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Dear Smyth Families,
With the school year now in full swing, our students are settling into good routines with their classes, their extracurricular activities, and adhering to the health and safety protocols that we’ve put in place to keep them safe - face masks, social distancing, regular hand-washing, COVID-19 testing, and most importantly, vaccinations for all eligible students. We are also committed to providing regular updates to families regarding how CPS is managing the pandemic to keep our learning environment safe.
Things are continuing to trend in a positive direction. The number of cases among students and staff are continuing to decline. The number of staff and students who are in quarantine or isolation due to the virus is also lower than it was a week ago, which means that more of our children and the educators who support them are in the classroom where they belong.
The data from the past week continues to show us that schools are not a significant source of spread for COVID-19, and that nearly all cases of COVID among students and staff have been isolated incidents. I encourage you to visit the CPS COVID site for more detailed information, including data about our school and the district at large.
As you may have heard, CPS is now requiring every staff member to be fully vaccinated or consent to weekly COVID-19 testing. More than 88 percent of the teachers and staff who are serving your children have reported being fully vaccinated, with more CPS employees joining this list each day. Those staff who have not received the vaccine are being tested for COVID-19 weekly to help ensure safety for everyone in our school communities.
Out of more than 18,000 tests administered to students and staff across CPS last week, fewer than 0.2 percent of tests came back positive.
With additional testers coming on board every day, CPS is moving closer to the goal of administering 40,000 tests weekly by the end of this month. The district is also exploring ways to use this testing more strategically, including placing a greater emphasis on testing unvaccinated staff and students. I strongly encourage any parent who has not done so already to register your child for COVID-19 testing at cps.edu/covid.
In the weeks and months ahead, CPS will be increasingly focused on getting as many CPS students as possible vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccine eligibility for 5 to 11-year-olds is being considered by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) next week, and approval for this age group could come soon after. I want you to know that when it does, CPS will be fully ready with a comprehensive campaign to educate communities on the benefits of the vaccine and to help children in every corner of our city get vaccinated.
I thank you for your continued trust during this unusual school year, and I look forward to sharing more updates on how we are managing the pandemic. As always, I encourage you to contact me directly with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
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Celebrating Principal Appreciation Month October has just begun, and there are many ways to celebrate the principals that are leading us forward this school year. Thissocial media toolkit, created by our partners atThe Chicago Public Education Fund, is a good place to start if you need some inspiration. You can alsorecord a message for your favorite principal.
Across the city, our fantastic principals have been working hard to welcome our students back and help them have one of their best school years yet. AtWoodlawn Community Elementary School, Principal LoWanda Bell has a passion to ensure that every student leaves her school better than they enter it. Her approach to cultivating successful students centers on maintaining a culture of respect, incorporating staff suggestions, and collaborating closely with her fellow school leaders.
Supporting our Students Through Outdoor Play Congratulations to Horace Mann Elementary School on the opening of their new Space to Grow schoolyard! This outdoor play structure, along with a track, turf field, and garden, will serve as an extension of the classroom, and will allow the students at Mann to balance time spent learning inside with the chance to move, play, and explore outdoors. Our district is grateful to everyone who made this investment possible, including Openlands, Healthy Schools Campaign, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. This space will be a place where the students at Mann, along with friends and neighbors from the surrounding community, can gather and connect for years to come. Dear Colleagues, Families, and Supporters,
Our first day of classes - Monday, August 30 - is right around the corner, and CPS schools are fully prepared to welcome students back! Teachers return next week to begin planning for the new school year, and we know how excited they are to see their students in person again. They will be working hard these next nine days to create spaces where children feel welcome and supported and where they can get excited about learning.
One group that is especially thrilled about our return to the classroom is our CPS principals, who have been leading with confidence and compassion since the start of these unprecedented times. We have been amazed by their ability to stay positive and focused in the midst of such serious challenges and have no doubt they will be successful in getting our school year off to a strong start. This video features two CPS principals, Principal Bermejo of Edwards Elementary School and Principal Harper of Simeon Career Academy, sharing how they are getting ready to welcome students back to school.
We want to thank everyone who participated in our town hall meetings earlier this week. These were a great opportunity to help parents get their questions answered and understand what school will look like this year. If you were not able to join us for these meetings, you can see a recording in English and Spanish on the district’s YouTube channel at YouTube.com/ChiPubSchools.
We remain committed to providing you with the most up-to-date information on back-to-school, which this week includes new vaccine protocols for student athletes. We are thrilled that this year, our children will be able to return to the extracurricular activities they love, including sports. To ensure any COVID cases are identified quickly among our student athletes, children in grades 5-12 who play a sport will be required to either submit proof of vaccination or participate in weekly COVID-19 testing during their sports season. Parents of student athletes will receive more specific information on this policy closer to the start of school.
To get us all in the back-to-school spirit over the next week, we have created a social media toolkit for parents and families. We also still have a handful of Back-to-School Bashes scheduled in the next nine days, and we strongly encourage CPS families to participate. These events will get you excited, engaged, and informed about the upcoming school year, which begins for all CPS students on Monday, August 30!
Sincerely,
Chicago Public Schools
Helping Students in Temporary Living Situations Enroll in School The CPS Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS) program helps students without permanent homes enroll in school and access the supports they need to be successful. For some students, a temporary living situation may mean staying in a shelter, in transitional housing, or with relatives or friends. For others, it might mean living in a motel, a car, or in different places at different times. It can also refer to a student who is living on their own without their parents or legal guardian. If you or your family is in a temporary living situation and need help identifying a school to attend, enrolling in school, or receiving needed supports, please contact the STLS program at (773) 553-2242 or [email protected]. For more information about the STLS program, visit cps.edu/stls.
CPS is Offering COVID-19 Vaccines to Students and Families Since vaccination is one of the best ways to keep our communities safe from the COVID-19 virus, CPS has now transformed three of our school-based staff vaccination sites to serve our students and families. We will also have vaccinations available at several of our upcoming Back-to-School Bashes and through school-based summer programs happening in several high-need communities.
The vaccine is free and no proof of health insurance or immigration status is required. Children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. For complete details on the vaccine opportunities offered by CPS this summer, please visit cps.edu/vaccinations. For additional questions, families can reach out to [email protected] or call 773-553-5437. Families can also visit vaccines.gov for more information, text your zip code to 438829, or call (312) 746-4835 to find other COVID-19 vaccine locations near you.
CEO Search Update The search for CPS’ next CEO continues to be underway. A final report has been released outlining the progress that has been made over the past several months toward selecting our district’s next leader. For more information, please visit our CEO search webpage.
A Look Inside our Schools We’re a little over a week from welcoming students like Kareinna back to school starting on Monday, August 30. She is a soon-to-be eighth-grader at Perkins Bass Elementary School in Englewood. She excels at math and has a goal of keeping her grades steady by displaying a strong work ethic from the first day of school all the way through graduation. Eventually, she’s considering becoming an anesthesiologist.
Our school leaders like Joseph Campbell, the assistant principal at Ronald Brown Elementary Academy, are also feeling energized about the new year. He wants this to be a “back to the basics” year that meets the needs of all students by helping them focus on three key areas: behavior, attendance, and grades. He is also prioritizing giving his staff members time, grace, and understanding.
At the high school level, our principals are applying what they’ve learned over the past few school years to better support students. Principal Barbara San-Roman is focused on social justice to address opportunity gaps that exist for Black and Latinx males, and Principal Lynn Fields Jr. is making sure that each one of his students has a trusted adult that they can talk to about their goals.
High school students from across Chicago like Ibrahim and Jessica will be returning to their schools ready to make a difference after participating in the district’s first-ever Civil Rights Summer Fellowship. This opportunity has equipped them with the tools they need to spread kindness, create more inclusive learning environments, reduce acts of bias-based harm, and strengthen relationships between students and staff. Important Dates:
Dear CPS Families,
Whether they are sitting in a classroom or at the kitchen table, all of our children have the absolute right to a rigorous, high-quality education. This is why CPS has created a school reopening plan that gives every family the flexibility to decide what is right for them. But regardless of where the learning is happening, we remain committed to supporting every student’s unique needs and we are excited to welcome back many of our students enrolled in pre-k and cluster programs on Monday. For families whose children are returning to school buildings—our top priority will always be keeping your students safe. We would not be reopening school buildings unless our public health officials believed it was safe to do so. We have been working with the Chicago Department of Public Health every step of the way, and we will continue following their guidance and recommendations as we work to maintain healthy learning environments for our returning students and staff. Our schools are staffed and ready for the return of students on Monday, and we look forward to seeing our children reunited with their teachers and friends. For families who have chosen to continue learning at home—your children will continue to receive high-quality instruction and stay connected with their teachers and classmates. We look forward to welcoming your children back to school when you feel that is the right decision for your family. Until then, if you have needs around technology or internet connectivity, please feel free to call our Parent Tech Support Hotline at 773-417-1060. We firmly believe that the best place for students is in the classroom, and have agonized over the struggle so many of our children have experienced during these months of remote learning. With the guidance of our public health officials, we are confident we can reopen schools in a safe and responsible manner for all students beginning with our most vulnerable. We look forward to welcoming tens of thousands of our students back to school in the coming weeks. Thank you for your continued patience and support through these unprecedented times. Sincerely, Janice K. Jackson, EdD LaTanya D. McDade Chief Executive Officer Chief Education Officer Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools |
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John M. Smyth Elementary I.B. World School
1059 W. 13th St., Chicago, IL 60608-1526 Located in University Village, 28th Ward Office: 773-534-7180; Fax: 773-534-7127 General Email: [email protected] |
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Dana M. Turner, Principal
Kiyana Grayer, Assistant Principal Dr. Pamela Smith-Nash, Counselor Jonathan Horowitz, MYP IB (6-8) Coord. Dr. Tina Curry, PYP IB (K-5) Coord. Michelle Crosby, Case Manager Carol Williams, Interventionist |