Life at TJS has changed dramatically over the past month or so. I want to share more about how we are continuing to serve students in this new climate and be transparent about the challenges we face.
First though, I want to say a sincere THANK YOU to all of you who have expressed concern and offered help in this uncertain time. We greatly appreciate it. Cancellation of our April gala left a $125,000 gap in fundraising revenue for the year. But so many of you answered our call for help and we raised, within a few weeks, more than $150,000! Because of that, our Joshua Early Childhood Center staff remains with salaries intact and teaching online. And, no doubt there will be more as we strive to keep standing strong.
In normal times, TJS students and families thrive on the constellation of relationships they have with their teachers, behavior specialists, instructional assistants, speech therapists, occupational therapists, administration, and other TJS families.
Our challenge now is to keep these relationships vital and functioning, while operating from a distance. Here is what we are currently doing to care for our students, families and staff:
· Remote learning is up and running for students at all 3 campuses.
· Staff meeting via Zoom with families providing 1:1 support, as well as group meetings between students, peers and staff.
· Instructional videos for families, online classwork for students, and materials and technology delivered to families homes.
· Additional paid COVID sick leave was activated for all 118 of our TJS staff members.
The hope we share is essential in today’s uncertainty, but allows us to motivate each other further to want to help us continue our quest to educate our very special students.
Stay in touch, safe and healthy; be hopeful,
Ed