Dear Uncommon Families,

We hope that you have had a relaxing and restorative break thus far. We are writing today to share an update for our return from break, as we continue to confront the reality of life in a global pandemic. The rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 requires our continued vigilance and flexibility as we return in 2022.

After careful consideration, including close monitoring of governmental guidance, we are making Monday, January 3rd an in-person planning day for staff only, with no student instruction. Students will return to school for full-time in-person instruction on Tuesday, January 4th. We plan to use January 3rd as an opportunity to plan for possible staff shortages due to COVID and to allow both staff and families to have additional time to get tested.

Below are additional expectations for our return next week:

• We remain committed to keeping our schools open, in line with governmental guidance and because we know how important it is for students to learn in-person.
• We strongly encourage you to get your children vaccinated e boosted if they are eligible to further strengthen the protection against COVID-19.
• We encourage you to get your student tested before returning to school on January 4th. To best support you with testing, we will provide free rapid tests for students to any family who would like one. Details on test pickup will be provided later this week.
• To further support health and safety and in-person learning, we are increasing our use of COVID surveillance and rapid testing in schools. Additional information about increased testing, including test to stay policies, will be shared in the coming weeks. We will also continue to implement our layered approach to prevent the spread of COVID while in school and increase our use of surveillance testing for both staff and students.

We thank you for your flexibility during these unprecedented times and hope you understand why we need to use January 3rd as a critical staff planning day. We wish you a restful remainder of the break and look forward to seeing you in person in 2022.

Best,
Cynthia Leger & Michael Blake
Managing Directors of Operations