Hello, Families!

I am thankful for all of your support this week as we made our way back from winter break amid the rising covid numbers, new staff members, and new classes. The students have been amazing and you have offered love and support in so many ways. Your grace and patience has been much appreciated by Gwen and me as we continually make sense of covid protocols and support new community building in our classrooms.

Please look below to learn more about what is coming up for families at High Tech Middle!

Warmly,

Sarah Strong

Interim Director, High Tech Middle

This week Evan Phillips, Trisha Miller, Ruth Collinot, and Heather Gaunt joined the teacher team at HTM. They had amazing first weeks building community and preparing to launch a semester of Project Based Learning with their students. We are so grateful to have them as a part of the community! Check them out in action below.

Lunch Duty : If you are able to show up at 11am o to support with lunch duty, the teachers would appreciate that very much! Please click here and sign up for a slot! Sarah will reach out to you that morning for specifics. There is also a slot to sign up for admin support for Gwen and Sarah on Fridays. If you are able to do this, we will coordinate with you to before Friday and decide on some small projects to work on that day.

Project Support/Coaching Sports:If you have any connections to guest speakers, field trips, or sports coaches, please fill out this form. The form lists specific project connections you might make. Thank you!

You may have already received one (or multiple) emails about your child being a close contact. If you haven't, with the rise in cases it is very likely you will. Please do not be overly alarmed. When we send these messages about close contact in schools it is done based on shared class rosters, and so it means that your child was in a shared class with a student or adult (masked), and not that we have strong reason to believe they were very close to someone.

Dear High Tech High Families:

Our return to school amid growing COVID-19 cases in the community understandably raises questions about what we are doing to keep students and staff safe and if schools could shift to distance learning.

California’s governor, state superintendent of public instruction, and local public health officials have maintained a commitment to in-person instruction, noting that less than 1% of California schools have closed due to coronavirus outbreaks since the start of the school year. High Tech High has taken measures to ensure that we are following the federal, state, and local guidance and protocols necessary to continue safely operating.

At what point might a shift to distance learning occur? There is no specific case threshold at which state and local public health recommend a temporary closure of a classroom or school. Guidance from the California Department of Public Health states that “a temporary school closure due to COVID-19 should be a last resort and considered only after all available resources have been exhausted in an attempt to preserve in-person education.”

Should a situation arise where we’re seeing high rates of in-school transmission or experiencing operational challenges (such as our ability to maintain sufficient staff to provide in-person instruction) due to COVID-19, we will work with the San Diego County Office of Education and local public health officials to make decisions that support health and safety as well as continuity of learning for our students. Please note that High Tech High is following the isolation and quarantine guidance issued by CDPH that is now reflected in the latest COVID-19 decision tree, updated Jan. 5, 2022.

We understand this is a time of uncertainty and concern. We will work through this together to keep our students, families, and staff safe. You can help by ensuring your family is vaccinated (and boosted if applicable); tested for COVID-19 if they have been exposed or are presenting symptoms; and keeping family members home if they are ill. This is especially important to remember.

As the pandemic continues to evolve, we are trying to respond and adapt quickly in order to keep our schools open in a safe manner. We appreciate your support and understanding, and we will continue to keep you updated.

Sincerely,

Colleen J. Green, Ph.D.

Interim Chief Operations Officer

The amazing Perla has been getting our before and after school programs up and running again and has some amazing clubs, sports, and activities coming up in the coming weeks. We will keep you posted about dates for those. In the meantime, make sure your child is signed up for aftercare in the powerschool parent portal. Here are instructions from Perla on that:

You will need to sign in to Powerschool in order to fill it out. Incase you don't have the link, here it is: https://powerschool.hightechhigh.org/

If you do not remember it please feel free to reach out to our site manager, Veronica Martinez (vemartinez@hightechhigh.org).

The form to fill out can be found in the "Information" section on the left hand side under "forms".

The form is titled "The Zone: 2021-22 Before and After School Enrollment Form"

• Mon, Jan 17: MLK Holiday (No School) Event

• Wed, Jan 19: "Sips with Sarah" - Coffee Chat with the Director

• Fri, Feb 18 & Mon, Feb 21: Presidents' Day Holiday (No School)

• March 24: Tentative all-school exhibition

For more dates, please check out the HTM School Calendar online.

Thank you to the HTM Community Partners, your generosity helps to make the work we do possible. Show our community partners some love by clicking on the images above to visit their websites.