CVSD Update, October 2, 2020

 Dear CVSD Families and Friends,

We have a few short updates to share with you this week. We are very excited to welcome many of our kindergarten students to school four days a week beginning on Monday. For those with first and second graders, if you have not yet completed the survey that was sent at the end of last week or early this week, please do so as soon as possible. 

Here are a few additional items of importance: 

October 9th for K-8 schools:

This year, as in past years, we have designated two days for Parent-Teacher conferences on our calendar-- October 9th and March 19th. There is no school for K-8 students on these days. We hold these conferences to ensure that there is strong communication between teachers and families around the growth of their students socially, emotionally, and academically. It is an important time to take stock of your child as a whole. It is also an opportunity for teachers and parents to get to know each other better. We strive to build as strong a connection with our families as possible. Many, many teachers and parents have already met this school year to reinforce these important connections.

All of our K-8 teachers will once again schedule a conference with their students’ families. As in past years, this conference may be scheduled on October 9th, but also may be scheduled any time between now and the end of the term. In fact, we are encouraging our teachers to schedule these conferences at a mutually convenient time for the teacher and the family and avoid scheduling too many conferences all on one day. Many of our teachers, across the school district, have been implementing this practice for many years. We find that the time allotted is not only more convenient, it is also more focused.

With this expectation, we provide a flexible day for our teachers. We believe this is a win-win situation - better, more personalized conferences for you, and more manageable scheduling for teachers. To summarize, you may have a parent-teacher conference scheduled on October 9th, or it may be scheduled at another time more convenient for both you and your child’s teacher. Be assured that we will make time for this important conference.

A reminder: There IS school for CVU students on October 9.

Temperature Checks

We’d like to thank parents for their diligence in screening kids at home for fevers (above 100.4F) and COVID symptoms before sending them to the bus or school. Parents of bus riders should be aware that, based on the extremely low incidence of finding anything other than normal temperatures, on some routes we have deferred the temperature screening from the bus to the school.

Transportation

The guidance from the Vermont Agency of Education around transporting students on buses includes the following information:

Step II Guidance:

• Create physical distance between students and on school buses (for example, seating students one child per seat, every other row).

Step III Guidance:

• Students should be spaced out for the number of riders

As we move toward increasing the number of students in schools when our kindergarten transitions to 4 days a week on October 5, our plan for adapting transportation is a slow, methodical process. We will still spread students out, students from the same family may continue to sit together, and we will, when necessary, allow up to two kindergarten students and eventually first and second graders to sit together in a seat. Additional changes will depend on ridership and will be communicated to parents of students on the affected routes before they occur.

A Friendly Reminder About Positive COVID Cases

If and when we have a confirmed positive COVID-19 case in our district, we will only be able to share very limited information with our community. We must abide by FERPA and respect the privacy of those impacted. We will use language that leaves out any identifying information in order to protect that privacy. Please view the information about FERPA and HIPPA, as well as details about our processes in the CVSD Symptomatic & Positive Cases Guide. If and when we have a positive case in our learning community, the Department of Health will identify close contacts and reach out directly to those individuals as soon as possible (typically within 24 hours). You can help this process by answering your phone if they reach out to you and being prepared to support their contact tracing efforts. If you have specific concerns about your student’s health, please reach out to your pediatrician.

Thank you for your support. Have a wonderful fall weekend,

Elaine Pinckney