San Leandro, CA – The day many parents have been anxiously waiting for has arrived – Assumption School has reopened its classrooms for in-person learning. On Monday, October 19, the school welcomed back its Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and Kindergarten classes in a hybrid format that will allow students to receive in-person learning for half of the day. Those parents who wish to keep their kids in distance learning will continue to do so.
The school reopens as Alameda County has entered the Orange Tier category of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. This category allows elementary schools to reopen, as long as a COVID-19 health and safety plan is submitted to the Alameda County Office of Education and the Alameda County Public Health Department. Assumption School’s 45-page reopening plan covers procedures on physical distancing, routine testing of staff, daily cleaning and disinfecting of learning spaces, and increased ventilation, among other topics.
Principal Lana Rocheford worked in collaboration with the Diocese of Oakland, Assumption School Board, Alameda County’s Public Health Department and Office of Education and the Oakland Diocese Department of Education to develop a short-term and a long-term plan for education. Reopening today means that the school is focusing on social and emotional support to students in this new normal, staggered attendance, extension and strengthening of digital education tools and routine maintenance of health and safety practices to help prevent the spread of the virus among students and faculty.
Along with the County’s guidelines, Principal Rocheford let the school’s mission help guide her philosophy on the school’s reopening. “Whether before the pandemic or now, and whether we are distance learning or in person, it has always been about how we can create a place where students will feel safe, nurtured, respected and treasured” she says.
Erica Marr, mother to Kindergartner Israel Murray, is excited for her son to regain the benefits of in-person learning.
“It has been a balancing act trying to manage work and both of my sons’ distance learning, all while trying to keep my family safe and healthy during this pandemic. We are thankful that Israel can return back to the classroom and experience Kindergarten in-person this school year. The school has worked hard to get to this point.”
The school will is taking a measured approach by phasing the return of classes by grade level over the course of the next few months. After TK and Kindergarten acclimate to their new environments, the school will gradually bring back first through fifth grades.