Springville Families,

In the past week, we have seen an uptick in the number of positive cases of COVID-19 in the community. BSD has added (and in some cases, reinstated) mitigation strategies to reduce the spread at school. A few pieces we would like to bring to your attention include:

• Masking: In addition to mandatory indoor mask use, the District is reinstating mandatory masking in outdoor settings, including recess and outdoor classes.
• Visitors: We are temporarily pausing all visitors. No visitors will be allowed beyond the front office.
• Volunteers: While we value the tremendous contribution of our dedicated volunteers, we are temporarily pausing the use of volunteers except for those school meal support.

At Springville, we continue to have students physically distanced in the classroom as well as lunch spaces (cafeteria and gym). Mitigation strategies are reinforced throughout our school to keep our students and staff safe.

We ask that you emphasize the importance of consistent and correct mask-wearing in addition to distancing and frequent hand-washing with your students. If your child is sick or has been exposed to a positive COVID-19 case, please report it to our office and keep them at home. We appreciate your partnership.

Despite the challenges, we are doing our best to take good care of students. We love to see them arrive each morning and love their excitement about being at school each day. We are keeping our focus on teaching and learning, and supporting social and emotional health. Please let us know if your student or family needs support.

Be Well,

Robin Kobrowski and Ellen Arnold

Unfortunately, due to the newest guidance from BSD, the January art literacy volunteer meetings have been canceled. As soon as the guidance changes, we will be able to re-schedule volunteer meetings.

There is a large volume of COVID-19 circulating in our community. If your child has tested positive for COVID, please keep your child home for 10 full days after symptom onset or a positive test (which ever occurred first). They may return to school on the 11th day.

It is important to note that even though the CDC has changed their guidance to 5 days of isolation for a positive case, our District must follow the guidelines from Washington County Health and the Oregon Health Authority. These organizations have not approved the 5-day isolation, therefore, we continue to implement the 10-day guidance.

Please contact our office staff if your child tests positive.

In addition, if your child presents with any too sick for school symptoms, please err on the side of caution.

Welcome back to school! January is a perfect time to try walking or biking to school -- for your health, your community and the planet! 1 mile of walking each way to school equals 2/3 of the daily recommended 60 minutes of physical activity. Get your steps in while decreasing the traffic and air pollution around your school and neighborhood.

• Does your school have a walking or biking school bus? If so, join in the fun. If not, find your school's preferred walk/bike route on our interactive Safe Routes to School maps.

Elementary School Maps, Middle School Maps, High School Maps

• When you're out and about, keep your EYES and EARS OPEN, phones down and heads up. Know what’s going on around you. Have fun with your active commute!

• Need more tips and inspiration? Follow the Beaverton Safe Routes to School Facebook page.

¡Decídase a ser más activo!

¡Bienvenido de nuevo a la escuela! Enero es un momento perfecto para ir caminando o en bicicleta a la escuela, ¡por su salud, su comunidad y el planeta! Caminar 1 milla de ida y vuelta a la escuela equivale a 2/3 de los 60 minutos diarios recomendados de actividad física. Sea activo mientras disminuye el tráfico y la contaminación del aire alrededor de su escuela y vecindario.

• ¿Su escuela tiene un grupo de walking o biking school bus? Si es así, únase a la diversión. Si no es así, encuentre la ruta preferida para caminar/andar en bicicleta de su escuela en nuestros mapas interactivos de Rutas Seguras a la Escuela.

Mapas de escuelas primarias, Mapas de escuelas secundarias, Mapas de escuelas preparatorias

• Cuando esté fuera de casa, mantenga la cabeza hacia arriba, los OJOS y OÍDOS ATENTOS y guarde su teléfono celular. Esté alerta a lo que sucede a su alrededor.

• ¿Necesita más consejos e inspiración? Sigan la página de Facebook de Baverton Safe Routes to School.

Safe Routes to School invites all Beaverton Elementary School Classes, Kindergarten through 5th grade, to participate in our January Art Contest. Each elementary school teacher has been sent the instructions for students to create a Safe Routes to School piece of art depicting why they choose to walk or roll to school. A winner will be chosen for each grade, K-5th across the district. Each winner will receive a prize bag with items to help safely travel to school. A grand prize winner will also receive a full day art class from Gilchrist Art Camp. All submissions are due by January 31st. Ask your teacher for more details.

The Bethany Library December 2021 WiserKids K-5 Newsletter is available online for teachers, students and parents. You can subscribe here.

December's issue features:

• Winter Reading Challenge: From December 13 through January 16, kids, teens and adults can track their reading to achieve our community goal of 10,000 hours read. For every hour read, we will donate ten cents to the Oregon Food Bank to help families with food insecurity, up to a maximum donation of $1,000.
• Parent Information Series: Parents can bring their questions and challenges each month to this online workshop. Positive Discipline Parent Educator, Megan Barella will help you transform your child's misbehavior into connection and cooperation. Classes held online first Thursday of the month from 7-8pm: January 6, 2022, February 3, 2022.
• Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB): Kids can test their OBOB knowledge with eight sets of unofficial practice questions available on our website. A link to our Kahoot trivia game will also be available beginning January 1st.
• Student Library Cards: Public library cards are available for all Beaverton School District students. Our libraries are processing cards this month for any students newly enrolled in a Beaverton School District school and those will be mailed out to students' homes.

Booklists:

• Family Read Alouds for Kids 6 and up
• Family Read Alouds for Kids 8 and up
• Great Games for English Language Learners: Games that rely on visual and other skills instead of reading.
• Leveled Books: Find books at your student's Independent Reading Level IRLA.
• Decodable Books and Games for Beginning Readers: Decodable books allow readers to decode words using the principle of phonics (the relationship between letters and the sounds they make). Decodables are helpful to anyone learning to read, but are essential for teaching readers with dyslexia.

The libraries are excited to provide library materials and services for students during the winter break!

Our crossing guards work hard every day to help our children get to and from school safely. Whether on school property or in the community, if you see a crossing guard, please do what they are asking you to do. It takes all of us to keep the roads safe for everyone. Please be especially mindful in school zones, at intersections and crosswalks (marked and unmarked), near bike lanes and in neighborhoods. Thank you!

We would like to remind you about our guidelines for determining whether or not your student should come to school if they are ill.

If your student shows primary symptoms of COVID 19, we ask you to keep your child home and contact your health care provider to get a COVID test. You may also find THIS website helpful for COVID testing locations. Primary symptoms of COVID are defined as fever, cough, chills, loss of taste or smell and/or shortness of breath.

• If the COVID test is positive, please notify the school and quarantine your child at home for 10 days or as directed by Washington County Public Health.
• If the test is negative, please follow the Keep Ill Children Out of School guidelines
• If you do not want to test your student for COVID and they are showing primary symptoms, they should quarantine at home for 10 days.
• If your child has any other communicable disease symptoms, please follow the Keep Ill Children Out of School guidelines.

If you have a child who has a diagnosed chronic health condition that may present as primary symptoms of covid, such as asthma or another lung condition and the school is unaware of this condition, please contact our school nurse, Sydney Garl at sydney_garl@beaverton.k12.or.us or via ParentSquare. She may need to implement a school health management plan to help prevent your child from being inappropriately sent home from school.

The guidelines for determining whether to send your student to school are attached. This flyer is available in many other languages on the BSD Student Health Webpage. We appreciate your help in keeping our school community safe.

All students are expected to attend school daily. If your child must be absent, please call the attendance line to let us know (503-356-2481). Some excusable reasons for absence include illness, quarantine, bereavement, family illness, inclement weather, religious instruction or emergencies. Please note that vacations are recorded as unexcused absences per District policy. In the event that a student is absent for ten consecutive days, the student will be dropped from the roll and must be reactivated upon return to school. Please make every effort to schedule your child's appointments, family vacations, music lessons, etc. around the school day and calendar. Missed instructional time, even in small increments, quickly adds up and impacts your child's overall learning.

It is very important for your child to be on time to school so that they start the day with everyone else. The school day begins promptly at 8:30am. Children who arrive after 8:30am are recorded as tardy. In order to get your child off to a good start in the morning, and prevent disruption of classes, please help your child be at school on time. If you child arrives after 8:30am, you must park and escort him/her to the office to obtain an late slip.