14 days. We do not have forward facing classrooms as defined for the 3ft quarantine guidance - in fact, our studios have a large amount of freedom of movement. Therefore, we will continue to contract trace for quarantine from contacts within 6ft. The safest “gold standard” (and least complicated) way of quarantine continues to be a 14 day quarantine for either symptomatic individuals or close contacts of a COVID case. Therefore we will not use additional testing scenarios to allow close contacts to reduce their quarantine length. In fact, in response to other information you may have seen regarding vaccine effectiveness and immunity in those who have tested positive to COVID, we will also require those in these categories to continue to quarantine for 14 days after close contact. The CDC provided new guidelines for definitions of community transmission. (These are different from the “color coded” categories from the State of Indiana’s website). The table guidelines are intended to define the level of community spread (from CDC’s New Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools through Phased Mitigation), and to help schools know what strategies are needed to implement based on the level of county level community transmission. CM is attempting to use this CDC table’s definition of our counties’ status as the determination of level of community spread. FOR MORE INFORMATION, and definitions - reference the original link on the CDC website where this table is displayed: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/indicators.html Ventilation as a mitigation strategy. As a new school building, Community Montessori does have a newer HVAC and ventilation system than some schools. We do have energy recovery units throughout the building that change the air several times a day. Changes to on-campus learning: Both the CDC and the ISDH are recommending multi-layered masks for better protection against spread of COVID. For on campus learning, Community Montessori is requiring that all masks should be two-ply or more. (This may mean some masks, and especially “gaiter” or “scarf” style masks may not provide enough protection.) Many masks have multiple layers of material already sewn in. This is NOT a requirement to wear two masks, though that is also a recommendation from the CDC as a possible way to reduce risk of transmission. There is some good news: The State of Indiana is sending some PPE including KN95 masks, gowns, etc. to school staff. Along with this, they are offering BINAX Rapid Tests (40) to schools. With rapid tests potentially having a ⅓ chance of false negatives (and maybe the same for false positives) we will just use these as one tool in our mitigation efforts. The benefit of this is that with parental consent, we can test learners (in addition to staff) who are symptomatic just before sending them home. If the result is positive for COVID, we can immediately begin contact tracing and quarantine based on the close contacts of the tested individuals, rather than waiting for a test to be done in the community. This allows us to contain any spread much more quickly. HOWEVER, if the result is negative, the individual will STILL have to quarantine for 14 days, unless a negative PCR (non-rapid) test confirms that they are negative. Please review the 20-21 Pandemic (Working) Plan by clicking here.

Here is the recording and slides from our presentation with Heather Benner Ohl, a RDI (Relationship Development Intervention) consultant with The Missing Piece. She hopes this information helps support great partnerships with children and parents. Some families are familiar with the ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) approach when supporting children/teens that are identified on the Autism Spectrum or have additional Pervasive Developmental Disorders. This all falls under the umbrella of neurodiversity where we see all of a child’s special areas of need or development as part of who they are, not something that needs to be fixed. Download the slides from the presentation, here.

Check out this wonderful video of our Islands teens completing our BIG MOVEMENT challenge using any preferred mode of exercise - walking, biking, running, yoga and more! Many teens and their families have been challenged by lack of motivation to move, stay healthy, and stay happy. We know exercise helps all these areas of our lives! So, the Islands staff created this Big Movement challenge to get learners moving, however they chose. The Islands staff provided participant numbers, gatorade, and much more - what a sense of accomplishment to complete with your peers during a pandemic...

Please find here the recording of the CM family update held Monday, February 1st, 2021. In summary: 1. Indiana cases are finally decreasing, however in Clark/Floyd there are still above 18% positivity (unique individuals). 2. Due to the continuing increase of cases statewide and locally, the school will be moving to ONLY Family Support Program on-campus for ages 6 through 14 (6-9 year old program through the Islands level) and up starting Wednesday, February 10th. The Nurtury Program will welcome all learners starting February 8th. Early Education will welcome all learners enrolled in the Family Support program as well as the Hybrid schedule starting February 10th. Elementary (ages 6-12) and Island Teens (ages 12-14) will welcome all learners enrolled in the Family Support Program. Woods teens (ages 14-18) can attend on campus if they have been invited to do so by their advisors. 3. We will make a call on the hybrid schedule for our Elementary and Island learners on a video call a few weeks after the campus opens for our FSP learners. 4. Extended learning will be available for learners attending on campus and enrolled in the program. Please remember our important on-campus reminders, listed below, and please review the 20-21 Pandemic (Working) Plan by clicking here.

Tips from our Teen Advisor, and 6-9 year old Elementary Learner parent, Abby Kerns, on working from home! This is a quick 9 minute video. If you want more, see the link to our parent workshop on creating a Montessori environment in your home - below! A link to our PIP Workshop presentation from December 4, 2019 on "Parenting the Montessori Way":

We wanted to know WHAT IS WORKING IN 20-21? What should we keep? What new things did we learn this year about how to do "school" differently and better? Many of our families joined us for discussions on these topics, and you can find here the recordings of the three CM family town hall discussions from Early Ed and Nurtury, Elementary, and Teen families. If you have further information to share, or couldn't make the meetings, please feel free to email Barbara Burke Fondren directly with your ideas or suggestions!

Visit this link to view a story from the News and Tribune about our CM Community Food Pantry - open 24/7, stop by at any time - no applications required. Visit this page on our website for all the information about the pantry. #CMintheNews #CommunityMontessori

Please find here the recording of the CM family update held Friday, January 8th, 2021. At the end of an emotional and stressful week, with news of both Clark and Floyd Counties moving to “RED” status for COVID infections, and the turmoil in the US Capitol, we had a great discussion today with our families about some strategies for moving forward. We know that working hard to come back to in-person instruction is important to everyone. With this in mind, CM has decided to stay with the same plan created before Winter Break and bring back on campus all Nurtury Learners and Early Education learners on the Hybrid Schedule. ALL of the details are below. Please read this carefully and continue to stay vigilant so that we can try to move forward and keep our school community safe! IN SUMMARY: We miss our children/teens/families! Please stay healthy and read about resources for mental and emotional health in our Courage at CM email, here, and on our INFORMontessori Blog from our School Nurse Consultant, Susan Rothbauer. The schedule below could change at any time due to community spread and CM needs. NURTURY will re-open on 1/11/21 - Nurtury will be opening for all families. Please read additional emails sent directly to you about this program. EARLY EDUCATION will re-open 1/11/21 - Early Education will be open for the Family Support Program (FSP) learners AND hybrid learners. The hybrid Wednesday schedule will be communicated by the studios. Extended learning will be open for Early Education learners only. ELEMENTARY AND TEENS OFF-CAMPUS from 1/5/21 - 2/9/21 - Families enrolled in the elementary and teens will continue to learn OFF-CAMPUS. Extended learning will be closed for these learners. Anticipated re-opening of elementary and teens programs on 2/10/21, and this will be communicated in a family video call at noon on February 1, 2021. PLEASE REMEMBER: FEBRUARY PPC DATE CHANGE - These PPC dates are moved from Thurs. 2/11 and Friday 2/12 to MONDAY, 2/8 and TUESDAY 2/9. This helps to equal out the hybrid learner attendance between Peace and Harmony groups if full Hybrid comes back on-campus. WHILE THERE WILL BE NO LESSONS THESE TWO DAYS, THEY ARE COUNTED TOWARDS YOUR CHILD/TEEN’S ATTENDANCE. Click this link to sign up now for a slot in your studio (be sure to select the correct studio or advisory tab at the top of the sign up). Families should make sure they are connected for text messages (text YES to 67587 to make sure you are signed up). Any closures for COVID and/or inclement weather will be communicated via text. All of this is subject to change based on changing scenarios, community COVID updates, and continuing availability of staff attendance/illness to support the programs. For those returning to campus, please remember this important information: Families should keep their children home if they exhibit any of the symptoms identified on the Parent Screener from ISDH (and linked in the CM Pandemic Plan). This could be up to 14 days, please check with your studio teachers about that process if any situations may apply to you. ANY exposure defined as a close contact for any household member (around the COVID positive individual for 15 minutes) should ABSOLUTELY stay home for 14 days, per the CDC guidelines. We know that making decisions for your child to come on campus during the next few months can be a complicated decision. We understand;). If you were a part of the Family Support Program (FSP) or Hybrid Program, and no longer have a NEED for these programs and prefer to keep your child Off-Campus, please use this Change of Program Form to let us know. You can also use this form to communicate if you want to be added to the waitlist for the FSP program. We appreciate your support, and consideration of others who may need to request these learning options.

Please find here the recording of the CM family update held Wednesday, December 16th, 2020. As the year 2020 comes to a close, we stand united with our families toward a hopeful 2021. We the CM staff have learned so much this year and we are so grateful for your perseverance, dedication, and partnership. You are our heroes and your essential support of your children in this partnership is something we are humbled by each day. IN SUMMARY: We miss our children/teens/families! Please stay healthy and read about resources for mental and emotional health in our Courage at CM email, here. Families should keep their children home if they exhibit any of the symptoms identified on the Parent Screener from ISDH (and linked in the CM Pandemic Plan). This could be up to 14 days, please check with your studio teachers about that process if any situations may apply to you. ANY exposure defined as a close contact for any household member (around the COVID positive individual for 15 minutes) should ABSOLUTELY stay home for 14 days, per the CDC guidelines. NURTURY planning to re-open on 1/11/20 - Nurtury will be opening for all families. Please read additional emails sent directly to you about this program. EARLY EDUCATION planning to re-open 1/11/20 - Early Education will be open for the Family Support Program (FSP) learners AND hybrid learners. The hybrid schedule will be communicated by the studios. Extended learning will be open for Early Education learners. ELEMENTARY AND TEENS OFF-CAMPUS from 1/5/20 - 2/9/20 - Families enrolled in the elementary and teens will continue to learn OFF-CAMPUS. Extended learning will be closed for these learners. Anticipated re-opening of elementary and teens programs on 2/10/20, and this will be communicated in a family video call the week of 2/1/20. FEBRUARY PPC DATE CHANGE - These PPC dates are moved from Thurs. 2/11 and Friday 2/12 to MONDAY, 2/8 and TUESDAY 2/9. This helps to equal out the hybrid learner attendance between Peace and Harmony groups if full Hybrid comes back on-campus. Click this link to access an updated school calendar for your reference. Families should make sure they are connected for text messages (text YES to 67587 to make sure you are signed up). Any closures for COVID and/or inclement weather will be communicated via text. All of this is subject to change based on changing scenarios, community COVID updates, and continuing availability of staff attendance/illness to support the programs. We know that making decisions for your child to come on campus during the next few months can be a complicated decision. We understand;). If you were a part of the Family Support Program (FSP) or Hybrid Program, and no longer have a NEED for these programs and prefer to keep your child Off-Campus, please use this Change of Program Form to let us know. You can also use this form to communicate if you want to be added to the waitlist for the FSP program. We appreciate your support, and consideration of others who may need to request these learning options. As we near the winter solstice, we can rest easy in knowing that the daylight will extend a little each day after. May your families find hope in this season of lights and continue to collaborate, lean on, create community with this extended Community Montessori family. We look forward to the day when there is a steady hum on campus and we can be eye to eye in a 4D way soon. We love and miss you!