Clemens Crossing Cougar Comments
December 18, 2020 - Volume 42, Issue 18
Clemens Crossing Elementary School
We're Here to Help You!
Edward Cosentino, PrincipalSonia Hurd, Assistant Principal
Stacey Wells, Principal's Secretary
Jennifer Aballo, Teachers' Secretary
Dulce Boyer, Teachers' Secretary
Website: cces.hcpss.org
Location: 10320 Quarterstaff Road, Columbia, MD, United States
Phone: 410-313-6866
Facebook: facebook.com/ClemensCrossingElementary
Twitter: @hcpss_cces
Important Upcoming Dates and Events
December
- 21 - School Spirit Day - CCES DAY - Wear CCES Spirit Wear
- 22 - School Spirit Day - Pajama Day - Wear pajamas all day!
- 24 thru 31 - Schools Closed: Winter Break (24 & 25 - state-mandated holiday)
January
- 1 Schools and Offices Closed: New Year's Day
- 4 - School reopens virtually (red day)
- 13 - PTA Meeting, 7:00 p.m. - code: cces-pta
- 18 - Schools and Offices Closed: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- 29 - School closed for students: Professional Work Day
- 29 - End of Second Quarter
FROM SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
This will be the final newsletter before the winter break, so I want to begin by wishing you all a restful break that is filled with warmth, peace, and joy. I know that the last four months have been an adventure for students, families, and teachers. I appreciate the faith you have put into our staff as we have navigated this very different school year. We hope to continue to improve in the new year and we look forward to the opportunities that 2021 will offer.
We have reached the halfway point of the second grading period. Please ensure your child is caught up on all asynchronous assignments, so teachers do not have to spend time contacting you and your child of any missing work. As recommended, next week is a great time to get caught up on missing work since no additional asynchronous work will be assigned.
Our Cougar Comments Newsletter will return in the new year on January 8, 2021.
Thank you for all of your involvement and your continued support. Wishing you a Joyous Holiday Season and a Happy New Year! Be well!
Mr. Cosentino
NEW INFORMATION
From the Media Center
Beginning January 6, our checkout system will automatically send reminder emails when Media books are overdue.
Communication from CCES's Office
This Weekly Cougar Comments School Newsletter
We do our best to consolidate information from the office and school administration by issuing a weekly newsletter. We do periodically send email during the week, from the office, when it is time-sensitive information. As you know, we issue this Cougar Comments school newsletter each week on Fridays at 7:00 a.m. by email. We also publish the newsletter on Facebook and Twitter on Thursday by the end of the day as a preview. We utilize a variety of tools to communicate with you to keep you informed, and we believe we are successful in communicating with you!
According to smore.com analytics, we have an average of 500 newsletter views each week. This is great! We also archive all of our smore.com newsletters on the main page of our website just in case you need to go back to a previous issue.
Email Powered By School Messenger
Our email communication and HCPSS News is powered by School Messenger. Email addresses are pulled from Synergy, our student management system. We have a 99.6% delivery rate in School Messenger. It is important to provide us with an accurate primary email address so that you get our news and information. Periodically, we look at our School Messenger report to find out the people who have been blocked and/or who do not get our email. In order not to be blocked, please do not report HCPSS or CCES email to spam. This blocks you from receiving email from HCPSS and CCES. At one point, we had 75 people blocked from receiving email, and we successfully got that down to zero recently. If you find that you are not regularly getting the Cougar Comments newsletter on Fridays in your email inbox, please call our office so we can help figure out why you are missing that important email and communication.
Text Messaging
Our School Messenger program also has the ability to send text messages directly to your phone. Periodically, we will send a text message to families. That is not the most optimal form of communication, because we only have a 52% delivery rate. Over 400 text message phone numbers are classified as, "Ineligible to Send" according to our reports. An example of the usefulness of text messaging is when we are in-person school. In addition to whole school and grade by grade text and email, our address book in School Messenger is set-up by bus numbers. We can send text messages directly to parents of students on an individual bus if that bus is running late. So, having an accurate cell phone number in your Family File is useful for our communication.
Opt-In for Text Messaging
In order to comply with wireless carrier requirements, parents/guardians must opt-In to receiving HCPSS text message alerts. Standard data fees and text messaging rates may apply based on your mobile plan. If you are unsure of whether you have already opted in, text the word “YES” to 67587 from the cell phone number on file in HCPSS Connect.
Please contact our offices if you have questions regarding your information in HCPSS Connect, or complete this form if you believe you are not receiving emails/texts.
We hope our communication plan and tools help keep you well informed. If there is any way for us to communicate better, please reach out to Mr. Cosentino.
INFORMATION WORTH REPEATING
Elementary Student Workload During Virtual Instruction
Families, particularly of primary students, have expressed concerns about the virtual elementary workload including the complexity of asynchronous lessons, the number of content areas taught, and the number of weekly asynchronous assignments. In order to support elementary students with successfully navigating during virtual instruction, the following adjustments have been made:
- Students will only have asynchronous assignments in Social Studies, Science, or Health during a given week. There will not be an overlap of instruction or assignments for these content areas.
- Health lessons will be taught for one week during the marking period and include two synchronous lessons and two asynchronous lessons instead of five asynchronous lessons as assigned in the first quarter.
- The length and complexity of Social Studies, Science, and Health asynchronous assignments have been reduced.
- Related Arts asynchronous assignments have been streamlined.
Instruction During the Week of December 21
During the week of December 21st, no asynchronous assignments in Content, ELA, Math, or Related Arts should be assigned to students. This includes Dreambox and LexiaCore.
Students will have synchronous Related Arts as scheduled but no asynchronous Related Arts assignments. Likewise, synchronous Social Studies instruction will occur on Monday, December 21 for grades K, 2, and 4 and on Tuesday, December 22 for grades 1, 3, and 5; however, there will not be Social Studies asynchronous follow up lessons.
Week of December 21... Great Time to Catch-Up
Do your kids have any missing work to still complete for school? Are they caught up on all assignments for ELA, math, science, social studies, health, art, music, PE, media, and technology? With no asynchronous work assigned during the week of December 21, this is a GREAT time to catch-up on any missed work. Teachers will be able to answer questions during the short week.
Students can submit assignments throughout the Winter Break, but teachers will not be able to check their work or respond to email until January 4.
Please do not wait until the end of the quarter to complete asynchronous work.
Winter Break Meal Services: Adjustments for December 21, 2020–January 4, 2021
Howard County public schools will be closed for winter break from Thursday, December 24, 2020 through Friday, January 1, 2021. There will be no meal service during this time. To ensure children have access to essential nutrition during the holiday period, families may pick up additional meals in advance of the break.
The following adjustments will be made to meal services:
- There is no meal service Thursday, December 24 through Friday, January 1. Meal service will resume on Monday, January 4, 2021.
- Meals for December 23–27 will be available for pickup at any HCPSS meal site on Wednesday, December 23.
- Pre-ordering will not be available for meals picked up December 21–23 or January 4–6. Walk up (non-pre-ordered) meals may be picked up those and other days schools are in session.
- Pre-ordering services will resume Monday, January 4 for meals to be picked up beginning Thursday, January 7.
Meals are provided at no cost to any HCPSS student or any child under age 18. More information about 2020-2021 meal services is provided online.
How HCPSS Supports Mental Health
HCPSS promotes the mental health and wellness of each of our students to develop their unique strengths, abilities, and characteristics towards success and well-being. Staff consider the variety of factors that impact a student’s functioning such as age, cultural background, social-emotional skills, academic outcomes, and access to resources.
Student’s Preferred Names to be Displayed
Display of Student Preferred Name in Google, Synergy, and Canvas:
A new process will be enabled in January 2021 to allow students to show a preferred name in Synergy, Canvas, and Google. Students can follow this process:
- Go to hcpss.me
- Go to Synergy
- Click on “Student Info” in the lower left
- Look for the “Preferred First Name” field to see what is there now.
- This name will show in Canvas and Google beginning the first week of January 2021
- If you do not want this name to show or would like something else to show, contact your administrator by December 21, 2020.
- If you do want this name to show, you don’t need to do anything.
Note: The preferred name will carry over from year to year unless a change is requested. Once a requested change is made, that preferred name will remain for the student’s HCPSS career unless another change is requested through the school secretary/administrator.
For students who are transgender or gender non-binary, there is an additional procedure to mask their legal name and/or gender assigned at birth, providing additional confidentiality. If you think this may apply to you, please reach out to your school counselor to discuss. Let your counselor know that you are interested in learning about the presenting name option/masking process.
If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Cosentino at ecosentino@hcpss.org
Library Media Center books are available for checkout!
Students are welcome to borrow up to 3 books at a time from the Library Media Center.
Mrs. Seamonson and Mrs. Marshall fill orders on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Books are available on the pickup cart outside the school's front doors each school day from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Families will be emailed when your books are placed outside.
Students in Grades 3 - 5 can place their requests in the PAC website at:
https://hcpss.tlcdelivers.com/?config=cces#section=home
Students in Grades K - 2 can also use the primary PAC at:
https://hcpss.tlcdelivers.com/kids?config=cces and they can place their requests at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1K6d2jeVy8IAEGPhqNzXcQGM3zBDKmNy4-1kJmLShi3g/edit
Please return Media books within 2 weeks to the blue plastic bin outside the school's front doors.
Community News and Programs
Please find the link to the Howard County Public School System's Community News and Programs page.
In alignment with Howard County Board of Education Policy 10010, Distribution and Display of Materials and Announcements, the following announcements have been approved by the Public Information Office for distribution. Please visit Distributing Community Information through the School System or contact the Public Information Office at 410-313-6682 if you have any questions.
The below community notices are neither sponsored nor endorsed by the Howard County Public School System.