46E WORTHINGTON ACCESS DR.

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, MO 63043

With the many changes in schooling and district plans, the level of commitment to learning has progressed. We started in the spring with care for students and their emotional well-being during a pandemic. The start of the school year was focused on continuing those relationships while growing as learners, but the plan was never quite complete. Now we are in a phase where the students are able to anchor themselves with their virtual classmates and teacher as part of Virtual Campus.

Take inventory of what is working for your child in the virtual classroom and what do they still need to make this as successful it can be.

What can you do at home to support your child?

-Reevaluate your child’s learning environment at home.

-Make sure the learning area is free from distractions.

-Is your child able to be proactive, present, and purposeful in their virtual classroom.

-Maintain a daily or weekly task list.

What are we continuing to work on as a district?

-We are collaborating to ensure we are providing information written for a virtual learning experience rather than just taking our traditional curriculum and teaching it online.

-Virtual Campus teachers will be working together as Collaborative Learning Teams and our curriculum coordinators.

-Teachers are also receiving weekly tips for teaching in a virtual environment.

Dear Carman Families,

I wanted to take a moment to share some details about what to expect from the Blended Learning model starting next week through the week of Thanksgiving. In a lot of cases, you will notice similarities from the last two weeks. There are additional opportunities for students to connect with their teacher and class via Zoom on their at home learning days. More details about this are outlined in the link below. Please remember that attendance is taken each day and it is important that your child attend each distance learning day as well as their in-person days. Thank you so much for your patience as we continue to respond to our students' needs. We value your partnership and feedback throughout the process.

Please use this link to access additional information on what to expect for your child's elementary experience in the classroom and during specials while in the blended learning model.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sVr2y9qq9fl2V4plZXAkEY2FdBuzMkcAc2Q4PgxhTfI/edit?usp=sharing

Please look for more specific communication to come from your child's teacher later today via the class' newsletter and updates. This information will inform you of your child's schedule and important links needed throughout the next few weeks. As always, please let us know if you have any questions.

Carman Strong. Stronger Together.

With CT pride,

Allison

Here is a message previously sent by Dr. Marty -

We have an important update to share with you on our plans for students attending school in-person. The health data in our schools and community continue to trend in a more negative direction with some of the highest levels we have seen including all Parkway zip codes.

• Since we returned to in-person learning, we have had at least one positive case of COVID-19 in every elementary and middle school and positive cases and quarantines related to high school athletics and activities. While the majority of cases have been traced back to transmission outside of school, the level of illness still presents a risk to our students and staff.
• We currently have over 300 students under a required 14-day quarantine from the St. Louis County Health Department. While we continue to support learning at home, we know two weeks out of school is very disruptive to learning.
• We currently have over 80 teachers and staff under a required quarantine. Keeping our employees well and maintaining enough staffing to support our students in-person is an ongoing concern.
• The transmission rate of COVID-19 in our community increased from 1.06 to 1.16 in one week which is the highest level in our region since mid-August.
• You can see all of this data and the number of cases and quarantines for each school on our Community Health Dashboard here.

Based on this current reality, and in order to slow the spread of illness and quarantines, our elementary and middle schools will continue on a blended schedule through November.

• The blended schedule provides much smaller class sizes and allows for more social distancing in our classrooms and schools. As a result, this can reduce exposure and quarantines for our students. For example, if group one is quarantined due to exposure, in most cases, group two can continue learning in-person.
• We believe a blended schedule offers us the best opportunity to keep our schools open while limiting illness, exposure and disruptions to learning.

Mondays will be distance learning days online with teachers with the same start and end times as a typical school day. The remainder of the week, students will alternate learning at school and home depending on their group. You can see the updated In-Person Calendars for November here. This is the same schedule as our high schools, so families will be kept together and groups will attend the same days of school K-12.

As we approach the holiday season, we know families and staff may have more gatherings outside of school. So we want to be more cautious about students and staff attending school in-person around holiday breaks. Students will have distance learning days at home the two days before Thanksgiving break including instruction online with teachers.

Students will have instruction on days at home in the blended schedule. This is what students and families can expect on days they are learning at home.

Elementary School:

• Monday, November 9 is a distance learning day online with teachers. The rest of the week, students will continue learning asynchronously through Schoology on days at home as they did these past weeks.
• Beginning November 16, on days at home, students can join class via Zoom for the morning meeting and lessons in English Language Arts and math. Teachers will provide assignments in Schoology for students to complete at home.
• If a student is quarantined and feeling well enough to participate, they can also continue to join class via Zoom so their learning is not disrupted.

Adventure Club is available this school year. Please contact our Adventure Club staff for more information. We still have space available! The phone number to the Adventure Club main office is 636-891-6644. The website is http://www.prcommunityed.org/adventureclub/Pages/default.aspx .

We are receiving a number of Chromebooks back with cracked screens. This is primarily due to students closing the Chromebook while an object is on the keyboard. Please remind students to check that the keyboard is clear of objects before closing the Chromebook. Thank you so much for your assistance.

Did you know that 31 percent of Parkway students are enrolled in Virtual Campus? We are thrilled to provide a quality education to students no matter their learning preferences.

Virtual Campus students have a defined schedule to follow throughout the day and access courses in Schoology.

Daily Health Screening

• All students and staff will complete a daily health screening before coming to school. If your child has any symptoms, including known exposure to COVID-19, flu or cold symptoms, you should stay home and call your school. Medical evaluation will be required if students are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-like illnesses.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzrrAD-nDHGZf0nX-28zQhcBbGdQvA6dbWxZ3X9krgC9VE-w/viewform

• You can follow our key metrics on the new Parkway Community Health Dashboard

Parent guide to student health

As we return to in-person learning, we want to share the procedures we will use to notify parents and staff when there is a positive case of COVID-19 at school and how you can help keep our children, staff and school communities healthy.

We have also outlined some scenarios here to help you determine what to do if your child has had contact with a symptomatic person or positive case, as well as other scenarios.

https://www.parkwayschools.net/Page/10692

All meals including breakfast and lunch will be distributed for free to all students K-12. Free meals will be available for Virtual Campus students and those attending in-person at school.

Students enrolled in Virtual Campus will need to complete the weekly meals signup page. You can sign up for meals here. Only students not attending school in person need to signup for meals. You can choose your pickup location as well as how many days you will be picking meals up for your children. Families can choose a box that includes three meals or five meals, which will be available for Virtual Campus students and during blended learning schedules.

Students learning in-person will receive lunch at school. This free program is provided to all public school districts with federal USDA funding through December 31, 2020.

Meals and menus can be found here.

With the exciting news that the updated Return to Learn plan was approved by our Parkway School board, some parents may be concerned with their child's ability to wear a mask at school. Here are a couple of short stories from Tara Tuchel for children that may help. We would also encourage families to practice at home for short periods of time. You can set timers, let children decorate a mask, wear them as a family for a short time together, etc.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you would like to talk about your concerns.

Wearing A Mask - A Story for Children

Mask Etiquette for Children

Counselor Newsletters

Counselor Connection Newsletter

"I would like to share the link to my virtual office where students/families will be able to access everything counseling related so that it can be in the newsletter as well. Through my virtual office they can click to enter my calming room, resources room, lesson classroom and my counselor's cafe. Below is the link to my office. Thank you!"

-Grant Steward, Counselor

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AKXkg6Sxa4Drrauym6L-MqpcU3cUNT1FI9-ngnrsjQo/edit?usp=sharing

Winter weather will arrive in St. Louis before we know it and many have asked if Parkway will still have snow days off school since students could also complete distance learning at home. We have an update on snow days for the 2020-21 school year.

• Since we have extra time built into our calendar for snow days, our plan is to take the first three snow days off school for both in-person and virtual students (if needed based on weather).
• Then, after the first three, we would have virtual snow days if needed where students would participate in distance learning with teachers online. This way, our students and staff get to enjoy up to three snow days off school and we also won’t have to make up days at the end of the school year.
• We made this decision based on previous surveys where parents and staff have told us they prefer to have snow days built into the school year so we don’t have to make them up at the end of the year.
• If we need to use a late start snow schedule or early dismissal from school due to weather, all in-person and virtual students would be off school during the late start or early dismissal hours.
• We still need to ensure we have enough instructional hours in our calendar at the end of the school year so we will update you in the unlikely event we need to adjust our plans to make up hours.

November 17: Picture Day Group 1 In-Person students

November 20: Picture Day - Virtual Campus students (3:00-5:00 pm at Carman Trails)

November 23: Distance learning K-5 (at home)

November 24: Distance learning K-5 (at home)

November 25: Virtual Book Fair Ends

November 25: No School-Thanksgiving Break

November 26: No School-Thanksgiving Break

November 27: No School-Thanksgiving Break

December 23: No School, Winter Break Begins

January 1: Happy New Year!

January 4: No School-Professional Development

January 15: No School-Grading/Professional Development

January 18: No School-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 19: Wonderful World of Kindergarten (Time TBD)

January 26: Kindergarten Registration (Time TBD)