Safety and sustainability

October 1st reminders and new protocols

The reminders

All Gordon employees wear nametags and can be easily identified.

The periphery of our school is patrolled regularly by Sara McEntee, a practice that was put in place during the COVID days. In addition, faculty and staff are all equipped with radios, and they know the expectation of “if you see something, say something.”

All external doors are locked. Faculty and staff will not prop doors open or key them to the unlocked position.

Arrival and dismissal are supervised by faculty and staff.

The building is accessed through two entrances during the school day: the main entrance or the Nelson Center entrance. Faculty and staff will not open other doors to let visitors into the building.

After school, use the Nelson Center entrance. The main entrance is closed at 3:30 p.m. every day, and people in the Commons after school will not open doors to let visitors in.

New protocols

Caregivers check in at the front desk. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., caregivers will be asked to sign in with Ms. Lima at the front desk and get a visitor sticker. Please do not be alarmed or offended if an employee asks you to please sign in and get a visitor sticker if you forget.

Caregivers do not need to sign in from 7:55-9:00 a.m., when they will continue to have open access to the Commons after drop off.

Caregivers who remain in the building after 9:00 a.m. (or after the conclusion of a morning program) need to sign in at the front desk and get a visitor sticker.

Caregivers do not need to sign in when picking up their children after 3:00 p.m. or when picking them up from after school programs at the Nelson Center entrance.

Visitors who are not caregivers are required to sign in at all times and will be escorted by an employee.

Caregivers use the Commons. We ask that all caregivers remain in the Commons or the area by the front desk unless they have an appointment with a member of the faculty and staff.

Caregivers who would like to meet with a faculty or staff member should request an appointment. Our number one priority during the day is our students, and we want to ensure faculty and staff can focus on our students 100% of the time. We also want to make sure you have our full attention when you need to speak with us about something important, but we can’t do that when we are with students.

When you arrive for your appointment, Ms. Lima will notify the person you are meeting with that you have arrived, and they will come to meet you; they will also walk you out at the end of your meeting.

All adult visitors should use the single stall restrooms between the Commons and the library, which are for adults only; please do not use student restrooms.

Caregivers who are in the building after school should be in the Commons.

New car pick up protocol begins November 1st: All cars in the pickup line need to display a dashboard card that is visible through the front windshield. Pro tip: Use a rubber band to secure it to the driver’s front visor!

All cars in the pickup circle need a dashboard card in order to retrieve children, whether from a single family or a carpool.

Vehicles with no card displayed will be asked to pull up and wait so that we can confirm the pickup with the family.

All families have a grace period until November 1st to get the dashboard cards they need for all of their cars and drivers. We have extras!

The October mailing includes a few extra dashboard cards to get you started.

Traffic flow changes

We’ve made a few simple but important improvements to traffic flow in front of the school.

Traffic flow will now be one way in the parking lot nearest to the Early Childhood playground. This change will allow for angled parking in this lot, and it will improve the safety of the crossing between the front circle and the upper parking lot and business office.

Cars entering in the Vincent Avenue entrance, the one marked by the Gordon School sign, will not be able to take a right turn into the parking lot. This entrance will just be for student pickup and dropoff.

Visitors who want to park and get out of their cars should enter through the Hazard Avenue entrance or park in the Middle School lot.

Tree replacement

After several years of careful observation and in close consultation with our tree care contractors, we made the difficult decision to remove five trees from campus this summer. The deteriorating condition of these trees, exacerbated by the extreme weather events we’ve experienced recently, made this action necessary.

At Gordon School, our policy is to replace every tree lost with at least one new one. In the fall, we will be planting new trees on campus, selecting species that are well suited to our campus for the long term.

If you have any questions about our tree replacement program, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Eddy Dalo or Tom Cicatiello.
 

Packing lunches for field trips

Unlike the controlled environment of Gordon’s dining hall, field trips introduce a number of unpredictable variables that make it difficult to meet every student’s dietary and allergy-related needs.

With student safety as our top priority, we ask that parents pack nut-free lunches and snacks for their child for all field trips. Teachers will communicate a reminder to families before a trip, and, while children will be reminded that sharing of food is prohibited, your cooperation in reinforcing this practice with your child is appreciated.
 

Snack strategy

The way we delivered snack last year relied on single-use packaging and also generated a good deal of food waste. We’re making some adjustments.

Here’s what you need to know for the upcoming school year:

Early Childhood: Fruit snacks will continue to be delivered to Early Childhood classrooms. The Early Childhood snack menu can be found on the SAGE app.

Lower School and Middle School: Students will be offered fruit every day, and the delivery will be streamlined to reduce waste.

If your Lower or Middle School student isn’t keen on fruit, or if your Early Childhood student won’t enjoy the items on their menu, please feel free to send a snack from home with your child.

Our Early Childhood division remains nut-free. Please keep this in mind when packing snacks for your Early Childhood student.

If you have any questions at all about the snack program, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher or Division Director.
 

Refinished floor in the Field House

For the first time since it opened in 2002, the floor of the Nelson Field House has been completely revarnished. Twenty-plus years of varnish has been removed, and a new coat has been reapplied.

It's a huge improvement visibly, but it also has implications for safety. The uneven wear and tear, and the difficulties that happen when multiple layers of varnish need to adhere to one another, had caused bumps, depressions and slick spots that our young athletes could do without.
 

Help them help you

Mr. Dalo, Mr. Howard and Ms. McEntee are all eager to partner with parent volunteers on events like Green and White Days, Book Fair and the rest. Please use the general email address maintenance@gordonschool.org to reach out to them. When you use that address, you help them communicate internally and you ensure that everyone is working with the same information.