The Sky's the Limit

Happy New Year and welcome to 2024! The school year is halfway complete. Second nine week report cards went home on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. If you have concerns about your child's learning, please contact your child's teacher. We are beginning our 2nd Cycle for Lex 2.5, our after school academic support program, on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. This program is by invitation only and if your child received an invitation to, we Strongly Encourage you to have them attend. Some students have had really solid growth during the first cycle.

This month students will take their Winter Star tests in Math and Reading. These tests will measure student growth from the beginning until the middle of the school year. Please encourage students to do their absolute best when they take these tests. These tests help teachers to plan their instruction and lets students and parents know how students are performing. You should also look for a report to go home later during the month after the report cards.

Our AVID Strategies for the Month are the Frayer Model and the One Pager. A Frayer Model can be used for organizing thoughts, building background knowledge, and helping with understanding vocabulary before and after reading texts. A One Pager is a creative response to your learning experience. It allows students to respond imaginatively while being brief and concise in making connections between words and images. Please ask your student about their work using the Frayer Models and One Pager. You will see examples of both throughout our school.

As always, one of our greatest challenges at Congaree is improving student attendance. This means making sure that students are getting to school on time no later than 7:30 each day and staying all day until dismissal. For many students, every minute missed from class is a lost learning opportunity that they will have a significant obstacle to overcome. Attendance Matters.

The Lexington Two Teacher Career Fair will be held on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 from 4:00 pm until 6:00 pm at the Lexington Two Innovation Center. Please use the link here for more information.

Finally, as we honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr., we ask that you remember one of his famous quotes, "The time is always right to do what is right." We ask that you talk with your children about making good choices, treating others with kindness and showing respect. I challenge each of us as adults to model the same positive behaviors that we want our children to show. We've got really great parents, students and staff at Congaree and I know that all of us are up to the challenge.

Respectfully,

Chris Dickey

As you are aware there has been an increase in respiratory illnesses after the Holidays. Influenza (Flu), COVID-19, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) are contagious respiratory illnesses; but they are caused by different viruses. You cannot tell the difference between the illnesses by symptoms alone because some of the symptoms are the same. If your child is having any of the following symptoms, please talk to a healthcare provider about being seen and possibly being tested.

• Fever*/feeling feverish or chills (*Keep your child home for a fever of 100.4 degrees or higher)
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Muscle or body aches
• Headaches
• Fatigue (tiredness)
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Wheezing
• Headache
• New loss of taste or smell
• Decrease in appetite

Per SCDHEC Exclusion List:

• Keep your child home for a fever of 100.4 degrees or higher. Your child must be fever-free (without the use of fever-reducing medication) to return to school.

• Children with a positive COVID-19 test should stay home until they have had no fever for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication AND improvement of symptoms AND at least 5 days have passed since symptoms first appeared.

• Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) (ILI is defined as an oral temperature of greater than 100° F with a cough and/or sore throat for which there is no other known cause) A child with the flu will be excluded for a fever of 100 degrees with cough and/or sore throat until he or she is fever free for at least 24 hours without any fever medicines.

• “Strep Throat” / Streptococcal Pharyngitis Your child with “Strep throat” can return to school or childcare with a medical note 24 hours after starting antibiotics, if there is no fever.

• Diarrhea: (3 or more loose stools in 24 hours): Children in 5th grade or younger should stay home until diarrhea stops for 24 hours, or until a healthcare provider clears the child to return to school.

• Vomiting: (2 or more times in a 24-hour period). All children should stay home for any green or bloody vomit. If the child is vomiting and also has not urinated for 8 hours the child should stay home.

Questions to Consider When Your Child is Sick:

1. Does your child’s illness keep him/her from comfortably taking part in activities?

2. Does your sick child need more care than the staff can give without affecting the health and safety of other children? 3. Could other children get sick from being near your child?

If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes,” please keep your child out of school or childcare.

Please contact Nurse Ginny if your child has tested positive for Covid, Flu or RSV or if you have any questions.