Donations Being Accepted on BES Campus for St. Mary's Food Bank to Help Local Families in NeedNext Tuesday, April 21, we have an opportunity to serve others in need. Episcopal School of Jacksonville is organizing a food drive for St. Mary’s Mission’s food pantry, which is currently in great need. ESJ is including Beaches Episcopal School campus and St. Mark’s Episcopal Day School campus as pick up points for this drive. We strongly urge you to participate as the Covid-19 pandemic has created critical need in our community. Safe social distancing precautions will be in place. Please see the following letter from ESJ for details. ============================ Celebrating Service Day The social distancing guidelines and remote learning have changed our plans for Celebrating Service Day on April 21. The pandemic has made our need to help others in our community even more critical. We will celebrate service as planned on Tuesday, April 21, by taking the day to help those in need. St. Mary’s Mission’s food pantry is in great need. They are serving more individuals and families than ever before. Please see their video explaining the increased demand and what items are most needed. Caring for Our Neighbors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw7iKOMV7tk&feature=youtu.be On Tuesday, April 21, there will be an Episcopal School of Jacksonville bus parked at each of the three campuses from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please bring your donations to any campus and place them in the collections bins next to the buses. This should not require you to come in contact with anyone (at least within 6 feet) or touch any surfaces.
Families may go to whichever campus is most convenient If you would like to take food to other food pantries, please do so. If you are mowing yards for others, writing letters to those in nursing homes, making videos for senior citizens, or doing anything to serve our community, please let us know about it. Take pictures and send them to Brandon Westerman at westermanb@esj.org or tagging them with #ESJserve. Social distancing guidelines are being kept and this is totally voluntary. No one will be on the bus but the driver, and St Marys volunteers will unload the bins from the bus and will keep the bins. New Remote Learning Program Page Added to BES WebsiteBES is excited to offer a new Remote Learning Program page on our BES website which will outline our plan for providing academic instruction through remote learning. This program includes daily schedules, guidelines for our approach to remote learning, Zoom conference etiquette, and much more. Please know that our program may evolve as circumstances dictate and as we determine what works best. Please refer back to this page for updates as we move forward. Thank you for your partnership and support through this new educational program. Remote Learning Feature: Encouraging Messages from BES Spanish StudentsWe hope this new video that features artwork and encouraging messages from many BES Spanish students will make you smile. Mrs. Camille Abrahams based this project on what children had started in Italy and Spain. She was able to weave worldwide examples into her lessons and give this cute "assignment" to her students in many grade levels. While not every piece of artwork is represented in this short video, we thank all of our students and parents in these classes for helping bring joy to the world. Watch a Memorable "We Miss You" Video from BES Faculty and StaffIn case you missed it, here is a special “We Miss You” video from our BES faculty and staff to all those in our school community. These days are unlike any other we have experienced, but you can be assured that you are never apart in our hearts. May God bless your family today and every day that is to come. Zoom Coffees a Success; Additional Remote Learning UpdatesThank you for all of our parents who attended our Grade Level Zoom Coffees this past week. We hope those were helpful interactions with our administration about how our Remote Learning Program is proceeding and how we can meet the needs of our students and families in the weeks ahead. Parent-Teacher Conference Day: Parent-Teacher conferences have been rescheduled to Monday, April 27. Homeroom teachers will conduct these conferences via Zoom. Please look for a Sign-Up Genius invite from your child(ren)’s teacher in the near future. Tuesday, April 14, the original Parent-Teacher Conference Day, will be a regular school day (remotely). Enrichment Zoom Conferences: Starting this week, Enrichment Zoom conferences are mandatory again for Grades 3-6. This will have allowed plenty of time for families and students to adjust to the online platforms. Enrichment Zoom conferences will remain optional for Pre-K - Grade 2, but participation is strongly encouraged. As we settle into the remote learning routine, please be mindful of the fact that the teachers need to try to live a balanced life between work and home. We realize everyone has been working overtime – teachers, administrators, and families – to implement this new type of learning for our students, especially within such a short period of time. However, in order to sustain a quality program, the teachers need to have time to rest and tend to their life at home. We want them to remain well! Therefore, we ask that you do not expect them to respond to you in the evening hours or over the weekends. They are expected to respond to you within one school day, as normal. Thank you again for your understanding! BES Remote Chapel: We have begun offering a weekly, pre-recorded Remote Chapel time on Wednesdays. The chapel will include scripture, a devotional, prayer, and/or song. The link will be emailed to you and added to social media each Wednesday morning by 8:00. Watch the Remote Chapel video from this week here. Pave the Way for Future Generations by Purchasing a BES Brick for a Loved OneSupport BES by purchasing a brick for a loved one. This is a wonderful way to honor your child, grandchild, your family, and our school. All personalized bricks are located in the center of McCormick Hall for all the children to enjoy. This is a perfect location for the kids to look down and see their name in a brick, along with the names of their friends and classmates. Each brick can consist of up to 3 lines. There are 20 characters per line, which may consist of letters and spaces. Bricks are $75, and families can either download, complete, and scan the BES Brick Flyer to Stacy Nash or simply email her with the information requested from the flyer. Families will be billed through FACTS, and the deadline to purchase bricks is Friday, May 1, 2020. This is the last year we will include BES on the brick, so get in your orders today! |