School Reopening Plan

Office Hours: 7:30am-4pm

Lower School Hours: 8:15am-3pm

Middle School Hours: 8:15am-3pm

Late Arrival 

When a student arrives after front gate has closed, the parent must park and walk with their student to the front door.  After ringing the buzzer, office staff will greet them at the door and have them sign the student in.  Masks must be worn during interactions with staff. We will give the student a tardy pass and they go to class.

Early Pick Up

Due to the disruption of the classroom when a student leaves early, we request that the parent only do so only when absolutely necessary.  In those cases, the parent should phone the receptionist as early as possible with the student’s name and the time of pickup.  At the designated time, the parent will park and come to the door, ring the buzzer and announce their student’s name.  A member of the office staff will bring the student to the door and have the parent sign them out. Masks must be worn during interactions with staff. Students will not be called up to the front office after 2:40pm.

Dropping Off Items During the Day

This practice is discouraged, however, we acknowledge that there will be instances when this will happen.

When a parent must bring something to their student during the school day, there will be a box or bin right outside the front door.  The parent may place the item in the box and ring the buzzer to alert office staff that something has been delivered. The parent does not have to wait for a reply. At the soonest opportunity, a member of the office staff will gather items from the box and manage the distribution.  It is the parent’s responsibility to clearly mark each item with their student’s name, and we request papers be sealed in a ziploc bag.  Staff cannot guarantee the time that items will be delivered to the student.

If a student forgets lunch, we will provide them with a school lunch and your account will be charged.

Who’s Allowed on Campus?

In order to minimize the risk and maintain a healthy environment for our students and employees, we will begin the year by strictly limiting access to campus to students, faculty, staff, and other essential personnel. We will work with Kesher to explore creative ways to continue our parent involvement while away from campus.

At the beginning of on-campus learning, we are unable to provide morning care while maintaining all of our health and safety protocols. We will continue to evaluate the COVID-19 situation and institute morning care as soon as possible.

Students should arrive during regular drop off hours.

Additionally, there will not be morning davening until further notice.

Each morning prior to leaving for school, parents will need to answer a few COVID-19 screening questions utilizing the app rSchoolToday.

Arrival times to school will be staggered between 7:45am and 8:15am to limit the number of students arriving at one time for morning screenings / temperature checks.

Departure will be staggered between 3:00pm and 3:20pm.

Timing for Afternoon Pick Up:
2:50 – 3:05 Families with youngest in kindergarten and grade 1

3:05 – 3:15 Families with youngest in grades 2, 3 and 4

Please contact the JCC regarding Club J. The JCC informed us that due to Health Department guidelines and capacity limitations, middle school students cannot walk to the JCC after school.

• The nurse’s office is now located in the administrative building.
• A separate quarantine room is designated for students showing viral symptoms to isolate while waiting to be picked up (also in the administration building). The nurse will clean this area with a bleach disinfectant solution after each child.

If your child must be picked up due to injury or illness, Nurse Lisa will call the parent. The pick-up must occur within 30 minutes.  Upon arrival, the parent will park and come to the door, ring the buzzer and announce their student’s name.  Nurse Lisa will bring the student to the door, discuss anything necessary with the parent, and have the parent sign the student out of school. Masks must be worn during interactions with staff.

**Please note, any student showing viral symptoms will be  placed in a mask (regardless of grade) and sent to the nurse.

Students in first grade through eighth grade will need to wear face coverings on campus. Kindergarten students will still need to wear face coverings when walking between their car at the drop-off / pick-up area and their classroom.

• Our face covering policy has been adjusted to face masks being the only approved face covering while on campus. Masks should securely cover the mouth and nose, and be secured via ear loops or straps that wrap around the head. Masks with exhalation valves and vents, as well as face shields, gaiters and bandanas, may not be worn. Face shields worn along with a mask are welcomed.
• Masks will be worn throughout the day except during outdoor, socially distant specials (physical education, art, and music), while eating lunch, and during scheduled mask breaks outdoors.
• Additional outdoor mask breaks will be coordinated during the school day, and we are evaluating opportunities to increase outdoor time.

**Any mask breaks will take place outside.

We recognize that students will need to acclimate to wearing face coverings on campus. We will provide initial training to educate students on the proper protocols regarding when and how to appropriately remove their masks at various times during the day. Additionally, we ask that you practice these techniques with your children at home to prepare for the return to campus. We are confident that students will be able to successfully follow these guidelines, and we will continue to provide support to students as needed. 

We cannot stress enough the importance of the parent/school partnership when it comes to illness in our current environment. If your child wakes up not feeling well, please do not send him/her to school. He/she may opt to participate in the Virtual Attendance Model for as many days as necessary.

Please click HERE for the Pardes sick policy. 

The cleaning protocols for the school have been established based on CDC Guidelines along with any federal, state or local orders.

Routine cleaning and sanitizing will continue nightly, after school. An EPA-registered grade cleaner and disinfectant will be used daily on frequently touched surfaces in work areas, such as door handles, sink handles, desks, and learning tools. Additionally, all staff will be provided with cleaner to be used in a reasonable manner as needed in between classes, at workstations, and in common areas. The playground, sports equipment, bathrooms and any other shared items or areas (if they are being used) will be cleaned by our custodial staff utilizing EPA approved cleaning products. 

These are the specific CDC Guidelines for areas exposed to the COVID-19 virus, which we will implement at Pardes should an exposure occur: 

1. Close off all areas used by the person who is sick with COVID-19 symptoms. 
2. Wait 24 hours before cleaning and disinfecting. 
3. Clean and disinfect (using EPA approved commercial grade cleaning and spraying equipment) all areas used by the person who is sick, such as classrooms, bathrooms, and common areas. 
4. Once the area has been appropriately disinfected, it can be reopened for use. 

Both the MPR and Sanctuary will be repurposed and may be utilized for classroom space or PE.

Physical distancing is an important tool in mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

There is new furniture in the classrooms with desk all separated and facing one direction.

There will be no shared school supplies this year. Parents were sent a list of basic supplies to purchase for their children, which students will keep in their backpacks (middle school) or personal cubby spaces (lower school).

The campus has been marked with traffic patterns and social distancing markers.

Bathrooms and playgrounds have been zoned for specific pods.

Students will be able to refill their water bottles at the water hydration stations located around campus. Water fountains will be turned off for added hygiene safety.

Hallway lockers will not be used.

Students will have scheduled times throughout the day for additional hand washing. Several additional hand washing stations will be added in various locations around campus. Hand sanitizer will be located around campus.

While the hot weather continues, students will eat inside their assigned classrooms with their pods. Once the weather cools, we will adjust so that pods can eat outdoors. Students can opt to bring lunch from home or order school lunch. Meals ordered through the school lunch program will be packaged so that student receive an entree box, a “salad/sides” box, and a drink. We will no longer offer a community salad bar. Salad dressings and silverware will be in individual packages as well. Lunches will be delivered to students in their pods.

There will be scheduled outside breaks by pods throughout the day and zones where recess will take place in order to keep students separated.

For Art and Makerspace, teachers will come into the classrooms as opposed to students going into the Art and Makerspace rooms. For PE and Music, these will mainly be held in the MPR/Sanctuary or outside.

There will not be electives or symposiums at this time.

We are not going to have fall sports this year. When it gets closer to the winter sports season, we will make a call depending on the situation relating to COVID-19.

At this time, there will be no in-person clubs, but we are open to the idea of considering virtual club meetings and will look into this as an option.

Students will continue to hone their acting and musical skills in class while larger theater productions are on hold. We will use this time for growth and knowledge to dive deep into subjects we normally wouldn’t be able to. These lessons will culminate into showcases of small plays until we are able to hit the big stage again.

We will continue to monitor update as the COVID-19 situation changes.

We will continue to monitor and update as the COVID-19 situation changes.

At this point, we will be unable to have any class field trips.

Lezlie Strolle

ithelp@pardesschool.org

Anna Lock

alock@pardesschool.org

Jodi Woodnick

jwoodnick@pardesschool.org

Lisa D’Onofrio

ldonofrio@pardesschool.org

Susan Blease

sblease@pardesschool.org

480-991-9141