It is with great excitement (and a little anxiety) that the LEARN Board announces the reopening of membership and our plans to resume in-person gatherings for 2021. Our profound thanks to the Transition Team for their hard work and dedication, and to our community for your patience in the interim.
The Basics
*We have redesigned our illness/wellness policy to include updated guidelines for Covid-19 safety as well as a focus on interpersonal responsibility.
*We anticipate that all in-person gatherings for the remainder of 2021 will be outside. We will continue to have virtual offerings as well.
*We will be capping membership at 150 families. This is not a direct response to Covid-19, but the reorganization of the last year makes this an optimal time to make the change. LEARN has discovered that when we grow too large we really lose the sense of community that many of us have grown to love. Because of the cap and goal of building community, we strongly encourage all of our paid members to plan to actively participate, whether that is in one of our co-ops, our social events, or our virtual community. This is an experiment and subject to change in future years, but if we decide to keep with a maximum membership, previous year’s paid members will have priority registration moving forward during the first week of June.
*We are reimplementing Homeschool Life to manage membership, co-ops, and member communication. As part of this change we will be dissolving the members’ only Facebook Group. Homeschool Life will be used to communicate about all member only activities (it can be set to send emails as well). It also has a forum and photo gallery which we encourage members to use for community communication. The public LEARN Facebook Group will remain up and active.
*As part of the LEARN membership process families will be required to sign an Assumption of Risk and Waiver of Liability form and a Personal Responsibility Agreement. These signatures will be collected as part of membership registration in Homeschool Life.
*Following is an outline of our guidelines for official LEARN gatherings. These guidelines may change as the CDC and local authorities change their own requirements and recommendations. We will maintain a link to official LEARN guidelines in our Policies document.
For official gatherings other than CIRCLE/SCENE
*To reiterate, we anticipate that all in-person gatherings for the remainder of 2021 will be outside. We will continue to have virtual offerings as well.
*Masks are not required for these outside activities, however they are strongly encouraged when social distancing cannot be maintained (i.e., when folks have to crowd together under a shelter in sudden inclement weather).
*When feasible, attendance information will be collected for contact tracing.
*LEARN will not be requiring vaccinations, nor will we collect information on individual vaccine status.
*LEARN will not be responsible for enforcing any safety measures in public locations.
*With the above guidelines, this summer LEARN plans to resume official in-person park days/recess, double digits game night, and teen meet-up events. Additional events may be planned as well.
CIRCLE
*CIRCLE classes will be outside or virtual only.
*As part of our post-pandemic transition we will include an option for CIRCLE organizers to request increased Covid related safety measures. In addition to the allergy information organizers will have the following options which, if selected, will be included in their class information:
*Masks required of in-class participants
*Masks required of all attendees (classes on your private property only)
*Social distancing strictly enforced
*All eligible attendees fully vaccinated against Covid-19 (classes on your private property only)
*Venue related restrictions - please see class description
*Classes will continue to be free with the exception of an outdoor tour, excursion, or class that requires paid attendance/admission. As usual, you may only charge the actual cost of the tour; CIRCLE is not for making profits. If you have a class that uses specific supplies, we encourage you to organize a group buy with the participants that sign up. Group buys will not be facilitated by LEARN, but by the class organizer.
*We will be submitting class offerings the first week of June as usual. Registration for CIRCLE will occur in Homeschool Life.
SCENE
*A shortened SCENE session will be held outdoors beginning in early September and ending in mid-October.
*We hope to continue with two days/locations, but those details have yet to be determined and will likely be decided based on space availability and volunteer power. UPDATE: Park SCENE will be taking place on Tuesday only at Antioch Park.
*Specific safety protocols will be determined based on available information closer to the beginning of the semester.
*We plan to continue to incorporate virtual offerings during the next semester of SCENE. Details will be determined closer to the beginning of the semester. UPDATE: A 5-week virtual SCENE session will follow Park SCENE and begin in early November. Classes will be available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Register for Membership!
*Now that you’ve managed to wade through all of this information, we invite you to go register for LEARN membership!
Membership is $40/family and runs from July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022. Main registration is offered in June each year. Secondary membership openings will be in August and October to coincide with SCENE.
*If you have an existing Homeschool Life account, once you login you’ll be prompted to register/update your information. We will send out invoices for payment via paypal in waves.
The LEARN Board has voted to close membership registration for the ease of our volunteer team, AND open Membership registration a few days every quarter or as needed.
Registration will be open August 11-14, 2021 in preparation for SCENE Fall 2021 enrollment. Again, September 27-October 2, 2021 in preparation for CIRCLE planning and final Virtual SCENE Fall 2021 enrollment.
Future dates will be announced here on this transition plan and on the main facebook page.