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Students return to SIA on Campus Carin Simon
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Fourth Grade social distancing line.
trelitz International Academy students returned to the Sandler Family Campus for in-person learning on August 24. After almost six months away from their school and their friends, SIA students were clearly excited to be back. It was a unique and busy summer as SIA prepared to return to Campus. Since March 13, when SIA went virtual, along with every school in Virginia, Heather Moore, head of school, was determined to open safely on August 24 as planned. It was important to open on time, she says, to be able to better meet the educational, social, emotional, and childcare needs of the Strelitz families. As word spread that Strelitz was opening, the admissions department became flooded with inquiries. Many families who had been satisfied
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8 | Jewish News | September 7, 2020 | jewishnewsva.org
grateful to be back on campus and didn’t with their neighborhood public schools seem to mind this unusual start. applied for admission. The International On the first day of school, students Baccalaureate Program, Jewish education were ready with their personal assortment and face-to-face learning, made the deciof cute masks to express their style, parsion to switch an easy one for many ents were patient in the drop off line, and families. By mid-summer, classes had even the littlest learners were happy to waitlists. be handed off to their teachers. The stuOpening school safely during COVID-19 dents have been resilient and the parents is not an easy task. It requires the implementhrilled and grateful. tation of many safety measures, including Jasmine Amitay, an SIA parent, wrote no parents or visitors on campus, mask on SIA’s Facebook page, “Thank you for wearing, social distancing, desk screens, everything you did (and keep doing) to and a daily health screening conducted by keep our kiddos safe! The boys had the parents, along with student temperature best 1st day ever!” checks during carpool drop off. SIA is creatively planning to gather “Our COVID team began meeting in virtually for parent and family events. May to begin researching and planning Many SIA community highlights such as a way to open school safely this fall,” says Moore. “The team met regularly and developed safety protocols and ordered equipment to ensure we could open. Once we had a plan in place, we opened summer childcare for early years on July 6 to help our families who had been in need of childcare for their little ones.” During the planning stages, SIA Sam Krupnick, first grade. created a COVID parent handbook to help everyone acclimate to the new rules that parents, faculty, and children would need to follow to maintain a safe environment. A virtual meet and greet took place the Friday before classes started so that students could meet their teachers and see their classroom. Parents Noa Cohen in Kindergarten working at her desk. and students were
