Please join us as we clean-up the school yard. We currently have three volunteers and need 22 more.
Our school yard needs some attention! After a few seasons left to nature due to the school remodel and Covid, it is time to roll up our sleeves, grab our garden gloves and get out there to tend the space. The Spider, the Peace Garden and our front sign on Como will be our main focus.
Please bring your own weeding tools and gloves. We will be outside and socially distanced, but please have a mask handy if you need to work closely with others. We expect there will be a decent amount of yard waste and will need some help getting that to the Yard Waste Center around 11-12PM. Kids are welcome to come help out. We will have plenty of donuts on hand to keep you super-charged! Please sign up here.
Also Saturday from 9-11AM at SAP Elementary:
Yearbook Distribution
2020-2021 yearbooks are in! There is a yearbook for every student. We will have yearbooks available to pick up from 9-11AM on Saturday the 25th at the school during the Annual School Clean-up. If you miss this chance, we will have several more opportunities for you in the weeks to come.
Lost & Found Pop-Up
Missing something? We will have our Lost & Found items available to peruse during the Annual School Clean-Up from 9-11AM on September 25th. Which is a great reminder: please label coats, sweatshirts, mittens, hats, water bottles, backpacks with your child's name in a permanent marker. We end up with a huge pile of lost items every year and want to be able to reunite them with their owners.
Keeping Each Other Healthy
One of central mitigation strategies for managing Covid in our school community is regular testing. We checked in with a few families to ask how they are incorporating testing into their weekly schedule.
"We order free Vault at home kits. You have to create an email profile for each of your kids, but once you do it's pretty simple. When you order the test (here is a link), it is express shipped directly to your home. Then you hop on a Zoom call with a practitioner who observes you spit into a tube and seal up your test. Drop it off at UPS and get your results in about 24 hours."
"We just make appointments at Walgreens. We also have BinaxNOW kits at home that I plan to use if my son shows any symptoms. We figure if he is sick, we'd want to know asap then make plans for a confirmation test later. The BinaxNOW kits can be a little hard to get your hands on, but try CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc."
"Last week, I scooped the kids up from school and hit the airport for our 3PM appointments. Free tests. They were troopers! So we picked up some McDonalds on the way home. Hey! At least I didn't need to cook dinner!"
Please see below (below the blog post) the free Twin Cities test sites. You can also go directly here to make an appointment: mncovidtestingappt.as.me
Last Tuesday night, SAPSA met to approve our Q1 fiscal spending budget. As explained at the meeting, our annual budget was approved last June, but with the unique challenges Covid has presented, we are in the practice of addressing our expenses on a quarterly basis to address emergent needs created by Covid. A summary of some of our annual expenses can be found here.
In addition to routine expenses, SAPSA approved two major expenses.
The first is $8,000 to supply HEPA air filters to classrooms without them at St. Anthony Park Elementary.
The second is a $1,000 stipend for a volunteer coordinator dedicated to possible lunch time volunteers. SAPSA has advocated for rotating classrooms to eat outside on days when the weather permits, but due to staffing limitations at lunch, this would require 15-30 routine and dedicated volunteers to cover 1 1/2 -3 hour volunteer shifts per week through the end of October.
Are you interested in this position? Please email vicepresident@sapsamn.org
Advisory Council met on September 14th to kick off the 21-22 school year. At the meeting, Dr. Duke presented information on enrollment numbers and COVID protocol. Attendees made suggestions to Dr. Duke for how student pickup might be improved and the group developed some ideas that keep the process as safe and efficient as possible.
We then discussed the important Saint Paul School Board elections coming up in November and brainstormed ways that the Advisory Council can help the SAP school community learn more about the candidates. We hope to provide voters with more information about the candidates’ positions on a number of issues relevant to district families in the coming weeks.
Finally, the attendees discussed the importance of transparency and family engagement with district administration especially around decisions related to the American Rescue Plan and Envision SPPS. Complete minutes of the September meeting will be available soon on the Advisory Council webpage. If you would like to be added to the Advisory Council email list or just learn more, please email advisory@sapsamn.org.
Do you think you know which of our classroom teachers has a cat named Oscar who acts like a dog? Some more hints include a fondness for Ethiopian food and books by Kevin Henkes, quiet mornings with coffee and a good book, a summer trip to Seattle, and a love of teaching reading. Do you give up? It’s Mrs. Williams, one of the first grade teachers new to SAP! She was recently interviewed by two of her students and you can learn more about Mrs. Williams by reading their interview here.
Would your student like to interview a SAP staff member? Please email advisory@sapsamn.org to make arrangements for your own budding journalist.
What's For Lunch?
What's For Breakfast?
What's Coming Up?
Reminders
Our Fall Bulb sale raised over $500 last week! We have raised a total of $1,046 out of our $5,000 goal.
Please fill out this form to be included in this year's school directory. Submissions are due by October 1st.
Please create an account for your family and fill out the benefits application for each student in your family. This is crucial, even if you will be refusing benefits! It helps the school district determine the true needs of our school and we need every family to respond. This application can be translated into Spanish, Somali or Hmong using the drop down on the application page.
Free Covid Testing Sites
St. Paul
Roy Wilkins Auditorium, 175 West Kellogg Fourth Ave South Saliva Monday - Thursday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sunday: 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
To schedule an appointment: mncovidtestingappt.as.me
Minneapolis
Minneapolis Convention Center 1301 Second Avenue South Saliva Monday - Friday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
To schedule an appointment: mncovidtestingappt.as.me
MSP Airport
Terminal 1, 4300 Glumack Dr. (follow signs to the testing site on Level 2 of the Blue Ramp) Saint Paul Saliva 7 days a week 7 am - 7 pm every day
To schedule an appointment: mncovidtestingappt.as.me
Parking will be available for all seeking a COVID-19 test:
Drive to Terminal 1 and into the entry plaza for the parking ramps. Signs will guide you from the inbound roadway to the clinic location itself.
Follow signage to Level 2 in the Blue Ramp.
Walk to the centrally located elevator lobby and follow signs to the clinic.