April 3, 2020
Dear GAA Family,
We recognize the importance of various landmarks in the lives of our students, and the graduation ceremony marks a significant point of affirmation of hard work and diligence in the life of every student. For that reason, a staff meeting was held on Thursday, April 2, 2020, to discuss the kindergarten, eighth grade, and high school graduations of our school. It was decided that due to the school closure extension announced to go until the end of the school year, graduations have been postponed until sometime in the summer or fall depending on the turn of events with Covid-19.
Kindly accept our heartfelt appreciation for your feelings of loss at the fact that your child/children who are supposed to graduate are not able to march on the designated days previously published on the school calendar. God is with us and He has a beautiful plan up His sleeves that will bring us all joy and a cause to celebrate.
It is my firm belief that Glendale Adventist Academy will become greater after Covid-19 than before. Let us trust for the best and know that for each of us, the best is yet to come. Let us keep praying for those who are hospitalized or have tested positive. We at GAA are praying for all parents who are frontline workers and asking God to protect you as you seek to save the lives of others.
Have a wonderful and restful Sabbath. Enjoy the weekend with fun activities and remember to send me some pictures of your fun times. My email is iolaore@glendaleacademy.org
Blessings,
Israel Olaore
Principal
April 2, 2020
Dear Parent/Guardian,
I pray this letter finds you in good health and in safety. We salute all our parents who are frontline workers in the medical and related professions, as well as first responders who are faced with the dangers of Covid-19 on a daily basis. Our daily prayers are with you. For those parents/guardians who have been hospitalized as a result of Covid-19, we pray for God’s healing hands on you. We are also aware that many of us have been directly impacted socially and financially by the effects of school closures and stay home orders from the government due to Covid-19. We pray that God gives each of us the grace needed to carry on. Thank you for all the hard work you perform, trying to work from home and at the same time assist your children with staying connected with their distance learning program.
Our previous mandate for returning to school physically was May 5, 2020. This changed yesterday with an announcement by Governor Gavin Newsom of California, that schools will remain closed until the end of the school year. Instruction continues while schools remain closed for physical meetings. This means that the earliest opening date will be in the fall of 2020/2021. This has been confirmed by the Southern California Conference Office of Education. We are by this letter informing you that our distance learning program will continue uninterrupted until the end of the school year. We will continue to offer quality Christian education to our students on every school day for the remainder of the 2019/2020 school year. The last day of school is June 5, 2020.
There are many adjustments that are being made to make the current delivery system for the distance learning program run smoother after this first week. We appreciate the feedback we are getting from parents and students regarding the unique technical challenges that we are facing with the implementation of the distance learning program. Kindly keep the feedback coming.
On a lighter note, I would like to encourage you to take lots of pictures of your children at work (school at home) and share with me in my Google Drive via my email (iolaore@glendaleacademy.org). We plan to put together a collage of these pictures and produce videos for sharing once a week. Preserving positive memories of these days for the future is our legacy to our children. These are unique times that require unique responses. We also encourage you to spend more time playing with your children, having family worship, reading to them, going out on walks with them, or simply doing fun things that they love but time did not previously permit. May the God of peace Himself give you perfect peace today and always. Amen
Blessings.
Israel Olaore
Principal
Glendale Adventist Elementary will go into a distant learning format from March 30 - June 5, 2020
March 25, 2020
Dear GAE Family,
I hope you are doing your best to be restful and are finding new, meaningful ways to spend your time at home. The challenges we are facing today regarding COVID-19 are unprecedented and fluid, requiring adjustments as new information arrives daily.
Following a recommendation from the Southern California Conference Office of Education and the Glendale Unified School District, the expected date of return to school will be Tuesday, May 5, 2020. We will provide you with updates as we receive them from the Southern California Conference Office of Education.
I am extremely proud of the work our faculty has done to plan for distance learning. All of our teachers are fully prepared to deliver lessons to students remotely. Teachers will communicate with students and families on a regular basis. We encourage you to check your emails daily to find updates and new information from the teachers.
As you may have found out by now, we are deploying a combination of Google Classroom and BigBlueButton as the platform for our distance learning program. We have communicated with the students and have also communicated at different times with parents on how to set up this platform for use starting Monday, March 30, 2020. If you still have challenges or doubts about what to do, kindly contact the child’s homeroom teacher for directions. You may also wish to reach out to Mr. Erwin Gonzales, our IT Director for guidance, tutorials and if you need to borrow a Chrome book for the period of the school closure: egonzales@glendaleacademy.org
Before school starts on Monday, March 30, we will publish a schedule of classes for the benefit of the students and for the attention of you the parent, to allow you to know what your child is expected to be working on at any given time of the day.
We recognize that children have a tendency to be distracted by the use of digital devices. We, therefore, solicit your help in helping the students stay focused and be on task for their school time at home. This may require monitoring their activities and time on the devices. It is our plan to report any abuse of the classroom etiquette by students to their parents, in an effort to correct such situations as quickly as possible. This will allow us to maintain the integrity of the education we wish to deliver to your child.
Kindly direct questions about the child/ward’s schoolwork to the homeroom teacher as the frontline person to provide up-to-date answers. You may also feel free to direct other questions to me: iolaore@glendaleacademy.org
Thank you for entrusting your children to our care. It’s a delicate partnership and we pray that by God’s grace the trust will be rewarded. God will protect us through this period.
Blessings.
Israel Olaore
Principal
Sunday, April 5, 2020 from 10:00am to noon. Parents and students are encouraged to attend. For more information, please call 818-246-4867
