Just a quick reminder that you can find the 2021-22 BCPS School Calendar on the school system's website https://www.bcps.org/

In the month of September Lyons Mill ES will be closed on the following dates: 9/6. 9/7, and 9/16

In the month of October the school will be closed on 10/15. Schools will be open on 10/11.

Update on BCPS Practices Related to Quarantine, Isolation, Contact Tracing, and Continuity of Instruction

A new letter on the BCPS website provides information on our current practices related to quarantine, isolation, contact tracing, and continuity of instruction during periods of quarantine or isolation.

If you are walking your child to school please make sure you are crossing at the crosswalks.

Arrival –

· Arrival begins at 8:30. All students will remain on the bus or in their car until 8:30.

· Staff are not on duty to supervise students prior to 8:30 a.m.

· When dropping students off, caregivers will need to remine in their cars at all times.

· Starting at 8:30 students will be dismissed from the bus by an administrator, they will be socially distanced when dismissed from the bus and will go directly to the door outside their pod and then to their classrooms.

· Starting at 8:30, car riders will arrive via Zone A, B, or C

· Walkers will enter the building by Zone C – Car Loop

Dismissal –

· Dismissal will begin at 3:30. All students will remain seated in their classrooms until they have been called to their dismissal location.

· When picking-up students, caregivers will need to remain in their cars at all times.

Bus Riders will be called first.

· Once the bus color is called students will walk out of their classrooms to and proceed to the pod stairwells and/or doors and exit their pod doors, and then walk around to the bus loop.

· There will be a staff member at the bottom of the stairs to monitor students on their way to the bus.

Next, car and daycare van riders will be called to their dismissal locations – A. B or C.

· Students will be socially distance in the gym, the library, and in the front entrance.

· Van riders will dismiss with car riders. Daycare vans will pick students in Zone B.

Lyons Mill Road Walkers – All walkers live within a one mile radius of school and are able to walk to and from school independently or with a parent/caregiver.

· Students will exit from the second grade pod doors and walk to the sidewalk and down to the intersection at Lyons Mill Road.

· A staff member will walk the Lyons Mill Road walkers to the crosswalk.

• The crossing guard will be there to make sure students can safely cross Lyons Mill Road.

Ballard Green Walkers – All walkers live within a one mile radius of school and are able to walk to and from school independently or with a parent/caregiver.

· Once the Ballard Green Walkers are called, they will walk to the exit near the music rooms

· A staff member will walk the Ballard Green walkers to the crosswalk at the circle.

As we prepare for all students to return to school, we will need to know how your child will arrive to and depart from school each day. Your child's teacher will confirm that you have selected one of the following:

· My child will ride a BCPS school bus to and from school each day.

· My child will be a walker. (Students must live within the “walking zone” to be considered a walker.) Please do not park your car in the community and walk up to the school to pick up your child.

· My child will be a car rider. To ensure social distancing we will have three different locations for parents to drop off and pick up. Please contact your child's teacher if you are interested in switching your child to a car rider or if you are interested in switching car rider zones.

All car riders have been assigned a zone and a car rider number. You should have received an email with your Pick-up Zone A, B, or C and your child will receive a backpack tag with their zone & number. You should have also received a a rearview mirror hang tag, so you are able to display the same number in your car. If you forget your hang tag or if you are driving a different car you can simply write the Zone letter followed by your child's number on a large piece of paper and display it in your car window.

When picking up your child from school please remain in your car at all times. Please do not park in the neighborhood and walk up to school.

• Zone A - The main entrance. Enter the main parking lot from Lyons Mill Road, travel around the parking lot loop and turn right to exit on Lyons Mill Road.
• Zone B – Ballard Green Drive. Travel west on Ballard Green Drive. The pickup zone is located on Ballard Green Drive. Students will dismiss from the back of the gym and they will meet you in the car lane on Ballard Green Drive.
• Zone C - Wilson Shannon Drive. From Lyons Mill Road turn on to Wilson Shannon Drive and proceed to the student pick up loop on the left. You will exit back on to Wilson Shannon Drive where you can turn left on to Lyons Mill Road.

Any changes to the transportation will need to be confirmed by the main office by 2:00 each day.

Focus Access for Parents

This was published last week in the BCPS tech highlights but wanted to make sure all parents are aware of this information. Starting on August 23, 2021, parents should have been able to log in to focus (BCPS’s Student Information System) and Schoology (BCPS’s Learning Management System). These systems have not been accessible for parents since the malware attack and are important as they are two crucial tools that allow parents to monitor their children’s academic progress.

To sign up, parents will need to create a parent account with the same email address that they have provided to their school and as long as the parent in marked in FOCUS as having educational access, they will be given access to their student’s information (the system takes up to 30 minutes to process these accounts). Then, within 48 hours, their parent connection to Schoology will be established. There is a link within FOCUS that will take parents directly to Schoology. If a parent clicks the Schoology link before the connection is established, the parent will receive an error message. Parents can their students' teacher to resolve any issues with this process.

https://p3cdn4static.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_2744/File/Homepage/082021-Creating%20a%20Parent%20Account%20in%20B2C%20(1).pdf

To view your child's schedule please sign in using the following link:

https://login.mybcps.org/mybcps.onmicrosoft.com/b2c_1a_ocg_bcps_signup_signin/oauth2/v2.0/authorize?response_type=code&client_id=061aea36-a2e7-4386-b16f-2e3256810c0e&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fbaltimore.focusschoolsoftware.com%2Ffocus%2Fredirect.php&scope=openid+email&state=a0e60bb0370af9deed90cf01705b0caff5134cde621ea9dd72fee0c802274c62&nonce=405e076e7e337af3a8d736f0b22b918427a11f6c7c5ea1e1f179ba6ff334bb5c

Starting in fall, all school nurses will be offering COVID tests to students and staff who develop illness symptoms during the school day. Parent consent is required for all students who are tested. Most persons will be tested with rapid antigen tests only; some may have follow-up PCR testing, as directed by the Baltimore County Department of Health. This program was piloted in spring and very well received. Please do not hesitate to call Ms. Beck, our school nurse if you have any questions.

The Office of Food and Nutrition Services will offer free school meals, including breakfast and lunch for the school year 2021-2022, effective August 30, 2021, through June 30, 2022, to all students enrolled and attending Baltimore County Public Schools in-person.

The United States Department of Agriculture extended Child Nutrition Program waivers that allow schools the flexibility to continue access to free meals for the entire 2021-2022 school year.

Breakfast meals will be offered upon student entry to the school and consumed in classrooms. Students will go through the cafeteria line for lunch meal service and choose an entrée, fruit and vegetable side options, and milk. Menus are posted on the Office of Food and Nutrition Services Web site, Food and Nutrition Services - Division of Business Services (bcps.org).

All BCPS students in grades 1 through 5 will participate in the MAP Fall Reading and Math assessments for the fall of 2021. The MAP testing window begins on October 18, 2021. MAP testing will provide comprehensive baseline data about students’ current levels of performance in reading and mathematics as reported by scale score (RIT), percentile rank, content level quintiles, and lexiles (MAP reading only). MAP data is a critical indicator of growth and achievement for aggregate, student group, and student data at the system level, school level, grade level, and by teacher.

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