Conway Catch-Up
April 5th
Goooooood Morning #OneFamily!
I hope that you had a great weekend and got to enjoy some of the gorgeous weather! Happy Easter to all Christians in our community. We hope you had a blessed day with your family and loved ones.
Welcome back to another awesome week. Today, all kiddos are off for Easter Monday. We will return to a normal schedule this week except for Kindergarten. You all get to come to school or go on-line all four days this week from 9:00-12:00 as a part of our pilot program. Don't worry 1st - 5th, you get to start the 20th.
Hope is on the horizon. Thanks for your continued patience and support as we navigate another major change this year. We can do this #onefamily!
Have a great Monday and keep wearing those masks! I know they are a pain, but they are keeping us going and allowing us to come to our school everyday with kiddos :)
JR :)
P.S. Car Riders: As you will see from a video I put out tomorrow, car riders is a major concern of ours. We anticipate this it taking us up to 45 minutes to dismiss because of the number of kiddos we have to dismiss. We are a huge school and no matter what we do to be efficient (as you will see in the video tomorrow, we have obsessed on this over the past months), we can only move through this dismissal so fast to ensure the safety of our kiddos. If you are a car rider, please take a look at the info below and also the video that we send out tomorrow to help us try to navigate this together.
Return to School Plan for 4 days a week
- Return to School - Spanish. Video in Spanish below.
- Return to school - Pashto
- Return to School 4 Days Information Document in English - We will continue to update this document as we develop additional plans for our Return to School for 4 days a week.
- Kindergarten Pilot: Our kindergartners will begin to come to school or attend virtually 4 days a week starting tomorrow. Kindergarten will be a pilot again for returning to school on our new schedule. It will be done in two phases. Click HERE for the visual of these changes. Click HERE for a quick video of these changes.
- Kindergarten Schedule: April 6 - April 14th - 9:00 - 12:00 4 days a week (due to transportation). Starting April 20th, 9:00 - 2:00 four days a week when the rest of the school transitions. Kindergarten will not have specials or the 2:00 - 4:00 on-line time for the next two weeks.
- Virtual Kiddos and Specials: Students who are attending school virtually will have specials asynchronously via Canvas. These can be done on Mondays or throughout the week. The reasoning for this is mostly to provide children will be on a computer for 4 hours a break from the screen. In addition, it will be very very difficult for children at home to learn concurrently with kiddos in person in PE, Library, Art, and Music. It requires them to have different instruction as they will not have access to the same tools as they have in person. There will be a new lesson in each special each week on Canvas.
- Arrival and Dismissal: If your child is just coming back to school for the first time, we need your help if they are going to be a walker or a car rider. If they are a bus rider, you do not need to do anything. If you have already been back in school and you aren't changing their method of transportation, you also don't need to do anything. Please fill out the corresponding form to help us ensure we are prepared for them on the first day back.
Future Events
- #OneFamily Enrichment Clubs Night: Tuesday, April 6th, we will offer another enrichment night. We will have Sign Language and STEM Night. To log on, simply go to ceenrichment and we will break out into groups from there. The enrichment clubs begin at 5:00.
STEM: To participate in the STEM club, click here for details. You can stop at school to pick up a copy as well. http://www.literaryhoots.com/2015/05/constellations-astronomy-for-kids.html?m=1. Kiddos will need toilet paper roll, rubber band, glue, and black paper as well.
- Video in Pashto for Kindergarten Registration
Datos importantes:
Registrar en persona: el día 15 de Abril desde las 10:00 de la mañana hasta las 7:00 de la tarde en el edificio Alvin York Bandy en la Ruta 1 (en 31 Stafford Avenue, Stafford 22554)
Para registrar en linea: https://www.staffordschools.net/Page/21469
Escuela de Conway: 105 Primmer House Rd, Falmouth, VA 22405 540-361-1455
Personal de Conway para ayuda en espanol: Angela Toro toroam@staffordschools.net
Video in Spanish: https://youtu.be/L6sv-D2uvec
- Kindergarten Registration: Kindergarten Registration opens online April 1, and we look forward to enrolling our newest students for the 2021-2022 school year. A list of all documents required for enrollment is available on our website. SCPS will host an in person registration event on Thursday, April 15, from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. at the Alvin York Bandy Administrative Offices, Professional Development Center for individuals who need assistance with the online registration process. Translators will be available at this event.
- Chipotle Spirit Night: S. Gateway Chipotle on 4/20 from 4-8 PM. See flyer on this email.
Everyone can order in person and MUST show the flyer or order online via Chipotles app and website and enter VAGB2V2 into the promo code at checkout for us to get credit. No third party websites.
Important Information
Major Group Changes Below:
Interventions: Virtual Interventions will end this Friday, April 9th. This is a change due to the crazy schedule April 12th of only two days of synchronous and A and B coming one day each.
Extra Support Groups: For our kiddos who are attending 4 days a week for extra support with our coaches, in preparation for the new schedule, they will not attend all 4 days this week. They will only come the two days with their classroom teacher.
Monday Groups: If your child has been coming in on Mondays, these groups will no longer take place effective immediately. Only select Kindergarten kiddos will come into school on Mondays for interventions. All other kiddos who were attending on Mondays will no longer come in on Mondays.
Menu: Breakfast and Lunch: Breakfast and lunch will continue to be free all through the rest of this year and into next year. We will only offer one meal for breakfast and lunch. To see what is on the menu each day, click here: staffordschools.nutrislice.com. We will offer a pork free option for all families who do not eat pork. Meals also will not contain and peanut allergens.
To help us dismiss over 240 children starting April 20th safely while also keeping those on Primmer House Road safe, please keep these things in mind:
Arrival:
Please make sure your kiddo has his/her mask on before getting to unloading area.
Parents, please stay in the car at all times. We will help your child.
If you wish to have extended time to say goodbye to your child, we get it. Just pull over in the top lot of our parking lot and you can stay there as long as you wish.
Dismissal:
Please make sure to have your car rider tag on your mirror. If you don’t have one, please call our front office.
We know the line is going to back way up on Primmer House. We will have the Sheriff’s Dept. and we will have a traffic guard there to help. However, to try to help minimize the line, we are going to ask parents to pick-up at two staggered times by last name:
A-K - 2:00 - 2:15
L - Z - 2:15 - 2:30
These times are guidelines only and not rules. If you need to pick up at 2:00 and your last name is A-K, you will not be judged or yelled at! Promise! This is just to help with the line and keep it from stretching down Primmer House Rd. For those who can, awesome. For those who can’t, you do not have to adhere to those times.
- Arrive on time: Please make sure your kiddo is at school between 8:30 - 9:00 AM. We cannot keep the car rider line open after 9:00 as our teachers who are running the line need to get to class to teach. If you have to bring them in the front office because you are late, if we have more than one family doing this, it is difficult to keep people at least 3 ft. social distanced. Most importantly, it really disrupts the learning of your kiddo and all of the kiddos in that classroom. Now that we are getting on a better, more "normal" schedule, please try to find that schedule / routine for your family as well. It will greatly help everyone.
Schedule Changes: April 15 is a professional day for SCPS Staff. There will be no instruction, synchronous or asynchronous, for students. The following day, April 16, will now be an asynchronous day for students and an additional work day for teachers to prepare for our students to return to four day in-person instruction beginning Tuesday, April 20.
Week of April 12th: In order to ensure A and B students have equitable in-person instruction during this week, group A hybrid students will attend in person on Tuesday, April 13, and B group hybrid students will attend in person on Wednesday, April 14. This of course does not include our kindergartners as they all will be attending on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, Kindergartners will not attend in person on the 15th or 16th as transportation will not be running those two days.
- Chromebooks: If you are leaving SCPS or Conway, you will need to return your kiddo's Chromebook. However, if you are staying and just going to a new SCPS school (this includes 5th graders going to 6th grade), you can keep your Chromebooks. If you are coming back to Conway, you can keep your Chromebooks over the summer as well.
PTA News
- Please Join the PTA: Our PTA is incredible but they need YOU. Please consider joining at https://www.conwayespta.com/join. There are some perks as well besides just helping out Conway.
Meal Services
- Starting April 20th: We will provide breakfast and lunch for every child in person for free. If students wish to bring their own lunch, that is 100% okay. We will not give them a lunch. If they eat breakfast at home, they of course do not have to take a breakfast either. Lunches will be hot meals much like they were back before Covid. There will only be one option each day due to the amount of effort that it will take to prepare and pack each meal up into a to go container to be delivered to the classroom or to be ready for students to eat upon entering the cafeteria.
- Meals are free for all students from now until the end of the school year. Middle and High School kiddos can pick up meals at multiple pick up locations at the middle and high schools. Click HERE for more details.
- Curbside Pick-Up is available at Conway to pick up additional meals each Monday.
How to Translate Smore
- How to Translate Smore newsletters: If you would like to translate this newsletter into another language, please click on these links for directions on how to do that. Directions in English click here. Directions in Espanol click here. Directions in Pashto click here . Directions in Dari click here.
Community Resources
FredFoodVA: Download this App to locate all of the food resources in the area.
- Family Resource Access Line - This free communication tool helps provide equitable access to SCPS resources. Families may leave a message for translators in seven native languages: Arabic, Dari, Farsi, French, Pashto, Spanish, and Urdu. Translators will return your call in 2 business days. To access this service, please call (571) 492-9270.
Digital Help
- Keep Those Chromebooks Running: There are a few things you can do to make sure your Chromebooks are running at top speed:
To Update: Click HERE for a quick cheat sheet.
The Conway Elementary
Email: rayboldws@staffordschools.net
Website: https://www.staffordschools.net/ces
Location: 105 Primmer House Road, Fredericksburg, VA, USA
Phone: 5403611455
Facebook: facebook.com/Conwayelemsch
Twitter: @conwayelemsch