PVPA Communications

Dear families,

One frequently-asked question we hear about PVPA Remote is about final grades. As we communicated in March, teachers are using the existing PVPA Grading System. For full-year and spring courses this year, PVPA is using a two-pronged approach: “hold-harmless,” and improved grades based on work completion.

This means that all students will be “held harmless” by receiving the same grade in June as they did at the spring mid-semester point. Students who had a progress grade of “Incomplete” or “Attempted” are still required to complete work that had been assigned prior to the school closure, or alternate assignments based on the same learning objectives. Students who produce additional evidence of learning at higher levels may earn a higher final grade, including honors. It is reasonable for teachers to expect students to maintain prior skills and concepts as they work toward a higher grade.

The expectation is that students will continue to engage in their class activities and complete assignments wherever possible. The “hold harmless” approach is based on trusting students to do whatever they can to engage in learning while prioritizing their well-being. Content and skills that are being covered now are designed to prepare students for future courses at PVPA, college, or elsewhere. Intentionally choosing not to engage represents a missed opportunity. If a student is not engaged, we will initiate dialogue between home and school in order to remove barriers and find alternate pathways. At the end of the year, student learning is our priority.

Please reach out to teachers directly if you have questions about specific courses, or to me if you have more general questions about our approach to grading this spring.

Sincerely,

Laura Davis, Ph.D.
she/her/hers
Director of Arts and Academics

Dear PVPA Students and Families,

We hope that you are well and healthy during this challenging time. Please know that the mental health team continues to be active and ready to help support students and families in whatever way they can. School counselors continue to be available for check-ins, chatting, and video calls, and all PVPA staff will continue working while we are not physically in the building. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions, need support, or are simply looking to connect with the school community.

The mental health team has compiled various resources and tips to help students and families cope and stay focused while remaining safely at home. This information is provided below, and any questions can be directed to your student’s school counselor.

Kate Allen: Classes of 2020 and 2022 - kallen@pvpa.org

Dana Schwab: Classes of 2021 and 2023 - dschwab@pvpa.org

Kyle Taylor: 7th and 8th graders - ktaylor@pvpa.org

How To Talk To Your Student(s) About COVID-19:

Talking to your student about COVID-19 and what is going on in the world can seem overwhelming. At the end of this letter, there is a list of resources and links that may be helpful. Here are a few tips that may be helpful as well:

• Watching the news responsibly: Leaving the TV on and having the news playing 24/7 can be overwhelming to both students and guardians. It can be helpful to schedule when you’ll watch the news and determine which news stations to watch. By finding one time to watch, you’ll limit yourselves from overstimulation and an abundance of information. Also, consider reading the news rather than watching it, as it cuts out some of the dramatization and visual and emotional stimulation.

• Communication from PVPA around illnesses: Communication with families and students from PVPA will continue throughout our time away from the building. If a staff member becomes ill, we will work to inform students of any staff absences while also maintaining the confidentiality and safety of the staff member. Classes, where a teacher becomes ill, will be taught by another staff member to ensure continued learning.

• Name and understand emotions: Students and guardians may be feeling a number of emotions and feelings during this time. It can be helpful to start naming these emotions - anger, sadness, frustration, relief, boredom - when they are happening. Naming and claiming emotions can help people feel validated in what they are feeling. It can also help us notice what causes certain emotions so we can focus on activities for coping, self-soothing, and bringing joy.

Ways to Promote Emotion Regulation:

• Allow space and time to process

  • Validate changing emotional states and concurrent emotions

  • Model emotional expression and regulation

• Emotional regulation activities and tips

  • Spend time outside

  • Create a weekly schedule or daily to-do list

  • Find time away from screens

  • Schedule time with friends

  • Journal

  • Meditation/Breathing exercises

• Support numbers:

  • 911

  • National Crisis Text Line: text "HOME" to 741741

  • The Trevor Project: 866 488 7386

  • Trans Lifeline: 877 565 8860

  • Sexual assault/rape crisis hotline: 888 337 0800

  • Crisis Services Franklin County: 413 774 5411

  • Crisis Services Hampshire County: 413 586 5555

  • Crisis Services Hampden County: 413 733 6661

Ways To Support Students Academically:

Moving to distance learning will be new for teachers, students, and families. There are different ways that we all can support each other with this change. Here are some ways that guardians can support their student:

• Check PVPA email and Google Classrooms every day: By checking email and Google Classroom together, both students and guardians can be aware of what is being assigned and when assignments are due. Guardians will also be able to be up to date with what teachers and the school is sharing with their students.

• Find a good “Work Spot”: It can be hard to separate “School” and “Home” when they are in the same space. It can be helpful to designate a “school spot” for students. This space should be away from distractions (this includes phones and TV), somewhere with good internet access, a place where they can attend virtual classes and meet with teachers, and somewhere comfortable.

• Create a Schedule: Teachers will be sharing their schedules and assignments every Monday morning. Students can use that information to create a weekly schedule. Determine when you’ll work on which assignments and find out which class you plan on attending which day. Having trouble creating that schedule? Reach out to your school counselor, homework or study skills teachers, or Academic Support teacher.

• Learn to use Google Classroom: While some teachers may have been using google classroom in the past, it will not be in the same way they are now. Make sure you know how to access all of your classes, unenroll from old classes, accept invites to new classes and groups, and be aware of how to use Calendar and the To-Do list.

  • The Executive Functioning team has created a Google Classroom for all 9th- to 12th-grade students where they can learn how to use Google Classroom successfully. Middle school students will receive similar information in their advisories.

• Having Access Issues?

  • If you are having issues with accessing online learning for any reason, please reach out to your school counselor or an administrator. Issues could include:

    • Internet access or technology issues

    • Health issues in the family

    • Food insecurity

Resources and Links:

• Talking to your student about COVID-19

• NASP - Talking to Children About COVID-19

• NASP - Helping Children Cope with Changes Resulting from COVID-19

• Child Mind Institute - Talking to Kids About Coronavirus

• Care for the caregiver

  • CDC - Stress and Coping (during the coronavirus outbreak)

  • NASP - Care for the Caregiver

Thank you,

The Mental Health Team

Brent Nielsen - Director of Student Services
Mya Holmes - School Psychologist
Kate Allen - School Counselor
Dana Schwab - School Counselor
Kyle Taylor - School Counselor
Terna Tilley-Gyado - Adjustment Counselor
Nicole Torres - Adjustment Counselor
Mary Colwell - School Nurse

Dear PVPA students and families,

On Monday, we begin PVPA Remote. This email contains some basic information about school schedules and student participation expectations. For more information about PVPA Remote, see the Student and Family Guide.

Students are expected to attend virtual class meetings:

• Announced via Weekly Agendas

• Scheduled by teachers (see the Remote Master Schedule Guide)

• Attendance is tracked

• Communicate with teachers if you are not able to attend

Students are expected to submit weekly assignments in each class as outlined by teachers in the Weekly Agendas.

A guiding principle of PVPA remote is to ensure the safety and well-being of all members of our community. We want to hear from you about any participation difficulties you are experiencing, and will work collaboratively with you to overcome them. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

Sincerely,

The Senior Administrative Team

Student and Family FAQ's HERE

Have a question about PVPA Remote? Submit them HERE

On March 30th, PVPA sent out an email to all of our families that contained a PDF letter from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). This letter focuses on how the Department is guiding schools through this closure:

English Version of DESE Letter
Versión en Español de la carta DESE

Dear PVPA families,

Last week, we announced that we were switching to a Pass/Attempted grading system for all full-year and spring semester courses. We received a lot of feedback from students, families, and staff members about the potential effects of such a system. Concerns included how colleges might interpret a grade of “Pass” on transcripts, and recognizing student achievement at higher levels (especially honors work). In response, administrators and department leaders–with input from teachers–engaged in a deep discussion about what would be the most supportive grading system for our high school students.

As a result of this reflective process, we have decided to use our existing PVPA grading system for all courses. High school students will be graded with the “number” grades we typically use (e.g., “4.0,” “3.2,” etc.), and middle school students already had a “Pass/Attempted” grading system. IF the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) announces in the future that all public K-12 schools are required to use a Pass/Fail type system, we will need to comply with that, but they have not yet indicated that this will be their decision.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Teachers have been asked to identify which course objectives were “active” on or before March 13 for each course (the day we closed). This means that content or skills were introduced, and instruction or activities occurred in class. Assignments and assessments related to these course objectives should be visible in the PowerSchool Portal. Teachers will be creating mid-semester progress reports as originally scheduled, and these will be available during the first full week of April.

Students who are missing work that was introduced prior to March 13 should have heard from their teachers about how to complete this work. The specific assignment or assessment might change due to the current virtual context, but it should address the same learning. Teachers are available to support students virtually. In addition, all students have the opportunity to do additional work or assessments to improve their achievement levels if they would like to do so. Please email teachers directly about this if you are not already in communication with them.

Thank you to everyone for the input and reflection that went into making this collective decision. Our students’ best interests are our top priority! Teachers are available to help, and want to hear from you. Please reach out if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Laura Davis, Ph.D.

Director of Arts and Academics

Dear Students and Families,

Your school counseling team is here, and hoping that you all are staying safe and well. While school is closed, we are available to answer questions, provide resources and referrals, and virtually support your academic success, social and emotional well-being, and future planning as much as we can during this unusual time. This email contains information about how to connect with us.

CLICK HERE FOR VIRTUAL SCHOOL COUNSELING INFORMATION.

We look forward to connecting with you! In the meantime, we hope everyone is staying safe and well.

Best wishes,

Kyle Taylor, Middle School Counselor

Dana Schwab, School Counselor, Class of 2021 and 2023

Kate Allen, School Counselor, Class of 2020 and 2022; School Counseling Department Leader

Dear PVPA Community Members,

We are seeking volunteers who would like to help make masks for medical professionals who need them. We received a request from a local doctor (see below) who works in an emergency department of a local hospital. Since N-95 masks are running low, they are being creative. They would like to wear homemade masks over their regular masks as an extra layer of protection and to provide reusability. Volunteers for mask making would need to have a working sewing machine (or access to one) and be able to follow a simple pattern (enclosed below). Petula has purchased pins and elastic and is working with me to figure out a way to drop of supplies to those who can help. We will also create a central collection spot for them to be dropped off. Stay tuned for details. If you are interested in helping please reach out to me or Petula (pbloomfield@pvpa.org).

The need is unlimited.

Thank you for considering helping out our heroic medical professionals,

Zevey Steinitz
Director of Teacher Development
Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School

Quote from doctor's appeal

"I work as an Emergency Physician at Berkshire Medical Center. Our hospital is currently seeing COVID-19 patients trickling in but we are preparing for a surge of patients. Our supply of N-95 masks is low. Recently someone inquired about the need for hand-sewn masks. Intubating these patients puts our hospital staff at high risk for a large viral load exposure. If we can limit our exposure, lives will be saved. If someone can coordinate this, it would be appreciated. Here is a link for the fabric pattern. Please make the fabric slightly larger 7 or 7 1/2 in. by 9 in. of fabric. This way we could possibly wear the hand sewn mask over the N-95 so we could reuse the N-95.

https://amp.courierpress.com/amp/2865273001

(Please don't call the # at the bottom of the article. Reach out to Petula or Zevey when you've got completed masks.)

Dear Families,

I hope that you are all safe and healthy. As you likely know, Governor Baker has ordered a three-week suspension of school operations for educational purposes at all public and private elementary and secondary schools in the commonwealth, which began on Tuesday, March 17. Schools shall not re-open for normal operations before Monday, April 6. PVPA made the decision to close on Friday, March 13, effective Monday March 16.

I have been receiving updates from the State Director of Special Education, Russell Johnston, through virtual meetings and memorandums that began last Friday afternoon and will continue as decisions are made at the Federal and State level and information becomes available. This information and guidance has allowed me, in collaboration with our special education teachers and related service providers, to make plans for supporting students during the extended school closing.

Below is some information about our plans. Please continue to monitor your email for future updates. If you have not done so already, please check your PowerSchool portal to ensure that we have an active email address that you will be monitoring listed in your contact information.

Special Education Services and Learning Opportunities

During the period of time that the school is closed in response to the ongoing public health emergency, school districts are not required to provide Special Education services. This period is similar to a school cancelation for inclimate weather with regard to IEP services. PVPA will, however, continue to communicate with students who have an IEP and their families in order to support them to engage in activities that promote the continuity of learning, and to make progress toward earning a passing grade in academic courses.

Please look for information coming soon from your student’s Academic Support teacher with instructions for accessing their support with academic work and resources to stay academically engaged. Our hope is to minimize skill regression as much as possible during this extended closure.

Progress Reports

IEP progress reports will be shared through the Frontline Parent Portal on, or about, Tuesday, April 14. This is approximately one week after you should receive your student’s regular progress report (report card) and is in line with our practice for the last few years. If you have not accessed IEP progress reports this school year, please be sure we have your current email address listed in PowerSchool.

IEP Meetings, Timelines, and Issuing Documents

Although not required, PVPA will continue to hold IEP Annual Review meetings in accordance with State timelines, to the extent possible, through virtual meetings. If your student has an IEP that will expire during the closure, you should receive communication from Beth Crosby to schedule a virtual meeting. These meetings will be much like IEP meetings you have attended previously at PVPA with all required Team members participating by video/audio conferencing.

For Initial and Three-year Reevaluation meetings where the testing has been completed, we will also hold meetings in a virtual format. For obvious reasons, any Initial or Reevaluation meeting due during the closure where the testing has not yet been completed, we will have to postpone the meeting until we are in a position to complete the testing.

IEPs will be issued as close to State timelines as possible during the closure. There will likely be some delays due to a lack of access to printing and other resources required to mail IEPs.

Please respond as soon as possible to communication from Beth Crosby regarding meetings. We will do our best to accommodate your scheduling and technology needs to ensure your participation in meetings during the closure. If you are not comfortable with your student’s IEP meeting being held virtually you will have the option of postponing it until school is back in session. It is my hope that we can hold as many meetings as possible during this time to avoid a backlog of meetings when we are back in session.

Brent Nielsen
Director of Student Services
Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School
bnielsen@pvpa.org

Dear PVPA families,

Greetings! We hope this finds your family in good health. Thank you for your patience as the PVPA staff organize ourselves to support you.

Going forward, e-mail will be the primary method of communication from PVPA to you. Please use this opportunity to ensure we have accurate e-mail addresses for all parents/guardians.

As you know, Governor Baker has closed all public K-12 schools until Tuesday, April 7th. We are working on the assumption we will return on that date while developing contingency plans in case closure extends for a longer period of time.

COMMUNICATION

PVPA staff and faculty remain accessible through pvpa.org email addresses (see the list here). Otherwise, PVPA primarily uses the suite of Google tools for communication. Google Classroom is the platform for all coursework and communication. We want to ensure that all our students and families are connected to PVPA online through the Google Classroom app that most students should already be familiar with. We encourage all students to install the GClassroom app on their mobile devices - teachers will be using Google Classroom to drive communication with their students from this point forward.

If you've never been invited to follow your student on Google Classroom, someone should be reaching out to you to get you linked. However, if that doesn't happen soon enough, please reach out to any one of your student's classroom teachers for help.

COURSEWORK - GETTING EVERYONE CAUGHT UP

Our primary goal for this three-week closure period is to make sure all students are caught up with work that was assigned up to March 13th, the day we closed. Faculty members should be reaching out to students and their parents/guardians to clarify work that is incomplete, and to assist them in completing it. To meet our mid-semester reporting due date, all make-up work should be complete by Friday, April 3 or students may receive a progress grade of “Incomplete.”

In addition, we are asking teachers to provide additional, OPTIONAL learning opportunities and resources for those students who are caught up with all of their work. The goal here is to ensure students remain connected to school, and are able to use their time away from the school building to pursue arts and academic interests.

GRADING AND PROGRESS REPORTS

We will be moving to a Pass/Attempted grading system for all full-year and spring semester courses. Teachers will be preparing mid-semester progress reports as originally scheduled that will reflect course content, assignments, and assessments up to March 13th. These reports will be available during the first full week of April.

Our school counselors are in the process of gathering information from higher education officials and organizations about the implications of a Pass/Attempted grading system on student transcripts related to the college application process. We understand that this is at the forefront of many families’ thoughts, and we will share more information on that as soon as it is ready. We are also in the process of discussing plans to address “honors” credit in this context.

SPECIAL EDUCATION/ACADEMIC SUPPORT:

If your student has an I.E.P. or 504 plan, please look for a communication from our Academic Support team in the coming days.

FOOD:

We are not able to provide meals during this closure. We've put a list of food resources on the PVPA website, in the 'For Parents' section at http://pvpa.org/parents/covid-resources.

We will be providing more information in the days ahead. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

The admin team

PVPA will be closed temporarily starting Monday, March 16th for an initial period of two weeks (March 16-27) subject to change. We take this action in response to the rapidly increasing public health emergency created by the Coronavirus. Many Massachusetts school districts have announced similar closings.

We make this decision to protect the health of our students, staff, families and all those who live in over 50 different cities and towns where our families reside.

While we currently have no reported cases of exposure to the virus at PVPA, and there’s no presumptive cases in any of the cities and towns in which our families reside, we understand the science to say that in order to prevent the rapid spread of the Coronavirus, the time to close schools is BEFORE any known cases arise, not after. This action serves to slow the spread, and since our community is spread over such a large geographic area, the urgency of such action is upon us to do our part.

We will provide further information soon about continued learning for our students during this temporary closure.