Executive Director Wednesday Update: Grateful for a Strong Second Day!
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Who this primarily affects
This update is mostly for our 7th and 8th grade families. All other grades remain on campus and on schedule as usual, and there's no change for those families.
Great progress today
We had some wonderful progress today in getting the Mulberry Boys & Girls Club approved for our temporary grade 7-8 location. The Mulberry Department of Building Code confirmed, based on their most recent inspection, that the site is approved for our temporary use as a school and meets the requirements of Building Code Section 468. This is a tremendous relief, and a huge step forward.
Where things stand
With building code approval in hand, we moved immediately to the next step: radon testing. We've contracted a vendor, who is on-site now collecting data. The equipment requires a minimum of 48 hours of data collection. On Friday afternoon, the vendor will retrieve the machine and read the results.
The radon results are one of the the requirement for our health inspection, and we anticipate having them by Monday.
What's next
Here's how the rest of the timeline could play out:
If the results come back clear, and the health department is able to inspect quickly, we could open as soon as Tuesday.
If there's a delay at any point in this process, the radon results, or scheduling the health inspection, our physical opening date could be pushed back.
If radon is detected, we would need additional time to address it before moving forward.
We're hopeful for a clean result and are hoping for good news. We'll let you know the moment we hear.
From today's blended learning classroom
A note from our middle school teacher on how today went:
We had a wonderful first day of school! Students were introduced to all of their classes, shared what they did over the summer, and had a lot of fun getting to catch up with each other and start forming new friendships.
At our closing meeting today, we addressed any issues encountered throughout the day and worked to resolve them. All technical difficulties and course selections have been corrected based. The revised schedule for this week, along with the revised class groups, is available in Google Classroom, along with tomorrow's meeting links, to make things easier for students.
If you notice an issue your student didn't mention to us today, please let us know and we'll work to resolve it as quickly as possible. We expect tomorrow to run even more smoothly now that students are comfortable with this temporary format, and we're excited to keep working with your students!
A note of thanks: carline
This one's for our whole school community, not just our 7th and 8th grade families.
We want to say how genuinely pleased we are with how carline has run at our current school. A few notes and reminders as we settle into our routine:
Please don't queue on the road. Since we're located on a highway, cars lining up outside the property is a significant safety concern. We appreciate your patience as everyone finds their rhythm.
Pickup locations by grade: Toddler, Preschool, and Kindergarten families should pick up at the back door. Grades 1–6 pickup is at the front of the school.
Thank you for merging so carefully. We've noticed how thoughtfully families have been navigating traffic, and it does not go unnoticed.
Thank you for staying off your phones during dismissal. By our observation, our families have been fully compliant with our request not to text or be on the phone during pickup. A distracted driver is a dangerous driver, and we're so grateful for how seriously you're taking your children's safety.
The results are showing already: on our first day, dismissal ran until 3:20 PM. Today, we wrapped up by 2:58 PM, with no cue after 2:45 and just a handful of students remaining in the office until 3:15 PM. That's huge progress, and it's because of you. All of the families in our carline had their car tags visible.
Remember to practice your child's car tag number with him or her.
A reminder for our middle schoolers: office hours are available tomorrow from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM for any student who needs additional help.
For only our second day of school, we are so, so thankful for our families, for your commitment to attending, for supporting our students, and for keeping everyone safe on the road.
A special thank you to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Polk County
We also want to take a moment to recognize the Boys & Girls Clubs of Polk County, and specifically their Mulberry site, for so generously opening their doors to us.
Their commitment to supporting all children, not just those normally enrolled at their site, has made an enormous difference for our school. Their mission is to enable all young people, especially those who need it most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible people, and for more than 70 years, they've provided kids across our community with a safe, positive place to go. Watching them extend that same generosity to a school that isn't even theirs says everything about who they are.
If you're as grateful as we are for the support they've shown our students, we'd encourage you to consider a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Polk County:
We'll keep you posted
We're committed to keeping our families informed every step of the way, and we'll share the next update as soon as we have news on the radon results, and we're genuinely hopeful this is the last hurdle standing between our students and a stable classroom home.
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