Dear Families,
New AOE and VDH School Health and Safety Guidance
Yesterday afternoon, we received revised school health and safety guidance from the Agency of Education (AOE) and Vermont Department of Health. These revisions are outlined in the Strong and Healthy Start publication. There are several changes to the guidance, such as social distancing for 7-12 grade students, cleaning and disinfecting, mixing of pods and health screenings. These modifications are interconnected and will influence what learning looks like as we enter the last weeks of the school year. The District's administrative team and Reopening Committee will be meeting next week to closely examine all of the changes and determine next steps for 7-12 grade in-person learning and consider making changes to school-based health and safety procedures and logistics. We will offer our plan for 7-12 grade in-person instruction as well as other modifications based on the new state level guidance to students and families on Friday, April 16, 2021.
Out Of State Travel
As part of Vermont's phased reopening plan, there is new travel guidance, effective April 9, 2021. CDC recommends delaying travel until you are fully vaccinated, because travel increases your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19.
TESTING UPON RETURN
Unvaccinated Vermonters who have traveled outside the state must be tested within 3 days of returning to Vermont.
The test you get must be for a current infection (like a PCR test), except it cannot be an antigen test (also known as a rapid test).
Find free and fast testing near you.
You do not need to quarantine while you wait for a result. But if you have any symptoms, stay home and away from other people.
Vaccinated Vermonters do not need to get tested or quarantine. People who had COVID-19 within the last 3 months and have recovered do not need to test or quarantine unless they develop new symptoms. Rules for Vermonters who have traveled to other countries are different. Learn more.
We are asking students, families and staff members to follow these Vermont Department Health instructions.
Thank you and I hope you are getting a chance to enjoy this beautiful spring weather.
Sincerely,
Wilhelmina Picard, Assistant Principal, CHMS
John Alberghini, Ed.D., Superintendent, MMUUSD
Now through May 29, 2021, families can earn money for CHMS. Look on the store's shelf tags for more than 1, 500 products that when purchased, gives CHMS school dollars. Place your receipt in the CHMS collection envelope at Hannaford. In 2020, CHMS raised nearly $700!
Thank you for your continued support of CHMS!
If 100 families buy 4 products each week (3 School Dollars) for the entire program, CHMS will raise $3,300!
All children and adolescents diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, regardless of symptom severity, may not return to play (this includes physical education) until asymptomatic and evaluated and cleared by their primary care physician. Children and adolescents who meet clinical criteria will need to undergo the graduated Return-to-Play protocol overseen and monitored by the patient, their family, and their health care provider with input from the school nurse and/or athletic department. Children, less than 12 years of age can return to activity as tolerated after medical clearance by their primary care physician.
First day of music making in the band room since March 2020! It was good day!
FUTURE PLANNING
As the school or District works under the guidance of the Agency of Education and Department of Health, we may be required to move to remote learning in one or more of our schools with very little forewarning. Therefore, I want to share with you our current plan in regards to the event that necessitates our moving to remote learning. Hopefully, this plan will allow us to make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone.
Moving from our current hybrid model to remote learning:
Day 1
In-person is cancelled for that day and students do not have school or classes
Virtual group classes our conducted/held as scheduled
Day 2 through return to In-person instruction
Virtual instruction for all students, Groups A and B, commences.
Student daily schedules will remain the same
All core classes will be held
Teachers will provide students with new links for “new” remote learning classes
Classroom instruction will remain synchronous.
There will be some adjustments made to Unified Arts classes. These will be communicated at a later date.
Over the next couple of weeks, teachers will be preparing to move to remote learning if the need arises. Below is what to expect:
Teachers will be working with students here in the building to organize and model for students the potential changes that will impact students
Exploratory Arts teachers will be reviewing their Google classrooms and access with students.
Teachers may be communicating with families with any additional classroom links that may be used if we need to move to a fully remote learning environment.
School Administrators will communicate updated instructional timelines(virtual, hybrid, full in-person) with families
We recognize the challenges that transitioning to remote learning may cause a family. Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns. We are committed to supporting our families if we need to transition to remote learning.
We are thrilled to announce Vermont Works for Women and Burlington Technical Center (BTC) are partnering to host Girls Tech again this year!
Girls Tech! will be held in a live, virtual setting on Wednesday, May 5 from 10:00 – 11:00am.
The event will include:
A live, virtual event on Google Meet on May 5 from 10 – 11am. During this call, Vermont Works for Women will lead an opening activity, after which students will be split into breakout rooms to meet BTC teachers and complete a hands-on activity related to one of the tech center’s programs.
In advance of May 5, students are invited to peruse through a multimedia, interactive online gallery of exemplary female and non-binary industry professionals and role models in the career fields highlighted during Girls Tech. These role models will motivate students to think about their own career paths. In addition, the online gallery will include brief overviews of each of BTC’s non-traditional programs.
Girls Tech! is a free career exploration event for middle school girls and gender non-conforming youth in grades 7-8 from BTC’s sending region. Girls Tech exposes students to careers that are non-traditional for women, to help them make more informed decisions about high school course selection and career pathways.
This event is open to all girls and gender non-conforming youth in BTC's sending area, not just those interested in going to BTC!
The following BTC programs are participating in this year’s Girls Tech event:
Auto Body Repair and Auto Technology,
Design Tech Foundational/Pre-Tech,
Culinary Arts,
Design & Illustration,
Advanced Manufacturing & Welding, and
Criminal Justice.
Student registration is now open! Please have students complete this registration form. No parent/guardian signature is needed this year, since all activities will be low-risk in a virtual setting. Then, please register them online at this link by Wednesday, April 28.
When registering students, students are asked to rank their program preferences. VWW will use students’ preferences to create the breakout groups for the live, virtual event on May 5. Though each student may not receive their first choice, we will do our best to place each student in a program that they want.
Please note that we can accommodate up to 90 total students for Girls Tech! We recommend that schools bring no more than 15 students each, in the interest of allowing students from a variety of schools to attend Girls Tech. Student registration is processed on a first-come, first-served basis, and we will not hold spots in reserve for any students this year. Schools may bring one chaperone each to the virtual event, unless a student attending requires a one-on-one or interpreter.
Registration is open until Wednesday, April 28, 2021 -OR- until our maximum capacity is reached, whichever comes first. We will notify you by email if we reach capacity before 4/28.
For questions, or if you have more than 15 interested students, please contact VWW's Youth Program Coordinator Melissa Nelson at mnelson@vtworksforwomen.org.
TDI@Home 2021—
This is our second year offering our virtual Talent Development Institute.
We are a summer camp/academic program for advanced and gifted students entering grades 4-9.
Held on-line M-F for two weeks: June 21-25 and June 28-July 2, 2021.
Morning and/or afternoon options are available for one or both weeks; cost is $230 per morning or afternoon session.
On-line Zoom classes—including Minecraft Blockitecture, Visual Stories, Build Your Own Dream Business, Digital Detectives, Settle in Space, Untold American History, Linguistic Archeology, and Design and Draw—nurture students' creativity and their love of learning.
Campers have a virtual blast learning alongside other smart kids.
We strive to help our brightest kids virtually "find their people," and provide them with fun engagement, learning, and laughter.
Go to http://www.tdivermont.org/registration for more information.
June 8th is the deadline for registration.
Scholarships are available.
We look forward to celebrating our 25th anniversary of TDI on the Northern Vermont University campus in 2022!
The Talent Development Institute (http://www.tdivermont.org) is under the umbrella of the Green Mountain Center for Gifted Education, and is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, with the mission of affirming, educating, and supporting Vermont's gifted and talented youth and their families. We welcome participants and staff of all colors, creeds, ethnicities, nationalities, orientations, and socio-economic backgrounds.
Wood4Good, LTD. is a VT based non-profit whose mission is to supply Vermonters with free firewood. There is no criteria for the families we give wood to, when people ask, we give. Wood4Good started as a family with some extra wood in their yard and is now giving away more than 50 cords of firewood seasonally. We are looking for more families to give to, is there anyone in your community or that you know who could use a hand next winter. We would love to help them, please have them send an email to wood4goodvt@gmail.com
Please check out our website: www.wood4goodvt.org or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wood4GoodVT/
We need your help in spreading the word to get more volunteers to increase our ability to give;
Trucking help, we need people who can lend their time and their trucks to bring wood to the people who need it.
Volunteer help at our Jericho woodlot; we need help with processing our firewood, running splitters, stacking wood etc.
Funding assistance, we give away all the wood with no charge, we need help paying for our operations
https://www.gofundme.com/f/wood-4-good-needs-additional-resources
Please have anyone you know email and or contact Eric Axelrod, CEO of Wood4Good, LTD.
Wood4Goodvt@gmail.com
802.310.1949
1. The food is free to all kids 18 and under, no questions asked. Regardless of your level of need, it saves you money on food for your kids. Also, note that need can be financial, situational, or emotional.
“I want to save meals for those who really need it.” We have heard this comment throughout our community and we want to assure you that we have enough food for all.
2. When the food is not picked up, the Mount Mansfield Nutrition Department may receive less funding, which can lead to not being able to offer as much food, as well as employee layoffs. The food is reimbursed by the federal government on a per meal basis. The more kids we feed, the more reimbursement we get. The fewer we feed, the less we get. Plus, even with all kids now being eligible for the free food, fewer meals may actually be served than during a typical school year, leading to potential shortfalls in the future.
3. It can save the food from turning to waste. In some cases, if the food isn’t picked up, it has to be thrown away!
4. It’s comforting to kids to have familiar foods from their school. Kids love eating foods they would normally get at the school, and drinking milk from the little cartons they only get there as well. It’s hard enough missing normal school life – this gives them a little “taste” of it at home, and reminds them every day that the school misses them and wants to still take care of them.
5. It saves you some stress of feeding your kids, as most of the food is ready-to-eat. There are typically individual servings of cereal, milk, sandwiches, fruit, veggies, snacks, and more. Kids can just grab it and eat it.
“It has saved me a lot of time and hassle so instead of cooking or trying to figure out what to feed them, I can focus more on helping my kids learn!”
School food service guarantees healthful options for your kids, and it can be fun for kids to drive up to their schools and see some familiar faces, if even just through their car windows!
Go to THIS link to sign up. 5 and 7-day options available.