Newsletter #25
SCHOOL WILL BE CLOSED ON TUESDAY, MARCH 10
Dear parents,
As you know from Dr. Brenner's Monday evening message, the UNIS campus is closed tomorrow, March 10th.
While we wait for lab test results for a faculty member, the school will remain closed.
Any information contained in emails from Dr. Brenner will always be the most up-to-date and will supersede information contained in this JS newsletter.
Should school closure be required for an extended period of time, the school has made contingency plans to operate with remote learning.
Teachers are now developing their plans to operate remote classes. For most, this will be an asynchronous experience: the teachers will prepare resources ahead of time, including videos, and upload them, and students will complete their activities at their own pace within a specific time frame based upon the students' grade.
The Junior School, in collaboration with the Curriculum Department, the Middle School and the High School, under the leadership of Dr. Brenner, has worked tirelessly over the last week to guarantee our UNIS students continuity in their learning in anticipation of any circumstances imposed on us by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Throughout today, a number of working meetings were organized with homeroom, language and specialist teachers to anticipate all eventualities.
Homeroom teachers will email families and share, if they have not already, suggested activities so that you can engage your children in their learning at home until we receive the results of the test.
We understand how this situation is impacting our community of students, parents, teachers and staff. You can count on our commitment and dedication to our educative mission which aims to join us together in support of our students' academic growth and well-being.
Pascal Vallet, Junior School Principal
Susan Scullin, Junior School Assistant Principal
TALKING POINTS: SCHOOL CLOSING
ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS
Start by asking your child(ren) what they’ve heard. Clarify any questions or misunderstandings, and correct rumors. In a developmentally appropriate way, use facts and reassure your child's anxieties about the spread of the virus.
Acknowledge that the Coronavirus (Covid-19) is on many people's minds. They may have heard about it in the news, kids may be talking about it among themselves, parents talk about it, and the school recently sent a letter to families and teachers about it and best ways to prevent it. Also in that letter was the discussion that the school can close temporarily as a response to the Coronavirus.
Therefore, it is important to talk about it and give your child information (facts) about the virus (Covid-19), how to prevent it from spreading, and who you can turn to for the most adequate information.
In situations like these, it can be normal to worry and experience anxiety, especially when we don’t know all the facts. This is a new virus and we are learning new information about it every day. Also, there are many rumors out there which are not all based on scientific facts.
Given our unique UNIS community, we realize that some of you may have family and friends who live in countries that have been more affected by this virus. We can understand how you might be worried.
It is important that all students treat each other with respect and not jump to conclusions about who may or may not have COVID-19.
When we experience anxiety of the unknown, it is always best to check the facts with a trusted adult and from reliable sources.
From the official government agency in the US (Center for Disease Control), the current information is such:
For the general American public, who are unlikely to be exposed to this virus at this time, the immediate health risk from COVID-19 is considered low.
People in communities, where ongoing community spread with the virus that causes COVID-19 has been reported, are at elevated though still relatively low risk of exposure.
There is a great comic strip or BrainPop video that breaks down the information in an understandable way:
(Show either this comic strip on your screen and scroll through it piece by piece, or the video) Just For Kids: A Comic Exploring The New Coronavirus (Comic) or BrainPop: Coronavirus.
REASSURING STUDENTS
Reassure your children that schools and homes are safe and the adults are there to help keep them healthy and to take care of them if they do get sick. Give simple examples of the steps people take every day to stop germs and stay healthy, such as washing hands. Use language such as “adults are working hard to keep you safe.” Give other examples of how they may have seen more grown-ups at school and at home cleaning, such as maintenance workers cleaning door knobs, stairwell handrails, elevator buttons, etc.
RESOURCES
Resources for parents and educators. (from International School Counselors Association). A list of resources around feelings, fears and worries. Many are related specifically to COVID-19 and some are about anxiety more generally. Also included are a couple of mindfulness websites, videos and visuals that are great to help kids find a bit of peace in these unsettling times.
For younger children: What to say to your child about the Coronavirus (for young children) | Aha! Parenting.org
Talking to kids about the Coronavirus | Child Mind Institute
Basic information about Coronavirus article Healthychildren.org
Language for Kids: How to Talk to Kids About Coronavirus | NYTimes
The CDC is very helpful with facts and practice recommendations, as well as information about combating stigma and stereotypes in relation to COVID-19.
Just For Kids: A Comic Exploring The New Coronavirus (Comic)
BrainPop: Coronavirus video
TECHNOLOGY AT HOME
PREVENTIVE MEASURES FOR PARENTS
As we are working on testing and training teachers, it is necessary to focus on prevention. While the UNIS Maintenance team, under the Leadership of our Director of Building and Grounds, has increased the frequency of their daily duties, and are working today on a deep cleaning of the entire school, you will find below the Preventive Measure for parents, as well as some useful outside resources.
Just as we are reinforcing the internal guidelines with our faculty and staff in order to be proactive in doing all we can to keep our school community healthy, we ask all families for their support in following up at home with these practices:
Students will be asked to wash hands upon arriving in the morning or will be greeted at the door with a squirt of hand sanitizer.
Students will wash hands or use sanitizer before lunch and snack and following playtimes.
Students will be reminded to wash their hands after using the toilet.
This may take extra time but keep in mind that the CDC considers handwashing a powerful antidote to illness.
Parents, please make sure to send your child to school with a labeled water bottle. We are discouraging children from using the drinking spout on the water fountains.
Remind children to sneeze into their elbow and to throw all used tissues into the waste bin right away rather than putting them in a pocket or leaving them on a table top: How to cough without spreading germs
Keep your child at home when not feeling well.
OUTSIDE RESOURCES
INFORMATION IN THIS NEWSLETTER MAY CHANGE BASED ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE CURRENT SITUATION
IMPORTANT DATES
EVENTS THIS WEEK (AS OF MONDAY, MARCH 9, 6:00PM)
Monday, March 9 - Campus closed
Tuesday, March 10 - Campus closed
Thursday, March 12 - Deadline for 2020-2021 Re Enrollment Contract (details in this newsletter)
Thursday, March 12 - Saturday, March 14 - Matilda JS/MS Musical (7pm / Sat 2 & 7pm)
UPCOMING EVENTS (AS OF MONDAY, MARCH 9, 6:00PM)
NOTE: JS STUDENT LED CONFERENCES ARE POSTPONED
Wednesday, March 18 - No After School or Athletic Classes / Care Program is Available
POSTPONED: Wednesday, March 18 - Friday, March 20 - Student Led Conferences
Thursday, March 19 - Virtual Classrooms / Remote Learning at Home
Friday, March 20 - No Classes for JS Students / Professional Development for Faculty
March 23 through April 3 – No Classes for Students – Spring Break
Monday, April 6 – Classes Resume
Wednesday, April 8 - JS Parent Coffee on Sustainability (Cafe) 8:30 - 9:30 (details in this newsletter)
Thursday, April 9 and Friday, April 10 - No Yellow Bus Service
Monday, April 13 to Wednesday, April 15 - No Yellow Bus Service
Friday, April 10 - PA Meeting (Cafe) 8:30 - 9:30
Monday, April 13 - Class Parent Meeting (Cafe) 8:30 - 9:20
Saturday, April 18 - International Food & Fun Fair 11:00 - 3:00 (fill out the form in this newsletter)
Wednesday, May 6 - JS Parent Coffee (Cafe) 8:30 - 9:30 (Math)
Friday, May 29 – TH Graduation - Student Half Day - JS Dismissal at 11:45
Friday, June 5 - J4 Graduation Ceremony & Celebration
IN THIS NEWSLETTER
On behalf of the Junior School Faculty and Staff, we would like to thank you, the parents, for the Staff Appreciation Lunch. Sharing your favorite foods with the UNIS team is a wonderful initiative, particularly at a time when our teachers are working hard to adapt to the unusual circumstances we are experiencing: thank you!
TO DO TODAY: UPDATE YOUR PARENT CONTACT INFORMATION
Please take the time now to review your family profile and contact information to ensure that your cell phone numbers, email addresses and home address are correct and are entered in the correct fields. You may update your information at any point throughout the year, but if you have not reviewed your information since the school year began, we encourage you to do it today.
All departments at UNIS, including the Nurse, rely on the information that you provide in the Veracross Parent Portal to contact you. The only way you can be reached in an emergency, or when there are school wide announcements, is through the information that you have entered in the Portal. After logging in to the Portal at myunis.vc , you may review and update all of your family contact information by:
Going to Veracross
Clicking on Household Information
Updating Household Profile -> Contacts.
If you need support in order to make your updates, please email veracross@unis.org
HIGH PRIORITY: MESSAGE FROM DR. BRENNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (Sent SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2020)
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Late this afternoon we became aware that one of our teachers was diagnosed with pneumonia on Saturday at Mount Sinai Hospital. As a precautionary measure he was administered the test for the Coronavirus, despite being assured by the doctors that his profile did not match the virus symptom pattern. He is at home on self-quarantine and receiving treatment for pneumonia. As a result, I have decided to act with an abundance of caution and close schools tomorrow, pending the results of our teacher’s test.
I have been in contact with our school doctor, who is affiliated with Mount Sinai and has been in touch with Mount Sinai Infection Control as well as the Department of Health. She explained that standard medical protocol for these situations is to quarantine the individual pending the results of the tests and then respond accordingly.
We are hopeful to have the results by the end of Monday. However, I have been told it could take as long as Tuesday afternoon. If, as expected, the teacher’s test results are negative, we will resume school as usual. If he tests positive, we will inform you and let you know the school’s response at that time.
To further reduce any risk to our school community, we will have the entire school undergo a deep cleaning tomorrow. During the closure, the school will not be accessible to anyone.
As I have stated in my previous letters, our hope was to be able to deliver on-line education to our students as soon as March 20th. While we are well ahead of that schedule, we are not prepared to start tomorrow.
The leadership team is working this evening to set up an on-line work plan for our teaching staff to work from home tomorrow. Our hope is that we will be ready to deliver our on-line program for the students as soon as Thursday in the event that we need to remain closed.
I will update you at the end of each day we are away from school to give you a status report and enable you to plan accordingly.
Thank you for your understanding during this challenging time.
Sincerely,
Dan Brenner
BIT OF NEWS: PARENT COFFEE ON LITERACY
For those of you who were not able to attend the JS Parent Coffee held on March 4th on the topic of Literacy, you can use this link to view it now.
BIT OF NEWS: JS PARENT COFFEE ON SUSTAINABILITY - APRIL 8 AT 8:30 IN THE CAFE
Many people are concerned about the environment and the future of the planet. They would like to take action locally as well as globally, but where to begin? Join us on Wednesday, April 8th at 8:30am in the Cafe for a Parent Coffee on Getting to Zero Waste in Your Daily Life.
This coffee will bring parents together to learn about actions they could take to reduce waste. It will feature guest speakers Sandra Noonan, founder of the Zero Waste NYC Meetup , Chief Sustainability Officer of Just Salad, and co-founder of the Zero Waste NYC Workshop Series. In her presentation, Noonan will review simple, but important, guidelines for more sustainable living.
BIT OF NEWS: 2020 - 2021 CLASSES
Our teachers will soon begin the process of creating class lists for the 2020-2021 school year. Homeroom teachers and specialists collaborate to create balanced classes across each grade. Teachers take into account friendships and social interactions from this and previous years and are careful to ensure that children are placed in a group with familiar friends and where they will also have the opportunity to develop new friendships. Our school psychologist and counselors review all class groupings before they are finalized.
While we cannot honor specific requests for teachers, if you have any concerns about next year’s class placement be sure to speak with your child’s counselor before Friday, April 17.
PK & JA Dr. Dana Marnin dmarnin@unis.org
J1 & J3 Ms. Amy Iamundo aiamundo@unis.org
J2 & J4 Ms. Alyssa Frost afrost@unis.org
BIT OF NEWS: COMPOST CLUB FUNDRAISER - MARCH 12 AND 13
Compost Club students are having an up-cycling sale on Thursday, March 12 and a bake sale on Friday, March 13. They hope to raise enough money to buy eucalyptus trees for homeless koala bears. All donations will be sent to the Australian Koala Foundation.
The students are busy making doll houses, jewelry and jewelry boxes, sock puppets, and doll furniture, trees, and more. If your family would like to support the Club’s efforts, please make a purchase on Thursday and Friday this week, or just make a donation!
Here’s a sneak preview of some of the up-cycled items they’ll be selling:
REMINDER: PLEASE FILL OUT IFFF REGIONAL FOOD FAIR FORM
Planning for the annual International Food and Fun Fair is now underway and the Food Committee Co-Chairs need your help to ensure we can reach out to as many UNIS families as possible and encourage them to contribute their country's wonderful and unique food specialties to the international buffet.
For that purpose we kindly ask you to fill out the Food Fair Form below, with the following information at your earliest convenience:
Student's first and last name
Country 1
Country 2 (if applicable)
Parent’s email
This information should enable us to compile more accurate regional food contact lists that Regional Food Coordinators can then use to reach out to the families from their "food regions." We would like to emphasize that filling out the online form in a timely manner is essential to ensure efficient communication to parents about this year's International Food and Fun Fair.
International Food and Fun Fair 2020 Organizing Committee
REMINDER: SPRING BREAK CAMP AT UNIS
2020 UNIS Spring Camp options:
Language Immersion in Chinese, French or Spanish (JA-M2)
Leadership (J3-J4 & M1-M4)
RockStar (J3-J4 & M1-M4)
We look forward to welcoming your children to the upcoming UNIS Spring Break Camp.
Week #1: March 23rd to 27th
Week #2: March 30th to April 3rd
1- The Spring Camp Language Immersion in Chinese, French or Spanish is designed to lead the children to the next level of language competency, while having a great time. It creates a supportive environment and engages students in conversations and practices of the target language - It focuses on speaking and listening comprehension - It provides arts and cultural activities such as singing songs in the target language, folk customs, calligraphy, dance… for JA- M2
Option 1/2 Day: 9AM-1:30PM - $500/Week
Option Full Day: 9AM-5:30PM - $680/Week - In addition to Language instruction, the students enjoy participating in sports and recreational activities.
2- Leadership for J3-J4 & M1-M4 - From 9AM-4PM - $680/Week (If needed, may stay in the Care Program till 5:30PM free of charge)
This series of workshops is structured around fun projects and games that encourage the exploration of inquiry, initiative, adaptability, critical thinking and physical activities and more. It gives the students the skills to succeed in presenting themselves with assurance, asserting and arguing their point effectively, finding solutions, taking initiative, understanding how to negotiate and interact harmoniously. The instructor of this class is Ms. Amanda Sawyer.
3- RockStar for J3-J4 & M1-M4 - From 9AM-4PM - $680/Week (If needed, may stay in the Care Program till 5:30PM free of charge)
In "RockStar" the students have the opportunity to work with a professional rocker. They will play guitar, bass, drums, keyboards or vocals to perform classic Rock ‘n’ Roll hits at the end of the week. The instructor is Mr. Derek Swink.
Registration is on a first come first served basis - Please register online as soon as possible - Space is limited.
LINKS:
IMPORTANT REMINDER
The cafeteria will be closed. The children must bring their lunch and snacks.
The morning drop-off is at 8:30AM and the pickup is at 5:30PM, both in the lobby near the reception desk. Please note that the Leadership & the RockStar camps run from 9:00AM to 4:00PM. If needed the students may stay in the extended day until 5:30PM pick up time (at no extra charge).
If you wish to pick up your child before the end of the program, please let us know.
For your convenience the contact information in case of emergency:
Lidana Jalilvand - 212-584-3083 Email: ljalilvand@unis.org
Keiko Tase - 212- 584-3081 Email: ktase@unis.org
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Dr. Lidana Jalilvand
REMINDER: UPDATE SDM FOR SPRING AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES AND ATHLETICS
If you registered your child for Spring Session After School Activities or Athletics beginning the week of March 2nd, please take the time now to update School Dismissal Manager (SDM).
Add all your new Spring Session class descriptions, as well as each date that your child will attend each of the Spring Session classes.
SDM must be updated by your family throughout the school year to reflect all changes in your child’s After School and Athletics enrollment. The school does not make these updates for you.
Dismissing teachers rely on the information that families enter in SDM each day to direct their students to the correct After School or Athletic activity. If information in SDM is not accurate, your child may be placed in the Care Program instead.
Monday: last Spring Session class is May 4
Tuesday: last Spring Session class is May 5
Wednesday: last Spring Session class is May 13
Thursday: last Spring Session class is May 14
Friday: last Spring Session class is May 15
If you are not familiar with making SDM updates yourself, please click on the “Update the Dismissal Manager” link on the bottom of this newsletter, or stop by the JS Office or phone 212-584-3113 to request a quick tutorial.
REMINDER: 2020-2021 RE ENROLLMENT REMINDER - DUE MARCH 12
In order to enroll your child for the 2020-2021 academic year, you are asked to complete an electronic enrollment contract by Thursday, 12 March 2020.
Your child's personalized Enrollment Contract is available by visiting the UNIS Parent Portal: Online Enrollment. You will need to complete separate enrollment contracts through the online process for each of your children.
If you have any questions about the online enrollment process, please contact the UNIS Enrollment Team at enrollment@unis.org.
REMINDER: MATILDA TICKETS ARE ON SALE
Tickets for the Junior/Middle School production of Matilda are still on sale! Be sure to visit www.unis.org/arts/theatre to buy your tickets today!
REMINDER: PARENT SUSTAINABILITY GROUP - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Please help support sustainability at UNIS! The Parent Sustainability Group is looking for volunteers to help with upcoming events and future initiatives. Even if you only have an occasional hour or two to spare, we would love your help! If you are interested in hearing more, please contact Karen Weissman, Magda Torres & Dana Meilands at karen.weissman@pa.unis.org
REMINDER: LOST AND FOUND UPDATED POLICY
UNIS has implemented new lost and found procedures. Lost and found items will be collected weekly and displayed on racks just outside the front door of the school every Monday, and any unretrieved items will be donated on Friday. Items that are collected after Monday will remain in the lost and found crate by the playground doors until the following week. Any items that are not retrieved from the racks by the front doors after a week of display, will be deposited in our RefashionNYC Bin. RefashionNYC is NYC's official clothing reuse program in partnership with NYC Department of Sanitation and Housing Works to make textile donations to those in need. Once items are deposited into the RefashionNYC bin, we cannot retrieve them.
We ask that you please label all clothing, lunch boxes and water bottles. Labeled items will be delivered to the appropriate school office to be reunited with their owners. Please note that unlabeled lunch boxes and unlabeled water bottles will be discarded at the end of each week. We will no longer set out lost and found during parent teacher conferences. Please stop by the racks on your way in and out of school to retrieve items and ask your children to check for any lost items.
REMINDER: UPDATE YOUR CHILD’S DISMISSAL PLANS
Our homeroom teachers follow the instructions entered by parents in School Dismissal Manager each day. Please update your SDM account to indicate what the plans are for your child for each day of the week.
SDM is the only way of letting your homeroom teacher know where your child should go at 2:55 dismissal. In addition to indicating that there is an Athletic or After School Activity, you must enter a description of the activity in the box below. If the activity name is not entered in SDM your child may be placed in the Care Program instead.