Blue Ash Elementary News
October 2, 2020
Upcoming Events
Haunted Festival Celebrations ~ All Month Long! ~ See below....
October 13 ~ Picture Retake Day for Face to Face students
*November 19 ~ Evening Conferences - Face to Face and Virtual classes
*November 20 ~ Daytime Conferences - Face to Face and Virtual classes
*November 23 ~ Evening Conferences - Face to Face and Virtual classes
*All conferences will be scheduled by the classroom teacher and will be held virtually.
HAUNTED FEST - Virtual Style!!!!
We are so excited that our beloved Haunted Festival will not be forgotten this year!
Haunted Fest 2020 will be a month-long opportunity to virtually participate in fun, fall-themed activities. Choose one or more activities to complete and post to our Flipgrid account:
https://flipgrid.com/baevhf2020.
Virtual and face to face students are all invited and encouraged to participate!
THANK YOU to our PTO volunteers for creating supporting this fun event!
Virtual Classroom Principal Picnics.....
Starting in October, your child will have the option to join a "Google Meet" to hang out with Mrs. Combs, Mrs. Ament....and other guests! Lunches will be held on the following schedule:
Kdg - 1st Thursday of every month
1st Grade - 1st Tuesday of every month
2nd Grade - 2nd Tuesday of every month
3rd Grade - 3rd Tuesday of every month
4th Grade - 4th Tuesday of every month
*Links to the meetings will be shared by your classroom teachers. Please only have your child attend their grade level meet so we can more easily manage our numbers.
This is optional for students, and is an additional time for us to stay connected.
We know that there will be some months that we will not be able to get together, but we look forward to seeing you all as often as possible!
Around the Building and Community...
BAE students created a special surprise for our VC Teachers.
Student presentations are always awesome no matter where we are.
Art makes us SMILE!
Important ~ New Mealtime Procedures Grades K-6 ~ Starting October 12
Beginning October 12, Sycamore Child Nutrition will no longer be using a pre-order system for Grades K-6 breakfast and lunch. We received a great deal of negative feedback from families about the functionality of the pre-ordering system put in place at the beginning of the school year. In addition, pre-ordering and meal delivery (for Grades K-4) was placing an undue burden on staff. In an effort to be responsive, we are doing away with the pre-ordering system and shifting towards our traditional meal ordering process with safety protocols in place. These protocols include social distancing while in line, contactless checkout, and extra sanitation measures.
How will students order meals and be served?
Students will select what they want to eat while going through the lunch line as in a typical school year.
Students will be served most of their meals by the kitchen staff. If necessary, students will grab limited pre-packaged fruits and veggies and milk to finish their meal.
How will students checkout safely?
As a reminder, all meals are free for ALL students until December 31 (or until the allotted program funds are no longer available-whichever comes first).
Students will use a lanyard with a lunch badge and scan it at our new scanners for a contactless checkout. They will not enter their numbers into pin pads as in past years.
What other safety protocols will be in place?
Physical distancing using marks on the floors will be put in place. Students will still be separated by class when coming through the lunch line.
The kitchen staff will be wearing proper PPE and face shields for added safety.
There will be extra sanitation procedures between groups going through the line.
When does pre-ordering end?
The last day you need to pre-order for your child will be Friday, October 9th. The first day for traditional meal ordering will be Monday, October 12.
How do I find out what’s for lunch at my child’s school?
Menus for October 12 and beyond can be found on the Sycamore website or by clicking here
Does this also impact students in Grades 7-12?
No, only for Grades K-6. There are no changes for meal ordering at Grades 7-12.
Virtual Meals
Thank you to everyone who ordered and picked up meals for the virtual curbside pickup service this past week. We served 368 students for a total of 3680 meals! Also, thank you for patiently waiting in the line at the high school, as we know the line was very long.
To avoid such long lines and traffic concerns we have decided to make each Sycamore School a pick up location EFFECTIVE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH. Please see location and times below:
Blue Ash- 10:00-11:00 am at the front entrance of the school
Maple Dale- - 1:30-2:30 pm at the front entrance of the school
Montgomery- 10:00-11:00 am at the front entrance of the school
Symmes- 10:00-11:00 am at the front entrance of the school
EH Greene Intermediate- 9:30-10:30 am at cafeteria doors
Junior High- 10:00-11:00 am in the back parking lot
High School- 11:00-12:00 am at the athletic entrance doors (has not changed)
We ask that you pick up at your student’s assigned school location. IF you have multiple students that attend different buildings, meals for all of your children will be available for pick up at the OLDEST child’s school. You do not need to visit multiple schools.
If you have not already signed up and would like to do so, please sign up here. You can also find all the virtual meal information you should need by clicking here.
Classroom Discussions About Quarantine
Dear Families,
Hamilton County Public Health requires all close contacts to quarantine for 14 days. As a reminder, close contacts are defined as anyone who has been within 6 feet of a confirmed case for 15 minutes, with or without a mask, in a 48 hour period cumulatively.
While we have not experienced any confirmed cases of COVID19 in our building, at any time students or staff may need to quarantine based on exposure elsewhere. We know that being identified as a close contact and the effects of quarantining can elicit a range of emotions for students and their families.
In an effort to address the impact to mental health, our school counselors will begin educating students about what it means to be in quarantine using our PBIS expectations. Additionally, students will receive instruction on how to be a good friend and how to support close contact classmates during any required time away from school. It is our belief that by starting this conversation with students we can destigmatize this critical safety requirement for our students and their families.
If you have any questions or concerns about mental health services and supports in the district, please reach out to Lisa Zelvy, Pupil Services Supervisor, at 686-1700 or zelvyl@sycamoreschools.org.
Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying
October is National Bullying Prevention Month!
At the beginning of every school year, we focus intently on teaching and practicing positive behaviors. We also focus on expectations to prevent bullying at our school. While the beginning of the year is an important time to learn these skills, being good citizens of our school community is something that we work on all year long. Even with these efforts, we know there are times when students make mistakes that may emotionally or physically hurt others; and there are times when the behavior may escalate to bullying.
Please review the following information so that you can partner with us to ensure that all of our children feel safe and supported at BAE.
Sycamore will do everything possible to address any complaints of harassment, In an ongoing effort to provide a safe learning environment, Sycamore is requesting parents, students, and staff to inform administration (or whoever) of any perceived incidences of harassment, intimidation, or bullying.
Per the Sycamore Board of Education policy JFCF, harassment, intimidation, and bullying are defined as any provoked and intentional written, verbal, electronic or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once and the behavior both:
causes mental or physical harm to the other student; and
is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for the other student.
To view the complete policy, visit www.sycamoreschools.org, under the Board of Education tab, scroll down to “Policies”, search for policy “JFCF”.
intimidation, and bullying. We encourage students, staff, parents, and community members to report this type of behavior to the district if help is needed to solve a problem.
To report an incident of harassment, intimidation, and bullying,
Go to the website, www.sycamoreschools.org
Under the tab “Forms”, scroll down until you see the Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying Incident Reporting Form for the individual schools.
Fill the form on-line and submit it electronically.
Hard copies of this form are available in each of the schools.
Complete the hard copy of the report form and turn it into the building
Principal. The building principal or designee will promptly investigate all reported incidences.
It is difficult to investigate reported incidences that are anonymously submitted. However, every effort will be made to maintain the confidentiality of the reporter. Deliberate false reporting of harassment, intimidation, and bullying is prohibited.
Virtual Learning Partners...
Many thanks to our families who have provided us with feedback over the past two weeks. We have heard you and are working towards an even better experience for our learners each and every day. We truly appreciate our partnership with our parents and our virtual Learning Partners!!
One frequent point of feedback has been that technology challenges appear more problematic during whole class sessions, either over Google Meet or Blackboard Collaborate. The promising news is two-fold; 1.) the new devices recently provided to our K-2 learners are helping with connectivity and 2.) all K-6 teachers are now making the natural shift from large group community building into the use of more small groups in their instruction, typical of best practice at this point of the school year in an elementary classroom. While there certainly will be opportunities for whole class meetings and sessions, the evolution towards more targeted small group learning should reduce the number of technology challenges that some virtual families have experienced. This shift will also result in less consecutive and focused screen time, including some natural breaks for our youngest students as they move between different learning experiences provided by their teacher.
Learning Partners will begin to notice more utilization of student-centered, small group instruction/activities on a regular basis. In practice, students will be grouped by the teacher to participate in differentiated activities and learning experiences designed to provide targeted instruction to meet their needs. In the face to face classroom, this often entails centers, stations, or small group activities around the classroom as well as individual meetings with the teacher. In the virtual classroom, this may include breakout room activities, individual sessions with the teacher, or other virtual grouping techniques.
Learning Partners will play a pivotal role in helping our younger students navigate the various learning activities being developed for small group instruction and will be key to helping them manage their time. This might include helping the student navigate to and from online and offline work throughout the day, completing assignments, or joining the teacher online at a specific time. The following chart provides some additional guidance using our 4 Be’s
Our elementary teachers are highly trained in student-centered instruction, as this is a key element of their craft. With ongoing professional development and on-site support from our instructional technology specialists, our teachers will continue to translate key learning practices into virtual learning opportunities. With your continued partnership in this endeavor, we will continue to work toward creating a high quality, engaging virtual learning experience for our youngest students.
As always, please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Josten's Picture Orders....
Do you have family who want to purchase school pictures?
Log into your account HERE, and receive a personalized link to send to them!
NEW - Attendance Line for all students
ALL K-6 parents are asked to call 686-1707 to report a student absence each morning before school begins. The message will prompt parents to do the following: To report an absence that may be related to COVID-19 symptoms, exposure, or diagnosis, please press 1. To report an absence unrelated to COVID-19, all K-6 parents of students in the Virtual Classroom should press 2. Any K-6 parent of students in the Virtual Classroom reporting an absence after 9:00 should call the Sycamore Learning Commons at 686-1708.
PTO
PTO Membership
On behalf of the Blue Ash Elementary PTO we welcome you to the 2020-2021 school year!
The PTO (Parent-Teacher Organization) is made up of parents, guardians, teachers and staff members, and it is open to anyone wishing to improve the school environment and student experience at Blue Ash Elementary. We are an active group which funds and supports student clubs, programs, educational assemblies, staff appreciation, winter dance, family fun night, author visits, and staff requests. Last year, the PTO gifted about $12,000 for student learning items, updating all of the classroom libraries, flexible seating for various classrooms, ESOL books and games, replacing older musical instruments, and PT, OT, and speech therapy equipment. Due to the circumstances faced by the entire district this school year, the PTO will not be organizing any formal fundraising activities during the first semester, but we will still be working hard to support all of our students, staff and families. If you would like to make a voluntary contribution at this time, you may do so after filling out the PTO membership form (click on link). We thank you in advance for your membership and your support! https://tinyurl.com/ycoxnwh4
District Information
IMPORTANT! - Free and Reduced Forms for Virtual Families and P-BET
All families that qualify for free and reduced-price meals or feel like they might qualify this year need to fill out their application ASAP. Ohio Department of Education in conjunction with the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services is running another round of Pandemic-EBT cards, but ONLY for families who have children learning virtually 5 days a week.
The P-EBT program provides families eligible for free or reduced-price meals with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, formerly known as food stamps, in the amount of $5.86 (the federal reimbursement rate for breakfast and lunch) for each day a school has remote learning provided for the month of September. All children eligible for free and reduced-price meals are eligible for these benefits, including children who were approved through Direct Certification and children approved based on a free or reduced-price student meal application, as long as the student has remote learning periods lasting at least five consecutive days.
IF you want to be included on this list that will be sent to ODJFS early next week, you need to have your free and reduced applications for the 2020-21 school year turned in by 8:00 am on Monday morning either online OR o the Child Nutrition Office - 5959 Hagewa Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45242. We encourage whoever is able to do their application online to do so by visiting www.payschoolscentral.com. Online applications will have an automatic response. Find more information on filling out a free and reduced meal form by visiting https://www.sycamoreschools.org/Page/2292.
Warrior Run!
Sycamore High School’s speak up AVES student group invites you to join our team for the annual 1N5 Warrior Run. This year’s event is a virtual “choose your own path” event that encourages participants to complete a 5K - YOUR WAY! The challenge runs from September 26 through October 10. Registration proceeds support the work of 1N5, our community partner, committed to mental health education across the state, city and our district. Sponsorship funds raised come directly back to Sycamore Schools to support mental health programming. Additionally, if Sycamore High School can win the high school challenge, they earn additional funds and opportunities to support mental health at Sycamore High School, and most of all, bragging rights! Visit our team page for more information and register or donate today!