Gator Gazette
Volume 5: January 14, 2021
Principal's Update
Happy New Year Gator Families!!!
I hope this finds you well and eager for our Option 1 children to return to campus on Tuesday, January 19, 2021. Please accept our sincerest appreciation for your partnership and support throughout this crazy time. I did not previously think it was possible to be prouder of our Gator Family before March 13, 2020. But I was so wrong! Our staff has put in thousands of hours in professional development, collaborative team meetings, and student support meetings since that fateful day. Our families have been flexible, patient, and understanding with each twist and turn. And finally but most importantly, our children have been phenomenal with following our health mitigation strategies, being flexible, and learning so many new technology tricks.
As you may be aware, there have been a number of changes to our school calendar in the past 2 months. In December, the School Board adopted the Superintendent's recommendation to add the following Early Release Days for elementary schools only to allow for teacher planning and collaboration. Children in both the On-Campus Continuum and Chesapeake Online will be released at 12:01 on these days.
January 13
March 11
March 24
April 28
Mary 12
On January 11, 2021, the School Board adopted the Superintendent's recommendation to add 6 Asynchronous Student Support Days for students in both the On-Campus Continuum and Chesapeake Online to allow all CPS employees adequate opportunities to receive the COVID 19 vaccines. Further guidance and directions will come from teachers before each Asynchronous Support Day as up to 2 of them may be completely asynchronous and the other typical virtual learning days.
Health Mitigation Plan
As we transition additional children back to campus, we need to remind our families of our Health Mitigation Plan and ask for your help and support. Below are a few of the strategies that are included in our plan to keep our Gators healthy and safe:
- All children have been moved to individual desks that face forward. Clear three sided partitions will be added to these desks in the near future.
- All staff and students must wear face masks at all times when in the room with others unless in a designated safe mask break area. Gaiters are not recommended by the CDC at this time. Additionally shields are required when closer than 3 feet.
- Increasing the space between students to a minimum of 3 feet apart.
- Enhancing facility cleaning. High-touch surfaces will be cleaned throughout the day.
- Integrating a robust schedule for hand hygiene.
- Keeping children with his/her class for the entire school day to minimize mixing student groups.
- Limiting sharing of supplies to the greatest extent possible. This will require that each student is responsible for providing all of his/her own school supplies.
- Eating lunch with classmates. Lastly, it appears that it will be necessary for at least a portion of each class to eat lunch in the classroom. This may mean that some foods such as nut products may not be allowed in classrooms if there are allergy concerns.
It is critical that our entire school family does their part to help us maintain a safe, healthy school that remains open for learning. Please note that the division's policy requires children to be placed in Chesapeake Online classes if they repeatedly refuse to wear a mask (unless approved for a mask exception).It is imperative that we all make sure we are following the protocol, including keeping children at home if they have two or more symptoms associated with COVID-19.
Chromebooks and Hot Spots
In the early fall, we also distributed over 100 hot spots to help families with connectivity issues. We are asking any family who no longer needs the hot spot to please return it to school labeled with your name on it. Unfortunately, we have exhausted our supply and are not able to get any additional ones for new needs.
Visitor Parking Adjustments
2nd Semester Adjustments
While we recognize that changing class assignments is not ideal, it is necessary to help follow the Health Mitigation Plan in place to hopefully keep our children and students healthy. All of teachers are working collaboratively to help transition our children smoothly. Your support and understanding are greatly appreciated as we all work together to get through this pandemic.
1st Day of 2nd Semester - First Day of School - Take 5
Transportation Needs
As a result of our request for parents to provide transportation if at all possible, we are anticipating a significantly higher volume of cars for both morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up. To help reduce the impact on traffic, we are asking families with last names from A - L to drop off in the morning between 7:15 and 7:25 and pick up from 2:04 and 2:15. Families with last names from M-Z are requested to drop off between 7:25 - 7:35 and pick up from 2:15 - 2:30 if at all possible.
Lastly, all families who are picking up their children on a regular basis must register for our Parent Parade. https://forms.gle/8BPvPXZ5Wcw8nVGU6
Please note families only need to register for Parent Parade one time as all children in a family are included in one survey. Any families should pick up the Parent Parade cards from the School Office during normal operating hours - between 7:30AM and 3:15PM. Note: If you previously registered for the Parent Parade during the 1st semester, you do not need to register again.
We ask for everyone's patience and understanding as we anticipate this process taking considerably longer than previously as children will be coming directly from the classrooms to minimize mixing of children.
GFE Bus Routes
Meal Distributions
As you may recall, Chesapeake Public Schools was notified that children will be able to eat for free through June. Families that may be eligible for meal benefits are asked to go ahead and complete the application for meal benefits to assist with other needs - https://cpschools.com/school-nutrition-services/free-and-reduced-meal-application/
School breakfast and lunch will be served daily, at no cost to children who have transitioned back to campus through a traditional schedule.
COVIDWISE App
COVIDWISE is a platform for VDH to easily and effectively notify people who have tested covid positive that may be around you anonymously.
How? Well once you add the covid wise app on your phone, you can then select if you are covid positive based on your results and it only uses your phones location (not your name or the name of your phone) just like a little dot (which is your phone location) and when it’s near another covid wise app user (if you have the notifications turned on) notifies you that you have just been in close proximity of a positive covid person and should begin quarantine and call the department of health.
It’s completely unaware of who you are and you don’t have to put in any personal information.
Don't Forget to Join the PTA Today!
Grassfield Elementary
Email: gfegators@cpschools.com
Website: www.cpschools.com/gfe
Location: 2248 Averill Drive, Chesapeake, VA, USA
Phone: (757)558-8923
Facebook: facebook.com/GrassfieldElementary
Twitter: @GFE_Gators