Cedar Grove Friday Flash
September 17, 2021
Dear Cedar Grove Families,
Our Back-to-School Night will be held virtually on Thursday, September 23 at 7:00 p.m. Teachers will send a unique Zoom link just for this evening that will not require a log in. There will be one session; however, it will be recorded for your convenience for viewing at a later time. Also during Back-to-School Night, you will have the opportunity to provide input that will help drive how we implement our new Leader in Me curriculum. Please click on this link to see information about Leader in Me, which was also provided in the summer parent letter. We hope you will be able to join or view the recording to hear all the important information presented.
Since our return to school, we continue to rely on our families and each individual to screen themselves daily for symptoms. To help us avoid quarantine, we are asking that you please continue to screen your children at home and if they have even one symptom of COVID-19, or are awaiting COVID test results, please do not send them to school. We have had several instances in which our students reported to us that they had told their parents about their symptoms, and some have even reported receiving Tylenol or other medication to address those symptoms before coming to school. For everyone’s sake, we are asking that you exercise extreme caution and keep your child home if he/she has even one of the symptoms listed below. It’s our collective responsibility.
This is particularly important as if your child has any of the following single symptoms they will be tested at school with your consent or sent home and not be able to return to school until they have a negative test, alternate diagnosis, or complete a full 10-day quarantine. During that period of time, all other students who have been in their close contact will have to be in a temporary quarantine while the other families wait on the outcome of that testing for your child. This could be potentially disruptive to your children and families moving in and out of quarantine and to avoid it takes all of us working together.
The single symptoms that the health room staff screen for and will result in quarantine are cough, difficulty breathing, new loss of taste or smell, fever ≥100.4°, sore throat, severe Headache, diarrhea or vomiting (see this link to view a flyer from the CDC). Please do not send your children to school with any of these symptoms. This is essential for us to continue to remain in school without quarantine. Thank you for helping to keep all children and staff safe and healthy. Also, please take some time to view our COVID page on our school website. This can be found in Quick Links/Parents Page/Important Info for our Community or click on the link below.
https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/cedargrovees/homepage/our-covid-page-2021/
Have a wonderful weekend!
Mr. Derby and Mrs. German
Important - New Information for Parent Volunteers/Contractors: Vaccination Attestation
Beginning October 1, 2021, all school volunteers and partnering agencies will be required to complete an additional new module via their myMCPS Classroom/Canvas account called COVID-19 Vaccination Attestation in order to volunteer within our school district. Currently, all volunteers/contractors must complete the vCAN (Volunteer Child Abuse/Neglect) module. In addition, depending on level of volunteering, some are required to be fingerprinted, per the vCAN FAQ. Fingerprinting requirements are not being changed. The new module will consist of a volunteer a) attesting to being fully vaccinated, b) uploading their Certificate of COVID-19 Vaccination from the Maryland Department of Health, and c) agreeing to specific expectations of masking and social distancing while in MCPS facilities.
Once the attestation module is completed, as well as the vCAN module, cleared volunteer names/emails will appear on the principal’s Volunteer/Contractor Completion Report found in myMCPS.
Since the vCAN module is a 3-year revolving completion timeline, a system message will be emailed to all who have previously completed the vCAN module, informing them of this additional module requirement. The new, Two-Module system will be up and running by Monday, September 20, 2021 and requirement will begin on Friday, October 1, 2021. Names of volunteers with only the vCAN module completed will be removed from your school’s completion report on this date. User-Guides on how to access both module requirements and how to access and upload their Certificate of COVID-19 Vaccination from the Maryland Department of Health will be available on the Child Abuse and Neglect and the Volunteers websites.
Technology Support
Upcoming Changes for Student Password Management
Starting this school year, students in Grades 3 to 12 will be responsible for their own passwords. While students can change their passwords as often as they like, the maximum age of a student password according to MCPS policy is 365 days. What will this look like?
Students are returning to school with their same/current passwords. Students in Grades 3 to 12 will be informed about this change on September 7th and October 1st through Synergy Mail messages. Messages will include directions and a link to the MCPS Student Password Manager (SPM). The MCPS Student Password Manager allows students to change their passwords from within an MCPS building or from home. The process takes about five minutes to complete. Students with special needs may require assistance from an adult.
When students change their MCPS passwords using this new system, their Google passwords will immediately change. Student password reports and lists will be immediately updated. There will be no interruptions in accessing other online platforms.
Starting on October 10th, students who have not updated their passwords will receive frequent password expiration notices to their Gmail accounts. On November 9th student passwords that have not been updated will be automatically changed. These students may need assistance with retrieving their new passwords.
The process only takes a few minutes to complete. Please see the following directions:
- Student navigates to SPM.mcpsmd.org.
- Student logs into SPM with their current userid and password.
- Student enters new password.
Tech Tips and Reminders
From Mrs. Hirschhorn, Media Specialist
Welcome back everyone! I am so grateful that we can once again allow parent volunteers in the building because our media center needs you! In order to maintain our open circulation program while I'm teaching, you become a key ingredient to keeping our circulation open. Please consider helping our kids to continue to check out books! If you have helped in this way before, you know how meaningful this volunteer position is. If you haven't, we will train you (you get to use a scanner!) and it won't take you long to figure out how much fun it is to interact with our students in this way. Feel free to email me if you're interested, or just sign up here! Thank you so much for your consideration!
There's always so much information in my September Media Monthly, so please make sure you bookmark it and check it often.
Art, Music, and PE Newsletter
Parents, each month our Arts team will share a newsletter that will provide you with what grade level students are doing in their classes.
Here is the September 2021 Specialists' Newsletter