Greetings Cypress School Community,

Happy New Year!  We are excited to be back and planning for more fun in 2021.  I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday and made the most of it despite the subdued nature many of our celebrations undoubtedly took on in light of the continued surge in the spread of this virus.  It has been great to welcome our students back to campus and on to our virtual classrooms.  It was great to see many parents on our first parent meeting and I look forward to seeing you at the next one on February 1^st at 2:30.

We are in the process of inviting all students that are interested to participate in two in-person opportunities per week.  These are the outing and on-campus day from 9am-1pm.  Most of you are already doing so and those that have not started will begin in the next couple weeks.  For those students who are funded for our ABA Afterschool program, we are planning to add a third day of in-person opportunities.  Those who are interested and enrolled in that program will be picked up at 1pm and dropped off at 4pm.  These afternoon opportunities will retain the stable cohorts of the school day.  Teachers will be providing distance learning on these days, and will not attend in the afternoon unless required to fill in as a substitute for a staff member. We are targeting the second week of February to begin this additional day. 

Some parents have reported they have already received the first dose of the vaccine, as a respite or IHSS worker for their child qualifies them for prioritization.  This was true for parents in Sonoma and Marin Counties, so I don’t know how other counties are handling their rollout.  As school employees, Cypress staff will be eligible in Phase 1B and we are looking into whether we can be prioritized sooner since we are providers of ABA in-person and considered health care providers.  In any case, my hope is that I will have a firmer timeline very soon, and that we can continue to expand on our re-opening efforts once staff have received the vaccine.  I will keep you posted if I hear any additional information regarding vaccines as well as any updates with relaxing restrictions related to re-opening. 

Sincerely,

Nate Yates, Director of Educational and Behavioral Services