MAGE is off to an exciting start to the fall. We decided to start the year off in person. Why?

• while the positivity rate and infection rate were low, with proper precaution, to allow our students to get to know each other and their teachers and build relationships, while we could do so in person, largely outside.

• because surveillance testing (on site AT SCHOOL for teachers and students and their families) and rapid testing became possible. We literally made the decision after it became a possibility to have this be in position.

Our students enjoyed an August in-person start, already had 7 (OUTDOOR) field trips, have bonded with their classmates and teachers, and they are well-settled in. We completed our NWEA testing and goal setting for the fall term. Our students enjoy weekly specials such as lego robotics, yoga, Latin, and Tae Kwon Do. They have 1:1 math and English lessons in addition to ability-based math circle/group work, math team, reading, and writing groups. They really benefit from being with intellectual peers.

If there is a shut down in IL in the next few weeks, we are in a decent position to brave it. Our cohorts at least know how to work together well. But, we are not “secretly planning” on a shut down unless there’s a government mandate. We plan on staying open as long as we can do so safely. We closed before the government mandate last time and could do that again if needed, but we have a large amount of things we did to keep kids safe. We will do the same in our second location for each cohort:

• separate doors and bathrooms

• outdoor classrooms

• airborne remediation (filters, hepa, UV, air flush system)

• visitors must be tested for covid

• compliance with best practices regarding quarantine, symptom checks; school-based periodic asymptomatic case surveillance, masks and cleaning, limiting shared supplies and frequent hand washing, having as many meals outside as weather allows.

The end of October is the time where most students in schools settle into their school year. If you need a new, properly differentiated option that’s striving to be in person, take a look at us. We are not perfect, but we may be your least worst option. And you know what, that’s not that hard to do. By 3rd grade, most parents of highly and profoundly gifted kids find themselves on their second or third school and disillusioned. We are a supportive community of gifted students and their families. It’s a great place to be.

We get a lot of questions about our waitlist. Here are the most common answers, without the obvious questions:

• Your position in line is held by your completed application date.

• We are working on a January start at this time for our second location.

• Space will be limited even with the second location. We are aiming at opening 4 seats in JK, 8 seats in the lower school, 8 seats in the elementary school, and 8 in middle-high school.

• Students can shadow our school now even when there’s no space, to make a decision about January. We allow 1 shadow per week per grade; students and their family need to have a COVID test before they shadow and comply with COVID policy. Students can only shadow after they’ve submitted a complete application including all supporting qualifying documents, the family interview has happened, and these pieces met enrollment criteria.

• We have more than 10 students on the waitlist.

• You would get to meet possible members of your cohort and teachers in the actual location where your class would be held and do a free trial demo class before having to make a decision. In other words, you could shadow now and we will approximate as best as we can the real experience before you sign a contract, which is more than what most schools do.

• We have students in grades K-8 at this time. We have teachers certified all the way through high school and college and can accept high school students just fine.

• What’s our biggest challenge right now: figuring out a legal/safe way of extending our outdoor classroom season; increasing our specials, especially foreign language, at a time where most people are too afraid to come on site; figuring out how to offer camps on school days off without exposing our cohort to outside students while also giving our regular staff time off.

• We have a monthly admissions in person OR virtual coffee on the first Sunday of most months.