Dear Parents of Copper Basin:

I would like to introduce myself to you. I am Greg Bellemare and will be the interim Principal at Copper Basin K-8 for the 2^nd quarter of the 2020-21 school year. As you may know, Mr. Johnson will be reassigned to the Florence Virtual Academy for the quarter. We are all hopeful that he will return in January.

A little background on myself, I recently retired in June, after 42 years in education, including the last 33 as a Principal. My last principalship was at San Tan Heights K-8, where I was the Principal for the last 4 years.

I am very excited to be returning to the district and hope that I can be a real positive force at Copper Basin K-8. I have met the staff and know many of them and feel that the transition will be very smooth.  My goal is to make Copper Basin the best learning environment for all our kids and staff. I will be outside most of the time greeting students during drop off and pick up so please don’t hesitate to introduce yourself.

To say the least, these current times have been very difficult for everyone, whether you know someone with COVID or not.  It has affected all of us and we need to be cautious in our return. I ask that you understand and do your best to model and respect the changes that are in place so we can make it safe for everyone.

We start school on Monday, October 5 and here are some changes to remember.  No one but students are allowed into school during the school day, so we ask you to review drop off and pick up rules.  We will have staff at every entrance to help students go directly to their classes.  We ask for social distancing when you are dropping your student off. If you need to escort them to our staff, please notice the yellow ribbons for social distancing. We will allow one person at a time into the office and ask for social distancing and masks.

The students will be eating in their rooms and recesses will be with their cohort, separated in zones on the playground. Extensive cleaning will be ongoing, and we have procedures in place to do constant cleaning when kids go out of the classes and reenter. We will be having them walk in lines and not in groups to make sure we are practicing social distancing.

These are a few key elements of change in the school.  We hope you can help us to curb the possibilities of students or staff getting sick. Please remember if your child is not well, keep them home and let us know so we can do tracking to let others be safe.

A more complete explanation of the new procedures will be coming out next week.

Thank you and again I ask for your patience and understanding. I am looking forward to being a Dust Devil!

Sincerely,
Gregory M. Bellemare