Westlake Charter School – Return to School Message

Greetings, Explorer Families,

We are excited to announce that our Westlake Charter School Board of Directors has approved our school to reopen using our Level 3: Baseline schedule. We have been working toward this for a year and are excited to take these next steps, but we can not do this without your support. We are committed to reopening school safely, and in a way that is manageable as we make this transition. Not every decision will be one that is convenient, and while we make this transition there will be areas that will need collaboration to continually improve. However, our staff is prepared to begin and we are excited to ask our families to join us in this work.

On March 15th, the first day of the third trimester, we will reopen Kindergarten – 2nd grade in our Baseline schedule. On March 22nd, we will reopen 3rd – 5th grade in our Baseline model. In accordance with Sacramento County Public Health guidelines, we will only be allowed to reopen 6th-8th grade once our county has been redesignated into the Red Tier. 

Each day, in our Baseline schedule, our teachers will divide their time between giving their full attention to the on-campus students in the morning, and the at-home students in the afternoon. Our on-campus students will take turns coming to campus: Monday and Tuesday, Cohort A will come to campus, and Thursday and Friday Cohort B will come to campus, and each Wednesday will be a Distance Learning day for all our students.

As we reopen our campus we will adhere to each of the safety guidelines recommended by Sacramento County Public Health. We need to follow each of these guidelines and we are asking each of our staff and all of our families to also commit to these guidelines to make sure that we not only open safely, but remain open. Please preview the Community Agreement that all staff and families are asked to adopt.

Families, we will continue to communicate regularly as we lead up to our reopening. Until then, please review our Guidebook for Reopening and these important highlights below. 

Thank you, families, for your collaboration and support, together we will work together to ensure that we are able to reopen safely and remain open.

Guidebook to Reopening: Click HERE to read the Guidebook to Reopening.

Community Agreement: We are asking every student who is returning to campus to complete a Community Agreement. We need to work together to ensure that campus remains safe for our students and staff. Click HERE to read the community agreement. Click HERE to acknowledge that you will abide by our community agreement.

Staff Work Days: There will be no school on March 4th, 5th, and 12th to give our staff the opportunity to be fully prepared to welcome students to campus starting March 15th. Staff will finish setting up classrooms and individual supplies, participate in health and safety training, and collaborate for the best instruction for in person and at home cohorts.

Level 2: Orientation: Level 2: Orientation will take place virtually the week of March 8th – 11th. Teachers will train students virtually on health and hygiene protocols to re-acclimate our community back to campus.

On Campus Start and End Time: – Kinder 9:00 AM-11:00 AM; 1st-8th Grade 8:30 AM-11:00 AM. See Pages 14 and 15 of the Guidebook to Reopening for the entire Instructional Day schedule for all cohorts. 

BASE: During Level 3: Baseline, our BASE program will be available for students from 8:00-3:00pm on their Distance Learning scheduled days, and from 11:00-3:00pm on their classroom scheduled days. Due to the need to ensure social distancing, families will be asked to pre-register and pre-pay for BASE. During Level 3 – Baseline, BASE will not be a drop-in program. Pre-registration will launch on February 28th. See Page 22 of the Guidebook to Reopening for BASE Details.

Uniforms: Students will wear WCS uniforms while on campus for learning, whether in BASE or in their classroom. Click HERE for the Dress Code At A Glance. We traditionally have Spirit Fridays on campus where students can wear blue jeans and a WCS spirit shirt or college shirt. During Baseline, we will Spirit Wednesdays so that all students can participate together. Please note that students and staff will wear a face covering while on campus. This should be considered part of their uniform. See Page 6 of the Guidebook for Reopening for uniform details.

Uniform Swap: On Thursday, March 4th and Friday, March 5th and again Friday, March 12th we will have tables set up in the student drop off zones that will be labeled with clothes sizes. Please feel free to come drop off any uniforms that no longer fit your student as well as pick up what you might need for your Explorer when they are back on campus!

Cohorts: After reviewing the data of who will be returning to campus, we have made some adjustments to cohorts A and B to have balanced on-campus classes. We have kept siblings in the same cohort. This Sunday, February 28th we will email families confirmation of if they selected Return to Campus or Continue in Distance Learning, as well with which cohort they are in.

School Dismissal Manager: Next week, all families will receive the School Dismissal Manager welcome email. We will also include instructions for logging in and setting up your student’s dismissal designation.