Join the PTSA for 2021-2022

Bear Essentials #12

October 14, 2020

Principal's Message

Dear Brown School Family,

You may have seen the article in Monday's Courier-Journal about our SBDM Council meeting where council members discussed whether they felt our school's name should be changed. All JCPS schools were asked to analyze their mascots using JCPS's Racial Equity Analysis Protocol, and schools were informed that we would also be asked to use the same protocol to review our school name. As our school had already been listed in an earlier Courier-Journal article as being named after an avid segregationist, I felt we should review the name sooner than later. Our Racial Equity Task Force, made up of staff members and parents, performed the analyses of both the mascot and the school's name, and then submitted their findings to the council for review. You can read the findings of the Racial Equity Task Force here: Mascot Analysis; School Name Analysis. The task force found no issue with our mascot, but confirmed that the namesake of our school is an issue. As always, the JCPS Board of Education has the sole authority to name schools.

Parents of high school students, if we do not receive this AP Test Commitment Form from you, we will not know if your student intends to take an Advanced Placement test in May. AP tests will not be ordered unless you complete the form. The cut-off date to order and pay for a test is October 30th, and we will not be able to order any late tests.

I know how disappointed many of you are that we may not be starting school on the days originally hoped for, due to a surge in COVID-19. The JCPS Board of Education will be making a decision tomorrow night at their meeting. Please continue to wear masks outside of your home, social distance from others with whom you don't live, and stay home if you don't feel well. We can all do our part to help minimize the spread of COVID-19 and hopefully return to in-person school as soon as possible.

With Halloween fast approaching, many students will want to wear costumes during NTI on either October 29th or 30th. Please keep in mind our Student Dress Policy to ensure that the costume meets the guidelines for regular school attire.

Please avoid toy weapons, masks, and full face paint.
Avoid any costumes that may attempt to represent a group or population of people/culture, marginalize a group or culture, or focus on stereotypes.

If you have any questions about the appropriateness of a costume, please ask an administrator or counselor!

Warm regards,

Dr. Angela, Principal

This Week's Essentials

Planning for Returning to In-Person School

Social Distancing, Masks, Etc.

When we return to in-person school, there will be a lot of new procedures/routines to ensure the health and safety of all students and staff. Here are some of the items we are working on.

All students/staff must wear a mask for the entire school day, unless eating and/or drinking. Medical documentation must be provided for students/staff to be excused from this requirement. JCPS is developing an affidavit for this purpose. Our SBDM Council has already updated our Student Dress Policy to include the wearing of masks.
Classroom furniture is being arranged to ensure social distancing. Students will all face in the same direction. Tables are being replaced with desks where possible.
Some classes may meet in different rooms than where originally scheduled based on the number of students in the class and the room capacity with social distancing measures. Some students may have different teachers than the teacher they started the year with. Some students may be in split grade-level classes.
Hallways will be marked with tape to indicate travel lanes. Students will walk on the hallways on the right side only, and there will be certain places in the hall where students can make a "u-turn". Stairwells will only have traffic in one direction and will have signs to let students know if this is an "up" stairwell or a "down" stairwell.
JCPS is providing signage for us to post throughout the school with reminders about social distancing, wearing masks, hand washing, etc.
Hand sanitizer will be provided in every classroom and public area. Students will be asked to wash hands routinely throughout the day. Teachers will wipe down the furniture down with sanitizer to prepare for any students who may be changing classes.
There will be seating charts for all classrooms and the cafeteria. Lunch times will be changed so that students are able to sit six feet apart, facing in the same direction, while eating.
There will be no field trips or assemblies.
When students leave the classroom to use the restroom, students (teachers for younger students) will complete a Google Form so that we have a log of who was physically in each restroom at any given time for contact tracing purposes.
Students in grades K-8 will not switch classes. For elementary students, related arts teachers will come into the regular classroom to provide instruction. Middle school students will be able to attend some related arts classes in a different classroom. Some in-person high school classes will be taught by the teacher online, similar to an NTI 2.0 format.
Elementary students will have scheduled recess outside and will rotate which groups play on the playground each day. Students must wear masks during recess.
Visitors will not permitted inside the building, beyond the main doors.
Custodians will have a daily schedule to sanitize/disinfect common areas, restrooms, handrails, etc. frequently throughout the day. All air filters will have been changed before students return to in-person school.

2020 Mock Election

Stacy Pendleton's A.P. Government Politics/Law & Justice classes will be coordinating the school-wide mock election this year!

Here are the videos created by students in each party:

Tech @Brown

PROBLEM: Why do I keep getting logged off?!

SOLUTION: Every morning you get ready for school and prepare your work area. You log on to your device, open Meet, and Google Classroom. Then, maybe go eat breakfast, come back and you have been logged out! This is so frustrating, and time consuming! The easy fix is to turn on the Keep Awake Chrome extension. Click HERE for how to video

The Tech @ Brown website is linked off of Brown's homepage under PARENT and STUDENT and offers various ways to get help.

Email Amy Thornton, Call 502-252-1635, or visit https://bit.ly/browntech

Evolve 502

Evolve502 provides scholarships and grants, helps complete FAFSA forms, and helps families/students navigate the college application procedures. If you would like to access Evolve502 services for your high school student, please reach out to Kennina Porter, Student Success Manager at kenninap@evolve.org.

Brown School Gender and Sexuality Alliance

Join us on Friday, October 16th, for International Pronouns Day. During the meeting, we'll learn about the history of various pronouns, why respecting pronouns is essential, and much more! The meeting will be on Google Meet; please email the GSA president below to receive the join code. If you want to see more content, follow us on Instagram at @brown.gsa. Even if you can't attend this meeting, we have meetings every Friday at 2:00 PM, so drop by anytime!

If you have any questions or concerns you may email the J. Graham Brown School Gender and Sexuality Alliance President here.

Weekly Columns

PTSA

JOIN the Brown School PTSA

We invite you to join the J. Graham Brown School PTSA to help support the students, teachers, staff, and parents in our school community!

What is PTSA? PTSA stands for Parent Teacher Student Association. We are part of the Kentucky PTA and national PTA with shared goal to advocate on behalf of children and youth.

Why join? Membership dues support our local PTSA as well as our school, district, state and national PTAs who work on statewide and national initiatives that benefit all children and families.

Who can join? Parents, teachers, students (6th grade and up), grandparents can all join PTSA!

Click here to join. Membership Info here

PTA Reflections Contest.

Deadline this week! - October 16.

National PTA holds a contest called Reflections and provides opportunities for recognition and access to the arts. Each year, over 300,000 students in Pre-K through Grade 12 create original works of art in response to a student selected theme. This year's theme is I Matter Because... Students submit their completed works of art in one or all of the available arts categories: Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Music Composition, Photography, Visual Arts.

Brown School PTA encourages students, of all levels, to submit work. Please email Autumn Neagle with submissions or questions autumn@argo-networks.com.

For full rules please click here
Each child may submit 1 entry in each category.

KROGER COMMUNITY REWARDS

Shopping at Kroger helps raise fund for Brown School. Go here and click the view details under the "I'm a customer" section. Our PTSA organization number is DP344, or search under "J. Graham Brown."

WINNER in the SWAG BAG Drawing. Next drawing: end of October.

OCTOBER: New members signed-up during the month of October will be entered for a drawing into another gift bag of Brown School Merchandise, Clothing, and other goodies.

The winner will be announced here. Parents, middle/high school students, and even grandparents are eligible to join the PTSA and enter the drawing. Membership is only $5.00 and benefits our school in so many ways.

Click here to join.

Brown School PTSA Store

While you are joining the PTSA, take a look at our newly updated Brown School PTA Store. Sizes and inventory have been activated for all items.

Click here to shop the store.

ALL EXISTING ORDERS WILL SHIP THIS WEEK

2020-2021 PTSA Meetings

All meetings will be held on Zoom, until we can return to in-person meeting.

2020
August 18, 2020. 5:30 PM
~~September 22, 2020, 5:30 PM~~
October 20, 2020, 5:30 PM
November 17, 2020, 5:30 PM
December 8, 2020, 5:30 PM

2021
January 19, 2021, 5:30 PM
February 16, 2021, 5:30 PM
March 16, 2021, 5:30 PM
April 21, 2021, 5:30 PM
May 18, 2021, 5:30 PM

CALL INFO
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3751884140?pwd=ak1PRWhXTTR6MlFaS1plVVpYOXNNUT09
Meeting ID: 375 188 4140. Passcode: brownbears

One tap mobile
+13126266799,,3751884140#,,,,,,0#,,8297837183# US (Chicago)

Family Matters

Do you have a 2nd or 3rd grader who needs some extra help with their NTI? Did you know that HUG Reading Program (Help Us Grow) is offering FREE virtual tutoring and reading support to JCPS families? They have over 60 trained tutors available to help via Zoom.

The Jefferson County Public Schools 360° Student & Family Support Center at Humana is HERE TO HELP as well. Sign up now!

Get NTI 2.0 platform and log-in help, special ed assessments/screenings, school choice & translation assistance and physical as well as social supports from Louisville Metro Resilience and Community Services.

MORE INFO ▸ https://bit.ly/3nrbi0b

Athletics

High School Fall Sports:

Our fall season is wrapping up and we are continuing to see a lot of improvement in all of our teams and student athletes. Our athletes and families continue to do a great job in following guidelines and it is helping us keep our season going strong.

Cross Country will be in the JCPS City Championships on Wednesday 10/14 at Tom Sawyer Park. Then they will take a few weeks to prepare for Regionals and hopefully State. We are expecting some great things from this young group and they are working very hard to achieve their goals.

Our volleyball team picked up a big win over Shawnee in 2 straight sets. Its amazing how far this team has come this season. We were also able to celebrate our 2 seniors in Lee Butler and Mackenzie Johnson Campion. They will take on KCD on Thursday 10/15 and then districts will be next week.

Our soccer team beat St. Francis last Friday evening, ending the regular season with a winning record. Unfortunately we lost in districts to St. X, but played a lot better than the first game against them. Our future in soccer is bright. We would like to thank our seniors for all of their hard work and leadership. Our seniors are Ben Lanford, Gabe Shir, Lilly Becker, Jacob Saltsman, Noah Demuth and Conner Cotton.

Winter sports are kicking off soon, Basketball on 10/26, Bowling on 11/2, swimming on 11/2 and cheer/dance TBA. All paperwork can be found on the athletics page of mybrownschool.org, under eligibility forms. All paperwork must be completed, with the $20 insurance fee, before any student can participate. A list of coaches are:

Boys Basketball- Jermill Bibb jbibb20@gmail.com

Girls Basketball TBA- can email justin.leonard@jefferson.kyschools.us

Boys Bowling- Shawn Flynn- lisanshawn419@gmail.com

Girls Bowling- Joel Prestigiacomo- joel.prestigiacomo@jefferson.kyschools.us

Swimming- William Kolb- wmkolb@gmail.com

Cheer/Dance- Aruna Keswani- aruna.keswani@jefferson.kyschools.us

Middle School Fall Sports:

Middle school fall sports are canceled until we are back to in-person classes. At this time, it will be at least November 2nd.

Elementary Fall Sports:

All fall elementary sports were canceled. At this time, no decision has been made for the winter sports of basketball and cheer. We will keep you updated for future elementary athletic opportunities.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Justin Leonard at Justin.leonard@jefferson.kyschools.us. GO BEARS!!

This Week's Backpack Tip

Students are already working on developing their North Star Defenses!! A great defense needs quality artifacts. Ask your child what they have uploaded to their online backpack lately.

Do you have questions? Check out our BACKPACK NEWSLETTER or email Amy or Norah. 🎒

FRYSC News

Brain Balance Achievement Centers https://www.brainbalancecenters.com is an after-school learning center that specializes in helping kids with learning and behavioral issues. There is also a Discovery Night for teachers. The tickets are free, but seating is limited.

Information is listed below:

3588 Springhurst Blvd., Louisville, KY 40241

Sage Hatcher, Assistant Director

502-409-5633

louisville@brainbalancecenters.com

Good News! Pandemic-EBT Benefits have been extended:

https://kyyouth.org/good-news-pandemic-ebt-benefits-have-been-extended/

Community Events

Calendars

Page updated

Report abuse