Daisy Daily for the Week of December 21, 2020

 

Our students and staff  had "SNOW" much fun

last week!!!

 

Daisy Friends,

This will be a super-quick week (#17) before the Holiday break.

Here are a few reminders:

• No Grade-Level Meetings with Administration this week.
• Classroom Teachers/Specialists/Support Staff: if you haven't already emailed a video or photos for inclusion in our Daisy Holiday Video (to Lisa, Alicia and me), please do so by noon on Monday.  We'll release it for all to enjoy on Wednesday.
• Early Dismissal on Wednesday, Dec. 23, at 1 pm.
• Spirit Days this week:
• Mon., Dec. 21--"Favorite Hat Day"
• Tues., Dec. 22--"Dress to Impress Day" (Dress fancy to ring in the New Year!)
• Wed., Dec. 23--"Pajama Day" (A comfy, cozy day!) Please feel free to show the holiday video at any time that works for your class.  We will deliver pre-packaged allergy-approved snacks to your classroom on Tuesday (popcorn, Pirate's Booty, candy canes, etc.) thanks to the generosity of Dunkin' Donuts/Finezza Family and another generous, anonymous donor.

Please join in the fun!

• Holiday Break runs until Jan. 4, when we'll all be back in school.
• The following days are holidays and Westbrook Public Schools will be closed:  Dec. 24, 25, 28 and Jan. 1.  
• For all future dates, please see our Daisy Staff Google Calendar at:
• DAISY STAFF GOOGLE CALENDAR
  

Thanks to all who joined in the festivity of the season by decorating classroom and office doors.  Our school looks beautiful and so full of holiday spirit!

Try to slow down a bit this week and really enjoy our students.  Please be kind to yourself--as you're always taking care of everyone else--and just think about how far we have come since September 1st with our students!

Wishing everyone a most enjoyable holiday season.  Even though it will be different than any holidays before, here's hoping for quality time with those closest to you.  Take care, be safe and see you in 2021!!!

Warmly,

Ruth

Dilma Ordonez and Jan Lynch in the kitchen, looking very festive!

Stephen Trojan and his "elf twin."

Morgan Fair wishing everyone "Feliz Navidad!"

Two elves on a shelf....

Daisy Daily for the Week of December 14, 2020

                       It was wonderful to welcome our students back to in-person learning last week!

Thumbs up for PURPLE!!!

Daisy Friends,

Hope that everyone enjoyed a wonderful weekend.  Although Saturday was rainy, Sunday was certainly a perfect day to spend some time outside!

Of course, we'll all be watching the weather as we start a new week, which is our Week #16 of the school year.

A few notes about the week ahead:

• We'll hold Grade Level Meetings virtually, as scheduled in our Daisy Staff Google Calendar.  All links to meetings are in the calendar.
• Wednesday, Dec. 16, features Department-Based PLCs.  Meetings at Daisy start at 3:15 pm.
• As always, please refer to our Staff Google Calendar for all the specifics:
• DAISY STAFF GOOGLE CALENDAR

Of course, we'll remain flexible as parents/guardians may continue to choose to have their children transition into remote learning or back to in-person learning. Please keep in touch with the office (and vice versa) as we hear any new requests from families re: this.

Happy Hanukkah!

One of our student's parents joined a first-grade class, virtually, 

on Friday to talk about the traditions of Hanukkah.

As we enter this festive time of year, we're looking at new ways to safely celebrate some of our time-honored traditions.

• To add some sparkle to the holidays at Daisy, we have joined the Town of Westbrook's Door Decorating (Friendly) Competition by decorating and entering our front door.
• We invite anyone who would like to decorate their classroom/office doors to do so (just for fun; no competition) and to get our students involved!  No deadlines, no pressure; just for fun!
• Since we can't bring everyone together for a Holiday Sing-a-long in the gym this year, as is tradition, we are planning a way to showcase something from each classroom, that we can share school-wide as well as with the community.  Please think about featuring something that you're currently doing with students (a project, song, poem, craft, new learning, decoration, etc.) that you could either video or take photos of to share.  We plan to make a video of all the contributions to share this on our traditional Pajama Day next Wednesday, Dec. 23, before the Holiday Break.  Contributions can be a few photos or a brief video and should be emailed to Lisa Sizer, Alicia Adinolfi and me by this Friday Dec. 18.  The sky's the limit!!!
• Teachers--please be sure to respond to the PTO email re: either a reimbursement for holiday crafts or help in putting a craft together.  Some parents are helping virtually with crafts or reading a book, etc.  Please be sure that we send home the materials to remote learners as well.
• As you know, we have not accepted food/treats sent in from home this year, but I have enlisted the help from the PTO for some special, individually-packaged snacks that meet our allergy requirements to be available for ALL classrooms.  We are working with our school nurse for approved snacks, which the PTO will purchase and deliver for next week.  Perhaps to enjoy on Wed., Dec. 23, while watching our school-wide video on Pajama Day?

Kindergarten Students had fun learning about Coding in the Computer Lab with Ms. Godfrey.  Students participated both in-person and virtually and learned so much!

Also to add to the Holiday Fun, here are a few Spirit Days for students and adults, alike:

---Dec. 16--"White Out/Snow Day"

--Dec. 18--"Festive Sweater/Shirt Day"

--Dec. 21--"Favorite Hat Day"

--Dec. 22--"Dress to Impress Day"

--Dec. 23--"Pajama Day"

Please join in the fun!

Please take a moment and make sure that the voicemail message on your classroom/office phone is up-to-date. We had many room changes over the summer and we want to be sure that we are properly addressing messages to your room. If you haven't reset the message, you likely aren't able to retrive messages, so please look into that. If you need assistance, please email: techsupport@westbrookctschools.org

Let's make it a great week with our students! Maybe we'll get a little white stuff to make it even more interesting!

Take care,

Ruth

Daisy Daily for the Week of December 7, 2020

 

Daisy Ingraham is joining our town's Holiday Door Decorating Contest, just for fun!!!

Daisy Friends,

Please remember to check email regularly to be sure you have the latest updates from Superintendent Kristina Martineau and me.  We have both sent out emails to families and staff via School Messenger over the weekend and these are also posted on our district and Daisy websites.

We will operate according to our in-person schedule with Rotating Specials, starting with Special Rotation #1 tomorrow.  The email that I sent out to all staff explaning this is here:

Daisy Staff,

Thanks to all who joined our Daisy Leadership Meeting today to represent your groups re: getting ready for our students to join us in-person next week.

Here's a recap for all:

• We will return to our previous in-person schedules that were established for each grade level.
• We will adjust our Specials Rotation, starting with Rotation #1.  We will return to our 10 consecutive days for each special, in order to decrease exposure for students and staff.
• Families still have the opportunity to choose Remote Learning for their children.
• Please read the email that I sent out a little earlier with the Parent Letter that I sent out through School Messenger, which details information re: safety for in-person learning as well as information re: remote learning.
• We expect more families to take advantage of remote learning at this time.  Previously, we had 26 students in remote learning.  As of this moment, families have chosen remote learning for 40 students.  I expect I will hear more requests for changes over the weekend.
• I will communicate with each classroom teacher about your current class list w/ requests for remote learning.  I also ask that if you hear from a family re: this, please forward this to me and our office staff as well so that we can help you to be best prepared.
• Classroom teachers should communicate the status (in-person or remote) with each student's service providers.
• If you have concerns about coming back in-person, please let me know.
• Please consider adding another layer of protection, especially if you are working with multiple cohorts of students, by wearing your face shield over your mask.  We have district-issued face shields for all staff members.  If you don't have one, please stop by the office as we have a good supply on hand.  
• If you need a box of child-size face masks for your classroom or office, please let us know as well.
• I'll send more updates out in the "Daisy Daily" over the weekend.

As always, please let me know your concerns at any time.

Wishing you and your family a safe and happy weekend.  We're in this together and we're going to be ready to welcome our students back with very positive vibes on Monday!

Warmly,

Ruth

Of course, parents/guardians still have the opportunity to choose Remote Learning for their children.  They have been notified to access the schedule and links to live meetings in Google Classroom (for Grades K-4) and in Class Dojo for PreK.  Here is the link to the letter that I sent out to families re: this:

Daisy Parent Letter 12.4.20

Over the weekend, I sent updates to each grade level (and copied specialists) with the current information re: which parents had requested a continuation of Remote Learning.  We will continue to update this as time goes on.

As always, please refer to our Daisy Staff Google Calendar for meetings/events of this Week #15 of School as well as the weeks ahead.  Here is the link:

• DAISY STAFF GOOGLE CALENDAR

• We will have Grade-Level Meetings this week, as scheduled in the Staff Calendar.
• Tuesday, Dec. 8: Board of Education Virtual Meeting at 7 pm.  The link will be posted on the BOE Departmental webpage before the meeting.
• Wednesday, Dec. 9: PTO Virtual Meeting.  Link is published in our Daisy Staff Calendar.
• Wednesday, Dec. 9: Report Cards should be complete in PowerSchool.  (As always, please let me know about particular report cards that you'd like me to review.)
• Friday, Dec. 11: Report Cards will go home with students and/or mailed to remote students.  Office staff is happy to assist with printing Report Cards.
• If anyone would like to make a donation for Grocery Gift Cards for our families, please see the donation basket in the office.
• Spirit Days for the next couple of weeks will be announced after receiving feedback from students/staff.

Thanks so much to ALL for ALL you are doing for our students, EVERY day!!!  I appreciate that everyone is working so intensely to provide the best for our students and certainly understand that this is a labor of love.

Wishing all a wonderful week back with our students,

Ruth

"Acts of Kindness Day"

Virtual Tree Lighting on the Westbrook Green over the weekend.

Daisy Daily for the Week of November 30, 2020

 Daisy Friends,

Hoping that everyone enjoyed a safe, happy and healthy holiday weekend with your closest family.  The warmer weather has been delightful, giving lots of opportunities for outside time.

Some of our second-graders created Thanksgiving Day "Floats" last week.....

(Last Wednesday was also "Pajama Day.")

As we enter Week #14 of School (and Week #3 of Full Remote Learning), here are a few notes:

• Monday, Nov. 30, will be the final day that Dr. Patricia Charles will be with us as Interim Superintendent.  I'm so grateful for the time she has been with us since the summer to guide our district with our re-opening plans.  For many, it was a wonderful time to reconnect with Pat, as many staff members worked with her previously when she was in Westbrook as Superintendent.  She surely rejoined us at a tumultuous time and she was always ready for any and all challenges along the way, including delivering supplies to students...

• Monday, Nov. 30, will also be the first day for new Director of Student Services/Special Education, Fran Lagace, in the district.  We look forward to welcoming him and we wish Madeline Illinger all the best in her (delayed) retirement.  It was so helpful to have Madeline serve as Interim Director in that position, also during our time of re-opening schools.
• Tuesday, Dec. 1, will be Dr. Kristina Martineau's first day as Superintendent in Westbrook.  I'm so glad that so many Daisy staff members took advantage of the virtual "Meet and Greets" that Kristina hosted to get to know everyone.  I'm excited to welcome Kristina to our district and to our school.
  
• 

Also.......

• We will have virtual Grade-Level Meetings this week, as scheduled in our Daisy Staff Google Calendar.
• Wed., Dec. 2, features a virtual Daisy Faculty Meeting, from 3:15-4:00 pm.  (Link is in our Daisy Staff Google Calendar.)
• As detailed in an earlier email, Trimester 1 closed on Nov. 25th.  Report Cards should be complete in PowerSchool by Dec. 9th and are scheduled to go home on Dec. 11th.
• As you know, we are looking at another week of Remote Learning this week (as stated in Pat's email over the weekend), which will be re-evaluated as new metrics come out.  The positivity rate released during Thanksgiving week continued to show Westbrook at 34.1 per 100,000.
• The link to our Daisy Staff Google Calendar is:

• • DAISY STAFF GOOGLE CALENDAR

DAISY SPIRIT DAYS THIS WEEK:

Tuesday, Dec. 1: 
"December Spirit Day"

(Wear something that shows what you like best about December.)

Friday, Dec. 4:

"Acts of Kindness Spirit Day"

(We will accept donations from Staff Members to buy Grocery Gifts Cards for our students' families in need.)

Let's make it a great week with our students.  Thanks, as always, for ALL you are ALL doing to make Remote Learning work for our students!

Warmly,

Ruth

Daisy Daily for the Week of November 23, 2020

 

Daisy Staff,

As we enter Week #13, our second week of Full Remote Learning and a short week before Thanksgiving, here are a few updates:

• We won't hold grade-level meetings this week due to the adjusted schedule with early dismissal on Wednesday (1 pm) and the holidays on Thursday and Friday.
• This is a Special Board of Education Meeting on Monday at 5 pm to discuss the transition between different formats of learning, i.e., in-person to remote, etc.  This is a virtual meeting and the link will be posted on the BOE website in advance of the meeting.
• Teachers and Support Staff continue to have the opportunity to choose to teach remotely from school or home.  It has been wonderful to have so many staff members teaching from school, where you have easy access to resources; if that works for you and your family.  
• We will continue to push out materials to families each weekday between 8 am and 4 pm.  We just don't want everyone coming at the same time and that hasn't been a concern to date.  We'd like to keep this flexible so that it works for families' schedules, but if we're pushing out something to the entire school (like library books), we'll issue specific days for specific grade levels (or by dividing the alphabet) so we don't have a rush of traffic that we can't handle safely.  Please let the office know when you have materials ready for students and families.
• Our school building continues to be open between 7 am and 11 pm.  If you need to work in classrooms after hours, please just let me know so that we can adjust cleaning times.
• The shortened schedule for Wednesday was sent out earlier and is also available here:

• Early Dismissal Schedule for Wed., Nov. 25
  
• 
  
• As always, please consult the Daisy Staff Google Calendar for all important dates at:
• • DAISY STAFF GOOGLE CALENDAR

Wishing you and yours a thoughtful, thankful Thanksgiving, even if it looks drastically different from our usual family/friends' Thanksgiving.  To put it bluntly:

Once again, I thank you for all you are doing to make Remote Learning work for our students.  Some people have asked that we revisit expectations for students and families, which we sent out last spring.  I have updated these, based on feedback from staff this past week, and will send out to all, as well as to post on our Daisy website.

Take care and stay safe,

Ruth

Daisy Daily for the Week of November 16, 2020

Kindergarten students enjoying outside classroom space last week.

 Daisy Staff,

Thanks to all for your incredible work in switching to Remote Learning literally overnight in order to be ready for last Friday!

All of our staff members were absolutely on board and worked so hard to make it work for our students and families.  Amazingly, only one family showed up on Friday morning thinking there was school and I haven't heard lots of concerns from families about childcare, so they made the switch as well.  As we well know, this is a huge commitment from families, just as it is for staff.

As we move into this week of Remote Learning, our 12th week of school, right now teachers and paraprofessionals have the flexibility to deliver remote instruction from school or home, especially if you have young children who are now out of school working remotely as well.  As you know, all COVID safety precautions remain in place at school and are more important than ever.  Please don't let your guard down when working with other in colleagues in the building.  It isn't possible for staff members to bring their own children in the building, due to safety concerns.  We do expect to bring in some of our high-need students for in-person learning, probably starting on Tuesday.  These decisions have been made jointly with our Special Education staff and Madeline Illinger on a case-by-case basis.

Many families stopped by on Friday to pick up instructional materials for their children.  We will continue to push out materials, daily, from 8 am - 4 pm.  Please let families know when you have materials ready for them and I'd rather that we continue doing this daily rather than just on Friday (as in the past with Remote Learners) so there isn't a huge convergence of people at the door at once.  If families need to come later in the evening, they should call the office for an appointment as I'm usually here later. Please check from time-to-time to see if materials have been picked up by your families as they might need a reminder.  We have tables set up in the main hallways near the lobby and we will continue to receive and push out materials daily as needed.

Dr. Pat Charles making special deliveries of instructional supplies to families on Friday.

Here is our remote learning schedule, which I distributed earlier, for your convenience:

Remote Learning Schedules Updated Nov 2020

Also, please remember that we will now revert back to our Monday through Friday Specials Schedule, so that students won't have the same special for 10 days.  We did this while in school to reduce the amount of adults that students were working with (and vice versa) but this changes with Remote Learning.  Therefore, Rotation 1 becomes Monday; Rotation 2 becomes Tuesday; and so forth.  If we have a holiday (such as Thanksgiving), we will continue to follow the daily schedule, rather than rotating.

We will continue with Grade-Level Meetings; 504 Meetings; PPTs; PLCs; Faculty Meetings; etc., as scheduled and, of course they will continue to be virtual.  Links will be in our Daisy Staff Google Calendar, so please add this to your personal calendar, if you haven't already.

Please consult our Daisy Staff Google Calendar for all of these meetings and more, at:

• DAISY STAFF GOOGLE CALENDAR

Please also remember that there is another opportunity for staff to join a "Meet and Greet" with new Superintendent Dr. Kristina Martineau on Thursday, from 3:45-4:15 pm.  It's in our Daisy Calendar and I also shared an invitation via email to this virtual meeting.

As Dr. Charles stated in her letter, our district will continue to consult the metrics and make decisions week by week regarding our learning format.

Just remember, we have all learned so much about Remote Learning since last March--students, families and staff--and this was so evident on Friday.  I am so impressed with everyone's efforts and appreciate your hard work so much.  We will keep improving our craft day-by-day and I look forward to when we can welcome our students back with us in school, but this is what we must do now.

If you receive concerns from parents, please let me know so that we can work through these together.

We will be pushing out "Grab & Go" lunches for students during this time of Remote Learning.  Of course, if a student qualified for Free/Reduced Lunch or pays full-price, this continues during this time.  Families are asked to email Mary Conway (or they can call the school) if they would like lunch for their child (either daily or weekly) so there's no need to take lunch counts with your students each morning.

New staff member, Dilma, and Jan in the kitchen in their patriotic 

red, white and blue on Veterans Day.

Some Sweet Updates from Staff:

• Laura Esposito celebrated a pretty special birthday recently (70!!!) and the display of affection that everyone contributed to for her in the staff lunch room was so sweet!

• Emilia Kowalski made her entrance into the world on Wednesday, Nov. 11, weighing in at 5 lbs. 13 oz., and 19 inches long.  Baby and Mom Jen are doing well and hearty congratulations go out to the Kowalski family!!!

• Jordyn Suraci has joined us an a new paraprofessional at Daisy.  She has been shadowing teachers and students and we're so happy to have her with us.
• Tovah Vincent has taken over the responsibilities as long-term subsitute for General Music, while Jen Kowalski is on maternity leave.  She has been working with us as a Kelly substitute since the beginning of the year and is excited to join us as our music teacher, now teaching remotely.

Above all, please remember that we're all in this together.  Please let me know what you need to be as successful as possible.....and above all, please be kind to YOURSELF!!!

With much appreciation,

Ruth

Daisy Daily for the Week of November 9, 2020

Daisy Friends,

I do hope that everyone enjoyed some time outside this past weekend with the incredibly mild weather; what a treat that was!

As we start Week #11 of the school year, I ask everyone to remain vigilant with our safety protocols and not to let your guard down.  Our students and adults are doing a great job with mask-wearing, social distancing, use of desk shields, hand-washing and santizing.  Let's keep it up for everyone's safety.

As always, please check our Daisy Staff Google Calendar for all the events/activities/meetings for the weeks ahead, at:

• DAISY STAFF GOOGLE CALENDAR

We recently had some Pirates in Kindergarten as they explored the letter "P" 

with Pirates and Projects.

A few reminders about this week:

• Grade-level Meetings will take place, virtually, as noted in the calendar.  Links to Google Meetings are in the calendar.
• Tues., Nov. 10: Board of Education Meeting at 7 pm.
• Wed., Nov. 11 is Veterans Day.  We will honor our Veterans with a virtual presentation, which will be uploaded to our website for all to enjoy.  Please let us know about the special Veterans in your family by providing a photo and details (as addressed in an earlier email) to lsizer@westbrookctschools.org by Monday.  
• On Wed., we encourage all to wear Red, White and Blue and to join in a schoolwide Pledge of Allegiance at 9 am.  Then, we ask each classroom teacher to show the WeVideo link at that point (or another time during the day if you have the first special.)  This presentation honors Veterans special to our students, families, staff and community and we encourage all to contribute to this tribute.
• Wed., Nov. 11, 4:00-5:00 pm: Optional, virtual meeting for our valued Paraprofessionals with Madeline Illinger and myself.  This was a request from our paraprofessionals and the link is provided in our Google Staff Calendar.
• Thurs., Nov. 12, 4:30-5:00 pm, Virtual Meet & Greet with our new Superintendent, Dr. Kristina Martineau.
• Fri., Nov. 13 is "World Kindness Day."  We encourage students and staff to wear clothing depicting "Kindness" themes which many of us have.  We also encourage students and adults to add to the "Kindness" bulletin board outside Room 1, put together by Vanessa Federico.  In addition, we will accept donations from staff (during this Dress-Down Day) to purchase grocery gift cards for our families in need.

                       What wonderful Staff Spirit on our recent

                                    "Flannel Friday!"

News & Notes re: Our Daisy Staff Family

• Sadly, Laurie Kukta lost her father-in-law very unexpectedly last week. Please know that our Sunshine Club made a donation in his name to the Chester Ambulance Association.  Please join us in extending our sincerest condolences.

*******************************************************

"Glow Light Reading" in fourth grade recently.......................

A Few Other Reminders:

• Please remember to update the voicemail messages on phones in classrooms.  Currently, many are outdated and if you don't update with your name and code, you won't be able to retrieve messages.
• Please be sure that all online trainings are completed, i.e., Cyber Security, Blood Pathogens, Mandated Reporting, etc.
• We have plenty of child-size face masks, as well as adult masks, if anyone needs a change or if masks are not fitting well.  Please be vigilant about covering nose and mouth completely.
• For adults---if you are working with multiple cohorts, wearing your district-supplied face shield in addition to a mask, is recommended.  Of course, anyone may choose to wear both at any time as this provides additional protection for students, colleagues and you.
• Please continue to find creative ways for families to be involved in school, such as through virtual meets for reading books; sharing passions and interests; leading crafts; learning about customs and celebrations; etc., etc.  Please share with colleagues some of your novel ideas!
• 
  A parent recently joined a classroom virtually and led students 

                                                through a craft project.

• If you must be absent, please email Alicia, Lisa and me so that we can work together to plan appropriate coverage.  Calling and leaving a message in one mailbox does not ensure that we are all informed.  We will let you know if we might have an available building substitute or if the absence also needs to be entered into Kelly Services (for teachers) or Delta T (for paraprofessionals).  Coverage is becoming increasingly difficult due to the scarcity of available substitutes and we must all work together on this.
• Although we are not accepting food items from families this year, such as cupcakes for birthdays, there are other ways to make birthdays special.  Please see our Daisy webpage for this notice to families.  Also, we are still offering birthday books for students in the office.  Please let us know when you have a child celebrating a birthday and we will make sure to schedule a visit!

As always, thanks so much to each and every one of our staff members for your flexbility and for going above and beyond for our students every day. You are appreciated!

Let's make it a great week!

Take care,

Ruth

Daisy Daily for the Week of October 26, 2020

 Welcome to Week #9 of School!

Let's keep up all the good work with all of our safety protocols to keep students and staff in the safest environment possible!

Many, many thanks to Heather Gersz for organizing "PINK DAY" on Friday, October 16, to raise awareness and donations for "Susan G. Komen for the Cure." October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Heather has organized this very important event for many years in memory of her good friend,  Michelle, and others who have fought the fight, as well as for the many friends and colleagues who are breast cancer SURVIVORS!  This year, our generous staff donated $371 to "Susan G. Komen for the Cure."

A few notes about the week ahead:

• We will hold Grade Level Meetings as scheduled.  Please look in the Daisy Google Calendar for the links to virtual meetings, as well as all other calendar events:
• DAISY STAFF GOOGLE CALENDAR
  
• Thursday, Oct. 29, will feature early dismissal at 1 pm. for students.  Teacher Professional Development will take place from 1:15-3:15 pm.  Details for that PD afternoon, as well as a full day of PD on November 3 will be forthcoming.  Responses that faculty provided to the survey were very helpful in planning requested/needed PD for these days.
• Preschool ONLY will dismiss at 11:30 pm on Friday, Oct. 30, so that our preschool staff can conduct a preschool screening in the afternoon, from noon to 3 pm.
• Please review the email sent to all staff and families re: Spirit Day next week.  Due to COVID safety protocols, we can not hold our traditional costume parade, but we do have lots of fun in store for next week's Spirit Week, including:

• Please consider donating to the United Way.  Dr. Pat Charles has sent out emails and placed donation forms in everyone's mailboxes.  The United Way supports many important services for our Westbrook Community, including helping to provide for our Early Childhood Director.  Please be as generous as possible.  We will also accept donations in the office on Friday on our "Orange & Black Day" for United Way.

Many thanks to the Frame Family for donating a flag

 from New Zealand to our flag displays in our hallways!

We have been enjoying so much quality outside time with our students.  Please continue to take students outside as much as possible, even if it means bundling up in the weeks ahead!

A Few Other Notes:

• Please remember to update the voicemail messages on phones in classrooms.  Currently, many are outdated and if you don't update with your name and code, you won't be able to retrieve messages.
• Please be sure that all online trainings are completed, i.e., Cyber Security, Blood Pathogens, Mandated Reporting, etc.
• We have plenty of child-size face masks, as well as adult masks, if anyone needs a change or if masks are not fitting well.  Please be vigilant about covering nose and mouth completely.
• For adults---if you are working with multiple cohorts, wearing your district-supplied face shield in addition to a mask, is recommended.  Of course, anyone can wear both at any time as this provides additional protection for students, colleagues and you.
• Please continue to find creative ways for families to be involved in school, such as through virtual meets for reading books; sharing passions and interests; leading crafts; learning about customs and celebrations; etc., etc.  Please share with colleagues some of your novel ideas!
• If you must be absent, please email Alicia, Lisa and me so that we can work together to plan appropriate coverage.  Calling and leaving a message in one mailbox does not ensure that we are all informed.  We will let you know if we might have an available building substitute or if the absence also needs to be entered into Kelly Services (for teachers) or Delta T (for paraprofessionals).  Coverage is becoming increasingly difficult due to the scarcity of available substitutes and we must all work together on this.
• Although we are not accepting food items from families this year, such as cupcakes for birthdays, there are other ways to make birthdays special.  Please see our Daisy webpage for this notice to families.  Also, we are still offering birthday books for students in the office.  Please let us know when you have a child celebrating a birthday and we will make sure to schedule a visit!

Thanks for all that everyone is doing to help keep students and staff members safe at school!  Let's keep it up and wishing you a great week ahead!

Take care,

Ruth

Daisy Daily for the Week of October 12, 2020

Birthday books for kindergarten students.

 

Daisy Faculty & Staff,

It has been a very busy three-day weekend as we prepare to re-open on Tuesday, October 13, after announcing that there was a COVID-positive case from our school on Saturday, October 10.

Please know that Dr. Patricia Charles and I have worked very closely with Westbrook's Director of Health, Zach Faiella, over the weekend to complete contact tracing.  Additional cleaning was also completed at our school over the weekend.

Contact tracing was thoroughly carried out and due to mitigating factors such as mask-wearing, social distancing, cohorting and complete record-keeping, it was not necessary to quarantine any entire classes of students, but rather just those who were determined by Zach Faiella to have had close contact with the positive individual, which is considered contact for 15 minutes or more within a distance of less than six feet.  All families have been notified and will have the opportunity for their students to be involved in remote learning.  Staff members who work with students who need to be serviced remotely have been or will be notified.

Thanks so much to everyone for your diligence in following safety protocols, as always.  The three-day weekend gave us the necessary time to conduct contact tracing and additional cleaning.

As we look at the week ahead, please note:

• We will have Grade-Level Team Meetings this week, as scheduled in our Daisy Staff Google Calendar.  I will send out virtual meeting links.
• Tuesday, Oct. 13: 7 pm, Board of Education Virtual October Monthly Meeting.  (Link will be posted on BOE website.)
• Friday, Oct. 16 will be PINK DAY to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure (Breast Cancer Foundation), organized by Heather Gersz.
• Please let me know if you and your students would like to participate in this challenge:

CHALLENGE TO STUDENTS:

I'd love to video students demonstrating "Social Distancing Greetings" to post on our website for families and friends to see.

Please let me know if your class would like to share these (and other creative) greetings that are appropriate for social distancing and I'll come by to video them.

Please remember to check our Daisy Staff Google Calendar daily, as we continue to add important updates, meetings, etc., to this staff calendar:

Daisy Ingraham Staff Google Calendar

Hope that everyone is coming back rested after a long weekend and ready for the week ahead.

We're in this together!  Welcome to Week #7!

Ruth

Thanks to everyone who wore Blue & Yellow 

last Friday to raise awareness for Down Syndrome.