Wow. This has been a strange week – both because of the intense variation in the weather (from snow flurries to a balmy 65 degrees) and the stomach bug that seems to be affecting many of us. The one word that continues to pop into my head, particularly each time a teacher calls in sick, is resilience. Resilience is defined as the ability to recover quickly from difficulties. Even though several classes have had substitutes this week, and many of our students have been home sick, life at the school has been smooth, the children relatively unfazed. Kudos to our teachers and our students for rolling along and continuing the good work, even when a wrench is thrown into our plans! It says a lot about the closeness of our intentionally small school. Teachers step in to help other classes, children and teachers flexibly adapt to schedule changes, and most of all, we feel for our friends who are not well. As adaptable as we are, we do miss our classmates, our teachers, and our regular weather patterns.

To that end, I would like to remind everybody of our sick policies. If your children are not well enough to participate in the busy, active environment of school, even if there is no fever, please give them a restful day at home. If there has been fever or strep throat, children may not return to school until 24 hours of healing have passed. I also recommend the same for vomiting or diarrhea, both of which are often symptoms of illness. The above-mentioned guidelines and policies are in place to keep our children as healthy as possible!