Talley Back to School Updates
July 22, 2021
Dear Talley Street Community,
Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year! We are so excited for the students to return. The first two years of Talley’s existence have been eventful. When we opened in August of 2019, no one could have imagined that we would close the school on March 12th and spend the 2020-2021 school using a combination of virtual and in-person learning. The resilience and perseverance that our students and their families showed was truly amazing. As we begin Talley Street’s third year, I am confident that we are going to have a fantastic school year from August to May.
We are returning to a full day of in-person learning for our students. We will continue to have some of the mitigation strategies from last school year in place (see mitigation strategies below). We are excited for the learning and growth students will experience this year!
Throughout this document, you will find important information. Please read carefully as it contains details about our school and district. If you have any questions that are not answered here, please feel free to email me at bheaton@csdecatur.net. I continue to be so honored to lead such an amazing school! Go Tigers!
Billy
This handbook should answer most questions you may have about our school. If you have a question that isn’t answered, use the last page of the handbook to locate a direct contact for your question. If you don’t see a contact there, please email the School Manager, Ms. Eva Parks, at eparks@csdecatur.net and she can assist you.
Mitigation Strategies
Talley Street Upper Elementary will be following CSD’s COVID Mitigation Strategies during the school year, linked here. Grade levels will take turns eating in the lunchroom and their classrooms to help with social distancing. Teachers will have the option to take their students outside if the heat index is low.
Maximum class size of 24 allows for distancing between students from 3 to 5 feet.
The HVAC system recycles and filters the air hourly.
There is an air purifier in every classroom.
The time students “actively eat” will be limited to 15 minutes. Students will wear masks at all times when they are not actively eating or drinking. Actively eating is defined as the time students are actually eating and chewing.
Students will wear masks while picking up their lunch, opening contents, clearing up their area and exiting and entering the location designated for lunch.
Students will wash their hands before and after lunch. If hand washing is not feasible, use of hand sanitizer is permissible. Students will also use hand sanitizer before taking their mask off and putting it back on.
The School Nutrition team will continue to provide pre-packaged lunches for at least the first 6 weeks of school.
Start and End Times
Please review the district’s start and end times for each school here.
Instructional Materials and School Supplies
Our school supply list is linked here for all grade levels. School supplies are suggestions of tools that could be used at home and/or school. Many families took advantage of ordering supplies through our PTO and those supplies were delivered directly to your homes. Due to social distancing guidelines, space is limited in the classrooms. Therefore, it would be very helpful for families to keep the supply boxes in their homes. Teachers will let students know what supplies they will need to bring to the school to start the year. This will be communicated during the Meet and Greets. No student will do without supplies. The school will make sure all students have what they need to be successful.
Georgia Milestones Assessment System (GMAS) Score Reports
Each student will receive an Individual Student Report that will outline the student's performance in content sub-categories for English Language Arts, Writing, and Math. The report will also show how the student performed relative to other students in the same grade at the school, district, and state levels. Please note that the school, district, and state data are embargoed until mid-August. Once this information becomes available to share with parents, we will send the report home in the student's communication folder. Thank you in advance for your patience. As a reminder, the GMAS results will not be used for identification or placement purposes. Please email Ms. Arlethea Williams at awilliams@csdecatur.net with questions.
Dismissal Plans
Please use this Google Form to let the school know how your child will be going home in the afternoon. If you are picking your child up from carpool in the afternoon, please have his or her name, grade and classroom teacher’s name prominently displayed in your front right window. We will pass out car rider signs during the first week of school, but will need identification from day one.
Classroom Assignments
You will find out your child’s teacher as usual via the Infinite Campus portal. These will be available on July 27th. Our rosters have been created to ensure balance on various levels. If you do not know how to access the parent portal, please contact Ms. Eva Parks at eparks@csdecatur.net.
Parent Portal
Families new to CSD will receive an email from Infinite Campus with a prompt to set up a parent portal account. The parent portal allows parents to view their child’s attendance records, assessment records, lunch balance, and an online lunch payment option. Parents can customize their contact information to ensure they receive weekly newsletters, and emergency school and CSD robo-calls. This is also how classroom assignments will be shared prior to the start of school. If you need assistance with the parent portal, please contact the School Manager, Ms. Eva Parks, at eparks@csdecatur.net.
Meet and Greet
Meet and Greet will be held virtually. They will be held on Friday, July 30th. Your teacher will reach out to you on July 27th with times that he or she will meet in small groups with families on Google Meet.
Communication
CSD schools are all transitioning to Thursday as the communication day. We will send school-wide communication to families through our electronic Talley Updates on Thursdays. In addition to this, weekly communication folders will be sent home on Thursdays. Please check your child’s folder for pertinent information. Talley Street’s website is another great way to stay informed.
Annual Data Update
Families, we have moved the typical beginning of the school year household data update, medical forms, opt-out forms, and handbook sign-offs to the Infinite Campus Parent Portal. On Monday, July 19, parents received an email with a link to access the update in the parent portal.
It is important for parents or guardians to log into the parent portal and complete these forms before the start of school. Please note, only parents and guardians in the primary household will have access to fill out the information for the annual data update. Please review the 2021-2022 K-12 District Handbook, Code of Conduct and Restorative Practices Handbook, and Consent for Rapid Covid testing prior to completing the update.
Directions for accessing the data update:
Log in to the Parent Portal.
Once you are logged in, click “more” on the bottom left.
Click Annual Data Update.
Move through the questionnaire, reviewing and updating all the required fields marked with a red asterisk.
Once complete, click save/continue.
Follow the same process for each of your children.
Click submit to finalize the update.
If you encounter any issues when completing the annual data update, please contact Eva Parks at eparks@csdecatur.net.
School Leadership Team
The Talley Street Upper Elementary School Leadership Team (SLT) is an elected committee consisting of Talley Street parents/guardians, staff members, a community member, and a district representative. The purpose of the SLT is to make decisions that support the continuous improvement of the school in accordance with the provisions of the District Charter. This year we will have 3 SLT vacancies, with an election taking place in late August. If you are interested in filling one of the vacancies, email a short bio of yourself and why you are interested in serving to bheaton@csdecatur.net.
About Us
Principal - Billy Heaton, bheaton@csdecatur.net
Assistant Principal - Artethea Williams, awilliams@csdecatur.net
Assistant Principal - Ronald Johnson, rjohnson@csdecatur.net
Instructional Coach/IB Coordinator - Dr. Jennie Muhlhausen, jmuhlhausen@csdecatur.net
School Manager - Eva Parks, eparks@csdecatur.net
Bookkeeper - Ethel Johnson, ejohnson@csdecatur.net
School Nurse - Sandra Gunn, sgunn@csdecatur.net
Social Media and Contact Information
Social Media and Contact Information
You can find more information on the following Facebook pages:
Talley Street Upper Elementary School PTO
Talley Street Upper Elementary School Parents
For news in the Media Center and from our school counselors, check out their websites:
For more about the Talley Street PTO, visit their website here: https://talleypto.org/