PEEK AT THE WEEK

If you have not done so, please watch Superintendent Brown's latest blog. It is full of information regarding student illnesses and procedures that the District will follow when students are symptomatic of Covid or test positive for Covid. Very good information that we should ALL be aware of.

Supt. Brown explains the process at DCS when a positive case of COVID-19 is reported and when students become sick at school in his latest blog and letter.

Please click on the link below to watch.

https://youtu.be/jYiEc9MipsE

COVID Protocals: A Message from Asst. Superintendent Lobban

Please read this very important message from Mr. Lobban that is going out to all DCS staff:

Over this past week, the District has had to navigate many new challenges. All of us are learning a lot through this time, working harder than ever, but the reward for again seeing students in our halls and classrooms and providing students with the academic and social-emotional support they need, both face to face and online is worth the blood, sweat and tears. If anything has become a constant, it is that of constant change. And, with regards to challenges, keeping up with changes to guidance and procedures surrounding COVID-19 symptoms tracing and mitigation has been a major one. I'd be remiss if I didn't take the time to remind us all to continue to make every effort, that is feasible, to ensure we are doing all we can to lessen the impact of COVID + and/or symptomatic cases.

This past week's events have reiterated the importance of the 6 foot and 15-minute rule. All of us, not just with students, need to be conscious of our proximity to one another. That means to the extent possible, we need to refrain from some things we have done in the past and look for creative ways to engage with others. A clarification came to our attention regarding the 15-minute rule. In the past we have been led to believe that the 15 minutes were consecutive; however, recently we were made aware that the interpretation is actually in fact cumulative time.

And, even with that time being cumulative, there comes a certain degree of questioning as to what that contact looked like during the 15 minutes of time over the course of the day. Was it face to face, was it in passing, what degree of interaction took place,...? These are all questions that we have to ask when we are tracing either COVID positive cases or symptomatic individuals.

As you interact not only with your students but with other colleagues, I want to remind you that we must attempt to social-distance to the extent possible. For instances such as eating lunch, holding PLCs and other meetings, or just impromptu gatherings in the hallway, we need to maintain more than 6 feet of distance between us. As you consider what this looks like in the classroom or refinements that you may deem necessary to be made, consider keeping students in pods, in their pods together during the day as much as possible, and away from other pods as much as possible. If you hold "carpet" time, consider rotating student pods that come to the carpet. Consider having the pods travel together, eat together, engage in specials activities together. We can't control all of the variables, but we can try and ensure that we are making every effort to control the controllable's!

So, as we've seen the impact that having to quarantine can have on a student, teacher, and classroom, please make every effort to continue to do your part. We are going to have to quarantine cases and exposures at times, mitigating the impact of exposure to the extent possible is essential.

Hello all,

Thank you for your recent efforts of getting the word out via your classroom newsletters regarding the reporting of student absences. We need parents to call the OFFICE to report student absences. There are many important reasons for this. The Cardinal's Nest and Central/GSRP are required to do absence reporting, communicable disease reporting to the health department each week, and to gather important information regarding symptoms related to absences. Here are some things you can do to help:

1) Central/GSRP staff- Please add information to your weekly newsletters that informs parents to call the Early Learning Office at 591-0922 to report absences. Many parents STILL call the Central Elementary office and we need to make the process clear for parents.

2) Cardinal's Nest parents need to be reminded to call the office at 591-0821 to report student absences. We have not broken the cycle of parents calling or texting Cardinal's Nest teachers to report their child's absence. This should not be happening. Teachers, if you are notified by a parent of a student's absence, please tell the parent that they need to call the Cardinal's Nest office at 591-0821 to report the absence and that you can not excuse their child's absence. For safety reasons, the absence must be reported to the office by the student's parent or guardian- not by the teacher. Thank you for your help with this.

Please note that your staff self evaluation is due back to either Lindsey or myself. All Early Learning staff received an email regarding your self evaluation this week. You should have received your self evaluation last week in your mailbox or in inner school mail if you are a latchkey employee. Thank you for having these completed and turned in by the due date.

As part of Covid 19 protocols, we are being asked to have seating charts for each classroom in our buildings. You will receive a Google Sheets seating chart template this week. Please fill it out according to your seating arrangement during your small group instruction time and snack or lunch time. I understand the seating chart concept is against GSRP guidelines during normal instruction times of the past, but as you know, we are in a 'new normal' at this time. Thank you for your help with this.

Seating charts are also required for busing and I will be out to speak with drivers this week to see what type of seating chart they have in place for our preschool students that arrive and depart via bus @ Central. We have a template made that can be used for our GSRP bus riders if they do not yet have one in place.

Central/GSRP followed Central Elementary's drill schedule and classrooms were able to hold both a 'walk and talk' through fire and lock down drill. Cardinal's Nest and latchkey sites will be responsible for holding their drills according to the child care licensing drill requirements. If you need a child care licensing drill schedule form, please let me know. We will be required to turn these in to our child care licensing consultant at the end of each year.

It is imperative that we have our cleaning supplies properly labeled and that they are kept out of the reach of children. All latchkey sites and preschool classrooms should have new labels for your 3 step cleaning spray bottles. The contents of bleach and water is on the label and the concentration strength for sanitizing. Please make sure you are testing your bleach/water sanitizing solution daily with the bleach testing strips at your site. Labels were put in mailboxes at Central/GSRP and sent through inner school mail to all latchkey sites. Thanks for your help with this.

Hello all 4 year old preschool teachers!

It is that time of year to record beginning of the year common assessment data for your students. This includes letter ID and the Math counting to 20 assessment. I emailed an example to you all last week of how the data needs to be recorded. Please send both the letter ID and math beginning of the year classroom data to me by the end of next week. I have created a Google folder where I am saving this data for your teacher evals. Remember that this is part of the student growth data portion of your eval. Cami and Rachel, please copy yours to both me and Lindsey. Let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to meeting with each of you to review your beginning of the year self evaluation, goal setting, and student assessments.