Clemens Crossing Cougar Comments
January 21, 2022 - Volume 43, Issue 20
Clemens Crossing Elementary School
Jaime Gittleson, Assistant Principal
Website: cces.hcpss.org
Location: 10320 Quarterstaff Road, Columbia, MD, United States
Phone: 410-313-6866
Facebook: facebook.com/ClemensCrossingElementary
Twitter: @hcpss_cces
Important Upcoming Dates and Events
January
- 21 - End of 2nd Quarter
- 24 - Schools Closed for Students - Professional Work Day
- 28 - Conference Scheduling Opens
- 31 - Report Cards Issued
February
- 1 - Black History Month Begins
- 1 - Schools Closed for Students - Professional Learning Day
- 4 - Conference Scheduling Closes
- 4 - PTA Virtual Bingo Night (date moved from 2/25)
- 8 - PTA Restaurant Day - Chick-fil-A (Johns Hopkins Road)
- 9 - PTA Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
- 10 - Schools Close 3 hours Early 12:45 p.m. - Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences
- 11 - Schools Close 3 hours Early 12:45 p.m. - Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences
- 14 - CogAT for 3rd grade
- 15 - CogAT for 3rd grade
- 18 - CogAT for 3rd grade
- 21 - Schools and Offices Closed - President's Day
To subscribe to the CCES calendar on your smartphone, electronic device, or email system use the calendar ID sqspkjkbr6v6arss44js3n21eg@group.calendar.google.com.
From School Administrators
End of Second Quarter
Friday, January 21 is the final day of the second quarter. There has been a lot of disruptions throughout the second quarter primarily related to COVID illnesses, the need to quarantine, and the inclement weather we've experienced in January.
Monday, January 24 is a professional workday for staff, and schools are closed for students. Teachers will be finalizing second quarter grades so they can prepare report cards to be issued on January 31. As you know, report cards are a tool used to report how students are learning in school. Knowing that there have been many disruptions to our learning routines, teachers will do their best to accurately share how well students are performing in school. I will have more information about grading and reporting prior to the issuance of the report cards.
Conferences Scheduling
Next Friday, our conference scheduling program will open for you to schedule a Parent-Teacher Conference. The focus for this final round of conferences will be Mathematics. I encourage all parents/guardians to sign up for a time to meet with your child/children's teachers. This connection is so important to supplement the report card for the second quarter.
COVID Contact Tracing
Finally, I want to share that we will be resuming contact tracing at the school level. Here are updates regarding who will or will not need to quarantine.
Quarantine and Vaccination Status Updates
Quarantine is required for close contacts who are:
Unvaccinated.
Ages 5-11 who have not completed a primary vaccine series.
Ages 12 or older and completed the primary series of the recommended vaccine but have not received a booster shot when eligible (5 months after either Moderna or Pfizer).
Quarantine at home for 5 days (quarantine count starts the day after last exposure).
Test on day 5 if able.
Return to school day 6 IF well and able to maintain strict mask use around others for an additional 5 days.
Return to school day 11 IF well and unable to maintain strict mask use around others.
If symptoms develop, the person should stay home and test.
No quarantine is required for close contacts who are:
Ages 12 years or older and have completed primary vaccine series AND a booster dose.
Ages 5-11 years and completed the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines.
Diagnosed with COVID-19 within the last 90 days (with positive viral test).
- Mask for 10 days.
- Test on day 5.
- If symptoms develop, the person should stay home and test.
In the coming days, school-based staff will be trained on how to contact trace. I will share more information at a later date. In the meantime, to help streamline the process, we are asking for parents to voluntarily share their child's vaccination status with us using the Google Form below. Again, this is optional and not required, but it saves us a step from having to look up vaccination status in ImmuNet. Only health services staff have access to ImmuNet, so this in-house vaccination list will be confidential with office/health room staff.
Thank you for your continued support as we manage teaching and learning during this phase of the COVID pandemic.
Mr. Cosentino, Principal.
Through a partnership with the HCHD and several local pharmacies, HCPSS is pleased that students have multiple opportunities to get vaccinated.
The Great Kindness Challenge 2022
Next week CCES will join nearly 17 million students in over 33 thousand schools in over 110 countries in participating in the Great Kindness Challenge. Here is what you need to know:
- On Friday students will bring home a checklist of suggested acts of kindness.
- During the week of January 24th, students are challenged to perform as many acts of kindness as they can 😊 and check them off.
- Completed checklists are due back to me on Monday 1/31. Please make sure your child's name and teacher code are on the paper.
- I will be keeping track of the number of acts of kindness completed, as well as giving 2 PAW Tickets to students who participate .
- Any number of acts of kindness will be recognized. All items do not need to be checked off.
- Next week will also be a week of spirit days to help us celebrate and create a culture of kindness:
- Tuesday, 1/25: Positive Word Day: Wear your heart on your shirt! Wear clothing with positive words and use positive words all day!
- Wednesday, 1/26: Color Day – The world is a rainbow! Teams wear designated color:
- Kindergarten – Red
- Grade 1 – Orange
- Grade 2 – Yellow
- Grade 3 – Green
- Grade 4 – Blue
- Grade 5 – Purple
- Thursday, 1/27: Mix and Match Day – Each of us is unique!
- Friday, 1/28: Remember to work out your problems - Wear workout clothes.
If you have any questions, email Mrs. Rogers at ann_rogers@hcpss.org
Parent-Teacher Conference Scheduling Opens January 28
Parent-Teacher Virtual Conferences February 10th & 11th
- Due to the limited number of available time slots, you may choose to only schedule a conference if you have a concern or question.
- Scheduling opens in Synergy ParentVue on Friday, January 28th and closes on Friday, February 4th.
- Grades 1 - 5: schedule with your child’s Math teacher
- Kindergarten: schedule with your child’s homeroom teacher for a Math conference.
- Click here for directions to schedule a conference.
- If you would like to conference with a Related Arts teacher, please email the teacher to set-up a conference.
- If you have a situation that requires you to conference in-person, email the teacher to coordinate a possible time after the virtual conference dates.
Conference Days/Times
Please note that teachers have flexibility in determining schedules. Not all teachers will be available at all times listed below:
- Thursday, February. 10th 1:00pm - 4:00 pm or 7:00 pm
- Friday, February 11th 1:00pm - 4:00 pm
- Conferences are 15 minutes.
Logging onto Google Meet for your Conference
- You will use your child’s HCPSS credentials to join the conference.
- To prevent “overlap” of conferences, teachers will be using Google Meet room joining security features. You may have to wait to be admitted into the Google Meet room.
- Google Meet Codes: You will see the meeting code for your conference in Synergy when you sign up for a conference. You will receive a reminder email with the room code from the Synergy system a few days before your conference.
Virtual Bingo Night
The CCES PTA is excited to bring you Virtual Bingo Night!
**NOTE DATE CHANGE! Bingo is being moved up from Feb. 25th**
Log on through Google Meet for a fantastic evening of family fun - absolutely FREE!
The Google Meet code on any device is:
https://meet.google.com/ehs-hesy-ysm
Advance registration is required. Please fill out this brief form by Friday, January 28th to sign up:
https://forms.gle/sgqkw4CkM2mCavj29
Questions? Please contact Lisa Scata: scatalisa@gmail.com
Friday, Feb 4, 2022, 06:00 PM
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INFORMATION WORTH REPEATING
Outdoor Lunch
There will be days where we must have indoor lunch for students who typically eat outside.
Indoor lunch for those students will be when there is any rain or snow falling or when the blacktop is covered with snow and/or ice. When outdoor lunch students eat in a classroom, they will be spaced apart from other students with plastic partitions.
Visits and Volunteers
Reporting Absences
Absence Notes
All students are required to have a note explaining why they were absent. Please send an email to your child's teacher as well as ccesabsence@hcpss.org.