Flynn Flyer
December 18, 2020
December 21 -22- Remote Learning
December 23-January 1- Winter Break-No School
January 7- PTO Meeting 6 pm
January 15- Principal Coffee 8:15 am-9:00 am
January 18-Martin Luther King Day- 11:30 Dismissal
COVID Update from the Superintendent
Burlington Electric Calendar Artists
Meet Our Care TeamFirefly Celebrations
Lost and Found
Starbase Photos
Echo News
From the Superintendent
Dear BSD Families and Staff,
I’m writing this morning to let you know that all BSD schools will move to remote learning for Monday and Tuesday next week, and all Afterschool programs have been canceled for these two days. Your schools will be in touch with more information on how to access learning and curriculum next week.
The Vermont Department of Health still does not see evidence of the spread of Covid-19 in our schools and continues to reinforce that our schools are safe. However, the increased demands of contact tracing and the number of staff who have been asked to quarantine through this process have strained our system. Student attendance is also lower than usual at this time, and we have some classrooms that are split between trying to offer services to students in-person and in quarantine. With that in mind, I believe the best thing for everyone is to be in remote learning for our final two days before break.
This is not a decision I have made lightly, as I know there are so many students and families who depend on us not only for an education, but for warmth, shelter, food, and social-emotional connection, especially now during this time of global pandemic. If you or your family needs additional resources during these at-home learning days, please reach out to your school. (Please see below for more information on how to pick up FREE family meal kits today and over break.)
It is still our goal to resume in-person learning following winter break, beginning January 4th. I implore the entire community to please make decisions these next few weeks that are in the best interest of schools and our community as a whole:
Do not travel out of state.
Do not gather with people who live in other households.
Stay six feet away from others whenever possible.
Wear a mask.
Wash your hands.
Get tested if you think you have been exposed to coronavirus.
Thank you and, as always, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Tom
Burlington Electric Calendar Artists
The 2021 Net Zero Energy Calendar has been an annual collaboration between Burlington Electric Department and Burlington School District for 15 years. In October, 2020, members of the Burlington Electric Department team visited virtually with all the fourth grade classes in all six Burlington elementary schools to engage in a conversation about the important topics of energy efficiency, renewability, sustainability, and Net Zero Energy.
More than 125 of the amazingly thoughtful and talented fourth graders of the Burlington School District created beautiful works of art with their impressions of energy efficiency, renewability, sustainability and Net Zero Energy, 15 of which were selected for this year’s calendar.
Congratulations to 2 of Flynn's Fourth Graders: Jane Curry from Mr. Mack's class and Sailor Hadeka from Ms. Campanelli's class!
Meet Our Care Team
Our CARE team is a team comprised of the school psychologist, school counselor, school-based social worker and the student support coach. We work together to build a healthy, social-emotional learning environment in our school for all students, staff, families and our Flynntastic Flynn community.
We wanted to share with you some social-emotional language to use with your children over the break that we often talk about in school. You may hear your child say at home, “I’m feeling in the green zone,” or “I’m feeling in the yellow zone.” We use the Zones of Regulation social emotional curriculum here at J. J. Flynn Elementary School, and we wanted to share some of that language with parents as well so that we can be talking the same social-emotional language at both home and school! Give a try using some of this language at home and exploring with your child different strategies they use to help their brains, bodies and emotions get back to the green zone. It may be useful to write this list of strategies and put it on your refrigerator as a reminder if you notice your child showing feelings in the yellow/red or blue zone and to prompt them to use a strategy that works for them.
BLUE ZONE:
Feeling tired, sick, low energy, sleepy, down/sad/depressed
GREEN ZONE:
Feeling “just right and ready to learn,” happy, content, relaxed, joyful, comfortable, at ease.
YELLOW ZONE:
Feeling anxious, worried, frustrated, overwhelmed, starting to lose control, silly/wiggly, surprised
RED ZONE:
Feeling terrified, uncontrollable anger, aggression, feeling out of control
Principal - Lashawn Whitmore-Sells
My name is Lashawn Whitmore- Sells. This is my second year here as the principal at J J Flynn school. It has been a pleasure working with this fabulous team that comes together twice a month to see how we can best help students, staff and families.
One of our goals is to help provide students with strategies and knowledge in order for them to be their best selves by them knowing they have support from all of us!
Guidance Counselor - Daniel Bobbett
Mr. Bobbett is excited to be a member of the team at Flynn Elementary and looks forward to helping students reach their full potential.
School Services - Clinician Tom Wieland
Tom Wieland is the School Services counselor at JJ Flynn. “Mr. Tom” provides mental health support to the children in the school setting, and he works closely with the principal, guidance counselor, school psychologist, teachers, and parents. He provides students with group and individual counseling opportunities, and he acts as a liaison with the Howard Center and other mental health providers in the greater Burlington area. Mr. Tom loves to play games and visit with JJ Flynn students.
School Psychologist- Laura Ellis
Student Support- Lou DiMasi
Lou DiMasi works in the student support office at JJ Flynn. “Mr. DiMasi” works to provide students' additional opportunities to learn. His goal is to concentrate on their learning and work on skills in order to make them successful in the classroom. Lou loves to be with the students at Flynn.
Firefly Celebrations
Flynn's Lost and Found- I spy with my little eye your lost hat!
Meal Kit Availability Over Break
The Burlington School Food Project and our community partners will be distributing Meal Kits over break. The schedule is as follows:
3:00-4:30
BHS, Sustainability Academy, Champlain, Boys and Girls Club (this is a new time for the Club, for break weeks only)
Wednesday December 23 and 30th
Bobbin Mill 11:00-11:30
Franklin Square 11:00-11:30
South Meadow 11:45-12:15
Northgate 11:45-12:15
Wednesday December 23rd and 30th
Riverside Apartments 5:30
Salmon Run 6:00
Echo News
Starting Friday, December 12th, ECHO’s new schedule is:
Open Fridays - Mondays and Wednesdays
Visitors will choose from two time slots while ordering tickets: 10:00 am -12:30 pm and 1:30 - 4:00 pm.
Another exciting announcement is that ECHO has opened two new exhibits - Awesome Forces and Engineer It - located on the second floor. Awesome Forces offers visitors 11 interactive stations explaining the forces that have shaped the Lake Champlain Basin and our Earth. Engineer It highlights the engineer design process and provides opportunities for everyone to become an inventor. Engineer It includes seven interactive exhibits that let visitors conduct their own science experiments and test their engineering abilities.
We are still requiring guests to register and reserve tickets before their visit for contact tracing purposes. This means that your patrons will need to use a code online to reserve and pay for tickets, rather than bring the library pass to ECHO. The price is now back to $7 per person for up to 4 guests.
For your patrons to book tickets, we are hoping you will pass out a code when they want to check out the card from you. The code is “vtlib2020”. To use the code and receive the discount, your patrons will need to:
Visit our Ticketing Webpage and select the blue ticketing link at the top of the page.
Select “member tickets”, and the number of tickets needed (Maximum of 4)
Click Next then Proceed to Payment
Type “vtlib2020” in the Discount Code section and the price will be updated to reflect the discount.
*If you need to purchase more than four tickets, please purchase full price tickets first in a separate transaction