Principal’s Message

To Our FP Families,

What a fantastic first week back at Frank Panabaker School. Mrs. Evans and I want to thank the hard work of all our staff over the past 3 weeks preparing their classrooms and the school for opening day. Operating the school safely is a team effort requiring an increased amount of coordination between classroom, caretaking, and office staff. The Frank Panabaker community is lucky to have such a caring and dedicated staff.

We also want to thank all our families for working with the school on our new routines and staying in parent areas while dropping off your children. Families have demonstrated great cooperation as we work through some of our new routines. All of our procedures are under constant review to make sure that they are meeting safety guidelines and running efficiently. Our parking lot is very busy with staff and buses each and every morning. If it all possible, please help reduce the congestion in the parking lot by dropping off your children at various paths that lead to the school rather than dropping off in the parking lot.

There is a change from Public Health regarding students experiencing illness symptoms from what was communicated by the board earlier this week. Siblings will no longer be required to stay home unless they are also experiencing symptoms themselves.

If a student has any symptoms on the daily medical screener, a student either:

· All families with an ill student should contact Public Health for advice

· Must have a negative COVID test or be cleared by a physician AND have no symptoms for a 24 hour period

· If a parent does not want a student to go to a physician or have a COVID test, the student is to isolate at home for 14 days AND have no symptoms for 24 hours

· Please have a plan in place to have a student picked up if they experience symptoms at any point in the school day. If students experience symptoms while at school they must be moved to an isolation room. Students who are sent home cannot return for a 24 hour period after symptoms have ended.

Some of our back to school forms are now available on the Parent Portal. We ask parents to go to the Parent Portal to complete the following forms online this week:

· Digital Tools Permission

· Internet Use and Photo Consent

· Media Consent Agreement

· Elementary: Nutrition Break Consent (only required if a student goes home for lunch)

For parents still experiencing issues with the Parent Portal, please contact our school office to confirm your contact information. If your contact information in our system is correct and you are still experiencing Parent Portal issues we will submit your information to the HWDSB ITT Department. We can appreciate the frustration of families with these issues and this frustration is shared by the school. We will do our best to assist.

As new routines become a habit, attendance reporting becomes extremely important. Please input attendance daily into the Safe Arrival/ Parent Portal app. Remember that all students must clear the medical screener questions before coming to school.

We thank you for your ongoing patience and support while we continue to make changes to ensure the safety of all of our students and staff.

J. Seto-Vanderlip, Principal                          C. Evans, Vice-Principal