What a challenge 2020 has been! We would like to send out a note to the families, students, and staff thanking you all for your support and flexibility at this time. From being open to going with a digital format to supporting us with answering our surveys, the Cedar Crest family has been able to be proactive throughout all the changes that have been thrown our way. We are so proud of everyone and all that we have managed to accomplish! We are thrilled about the quick turn-around in the implementation of the online platform, which continues to provide access to a strong curriculum and the best education available under all circumstances. Your flexibility and input made that possible. Putting the safety and health of our students, staff, and families is always our first priority.
As you are aware, on Monday, April 6th Governor Jay Inslee announced all K-12 public and private schools will not return to their “traditional” school environment for the remainder of the school year. Although this mandate does not specifically include our preprimary program, based on the safety, needs, and requests of our families, we decided to follow this mandate and close our early learning program during the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order, as well. Cedar Crest will continue to monitor and assess the situation and when deemed safe, will reopen our “traditional” preprimary classrooms. When we do reopen our doors to welcome preprimary students back to their respective campuses, we also plan to continue our distant learning program to meet the needs of all Cedar Crest families. Upon our return, we will also follow all CDC requirements to ensure the safety of the entire Cedar Crest community
Prior to Spring Break, we asked families across all four campuses to participate in our online surveys to help us gauge how our distance learning program was advancing to date. Thank you to those who took the time to respond as your feedback is invaluable to the betterment of our program. Your partnership continues to help us navigate these changes to develop the best possible practices for all parties involved. We encourage your continued feedback and thank you so much for helping us navigate this unprecedented situation to serve you and your children best.
Character traits: For the month of April, our character trait is Kindness. Despite being separated by distance, we have maintained an array of activities to encourage the trait of kindness and educate our students on ways that they can exhibit the trait each and every day. We have had the opportunity, through the hardships that many have faced in this pandemic, to see kindness in all forms being exhibited in the world around us. We have encouraged our students to find creative ways to be kind to others, including their siblings, parents, or virtually with friends. We have even encouraged students to think of ways they can be kind to people they don’t know, without even leaving home, such as our 2nd through 5th graders writing letters to local seniors who are part of the most vulnerable population. Along with kindness to others, we have shown our students to show kindness to oneself.
As you all know, Cedar Crest focuses on teaching the whole child, building them to not only be strong in academics but how to be good citizens and positive members of society. We are grateful that our students are witnessing the importance of coming together with the intention of helping each other in a time of crisis.
The Bellewood Elementary staff produced a special message for our students which was sent out to all classrooms and also posted on our Facebook page. If you haven’t already, please take a moment to watch the video. We are missing all of our students and are looking forward to the opportunity to safely welcome them back to campus as soon as possible!
We hope you are happy, healthy and we cannot wait to all be together again!
Until next time …
GO OSPREYS!