• If your student will require a medical mask waiver, please take THIS FORM to your health care provider and submit it to our School Secretary Lisa Stevenson HERE prior to your child's first day of in-person instruction. Please be advised that approved mask waiver students will wear face shields during transitions and recess, and will have plexiglass barriers around their desk during class.

• Our school back-to-school portal can be found HERE or on the homepage of our school website.

• Based on our current number of students requesting in-person instruction, we are able to arrange student desks at least 6 feet apart as of today. Please keep in mind that this may change if we have an influx of families who change their minds.

• I am receiving questions from parents about our ventilation. We are only using classrooms that have windows for in-person classrooms. Windows will be opened and a fan will be placed to circulate air out of the classroom through the window. Additionally, our HVAC system does utilize outside air.

• Our school, like every school in JCPS, has a Healthy at School Officer, who will be your primary contact to report a Covid-19 exposure, positive Covid-19 case, or ask questions regarding the virus. Our school’s Healthy at School Officer is Assistant Principal Shawn Wilson. Shawn can be reached at shawn.wilson@jefferson.kyschools.us. Shawn will work with the district’s contact tracers to identify possible exposures, coordinate school-level data with district and local health officials, and provide important information that you’ll need to keep your family safe.

• Communication is critical during this time and you will continue to receive frequent updates from the school and district. Please sign up for School Messenger, if you haven’t already. School Messenger is a one-way messaging tool used at Brown and JCPS to send texts and emails directly. Click HERE to sign up for this platform. Additionally, many of you have disabled text messaging. If you more frequently check your texts than your email inbox, please consider updating your profile to receive text messages.

• I believe movement is extremely important for our younger students. For the remainder of the year, we have scheduled two daily recess periods for each elementary classroom and one daily recess period for each middle school classroom. Our recess schedule will rotate our students through activities on our playground, our tree stump area, and our walking track. Elementary students will get to use the playground once weekly. Middle school students will get to use the playground twice in a three-week period. Students will wash their hands before and after recess. Additionally, the playground is being given a 15-20 minute "rest" period between student groups. Students will wear masks on the playground equipment but may be given a mask break in the other areas at teacher discretion if social distancing can be guaranteed.

• Students will not be using lockers this year. Students will need to carry all their items in their backpacks.

• Every student will need to carry a reusable water bottle to/from school each day, which needs to be washed every night. Drinking fountains will not be used. Students will have access to our bottle filling stations during the school day.

• Arrival and dismissal procedures will be different this year due to required temperature checks. All students will have their temperature checked while they are still in their parents' cars. (Student drivers will be checked at the pedway entrance.) More detailed information is coming in next week's Bear Essentials.

• If your child is exposed or possibly exposed to an individual with Covid-19 at school, a contact tracer will reach out to you and advise of steps you should take, including quarantine guidelines.

• We are implementing a robust cleaning and disinfection program to prevent transmitting viruses from surfaces to people. This includes using disinfectants approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and battery-powered sprayers that deliver the disinfectant as a mist to provide coverage in harder-to-reach areas. In addition, we have increased the frequency of cleaning and disinfecting high-contact surfaces, and have provided classroom teachers access to disinfecting wipes. There will also be ample opportunities for students to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer, which will be available in classrooms and throughout the building.

• A summary of our district's back-to-school plan, called A New Way Forward, can be found HERE. The plan includes the latest state guidance and recommendations, as well as district protocols for everything from breakfast and lunch procedures to cleaning guidelines for common areas and classrooms.

CLICK HERE to visit the Counseling Corner. It's your one-stop-shop for answers to most of your questions K-12!

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL COUNSELING (K-5) - from Christy Teague, Elementary School Counselor

From Christy Teague, Elementary School Counselor

christy.teague@jefferson.kyschools.us

📣 ATTENTION 8TH GRADE PARENTS AND STUDENTS! 📣

Parent/student meeting to review transition to high school and freshman schedules.

Mark your calendars for Monday, March 22 @ 6:00!

PAMELA WILLISON is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: 8th Grade Parent Meeting

Time: Mar 22, 2021, 06:00 PM Eastern Time

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87848396381?pwd=cmd1eUZHL1RWald1ZzcyQjZQOWR0dz09

Meeting ID: 878 4839 6381

Passcode: 2Sw6X8

From Pam Willison, Middle and High School Counselor

pam.willison@jefferson.kyschools.us

High School Winter Sports:

Our boys and girls basketball teams are gearing up for districts that start on 3/15 at Male High School.

Our bowling team picked up another great win against Collins last week, winning 4-0. Nathan Shannon (226,227) and Gabe Shir 210,172) led the way. They take on Eastern on Thursday 3/4.

Our swim and diving team has a meet coming up on Saturday at St. X. Our swimmers are looking forward to getting in that water and competing.

High School Spring Sports

Our spring sports season is quickly approaching, with spring practices beginning. Track started on 3/1, tennis will begin the week of 3/8, and baseball and softball will start up the week of 3/15. If any student in grades 7th-12th is interested in joining one of our spring sports teams, please reach out to the coaches as soon as possible. Anyone participating must have all eligibility forms completed. 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. Insurance fees can be paid at: MSB Link HERE

A list of coaches are:

Baseball- Kevin Burton kevinburton1979@gmail.com

Softball- Josh Luttrell rja172307@gmail.com

Boys and Girls Tennis- Matthew Davis- matthew,davis@jefferson.kyschools.us

Track- Ben Kolb and Jelly Green - bennet.kolb@jefferson.kyschools.us and william.green@jefferson.kyschools.us

Athletic Director- Justin Leonard- Justin.leonard@jefferson.kyschools.us

Elementary and Middle School Winter/Spring Sports:

Elementary and middle school fall sports are postponed until we return to school.