Dear Families,
We enjoyed seeing many of you at our meet and greet last week!
Our fabulous staff returned for four days of preparation and professional development. We spent time welcoming new staff members, collaborating as a whole school community, and in teams getting ready for full in person reopening next week! Staff worked tirelessly to prepare classrooms for the return of our students.
Special thanks to our friends at Talbot for allowing us into their school for professional development and planning as we awaited for approval to return to Longfellow.
Student Focused
Our top priorities in the reopening process will be the physical and emotional safety and well being of our students, along with meeting them where they are academically and social-emotionally.
We are prepared for the teaching and learning of routines and procedures that promote care and respect for all, including the following:
- Eating procedures
- Moving throughout the building and around campus
- Moving safely from portables to the main building
- Masking
- Sanitizing
- Distancing when possible
- Being learners!
- Getting to know one another
- Celebrating who we are as individuals and members of multiple communities
- Areas to be and not be due to the construction around our school
Important Dates for your Calendar
Dates for your calendars:
First day of school
August 31st, (Tuesday) for grades 1-5
September 2nd (Thursday) for kindergarten
Labor Day
No school on Monday, September 6th
Back to School Community Event
On September 8th, the Longfellow PTO will be hosting a back to school event on the Deering High School fields.
Longfellow Reopening Details:
At Longfellow, we are following health and safety protocols outlined in the Portland Public Schools reopening plans linked HERE.
Daily Practices
- Hand sanitizing will take place consistently throughout the day.
- UNIVERSAL MASKING WILL BE IMPLEMENTED INDOORS EXCEPT WHEN EATING. MASKING WILL BE OPTIONAL OUTDOORS.
- We have maintained the use of desks this year and will work toward 3 ft distancing between students.
- We will teach students to be aware of their own personal space, and that of others.
- We will continue to promote social distancing as is possible in our indoor and outdoor spaces.
Eating
- When eating indoors, we will work toward maintaining 3 ft distance from others who are unmasked.
- Lunch will be in the cafeteria with windows opened.
- There will be three lunch blocks and each block will be 30 minutes long.
- There will be approximately 100 people in the cafeteria together at any one time and children will be spaced out.
- Our staff will monitor students closely for illness and Covid symptoms specifically. We will reach out to you with any concerns.
For the 2021 school year, lunch and breakfast are free for all students. However, for students who wish to purchase milk, the cost is 50 cents.
Pooled Testing
- Information on pooled testing to be implemented in mid September can be found HERE.
Visiting Longfellow
Visitors to Longfellow
- At this point, with the construction and COVID restrictions, non staff members cannot enter the building. There will be exemptions made for approved and vaccinated volunteers, but at the moment we can't have non-staff members inside.
- Individual parents are allowed to come to school for scheduled meetings like an IEP or 504. However, visitors must follow our health and safety protocols and should not visit occupied classrooms. Our hope is to continue to use Zoom to schedule as many meetings as possible remotely.
- If you are visiting Longfellow to drop off items for your child, pick your child up early or drop your child up after the school day has started, please utilize the buzzer system at the main entrance.
- If your child is learning in the portables, please, please, please come to the main building and do not visit the portables directly.
Volunteering at Longfellow
We are looking forward to welcoming volunteers back into the building this year by appointment and on a limited basis.
- Volunteers at school must go through a background check process and be vaccinated for Covid 19. Volunteers will be required to show proof of vaccination before being allowed to volunteer.
- They must also follow our health and safety protocols when present in our building.
Please reach out to Melissa Riley, our community coordinator at rileym@portlandschools.org with questions about volunteering.
Other Frequently Asked Questions
What can I do to help ensure the health and safety of my child?
Families are expected to check their child(ren) every morning for symptoms of COVID -19 or other illnesses. Keep your child home if your child is sick. Call the school nurse if you are unsure if your student should come to school.
Children must wear a face covering on the school bus and while at school.
Be available to pick your child up if your child becomes sick during the school day.
If it will be difficult for you to pick up your child during the school day, have an “emergency plan” ready for another family member, friend or neighbor to pick up your child from school. Please contact Longfellow to update your child’s profile with this contact information.
Take time to review these simple recommended safety measures and the emergency plan with your student.
Will transportation look different this year?
Whenever possible, we are asking children to walk, bike or scooter to school so we can limit the number of cars arriving and leaving each day.
How will arrival/departure look this year?
We have very limited parking this year due to construction. The parking lot is for staff only. Families who must drive can park on the streets around the school. There will be marked areas in front of the school which will be for bus/ van drop off and pick up only!
Parents should not drive their cars into the parking lot to drop off or pick up students. Please use the surrounding streets for parking.
Student Drop-Off
Drop-Off procedures will be the same as last year. We will open up the majority of perimeter doors each morning and students will enter the building when they arrive. Students can enter the front door, playground door, or the parking lot door each morning.
Kindergarten students - The first day of school for kindergarten students is Thursday, September 2nd. Teachers will meet students on the playground for the 9/2 and 9/3 to say goodbye to parents and to transition students into the building after the majority of students (Grades 1-5) have already entered.
We are encouraging families to have only one adult accompany their children to school each day. First day family pictures should be taken at home prior to arriving rather than at school.
Student Pick-Up/ Dismissal
Student dismissal procedures will be the same as last year with a few changes.
K will dismiss to the playground side of the building.
Grade 1 will dismiss through the front doors.
Grade 2 will dismiss through the front doors.
Grades 3, 4 and 5 will dismiss through the parking lot doors.
Dismissal and Pick-Up routines are subject to change throughout the year due to building construction.
Portable Classrooms
This year, we will have 6 portable classrooms. Grade 5 (Ms. Pratt, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Connolly) and Grade 1 (Ms. Holmes, Ms. Romano and Ms. Kerns) will be located in these classrooms.
Portable Classroom Student Drop-Off
Students in portable classrooms will enter the main school building each morning and report to the gymnasium where staff members will greet them.
Students will be walked from the gym to the portable classrooms by a staff member.
Portable Classroom Student Pick-Up
Prior to dismissal, teachers will escort their classes into the main building. When the bell rings, 5th grade students will exit through the parking lot doors. 1st grade students will exit through the front doors so they can be matched with families.
If your child arrives late or is picked up early, the transfer of the student will take place through the main office and not at the portable classrooms.
Longfellow School
Email: lngoffice@portlandschools.org
Website: longfellow.portlandschools.org
Location: 432 Stevens Avenue, Portland, ME, USA
Phone: (207) 874-8195