Truth’s Continuous Education Plan for SY2021-2022 was approved by OSSE in August of 2021. To see elements of our plan, please click on the links below:
Message to our On-Campus Families (October 30th, 2020)
Dear Truth On-Campus Parents,
We hope this message finds you, your student, and your family doing well.
We have greatly missed seeing your students on campus over this last week, and we have appreciated your support, positive thoughts, and flexibility through the adjustment to remote learning.
After considering numerous factors and engaging in extensive discussion as a staff, we have decided that the upcoming month is not the right time to return to the same level of on-campus operations that we had prior to last week. This decision has not been an easy one. The quarantine has taken a significant toll on a number of staff members, including many with compromised family members, and we know it has done the same for some of you.
With the holidays approaching, we are reluctant to put staff or students in a position that might elevate the risk of not being able to spend time with family. Given the plans that some families and staff have shared, DC Health guidelines dictate that many would already likely need to quarantine for the 2-weeks following Thanksgiving and New Years (or even through the holiday if we had an incident prior). We also know that, for many of our students, the change to their regular routine has been difficult one, and we hope this decision will allow them to maintain a consistent schedule and avoid the situation recurring over the next 1-2 months.
We know there will be a wide range of responses to this news, but we hope you will understand that this decision was not made lightly.
We do plan to continue with a scaled back (and likely optional) version of on-campus operations, but we do not want to rush into a decision on what exactly this will look like. We know that as a family you need to be able to plan for the upcoming weeks and months, so we wanted to share this initial message sooner rather than later.
We will have more information over the course of the upcoming week on what the new version will look like. We anticipate this scaled-back experience lasting until mid-January (two weeks after the winter holiday is over), at which point we will have had the chance to reassess and consider both the feelings of our on-campus community and the state of the District as a whole.
We know this is not ideal, but we are proud of the strong relationships that our staff have been able to build with our on-campus students over the first 9 weeks of the school year. We are confident that this will serve as a strong foundation for this transition.
Please feel free to write or Justin (jlessek@truthpcs.org) or Denise (dedwards@truthpcs.org) directly with thoughts and concerns.
Media Update (October 27th, 2020)
We believe in the importance of COVID-19 testing to keep our community safe, and we have partnered with @curativeinc to bring free testing to our students, staff, neighborhood, and anyone who needs it. This is a saliva-based test so the testing swab will only be put in your mouth (NOT your nose!), and it’s more accurate than a rapid test with results being confidentially sent to you in a day or two. We will share out the opening date of our kiosk and the hours of operation very soon!
Message to parents and stakeholders (October 25th, 2020)
Thank you to all for your positive thoughts in response to last week's update regarding a positive COVID test in our on-campus community. We wanted to follow up with some quick updates and to share some of the steps that we've taken:
On Friday we offered free follow-up COVID testing for any on-campus students and staff that were interested. A majority of individuals tested, and all results came in as negative.
As of right now, no one is showing any symptoms.
This is of course excellent news, but given that the virus can take more than just a few days to manifest we are still messaging the importance of being careful and monitoring for any symptoms. We are also continuing to offer free and convenient testing for any and all on-campus staff and students that would like it.
We are continuing to coordinate and share updates with DC Health, the DC PCSB, the Mayor's Office of Education, and OSSE Health.
Due to the nature of our model, instruction was able to continue without any disruption last week, and we anticipate the same being true moving forward. Nevertheless, if for any reason you or your student is experiencing anxiety or stress related to the experience then please let us know directly so that our counseling team can support.
Despite negative test results, we are mandated a 14-day closure of campus operations out of precaution, and so if any of your students’ squads had upcoming on-campus gatherings scheduled then please be on the lookout for updates regarding postponement.
Thank you,
Justin Lessek Denise Edwards Ryan Abel
jlessek@truthpcs.org dedwards@truthpcs.org rabel@truthpcs.org
Message to parents and stakeholders (October 22nd, 2020)
Dear Truth families and friends,
Early this morning we received news that a member of our on-campus Truth community tested positive for COVID-19. All of our protocols were immediately set into motion, and we messaged both our on-campus and our remote families. We then personally called each on-campus family to let them know that our section of the building was getting temporarily closed down and that all on-campus staff and students were being asked to quarantine for the next 14 days. Instruction was able to continue without disruption, and all on-campus classes shifted to virtual.
Our building management company is currently keeping our portion of the building closed, and they are conducting a deep clean for sanitization.
We contacted DC Health to make them aware, to receive guidance, and to provide the necessary details for contact tracing. The DC Health team assured us that the steps we took and continue to take are the recommended ones.
Right now we feel very fortunate to have identified a positive result before any symptoms were shown, and that we were able to act on it swiftly. We have formed a partnership with Curative Laboratories, and are providing free testing to all on-campus staff and students on Friday, 10/23 from 11:30am to 1pm outdoors near our entrance off of South Dakota Ave.
We have a great Counselor that is making herself available to all staff and students that need to talk or get support, and we will be continuing to personally touch base daily with each staff member for wellness check-ins and to ensure that they are monitoring closely for any physical symptoms. Extra support will also be extended to all families of on-campus students (and even those remote learners that may feel anxious).
While our immediate priority is supporting our on-campus community to make sure all are monitoring themselves for any physical symptoms and doing okay from a mental wellness perspective, we will also be planning general next steps with testing and consideration around a return to campus in November.
Again, we feel fortunate to have received this result from a proactive screen and to have caught it despite no one showing symptoms. It is extremely important that we all remain cautious, however, and we hope you won’t hesitate to write or call us directly with any questions or thoughts.
Thank you,
Justin Lessek Denise Edwards Ryan Abel
jlessek@truthpcs.org dedwards@truthpcs.org rabel@truthpcs.org
Resources from DC Health and the CDC:
A listing of symptoms can be found here
General guidance for contacts of confirmed positive individuals can be found here
Information on testing sites around DC can be found here
Our OSSE-approved SY 2020-21 Continuous Education Plan can be found here.
Message to parents and stakeholders (August 21st, 2020)
Truth’s Safe Opening Team is made up of school leadership, parents, Board members, and staff. This team worked hard over the spring and summer to prepare a start plan that prioritizes both safety and parent choice. Truth has an additional COVID Safety Team made up of leadership and on-campus staff that meets weekly to assess on-campus protocol and any updates or changes to make moving forward. We are proud to be able to continue, for as long as the District's health guidelines and our own staff capacity permit, to offer two modes of learning:
1) On campus, full-time, 5 days a week;
2) At home, full-time, 5 days a week of remote learning;
A draft of our Continuous Learning Plan can be found here. (*Note: this document is revised on an ongoing basis and the linked plan may not represent our most up-to-date procedures and protocol.)
More plan details are available by clicking through the slide deck below (just click on the image to transition through slides):
The plan has been created with the following priorities in mind:
The safety of students and staff
Consistency so that parents and guardians have as reliable and sustainable a schedule as possible
Social-emotional support and opportunities for students to build positive relationships
Delivering on our instructional model
If you are interested in joining the Planning Team or if you have any questions, please write us at: info@thetruthschool.org.