SEHOME MARINER MEMO

9/13-9/17/2021

PRINCIPAL LETTER

Dear Sehome Community,

The school year is in full swing. Students have done a great job following the health and safety procedures. Students are wearing their masks. Some need reminders to wear their mask over their nose and mouth at all times in the building, but for the most part, kids have done a great job! We have several different types of masks available in the main office for students whose masks are not fitting properly.

On Tuesday, we have our virtual open house. We transitioned to doing a virtual open house due to the increased cases in our community. It also provides additional flexibility for our families. Each department has posted (or will post soon) a video with basic information for all families to view. To view department videos, click here: https://sehome.bellinghamschools.org/open-house-videos-2021/ All teachers will be sending out information that is specific to their class if they have not done so already.

We will also have a webinar on Zoom on Tuesday, 9/14 at 6:00 PM. To access the webinar, click here on Tuesday. https://bellinghamschools.zoom.us/j/87101357394 We will be reviewing basic information about the following:

- Athletics and clubs
- Role of our Prevention and Intervention Specialist and services provided
- Counselors
- Lunches- open campus, free lunches, safety procedures during lunchtime
- Parking lot safety/ pick up and drop off
- Health and Safety
- Attendance
- Q&A time

We sure wish we could welcome you all into our beautiful building to meet our incredible staff, but that will have to wait. If you have any class-specific questions, please reach out directly to the teacher. Click here for teacher contact information: https://sehome.bellinghamschools.org/contact/

We are excited to begin our first full week and appreciate all your encouragement and support. It feels so good to be back together in the building. The Sehome community is learning together and it has been such a joy to watch. We are thankful for each one of you.

Please reach out with any questions, concerns, or celebrations. We love to hear from you!

Sonia Cole

Principal

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IN THIS EPISODE

1- Virtual Open House

2- Whatcom Climate Events

3- Volunteering

4- Breakfast and Lunch

5- Ordering School Pictures

6- Senior Photos

7- Grad Ads

8- Parking Permits

9- 2021 BSD Unified Fall Activities

10- Attendance

11- Open Campus

12- COVID-19 Q&A

13- Multi-Language Message Line

14- Sehome PTSA

1 - VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE

Topic: Sehome Open House

When: Sep 14, 2021 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://bellinghamschools.zoom.us/j/87101357394

Interpretation in Spanish and ASL will be provided.

This will also be recorded and be available later in the week.

To view Department Videos:

https://sehome.bellinghamschools.org/open-house-videos-2021/

2 - WHATCOM CLIMATE EVENTS

Whatcom Water Week, Sept. 11-19

Starting this weekend is Whatcom Water Week, a week of events hosted by community groups to celebrate our local water resources. The City is offering a self-guided Lake Whatcom Tour and Stormwater Discovery Tours all week. Find a full list of events at whatcomwaterweeks.org/events.

ALL IN for Climate Action Week, Sept. 20-26

During September 20-26, the City is organizing its third annual ALL IN for Climate Action Week to celebrate the knowledge and resources our community has to offer when looking for local solutions to climate change. Many organizations, businesses, and local governments in the community have partnered to create a list of virtual and safe in-person events for all ages and diverse interest groups. We invite you to join us to watch inspirational films, hear from community speakers, join a bike ride, plant trees or clean up litter at a local park, participate in a composting workshop, check out an electric vehicle car show, eat a local vegan meal, read a climate-themed book, and more! Find event details at cob.org/climate-action-week.

VOLUNTEER APPLICATION

3 -VOLUNTEERING

Adult volunteers are incredibly helpful to our schools and we are currently in need of additional volunteers. All volunteers need to be listed in our volunteer system and due to COVID-19, previously cleared volunteers will need to upload additional documentation and view additional training videos. Please go to ttps://bellinghamschoolsvolunteers.myschooldata.net/Home.aspx to complete or update your application and upload all necessary documents.

Contact Bellingham School District Volunteer Coordinator, Jennifer Gaer, with any questions: at jennifer.gaer@bellinghamschools.org

4 - SCHOOL BREAKFAST AND LUNCH

Update on school menus; universal “free” meals for 2021-22

Since the first menu of the school year was included in the back-to-school mailing, the Food Services program has been impacted severely by national supply chain issues in the food industry. To keep families updated on what will be served, a two-week menu will be maintained on the school menu webpage.

Reminder! All breakfast and lunch meals are provided at no cost to families in the 2021-22 school year thanks to a USDA ruling earlier this summer.

5 - ORDERING SCHOOL PICTURES

If your student had their picture taken this past Friday, they received a card with a QR code that you would scan to order pictures. If they misplaced the card, you can go to vando.imagequix.com/s1570128162 to find your student. You will need their school ID to look them up. It may take up to a week before you can access the pictures taken 9/3. Retakes will be on October 8th.

6 - SENIOR PHOTOS

Link to submit senior photos

https://bellinghampublic.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_780mkbuvOFdBxBk

Questions: mailto:lauren.tucker@bellinghamschools.org

7 - GRAD ADS FOR YEARBOOK

Time to order your grad ads! This year all seniors get a quarter page in the yearbook for FREE. Grad ads are due Friday December 10th. Information about grad ads and how to place your order are included in the link (or by scanning the QR code) below. Please contact the Sehome yearbook staff with any questions at SHS.Yearbook@bellinghamschools.org.

https://bellinghampublic.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3Ei4VwD6MNIIdvw

8 - PARKING PERMITS

Parking passes will be available beginning the second week of school. Stop by the ASB office and speak with Cathy Moran to get your application. While parking for students is free, we do require that all part-time and full-time students register their vehicles with the school.

2021 BSD UNIFIED FALL ACTIVITIES

9 - 2021 BSD UNIFIED FALL ACTIVITIES

https://sehome.bellinghamschools.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2021/09/2021-BPS-Unified-Fall-Activities.pdf

10 - ATTENDANCE

We are looking forward to welcoming all students back to the building and we believe strongly in the benefit of regular school attendance to support academic achievement and graduation. Families should contact the office within 48 hours regarding a student's absence. An absence can be classified as excused if it is related to illness, health condition, medical appointment, family emergency, religious purposes, court-related, or directly related to a student's homeless status(Policy 3122). We commit to supporting students and families around consistent school attendance. We may partner with the Juvenile Court system if unexcused absences(truancy) begin to hinder the academic progress of students. We look forward to learning together with your student this year. You can contact the attendance office at heidi.schroyer@bellinghamschools.org or 360-676-6481 ext 1

11 - OPEN CAMPUS

All Sehome students 9th - 12th grade can leave campus for lunch. If students have a difficult time returning to campus on time each day, off-campus privileges may be revoked for a period of time.

12 - COVID-19 Q&A FROM COVID SAFETY TEAM

Q: How do you do contact tracing? How will I know if my child is a close contact?

A: When we find out that someone with COVID was at school, we launch a thorough investigation to identify close contacts. This process often includes staff, school nurse, director of health services and COVID-19 safety team. You can see this chart for a definition of a close contact and how vaccination status impacts quarantine requirements.

If there was exposure, we do contact tracing, which is another way of saying we determine if there are close contacts. If there are close contacts, we prioritize communication with close contacts as quickly as possible. We work in partnership with our COVID safety team and the health department to determine and share exposure date, return date and resources.

After we have notified close contacts, we update the COVID dashboard on our website, which we update regularly. If we learn of multiple cases in a classroom over a short duration, we will communicate that. These cases may be coincidental and unrelated. If the health department determines transmission is occurring, we will work closely with them on next steps and communicate.

Please remember: if your child is a close contact, you will be notified. If you’re not notified but you see a case on the dashboard, you should assume your child was not a close contact.

And as always, keep masking, washing hands, keeping distance as able, watching for symptoms, etc. Vaccine and masks continue to be our most important mitigation tactics.

Our two primary goals for the 2021-22 school year are to maximize in-person instruction by keeping kids in school and to minimize the transmission of COVID-19 among students and staff and to their families and our broader community. Our best protections are the COVID-19 vaccine and masks.

Here is the current guidance that we will follow:

- Masks are required inside schools for everyone regardless of vaccination status.

- Masks are optional outside but recommended for crowded events.

- Physical distance should not be a barrier to in-person instruction. Our goal is to have a distance of 3 feet between students in the classroom.

- We will not be doing health attestations for students. We ask that everyone stay home when they are sick.

- We are hoping to expand testing access to every school.

- We will continue to do contact tracing.

- We will continue to focus on handwashing and sanitizing.

13 - MULTI-LANGUAGE MESSAGE LINE

Families whose first language is not English can leave a message on our multi-language message line at 360-647-6816. Families dial 2 for Russian, dial 3 for Vietnamese, dial 4 for Punjabi or dial 5 for any other language (say name of language at beginning of message). Please call 360-676-6456 for Spanish.