NCE Family Newsletter
September 10, 2021
General Updates
- School is closed on Friday, September 17th.
For Students Who Are Quarantined Through Next Week
Unfortunately, the reality of life in 2021 is that we will have to quarantine some students and staff that may have come into close contact with someone that we find out has tested positive for COVID. The CDC requires this as a way to help stop the spread of the virus and help to keep everyone safe. Here are a few things I thought everyone might want to know about this topic:
- The CDC is the one that makes the call when we have to quarantine a whole bus or classroom. We will try to avoid this whenever possible.
- The length of quarantine (usually 10 calendar, not school days) and return date are decided by the Department of Public Heath and CDC.
- Your child cannot be moved to Colonial's Virtual Program when quarantined. The Colonial Virtual Program is a year long program, not a response to COVID-19, and New Castle's staff is 100% in person this year so there are no zoom rooms to pop into. Instead, we will provide instructional materials that can be worked on from home. No assignments done in the face to face classroom will be held against a child's grade when they are in quarantine and we will catch them up with the content when they return.
- Except in the cases of full bus quarantines, students must have a clearance letter from DPH. You can get this by putting in a request here: DE COVID-19 CLEARANCE LETTER REQUEST. Clearance letters can be emailed to Nurse Davidson at amy.davidson@colonial.k12.de.us
Please click the link below to access Choice Boards that were put together for students to work on while they are away from school.
If you have any questions about the assignments on the Choice Boards, feel free to reach out to Ms. Ross or Ms. Vanover directly.
Before and After Care if Being Offered by the Latin American Community Center!!!
Daily Student Health Screener
If your student has tested positive for COVID-19, has been identified as a close contact to a COVID-19 case or is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, your child must not report to school until cleared by the school nurse. Please notify your building principal and school nurse as soon as possible with this information.
Please answer the following questions:
- In the past 14 days, have you been near (within 6 ft for at least 15 mins) a person who has a lab confirmed case of COVID-19, or have you had direct contact with their mucus or saliva?
- In the last 48 hours, have you had any of the following symptoms?
- New Cough
- New trouble breathing, shortness of breath or severe wheezing
- New chills or shaking with chills
- New muscle aches
- Sore throat
- Vomiting or diarrhea
- New loss of smell or taste, or a change in taste
- Nausea
- Fatigue
- Headache, congestion or runny nose (with no known other cause such as allergies)
If you answered YES to any of the questions above, do NOT send your child to school today. Instead, contact your child's primary healthcare provider and school nurse.
COVID Reminders
- Masks will be worn by all staff and students during the school day while inside of the building. Masks can be removed when staff and students are outside (for example, during outdoor recess).
- All student desks will be spaced 3ft apart within classrooms based on current CDC guidelines.
- Students will be eating in the cafeteria this school year with a minimum of 2.5 ft of distance between them.
- Reusable water bottles will be provided to all students. Water fountains will be on during the school day for students to re-fill their bottles as needed.
- We will be able to move students for some specials and other instructional opportunities during the school day, so they will not be "stuck" in their homerooms all day this year. :-)
Feel free to click here to access a more detailed description of the district's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID Testing
FREE IN-SCHOOL COVID TESTING is offered to all staff and students every Thursday.
To opt into this program, click the link below to complete the application. Results will be available immediately after the tests are run to the email address and phone number provided during registration.
https://my.primary.health/l/colonial-schools
Feel free to reach out to our school nurse, Mrs. Davidson, if you have any questions.
Chromebooks
Please do your best to remind your children to charge their chromebooks each night.
It would also be very helpful if you have your children begin to memorize their username (student ID/lunch numbers) and passwords (birthdate mm/dd/yyyy). For example, if my student id number is 123456 and my birthday is January 16, 2010, to log in to the computer my information would be:
username: 123456
password: 01162010
PLEASE DO NOT RESET YOUR CHILD'S PASSWORD TO ANYTHING
OTHER THAN THEIR BIRTHDAY. :-)
School Lunches
Lunch and breakfast are provided free of charge for all students.
Below you can find the menus for the start of the school year. Students may bring their lunch if they'd like, but be mindful that they will always be allowed to go through the lunch line if they so choose.
Let's Keep In Touch!
The main sources of communication will be:
- Weekly Newsletters
- Frequent Facebook posts - www.facebook.com/newcastlecsd
- REMIND Text Messaging App
REMIND allows us to send text reminders directly to your cell phone. To join REMIND, click the link that corresponds to your student's grade level below:
*REMIND text messages and all newsletters can also be translated into Spanish (and other languages) using technology built in to the apps*
New Castle Elementary School
Email: teray.ross@colonial.k12.de.us
Website: http://www.colonialschooldistrict.org/newcastle/
Location: 903 Delaware Street, New Castle, DE, USA
Phone: 302-323-2880
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newcastlecsd/
Twitter: @FearlesslyLearn