Monday message 09.21.2020

Aloha to the great people in the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community, and hope this message finds you in good health and happiness.

At Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, we wish to acknowledge all the challenges and issues that are ongoing in our world right now. We see it, feel it, and live it ourselves here at our school. We greatly appreciate all the flexibility, adaptability, and support that our learning community has demonstrated during the first quarter of the 2020-2021 school year. As a former crisis therapist on our beautiful island of Kaua’i, I encourage each of you to please look after yourself, your ohana, and those around you.

Here is a suggested self-care checklist:

• Get enough rest and sleep
• Stay hydrated
• Exercise — play basketball or enjoy another physical activity
• Meditate, pray, journal, or whatever fills your soul
• Practice yoga
• Go for walks in nature
• Find a new hobby — garden, bake, paint with watercolors, knit, join a book club, etc.
• Learn something new — piano, guitar, calligraphy, etc.
• Eat healthy food — and if you need to, something unhealthy (in moderation)

Although we all know what we should be doing, some of us tend to try to push through the challenges in unusual situations. Please do not overextend yourself.

The best path ahead we can take in these uncertain times is to try to do everything we can to stay safe, keep our families safe, and attempt to be our best selves.

Further mahalo to the good people of Kaua’i for helping keep the number of COVID cases on our special garden island low. Accordingly, we feel that we can slowly and safely expand our on-campus face-to-face education for all of our vulnerable learners plus one additional class per day. Here is the on-campus schedule that will come into effect starting on Monday, September 21:

• Monday: Kindergarten and grades 1, 2, 3
• Tuesday: Kindergarten and grades 1, 2, 4
• Wednesday: Kindergarten and grades 1, 2, 5
• Thursday: Kindergarten and grades 1, 2, 6

Friday: Facilitator planning and professional learning day. Possible work packet pickup and drop-off in the gym from 8:15 AM to 2:45 PM. Please communicate directly with your child’s facilitator to determine if the work packets need to be dropped off or picked up on those days.

We hope to stay in this next step of gradual school opening until Friday, October 2, which marks the conclusion of the first quarter of the 2020-2021 school year. We are currently projecting to return all learners to on-campus face-to-face education on Monday, October 12, after Fall Break.

As we are now welcoming four full classes of learners back to campus on a daily basis, Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School will start running the bus again starting on Monday, September 21.

We greatly appreciate your support of our school. Stay safe. Stay strong!