Coronavirus Response & Resources

Dear Kindergarten Families,

We are thrilled to share with you that we will be bringing our Kindergarten students back to campus for staggered in-person learning beginning October 20th. We are over the moon that we will finally be able to welcome your little ones into their physical classrooms!

This past Friday, we received support from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH) to bring our Kindergarten students to campus in accordance with the most recent State rules, which allow for a limited number of students with the highest needs to return to campus for specialized support and services that cannot be met through distance learning. While we look forward to when we can bring all of our students back to campus, the LADPH has supported the return of only our Kindergarten students at this time, as they are most in need of in-person instruction for their academic learning, as well as their social and emotional development.

Dear Laurence Families,

I hope that the first few weeks of virtual learning are going well and that last week's Back to School Night events were informative and helpful for you and your family.

I'm writing to share some initial exciting news! We have received support from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to move forward with bringing our Kindergarten students on campus for staggered, in-person learning. While we look forward to the time when all students can return to campus, the LADPH has supported the return of only our Kindergarten students at this time. 

Beginning on August 17th, our Administrative Team will be hosting grade level coffees to discuss the start of the 2020-21 school year and answer your questions! In order to allow us to prepare, please submit your questions ahead of time. You can access the question submission forms and Zoom information for each coffee from our website by clicking here.

I am thinking of all of you and your children as the start of the school year is quickly approaching. I also want to thank you for your responses to our recent parent survey. Our administrative team, school directors, faculty leadership, and Board of Trustees have been working day and night to prepare for the 2020-21 school year. We have been diligently readying Laurence's campus for our students' return to in-person instruction, while simultaneously planning for a potential remote start to the school year. Although I had held on to the hope that we would be able to start in person, it has now become clear that we will need to start our school year in an all-remote learning environment.  

I hope that you and your family are safe and healthy, and finding ways to enjoy the summer months. Yesterday, Governor Newsom announced new mandates for both public and private schools regarding opening this fall. A school will be allowed to open for in-person learning when the county in which it is located has been off the state's monitoring list (which tracks positive COVID tests, hospitalization rates and capacities) for 14 consecutive days. If this requirement is not met, schools may only reopen remotely. Los Angeles County is currently on the monitoring list, however, the start of our school year is still weeks away. While we are hopeful that things might change and LA County could turn their numbers around, we will be watching the situation in our county closely, with the health and safety of our students, families, faculty, and staff as our top priority.

Dear Laurence Families,

I miss you all and hope to see you soon! As I mentioned in last week's email, the current rising trend of COVID-19 cases in the Los Angeles area is concerning, and we are closely and continuously monitoring guidance from and consulting with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and our medical task force. While we continue planning to return to campus for the 2020-21 school year, we are also keenly aware of the potential need to go remote. The health and safety of our students, staff, and families remain our top priorities.

As you have likely heard, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that, as of now, all public schools will start the school year in August with remote learning. We are not obligated to adhere to the decisions of our local school district; however, becoming educated about and understanding LAUSD's reasons for not opening is important and necessary for us to consider. Please know that we are seeking more information, as we continue reviewing and reflecting on our reopening plans.

Plans for Reopening Campus

Dear Laurence Families,

We hope that the summer months are providing you and your family with some time to relax and enjoy the sunshine. During this time, our Administrative Team, school directors, and Board of Trustees have continued planning for our students to return to campus this fall for in-person learning with diligence, thoughtfulness, and care for the well-being and safety of our students, families, faculty and staff.

The current rising trend of COVID-19 cases is concerning and we are monitoring guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Based on this week's Department briefing, we are preparing to move forward with plans to resume school this fall with all students on campus full time in accordance with the latest mandates and guidance. (Click on "Read More" for the full plan below and for information about our upcoming parent webinar.) Should the situation change, we will be ready with plans for remote learning. In order to complete the necessary campus upgrades to bring everyone back for in-person learning, we will be pushing back the start date of school by a week, with a potential for staggered start dates for different grade levels following Labor Day.

I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for your partnership throughout the past several months. It has undoubtedly been a challenging time for all, and we never could have imagined that we would be ending our school year with remote learning - having pivoted overnight back in March.  But we did it, together, and I am so thankful for each of you. 

As we look forward to our next school year, many have asked, "What will it look like?"  We are eager to be back on campus, and we are moving forward with planning to do so in a safe and healthy manner.  Although we cannot say exactly what it will look like with total certainty at this moment in time, we are planning for all scenarios to ensure we are ready.

Click on "Read More" to see the video message from Mrs. Wolke checking in on our Laurence families.

Our lives have changed dramatically over the past two weeks, and I am consistently inspired by the response from our school community. While this is certainly not the spring break any of us had envisioned for ourselves, I am truly grateful for the strength and cohesiveness of this special Laurence family.

As I mentioned in my previous communication, we will continue with our distance learning program when we return from Spring Break on April 13th. As the news and directives surrounding COVID-19 are constantly evolving, we have not yet made a decision about whether we will return to in-person learning before the end of the school year. We will proceed with our remote learning model and I will continue to communicate our plans for the rest of the school year as decisions are made. We are engaging in long-range planning, reassessing and looking at the possibility of postponing (rather than cancelling) various upcoming school events.

In this article, Dr. K notes strategies to consider while talking to your child during this time of distance learning and social distancing. Important takeaways include how your child might respond to these changes, and ways to see the glass half full. Click "Read More" for details.

We hope that you are doing well and staying healthy. As we work to keep everyone in our community safe, we are also doing our best to keep Laurence functioning as normally as possible, to ensure that student learning continues to be supported by smooth business operations. During this time, please know that you can leave a voicemail or email anyone in our office and our administrators, just as you normally would. Read on for important links.

I hope that all of you are staying healthy and safe this weekend amid the concerns of the Coronavirus pandemic. These are extraordinary times, and I am grateful to be a part of our strong and supportive Laurence community as we navigate these uncharted waters together. As you know, our administration, faculty and tech team have been hard at work readying for remote learning beginning this Tuesday, March 17th. We understand the pressures that this puts on parents as children stay home, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you again for partnering with us as we embark on this process. 

In the meantime, I have been hearing from many of you with questions about how to handle this time at home and social distancing. I would like to share a few key points with you today:

Thank you for your ongoing support as we navigate this unprecedented situation. In consultation with the school's safety task force, the Administration, and the Board of Trustees, we have decided to temporarily transition from in-person learning and to activate our distance learning protocol which has been developed by our faculty and staff over the past several weeks. The school will operate in this manner until the start of spring break (through March 26th).