Dear AFIA Families,

In case you missed it, here is the link to Mrs. Colbert’s Facebook live post from tonight:

She shared some of the things to expect as we head back to “virtual school” this week and also read one of her favorite books.

We hope you are staying safe. As you likely know, school will now be closed until at least Friday, April 24th and the “Stay at Home” order goes into effect Monday at midnight. Since food distribution and remote learning are considered essential activities, we will be able to continue with our plans to provide food and computers. To assist us in determining the needs that exist, please complete this google form if you have not already: http://bit.ly/AFIA3-18-20.

Some Essential Notes:

Food

We will be providing breakfasts and lunches to families. On Wednesday, we will have a drive up station set up for families to pick up 5 breakfasts and 5 lunches for each child under 18 in your household. We will do this from 11 AM – 1 PM on Wednesdays. We will be following careful procedures to ensure safety. If you need food and cannot pick up food from the school, please call AFIA at 816.444.1720 between 9 and 1 on Monday or Tuesday or you can send a text to 816.237.8291.

This week’s plans

We are working diligently to make it possible for all AFIA families to check out at least one device (chrome book or tablet) from AFIA if this is needed. We have a few families without internet connectivity and we are also working on this issue.

Some important information:

  1. Teachers will begin offering virtual learning opportunities on Wednesday, March 25th. There will be options available without computers/tablets, but we are working to check out devices to every student. We will be sharing more info about what this will look like over this week. If you don’t have a computer or tablet, there will be things your child can access via your smart phone. As a constructivist, arts integrated school, we know we can’t recreate what we do at school through online platforms. However, we will use online platforms as a way to stay connected during this difficult time and provide academic support for all of our students. We know learning happens everyday and we will be there to support your child’s learning during this difficult time. 
  2. We are going to check out Chromebooks/iPads to families. We are going to begin by checking out one device per family. We will check out Chromebooks on Monday from 10 AM – 1 PM (iPads are not ready). We will likely bring these outside to you at your car if we can. Please call 816.444.1720 between 10 and 1 if you would like to check out a Chromebook on Monday. If you are planning to pick up food from the school on Wednesday, we can also bring a Chromebook to your car when you pick up food on Wednesday.
  3. We will be using Google Classroom. Your child’s log-in information should be: firstnamelastname@afiakc.org. If your child does not know their password, please ask your child’s teacher for this information.
  4. We will also use Seesaw. If you are not connected via Seesaw yet, please work with your classroom teacher to get connected.
  5. Teachers and staff will be reaching out to all families who have not completed the survey on Monday, March 23 to find out more about your internet connectivity, access to computers or tablets, etc. All families should expect a phone call, but teachers will begin by calling families who have not completed the survey yet.
  6.  We are working to put together kits for all families with art supplies, pencils, paper, etc. We want to be sure that each student has access to art supplies that allow for creating and making during this time. We will update you on when those are ready and our plan for distribution. We have some amazing AFIA supporters who are helping with this project.
  7. We miss you. We miss your children. One of our goals during this time will be to stay connected and support one another. I am grateful for our amazing community and know that we will help one another during this time.

Please reach out if you need anything. You can email me at tricia.degraff@afiakc.org or text  816.237.8291.

To read all previous COVID-19 communication, please go to https://afiakc.org/uncategorized/covid-19-communication/.