Community Briefing: July 31, 2020

Virtual Summer Enrichment Program: Sign Up by 4:00 PM TODAY

We are pleased to announce Virtual Summer Enrichment Opportunities for EPS students! These three-week enrichment courses include art, cooking, poetry, robotics, and much more and are complimentary for all enrolled EPS students. Want to participate in a trivia bowl? Interested in learning the basics of coding? Looking for a good book to read? Join us for our Virtual Enrichment Activities and connect with classmates and teachers this summer!

See the full list of summer offerings here and don’t forget to register here by Friday, July 31.

Pre-Opening Sessions for Parents and Students

At the beginning of every school year, we invest a great deal of time and energy preparing students for the year ahead. New family picnics, fall overnight trips, and orientation activities all serve to build important community bonds and introduce students to one another, their teachers, and the school. This year, we have adapted our orientation program so that it can take place remotely and is spread over the course of several weeks. Each session listed below indicates a primary audience and suggested participation. Please join us for as many of the activities that you are able to make before the start of the school year. In addition, community building will be a main focus of the Advisory program throughout the fall.

  • Parent Welcome Meetings
    • Intended for parents; participation encouraged for parents of new students
  • Student Welcome Meetings
    • Intended for students; participation strongly encouraged for new students
  • Program Meetings
    • Intended for all students; participation optional
  • Advisory Introduction Activities
    • Intended for all students; participation required
  • Advisory Conferences
    • Intended for all parents and students; participation required

Below is a link to the calendar of activities from August 3 to September 8.

2020 Pre-Opening Sessions

For questions about any of these sessions, please contact Director of Student Well-Being Paul Hagen, Upper School Head John Stegeman, or Associate Head of School for Middle School & Student Support Sam Uzwack.

For questions about these activities, please contact Director of Student Well-Being, Paul Hagen.

EPS Online Bookstore (MBS Direct)

The online store opens on Friday, August 10. Note: This link will be shared again, the bookstore site is not yet active.
(Landing Page) EPS Bookstore

Instructions for Purchase and Delivery of Textbooks & Class Materials (to your home)
(Overview) EPS Course Codes and MBS Procedures

Free Shipping Offer
Friday, August 10 through Sunday, August 19 (expires 11:59 PM CDT)
MBS Direct offers Free Shipping on orders over $99 for two weeks after the opening of the bookstore. Standard shipping rates apply outside this window.

For questions, please contact bookstore@eastsideprep.org.

Your Interest in Contactless Curbside Pickup Options from EPS Dining Services

We need your opinion!

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” – James Beard

We often hear how much you love the food at EPS. While we continue to engage in EPSRemote during the months to come, we want you to be able to bring a little EPS home with you…for dinner! Support EPS while taking the guesswork out of ‘what’s for dinner?’ by having a heat-and-serve meal waiting for you at Eastside Prep!

All our meals will be freshly prepared with the finest ingredients, packaged with heating instructions, and brought out to your vehicle by one of our gloved team members right in front of TALI Hall. We will place your meal(s) into your trunk or backseat and send you on your way.

For more information and to express your interest in this service, please respond to the survey below.

EPS Dining Services Curbside Pick Up Option

[Responses due by Wednesday, August 5.]

Student Photo Request – Deadline Extended

As our educators continue to prepare for remote teaching in the fall, it would be helpful for them to have up-to-date photos of each student to reference–especially for new faculty and advisors.  We are asking for a photo (well, two!) of every student.  We’ll post these photos on our internal student information site for faculty to view, and use the portrait images to create ID cards for all students.

Please complete the form located here by August 7 to submit the photo(s). Note: to keep the uploads secure, have your student sign in using their EPS username and password to log in and complete this form. Please email tech@eastsideprep.org if you have any issue logging in. Hint for new students/parents: you’ll use the same universal password (EPS-dash-Date of Birth, e.g. EPS-6/3/2006) that you used to log in to your new EPS laptop. If you are using a non-EPS laptop, first use the student login information to access Microsoft Office at www.office.com and then click this form link once logged into Microsoft Office.

Thanks for helping our team of educators as they continue getting to know our students  (Please note this is a duplicate request for those families new to EPS this year—the original request was sent directly to those families last week.)

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Cheryl Miller, Director of Enrollment Management or Vickie Baldwin, Director of Institutional Advancement.

Fall Trimester: FAQ

Understandably, families have many questions about what remote learning will be like when we begin school in September.  Each week, we’ll answer a few of the most frequently asked questions.

When could we return to campus?
At this point, families should plan to be accessing EPSRemote through the end of Winter Break in January, 2021.  That said, we are monitoring the situation closely. Since our hybrid plans are already in place, we can pivot to a hybrid instructional model quickly and easily.  We revisit our decisions daily in light of changing circumstances and are motivated to be able to provide hybrid instruction as soon as conditions allow us to take that step.

What went into making the decision to go remote for the beginning of the school year?
It has become a full-time occupation in addition to the business of education to track the ever-shifting landscape that is COVID 19. Considering the health and safety of our students, faculty and the extended families of each could, in itself, fill our days.  For the past three months the leadership team has been researching, experimenting, and discussing possibilities that enable us to implement the safety requirements necessary to hold classes on campus. After months of design, studying the recommendations of experts literally around the world, and reconfiguring our campus to meet the safety measures, we established a “hybrid classroom” that would blend the remote learning of the spring with some in person education.

Then the landscape shifted again.  The epic rise of cases and deaths and the lack of availability of healthcare began to march across the country.  Other organizations, including a kid’s camp in Missouri (which had in place a multi-pronged safety approach) had multiple participants test positive.  Even our state, which appears to be doing better than many states (21st in cases, last we checked) is on the rise. Washington state continues to struggle to get control over the virus; following the guidance of the CDC, OSPI, WADOH, and the Governor’s office is a daily activity.  And in some cases, what guidance is available is in opposition to other expert guidance.

We had to pump the breaks on a nearly hatched plan to bring folks back to campus. We share the disappointment of our community and grieve the loss of a school life that we are so proud to provide all the families enrolled.  In the end we concluded that we need to measure our steps.  The threat to all individuals and the unknown long-term impact on health as a result of being infected, make it irresponsible for the school to ask people to take such a risk – especially when another solution is both effective and available.  Without assurance from medical professionals that the virus is understood and potentially containable, we are left with no way to assess the actual damage that may be caused.  We just know that there are more hot spots, and ever climbing death rates; those data points do not support putting 300 people in proximity to one another. ( Assuming that we split the school into cohorts, allowing half the school on site on any given day.)

We will move forward as we always do, with the collective families’ best interests guiding us.

How will school address the social/emotional health of students?
We understand the importance of social interaction for all of our students. We’ve added new virtual enrichment activities for students beginning the first week of August. In addition, a full calendar of meetings with teachers and advisors has been created for August and will be published soon.  But our efforts won’t stop with the beginning of school.   We’ve brought on an employee to spearhead and drive activities for students throughout the year. To address emotional health, we have added one additional full-time counselor to the team.  We’re also exploring creating pods of students for athletic experiences and clubs during the “after school” time slot.

2020-21 Sports Seasons Updated

Upper School Sports

The WIAA Executive Board made a decision to make Cross Country an “alternate season” sport which means that leagues may run cross country in season 1 or season 3 (but not both). In addition, the WIAA moved basketball up one week to allow for less cross-over between sports. The Emerald Sound Conference voted Wednesday to move Cross County to season 3. The rationale behind our decision was based on allowing more student athletes the ability to participate and the likelihood of us being able to run better quality cross country meets. Currently Boys Tennis and Rowing are still slated to start September 7. However, please note that these sports may move to alternate seasons as well. I will update families as soon as those decisions have been made.
Modified EPS Upper School Sports Seasons as of July 31

Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4
September 7 to November 1 December 28 to February 28 March 1
to May 2		 April 26
to June 27
Boys Tennis
Rowing		 Boys Basketball
Girls Basketball		 Boys Ultimate
Cross Country
Girls Soccer
Volleyball		 Boys Soccer
Girls Tennis
Girls Ultimate
Rowing
Track and Field

Middle School Sports

5/6th soccer and volleyball will remain during the school day with remote practices. 7/8th soccer, 7/8th volleyball and MS cross country will be postponed until after the New Year. I will have an updated EPS Middle School Sports Season calendar by the end of September.

We know that exercising and participating in activities and sports are important for our mental health and well-being. In addition, sports are a great way for students to connect with their friends, coaches and classmates. EPS will be offering various sport opportunities for MS and US students during the months of September-November. If you are registered for a sport that has moved to a different season, we will reach out to you specifically about your options. We are currently working on those details and will get that information out to you in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, please check out this amazing video exemplifying how sports unite us and make us stronger—together. It’s a beautiful narrative that we can all relate to during these challenging times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDCMUCUFgkRb0ZHc4Rpq15VRCICA&v=WA4dDs0T7sM&feature=emb_rel_end

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Athletics Director Kim Eng.

Field Experiment

Mr. Mein would like to ask for your help: There is still time to participate in the field experiment for his graduate school class. If you have 15 minutes, have not participated yet, and would like to help, please go to http://rote.azurewebsites.net and take the test. You might learn some fun trivia in the process! The test closes Saturday at noon. Results will be shared after August 12. Thank you!

Health Forms Reminder

Although we plan to begin to begin the fall trimester remotely, having up-to-date health information for all our students is extremely important.  Getting physicals and other appointments handled now, while doctor’s appointments are available, will help speed the process of your child’s return to campus when we are able to move to hybrid and fully in-person learning.  Please keep in mind that forms also take time to process, so a last minute submission will not necessarily allow your child to return to campus quickly.

SchoolDoc can be accessed here.

Please contact School Nurse Stephanie Hinson with questions.

Information/Activity Resources