The New Normal

     Earlier this Week American Academy employees held a meeting to determine future plans for the 2020-2021 school year. Erin Kane, executive director of schools met with all American Academy employees via Zoom call. She addressed the board approved plans for returning to work and school in August. There are contingency plans in place to honor the Governor Polis's orders. She indicated that while many other schools will return under a revised calendar, American Academy intends to return to the regular school day and the regular school calendar for the 2020-2021 school year.      Kane stated that the school will follow all orders given by the Governor, the Colorado Department of Health and Tri-County Health Department, but as far as guidelines go, the school will implement those utilizing common sense and making final decisions based on the best interest of students, staff and families.      A poll was made during the call with...

    While this is the first time that I have ever blogged in my life, I enjoyed it the first time around. My topic was interesting to me because a lot of people that are in my life were effected with their jobs in one way or another.           Due to the pandemic that we are all facing, I also knew that I was not the only one seeing friends or family members stop working. When coming to such a halt like that it can be concerning whether you will make it through the storm or not. I have seen both of my parents worried about getting laid off and have seen some of my friends having to file for unemployment. It is tough and I did not want people who were labeled as an unessential worker, to feel alone.  There are many businesses going through it right now and in a way, all nonessential people are fighting this fight together.      While it was difficult sometimes to keep longer updates on these three businesses, I managed to a...

    With the numerous amounts of layoffs that United Natural Foods Inc. has endured, the company now is pulling up some of their own employees to fill the shoes of former employees. While UNFI has lost a portion of their team, those who are still with the company are being interviewed and examined for promotions. The company now has less employees and are able to keep the same pay for those employees that are still there.      Many Zoom meetings, Skype calls, and conferences have been taking place these past few weeks in order to help decide current employers positions at UNFI. Buyers are all in competition to get to the next promotional level.      For buyers, many wish to be promoted and given the opportunity to have more responsibility within the company while also getting to be paid more. The next position higher for a buyer is a forecaster . This job requires a lot of responsibility and can carry a lot of pressure and stress. ...

     Many people have been affected by COVID-19. People have lost their jobs, in person education abilities and overall regular life.       Because of this virus and its shadow that it has casted across the world, many are weary for what is to come in the future.       With schools being closed for the remainder of the spring semester, no one is quite sure for what is to come this summer.       After Governor Polis announced that businesses can reopen, many heads have turned to the educational aspect and have been waiting to see the decision that is made.       Based on recommendations by Governor Polis, American Academy moved forward with their student summer programs. This involved some very strict guidelines based on the guidelines from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.       The maximum capacity can not exceed 25 people for outdoor camps and cann...

    With all of the grocery shopping being done, product owners are in a rush to get their own items on every shelf at every store. New products come and go, but with COVID-19 forcing many families to only go out for certain emergencies, or in other words, for food creates a lot of traffic inside grocery stores. With grocery stores being one of the only places to stay open during the pandemic, many companies wanted to push their new products to the shelves of many of these grocery stores.       Buyers are beginning to purchase more and more products to put into stores. These stores can include places like Whole Foods, Natural Grocers, King Soopers and Walmart. Places like these are super popular and known to sell a variety of products.       Because of the pandemic, a lot of buyers are buying new and never heard of products to be placed on the shelves of your local grocery store. New brands of popcorn, chocolate milk and sparkl...

    Due to recent events, Deka Lash decided to reopen to the public and invite all of their customers back. While doing this, it was difficult to accumulate their average amount of customers right off the bat. However, after being open for less than a month, Deka is already filling up with appointments.       Lash employees are only to work between two to three days, but in those days clients are beginning to book them for a full day. As of lately employees have only had between one and three appointments per shift, but now appointments are beginning to fill up quicker than before.       Deka employees are booking between four and six appointments per shift now and things could be slowly getting back to normal. With this being said, there is no telling when Governor Polis will lift regulations, but when he does, clients will be able to come in mask free and Deka will be able to host more clients at one time.     The only t...

    After just reopening Deka Lash Company last week, business began to boom once again. Although Deka is not nearly as busy as they used to be, they still managed to pick back up rather quickly after the stay at home order was lifted. Upon reopening each lash technician has been able to book appointments every day that they work and everyone is able to still see the majority of the regulars again.      Deka Lash does require customers to wear a mask upon arrival and customers must wear them for their full appointment as well. While the employees have always worn masks to avoid the heavy fumes, they now have more of a reason to wear them.      Many people are still nervous to go back into the world after the storm that COVID-19 created, but many women are excited and happy to have salons reopened again. For many Deka Lash employees, it was their first full time job and most did not have any other financial compensation coming i...

        Although United Natural Foods is still working remotely from their own homes, their constant work never stops. With more people going back to stores and buying more and more goods, demands are higher than ever for UNFI buyers.           With daily orderings and meetings buyers are working around the clock in order to complete their daily tasks. The main purpose of a buyer is that they buy an amount of product that they think would go and sell on shelves at different stores.      Buyers are supposed to be able to estimate the product sale amount for each week and then order product amount accordingly.      It can be a very stressful job, especially when having to deal with products that have a short shelf life. It is difficult to do but even more difficult when you are doing it from your own home. Buyers are forced to have online meetings and phone calls and cannot have face to face int...

    Earlier this week, the American Academy leadership team from all three campuses met for three days to discuss next year's contingency plans. They discussed how students would return. After the recommendation of keeping students in cohorts, meaning that there will be groups of 20 students or less in each classroom. This also means students must stay in assigned groups and cannot mix.      The leadership team discussed how returning to school would look like. What it would be like for the staff, teachers, students and even parents. A big topic that came into conversation was the idea of still challenging every student to their own best ability without the ability of integrating between classrooms and groups.      They decided in order to accomplish this, they will incorporate more differentiation in daily instruction. This would mean that they would create smaller groups from those main groups. This would give students an opportu...

    At United Natural foods, employees have been sent home to work remotely. With meetings daily and having to train new employees through a screen, employees are eager to get back into their offices.           After businesses began to reopen, UNFI began discussing when they could bring back their employees to return to their cubicles. In early April the topic began being discussed with the head of the company, and UNFI came out with a estimated target date to be in July of 2020.       Employees were expected to return to their desks in less than two months.      Once businesses began running again, careful consideration was made and UNFI decided to change their target date. Last month the team decided not to have workers return until early September. This means that employees must continue to do their work remotely at home for the next three months.      United Natural Foods began working re...

    Next week during June 8 through June 10, American Academy Charter School is having their annual leadership retreat. They will be discussing the possible outcomes for next year's school year.           One of the contingent plans is to have a portion of children attend school and a portion remain at home for remote learning. This way it will keep populations down and add more distance in classrooms.      They will also be discussing possible required implements and restrictions. It is a pre-k through 8th grade, so it is a rather big school. The ideas of face masks, class sizes, remote learning planning and full time nurses will all be discussed next week.      Because of American Academy's budget cuts, it was crucial that they held their conference this year. Not only will department heads be in attendance, but as will the executive and administrative staff, the executive director and the b...

    Deka Lash Company is a lashing business that preforms multiple beauty adjustments for the eye. They are mainly known for their eyelash extensions, but they also offer lash lifts and lash tinting. Located around the Centennial area, you can find five different locations.           In order to be an employee there, applicants must have already gone to school and obtained an esthetician  license. When started at the salon, employees must also go through an eyelash training program offered by Deka Lash.      The company takes their work very seriously and like to ensure accuracy within their employees. Deka Lash Company is all about providing high quality services that offer completely safe eyelash adjustments. Their services offer a variety that is suitable for any eye shape, color or size.      Deka Lash is a very popular place to go and get something done, but after COVID-19 hit the United States, Deka ...