Hi Friends,
Thanks for all the support you have provided your children throughout the last two weeks of shutdown. Our community continues to hold each other up during these trying times in the service of children. It’s both astonishing and thankfully ordinary how hard our community (parents, teachers, grandparents, etc) works together toward holding a space for children to develop joyfully.
Each of you, for nearly a year now, has done what is necessary to keep your children safe, loved, and educated. For some of you, it has required a shift in career, a difficult decision not to see certain friends or family, a tremendous amount of news intake, being strong and optimistic around your children when you are filled with worry and frustration, being tested multiple times, researching masks, wrapping your head around the differences between RNA and DNA vaccines, wondering if you need more vitamin E, teaching your preschool or elementary child how to ZOOM, teaching yourself how to ZOOM, missing birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, vacations – all the while doing dishes, grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, working and wrestling with whatever your own personal challenges are. What I am trying to say is, take a bow. And not just an ordinary bow. I mean one of those long, career broadway star bows where you bow, look up surprised that people are still clapping, bow again, walk off stage and then have to return for one more deep bow because people just won’t stop clapping. Take that kind of bow. You deserve it.
Nothing short of a moon-landing level of achievement has happened. These vaccines that are rolling out, and how they were developed, is such an extraordinary accomplishment that the scientists should be household names. I have been making many calls over the past several days in regards to our staff being vaccinated. We will receive a call on 1/29 from the ODH to learn where TNSM staff are in the queue. It is our understanding that everyone should be vaccinated before the end of February.
I am relieved to share that no other positive cases have shown up within our TNSM community over the past two weeks. This, we believe, demonstrates that our safety policies and procedures are continuing to work to prevent on-campus spread. We continue to encourage our community members to do everything they can to keep themselves safe outside of school hours. If you feel that your family has increased its level of risk recently, please consider getting tested before returning to campus.
We hope everyone has a relaxing weekend with time set aside for some fun in the snow.