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August Schedule Change for PAC

9 July 2024

Greenback Families:

This is an update regarding our construction projects and how the August schedule will be impacted. 

We do expect to start SW (K-3), LMS (6-8), and PHS as scheduled on the calendar on August 14^th for the first day of school.  We will have a new pick-up/drop-off lane at SW and a new secured entrance, but otherwise the procedures for those schools should mostly look the same for the start of school. The building principals will send information out on orientation and sports meetings at a later date.

We are falling back to our contingency planning for the 4^th and 5^th grades, which will be at our newly renovated Pratt Academic Center (PAC).  The PAC will also have our central office, the Lilypad Childcare Center, and the historic Frogdome.  We knew the construction timeline was running tight, so we are going to make the first day of school for 4^th and 5^th grades on August 21^st.  We expect to begin moving in on August 5^th, but final inspections by the fire marshal will occur on August 9^th.  This will give our teachers and staff an opportunity to set up classrooms properly, and give us a bit of buffer time.  We will still have three days available for emergency closures (snow days, etc) if needed, so the end calendar date for 4^th and 5^th grades will match PreK-12.  We will have an open house for 4^th/5^th graders and their parents on August 20^th; Principal Antonia Villa will send out more information in a letter to parents.

Obviously, big construction projects have a lot of moving parts, and we feel fortunate to be so close to our goal timeline.  We prioritized our academic spaces, so our Frogdome, which will also be the gym for 4^th and 5^th graders, will not be fully completed until September.  Our 4^th and 5^th graders will use the LMS & PHS gym for PE during the first few weeks.  We will also likely  feed our 4^th and 5^th graders out of our PHS cafeteria for 1-2 weeks (there’s still a possibility the PAC cafeteria could be completed and fire marshal approved by August 21^st).  Otherwise, we will be up and running with the new spaces for our students.  The natural light and updated science classrooms will be especially good for our kids, as well as opening up needed space at LMS and SW.  The PAC will be a great learning environment for our 4^th and 5^th graders.

Speaking of Southwest Elementary, we are building tornado-safe rooms (to protect occupants of the entire building), which also be our classrooms for the PreK.  I am excited to have our PreK housed with our elementary to make the transition the best set up for our students.  I expect this to have a long-term positive impact as we set students up to be successful not just for kindergarten but over the long haul of their K-12 education.  We set up a buffer of time, so PreK opens after Labor Day as originally scheduled.  It will be a separate drop-off for PreK to aid the flow of traffic for parents and caregivers.

We plan to put out a couple of videos to discuss drop-off and pick-up procedures at SW and the PAC.  Please look for those.  As always, we are a family and we appreciate your patience and support.  We are excited to have our kids return to school.

Respectfully,

Tony Helfrich