Hitting Turbulence

Yesterday, I flew back from Chicago after moving my son into his new college dorm. Many Lakeview parents have been through the same emotional rollercoaster recently, moving their newly minted high school graduate into the college of their choice. My son's college — DePaul University — was a well-oiled machine, speeding masses of freshman students and their immense number of belongings into University Hall. I left the building feeling good — Matthew's new roommate seemed to possess rock solid social skills, and I was relieved to discover that the DePaul laundry machines are free, thereby removing one of the barriers to a sanitary college experience. In fact, everything went swimmingly...until it didn't...

...Once I waved farewell and pulled away in the car, the blubbing started. The rental car had no tissues, and my short-sleeved shirt lacked the sleeves to allow me to snivel onto myself. After telling myself to get it together, I headed off to window shop for things I didn't need with money I didn't have. After 30 mins, the phone rang. It was Matthew. "Erm...hello Mum...it's me....there's a little bit of a problem...I have nothing to sleep on.." How could that be? We packed everything including the kitchen sink, his die-cast mini race car collection, and his favourite yellow blankie. "Mum!....my bed sheets are the wrong size, they're several inches too short." We'd hit a little bit of turbulence.

Since opening school on Monday, August 16th, it's fair to say that we've hit some major turbulence, and the seat belt sign has been on for most of the flight. 

Back in July, none of us envisioned that school would start this way, but with local numbers rising dramatically, Lakeview's students, staff, and faculty have all felt the impact of the Delta surge. The "frazzled" factor that one typically feels around finals week is here in week three. Still, there is a weeny silver lining. The rate of increase in cases that we've experienced over the last two weeks has slowed down (we added just three new cases in the last 48 hours).

Current numbers as of 5:00 pm today:
  • 4 LS faculty and 4 LS students are currently positive for Covid-19
  • 3 MS faculty and 28 MS students are currently positive for Covid-19 
  • 0 US faculty and 3 US students are currently positive for Covid-19
The above numbers will drop in the morning, as one faculty member and 7 MS students are cleared to return to school.

Today, out of caution, we quarantined the PreK 3 class. Masks were not previously required in PreK 3 & PreK 4 but will be starting tomorrow (so that the need to quarantine after exposure is minimized). All told, because Lakeview has adopted universal masking, our quarantine numbers have been very low. We still believe that our current/updated strategies, including the mask requirement, are keeping Lakeview Academy students safe, mitigating against in-school transmission, and allowing us to teach in person. Education must go on. In the next newsletter I will share some achievement data from the 2020-2021 school, which demonstrates Lakeview's continued learning through the pandemic. In the meantime, we are still riding the turbulence and may be for a little while longer until we reach some smooth air. For sure, the temptation to ignore the sign, take off the seatbelt and run to the bathroom is great (I know, I felt it last night after I left Chicago on a severely delayed flight and had to sit cross-legged for three hours). For now, let's buckle up, keep our seatbelts on, and ride the storm. We can deal with the short bed sheets another day. 
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Lakeview Academy is a private, coeducational day school for students in preschool through 12th grade, located in Gainesville, GA minutes off I-985/Hwy 365.
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