POMS Weekly Patriot Post
Week of September 21-25, 2020
From the Principal:
Hello Post Oak Families –
Thank you for your continued support of distance learning at home. I continue to be impressed by the growing collaboration between home and school and truly appreciate all that you are doing remotely. I would also like to thank our teachers and staff for their continued hard work. While I realize that this situation is not ideal, I believe that it will strengthen teaching and learning moving forward. Please continue to let us know if there is anything that we can do to assist.
The School Board confirmed this at their meeting last week that we will be moving to our hybrid learning model at the start of the 2nd nine weeks which is scheduled to begin on October 12th. This model will provide in person learning two days per week for those that have opted to participate in the hybrid model. Students will be placed into one of three groups.
- Group 1 will attend school in person every Monday and Tuesday and attend classes virtually each Thursday and Friday.
- Group 2 will attend school in person every Thursday and Friday and attend classes virtually each Monday and Tuesday.
- Group 3 students have chosen to learn virtually 100% of the time. These students will attend classes remotely every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
- Wednesdays will remain unchanged. Students will work independently throughout the day on Wednesday. All students will still participate virtually in their Patriot Advisory class from 11:45 am – 12:05 pm. This allows staff to check-in with their students.
Student and staff safety are critical as we work collaboratively to shift to hybrid learning next month. Therefore, the school day will look a little different. Social distancing will be implemented as much as possible throughout the school day. Students will be required to wear masks per the SCPS Return To Learn plan. Thank you in advance for your support of our safety measures as we work together to maintain a safe learning environment.
Please be on the lookout for our hybrid newsletter that will be mailed to all families at the end of this upcoming week. The newsletter will provide each student with their assigned group, a copy of the hybrid schedule and additional information pertaining to the hybrid learning model at POMS.
We are super excited to see students return to the building for in person learning and look forward to making this transition as smooth as possible. Thank you in advance for your cooperation, patience, and grace as we work together to meet the needs of our students!
Scott Belako, Principal
Food Service UPDATE
POMS LIbrary Curbside Pickup
POMS Spirit Night
Reminders & Announcements
Online Application Terms or Use Permission - While teaching virtually, teachers will be using a variety of online applications to enhance and support student learning this year. While these applications are widely used by the education community, and K-12 institutions support their use, the providers' Terms of Service state that, student users must obtain parental permission to use their sites. These resources have been chosen to support student learning during virtual and in-person instruction. Please see the forms links below. One form will need to be filled out for each student you have here at POMS. We appreciate your time and cooperation!
- Locker Items - Some locker items remain from last school year. Any 7th or 8th grader who would like to pick-up their locker items may do so between 8:30 am – 4:00 pm in the front office. Locker items will be donated or discarded after September 30th.
- Handbook Form Completion - If you have not done so already, please be sure that you open the email that the school division sent via DocuSign to complete the required annual school forms in the 2020-2021 Student-Parent Handbook. We appreciate you and your student(s) taking the time to complete them as soon as possible.
- Wednesday Independent Learning/Teacher and Student Check-ins - Wednesdays are identified as Independent Learning and Teacher Check-In days. This week may be light with regards to class assignments. However, students should follow our Wednesday schedule to complete class assignments and projects. Parents and students are also encouraged to contact their teacher with any questions.
Learning From Home Help - SCPS has created the following Learning from Home site. It includes Canvas and GC tutorials for parents and students, along with other information pertinent to support parents and students during distance learning.
- Directions for ParentVue - can be viewed using the following links: Directions in English and Directions in Spanish.
- POMS PTO - Be sure to LIKE and FOLLOW the POMS PTO Facebook Page.
POMS Athletic Information
All POMS Patriots are encouraged to stay active!
Sarah French, Athletic Director, sfrench@spotsylvania.k12.va.us or 540.582.7517, ext. 6417
Sports information can be found on the POMS Athletic website - https://www.spotsylvania.k12.va.us/domain/621
Message from the Superintendent
Our fifth week of the school year was another extremely busy week for leadership, teachers, and support staff. Below are some updates and highlights.
Highlights from the Week
At the September 14th School Board meeting, staff presented an update on the Return to Learn plan. Based on the board’s discussion and actions, we remain focused in planning for a transition to the hybrid in-person with the continued 100% distance learning option for our students, staff, and families at the beginning of the second quarter (October 12th).
During the September 14th board meeting, we experienced technical difficulties and were not able to show our Instructional Highlight Video featuring some of our students and staff during the distance learning process. Please take a moment to view this less than 5 minute video.
I am so proud of our student, school, and division recognitions in the area of visual and performing arts. Please take a look at our amazing educators and students - Arts Recognition - September 14th Board Meeting.
To view the September 14th School Board Meeting, please use this link.
We are excited to share that the Forbes 2020 Best Employers by State rating has ranked Spotsylvania County Public Schools 37 out of the top 100 employers in Virginia (only 10 school divisions in the state made the list and SCPS ranked 4th among that distinguished group).
Distance Learning Supports
We have some positive news to share regarding hotspots. To date, approximately 230 hotspots have arrived. Presently, we are working with the company to put the required filtering system on each device and then we can distribute them to students. Additionally, the remaining 670 hotspots have shipped!
To assist parents and students with technical issues, a Distance Learning Tech Support link has been added under the student tab and homepage of each school site.
Hybrid In-person Model Planning
As part of conference nights/week for each school, personalized contacts were made to verify student/parent intentions in planning for a transition to more in-person learning. The intention of these contacts was to ensure clarity in terms of student/staff needs moving forward, not to resurvey/re-enroll students/parents.
We know there are still questions that parents, students, and teachers have regarding exactly how schedules will be affected and how the hybrid model will be executed. We will be trying to maintain as much continuity in student/teachers schedules as possible. Here is the link to the presentation that was shared with the board on September 14th. As we continue to actively plan with our schools and building leaders, please know that continued details will be shared over the next few weeks. This will include an update to the school board on September 28th.
Hybrid Model resources:
Return to Learn plan that was approved in July
We appreciate your continued support and partnership as we move forward in our planning of this model along with the simultaneous implementation of distance learning. It is complex and we are trying to ensure that we best match our resources to the needs.
Family Connection Webinar
Our first Family Connection Webinar will be on Thursday, September 24, 2020, 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. To access the webinar, please use the Livestream Link: https://www.regionalwebtv.com/spotsysb or view it on Comcast Channel 17, Cox Channel 18, and Verizon Channel 36. The focus of the webinar will be announcements related to the Hybrid In-person Model and will feature parent and student resources/support for distance learning.
SCPS COVID-19 Dashboard
We are launching an SCPS COVID-19 Dashboard. The purpose of the dashboard is to provide our families and staff with an accurate summary of COVID-19 cases. An active case indicates that a student or staff member participating in on-campus activities has tested positive or is presumed positive for an active COVID-19 infection. Individuals who test positive are excluded from participation in any in-person/on-campus activity until the school nurse or our Director of Health Services verifies that the individual meets the return criteria set by the Virginia Department of Health. This data will be updated weekly.
I am so proud of how hard everyone is working as well as being collaborative in our approach!
Thank you for your continued support!
Dr. S. Scott Baker
Post Oak Middle Schools
6959 Courthouse Road
Spotsylvania, VA 22551
(540) 582-7517