Westlake Weekly Podcast: CLICK HERE for this week’s Westlake Weekly Podcast.

Health and safety: Please see our Health and Safety Guidebook and our COVID Dashboard on the Return to Schools website.  

• Increased COVID Confirmed Cases
  Thank you to the 1000+ students and staff  who took an at-home COVID test before returning from Winter Break. We received notification of 46 students and staff who tested positive and therefore did not return to campus. These 46 cases did not appear on our dashboard, however, this week we have had 12 on-campus cases added to the dashboard since Winter Break..

• On campus exposures
  During our contact tracing, when a student is determined to have been exposed to a positive case on campus, an email will be sent home to inform families. Until now, we have been able to share this information through an individual phone call, however, due to the number of cases we are processing we have decided to send this information via email and include the following on-campus exposure guidelines to help with what to expect next. If your student is exposed on campus, the following will help you understand your options: 

ON-CAMPUS EXPOSURE NEXT STEPS

• Fully Vaccinated Student:  If your student is fully vaccinated or has tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 90 days, and remains symptom free, he/she is exempt from quarantine and may continue to attend school.  If you are interested in having your student tested, please contact the school office. 
• Non-Vaccinated Student – Consent for Testing: Following our modified quarantine procedures, your student may continue to attend school if he/she was appropriately wearing a mask at school, has no symptoms, and you have consented to testing.  COVID-19 testing will occur twice a week for 10 days.  If your student(s) is not registered for testing, please sign up using this link COVID Testing Registration.
  • During modified quarantine, students may not participate in extracurricular activities (including sports).  
  • If at any time your student becomes symptomatic, he/she must go home for the remainder of a 10 day quarantine.  Please notify the school site right away if your child is showing symptoms. 
  • Non-Vaccinated Student – No Consent for COVID-19 Testing OR Unmasked exposure:  If you do not give consent for the school to test your student, or your student was not masked when exposed (e.g.: lunch time), they must quarantine at home.
• Safety Precautions
  School continues to be a safe place for our students and staff. WCS works closely with Sacramento County Public Health and uses a variety of health and safety measures at school including: universal indoor masking, on-campus testing, quarantine and isolation procedures, contact tracing, state of the art ventilation, and providing personal protective materials. Families can continue to help reduce the transmission rates by: 
  • Wearing masks when indoors,
  • Eat healthy and get a good night’s sleep,
  • Stay home when you have a positive test result, or symptoms and, 
  • Test regularly or when you have symptoms.

• Take Home Kit:
  Sacramento County Public Health has provided us with a second round of take home COVID-19 test kits. We can provide one per student while supplies last. CLICK HERE to request one for your student. Please allow 2 business days to process requests.  

GATE Testing:  The goal of the Westlake Charter School’s GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) Program is to provide differentiated learning opportunities during the regular school day for our students.  All current 2nd graders and referred 3rd-9th graders will be given the opportunity to take the GATE qualification test.  Referral forms for students currently enrolled in grades 3rd-9th will be accepted from January 3, 2022 – January 28th, 2022. CLICK HERE for the parent referral form.  CLICK HERE for more information about the GATE program at WCS.

Save the Date – Coffee Talk: Join us Tuesday, January 18th @ 6pm for our next Coffee Talk! This is a great opportunity to hear from our admin team and WAVE parent leaders, as well as ask questions and give feedback.

Spirit Day – Rainbow Day: Friday, January, 28th is rainbow day students and staff can wear their most colorful outfits and show off all the colors of the rainbow!

High School Report Cards:  Report Cards will be mailed home the week of January 10th.  If you need help logging into your students Otus Family Portal please contact [email protected] for login in support. 

2022-23 Lottery Applications due by January 31st: Our 2022-23 lottery application closes on January 31st at 4:00 PM. Current students do not need to fill out an application to continue their enrollment at WCS; however, siblings do need to fill out lottery applications to attend. Spread the word and encourage friends and family to visit JoinWestlake.com to apply today.

High School Counselor’s Corner:  CLICK HERE to read the most recent newsletter from our high school counselor, Parwana Duad. 

In case you missed it…

Weekly Surveillance Testing  After School: It’s not too late to participate in the weekly surveillance testing for students. CLICK HERE to pre-register your student. Testing takes place on Wednesdays – at the high school from 1:00-1:30PM and at the K-8 from 1:30-2:00 PM. Email [email protected] with any questions. 

Substitute Teaching Positions – Update: If you’ve taken college-level coursework in Reading, Writing and Mathematics – even if you have yet to earn a degree – you might be eligible to substitute teach.  CLICK HERE if  you are willing to get paid as a Substitute Teacher for a day or even part of a day.  Let us know you are interested and we will work with you through the process.

COVID Symptoms: If your student has any COVID-19 symptoms, please keep them home until they are symptom free for 24 hours. Symptoms include: Fever over 100.4, sore throat, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, muscle/body aches, cough, difficulty breathing, loss of taste or smell. If your student has any of those symptoms, please keep them home until they are symptom-free for 24 hours and email [email protected] to report their absence.

Olympic Triathlon Prizes and Class Parties: We are excited to celebrate all of our Olympic Triathlon participants! Prizes and class parties have been delayed but are in the works. We will be sure to let you know when to expect them. 

Staff Appreciation Committee: This is the last call for the Staff Appreciation Committee. We have begun planning our 5 month campaign to celebrate our incredible staff. We need lots of ideas and help to make this happen! Please CLICK HERE to sign up. 

Kudos: Huge thanks to our entire community for coming together to make the return after break as safe as possible.