Hello Escondido Families! 

With the school year starting remotely this year, it’s more important than ever that we set up good digital communication between the school and parents.

There are 3 communication channels that we will be using this year that you should be familiar with. The goal of these 3 channels is to set up parents to receive important classroom and school-wide communications, as well as enable parent-to-parent communications, during the 2020-2021 school year.

(1) Konstella – Funded by the PTA and Escondido’s primary channel for teachers/class parents/PTA /event organizers to communicate directly with parents. We are continuing with Konstella from last year and will be using it to distribute “Friday Folder” information to parents. Please sign up to stay in the loop with your kids’ classes and events.

If you sign up for Konstella but forget to add your child to their classroom, you will receive school-wide communication, but you will not receive any communication specific to your child’s classroom…aaaaaand you wouldn’t want that to happen.

• • • For continuing parents:
      • Log into your Konstella account
      • Go to Settings (gear icon in top left corner)
      • Tap “Your Children” – your child’s/children’s name(s) should appear
      • Tap each child’s name to select their assigned classroom
      • If you need to add a child, tap “Add Child” and then enter or select appropriate fields. Tap “Save” when you are done.
      • When you have updated your child’s/children’s information, tap “Done” in the top right corner.

• • • For new parents:
      • Create an account on Konstella. Please refer to registration code found in “Staying Digitally Connected at Escondido” PDF. 
      • Go to Settings (gear icon in top left corner)
      • Add your child by tapping “Add Child”; then enter or select appropriate fields. Tap “Save” when you are done.
      • When you have updated your child’s/children’s information, tap “Done” in the top right corner.

• • • For Year-long Distance Learning Families, we have created a Distance Learning classroom so you can stay connected with other families at Escondido and receive school-wide communications. Follow the above steps to add or update your child’s info.

(2) PTA Website https://escondido.paloaltopta.org. Check back frequently for the most up-to-date information from the PTA. Let us know what additional information would be helpful by emailing us at ptaescondido@gmail.com. We want to hear from you!

(3) WhatsApp – optional; recommended platform for parent-to-parent communications. For the past year or so, WhatsApp groups have been  functioning well within Escondido (eg. classrooms and incoming kinders). During this period of Remote Distance Learning, we believe it will be especially important for parents to have access to other parents for topics that are outside of coordinating school-sponsored activities and events.

For the 2020-2021 school year, the PTA will help each grade to set up 2 WhatsApp groups: one for neighborhood English, and the other for Spanish Immersion. Individual classrooms are free to set up their own WhatsApp channels as well.

Shortly after school starts, you will be contacted by a grade-leader to join these channels based on the grade/track of your child. This channel is 100% optional – we are simply recommending it as a means for parents to communicate with each other. 

• • How do I join? Download the WhatsApp application onto your smartphone, and accept the invitation from your grade-leader when it comes.

Staying Digitally Connected at Escondido, 2020-21 School Year PDF (English) (Spanish)

 

updated 8/19/2020