Newsletter #33
MONDAY, JUNE 7: YELLOW DAY FOR "HYBRID" J2, J3, J4s
ALL STUDENTS PREVIOUSLY CLEARED FOR "FULLY IN PERSON" ARE WELCOME ON CAMPUS
REMINDER: Update SDM with Dismissal Plans for June
Dear parents,
Inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective. These are the IB profile attributes embedded in our curriculum. These are the qualities we support as your children acquire them, side-by-side with academic competencies in mathematics, literacy, social studies, languages, sciences, visual art, music, design technology, and physical education.
Last Wednesday, we dove into those attributes at our last JS Parent Coffee of the year. The year in review was an opportunity to explore, through the point of view of the adults and through the point of view of the students, and to highlight how these attributes developed to support our collective success.
A Year in Review: the JS Parent Coffee
A Year in Review: A selection of 100 photos highlighting the 2020-21 school year
Highlighting an extensive list of evidence and reflecting on how both adults and students have demonstrated these attributes was fascinating. The combination of these qualities allowed us to succeed and overcome an extraordinary and challenging school year under the constraints forced upon us by the pandemic.
These attributes have also guided a remarkable art project developed and led by the J4 teaching team and J4 students. It brought the entire Junior School staff and faculty together, alongside the J4 students, to capture for generations of students to come the unique experience of collectively overcoming obstacles placed upon us by the pandemic, in a stunning mural of ceramic tiles.
The mural is being finalized as we write this newsletter and we are pleased to share a few pictures taken during the process.
This Friday, June 11, we invite all of you to celebrate the J4 students at their graduation. And through them, to celebrate ALL of our Junior School students, for their resilience and for having demonstrating strong IB profile attributes. They own their success. A success that should never let us minimize the challenges they have faced and acknowledge how many of them have struggled for their own very unique reasons. But they have learned, they have grown, they have blossomed. And this would have not been possible without the strong partnership between teachers, parents and staff, in a beautiful collective effort.
Pascal Vallet, Junior School Principal
Alessandra Camilo, Junior School Assistant Principal
Thank you Nurse Rivera, Director of Student Health and Nursing, and Ernest Lentini, Director of Security, for making our school a safer place!
IMPORTANT DATES
THIS WEEK
Tuesday, June 8 - PA Meeting 7:00pm PA Meeting Link
Friday, June 11 - J4 Graduation 9:00 - 10:30 Livestream
THE HYBRID CALENDAR
UPCOMING EVENTS
June 17 and June 18 - All Students Return School-Issued iPads and Chromebooks to Campus (details in this newsletter)
Friday, June 18 - JS Last of Classes (Full Day)
This quote was shared in the Newsletter #31 on May 3rd, 2020, as we were looking at the concept of Resilience. Can we say today that we have rebuilt an even more beautiful and sustainable barn?
IN THIS NEWSLETTER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TO DO: JOIN US FOR J4 GRADUATION ON JUNE 11 FROM 9AM TO 10:30AM
INFORMATION: J2 WAX MUSEUM
INFORMATION: CELEBRATING WRITERS
Avery Kim and Laila Soltau from J4JH love reading and writing. After our class finished our narrative writing unit, the pair decided to write a new story in their own time to share with the UNIS community. Avery developed the idea for the story, "Orphans" and then Laila jumped on board to support the project. Read the blurb and the author's notes below to learn more.
Blurb: Stanley and Isabel are orphans who were taken in by two people named Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Stanley and Isabel work all day for them as servants. But sometimes they wish they could just dissolve because of Martha, the Smith’s higher placed servant. But one day they find out that the Smith’s are having new servants, and can’t afford to keep Stanley and Isabel. It is devastating news for the two, and they are kicked out with nowhere to go. Readers will discover what Isabel and Stanley do...What would you do?
Avery Kim, Starter and Writer
When creating this book, I was inspired to write a book that could define what orphans might be going through in their life. And, we must remember, not everyone treats orphans or people who have experienced loss kindly. This book can explain that you don’t have to start out good to end well.
Laila Soltau, Editor and Writer
When I saw the book Avery had started I knew it was a very good book and I wanted to help so badly with writing it. I also thought about what it would be like being an orphan, and tried to visualise that and then put it into words. I also tried to visualise what it would be like to be Stanley and Isabel, be orphans and then just get kicked out. When I had all of that, I tried my best to fit in some more paragraphs based on my information. And finally, I think that from this book you can learn a little bit about what it was like to be orphans and still is sometimes.
PARENT ASSOCIATION CORNER: Final PA Meeting on Tuesday, June 8 at 7:00pm
Join the Parent Association for their final meeting of the year:
Tuesday, June 8 at 7:00pm
Webinar ID: 99598844232 / Passcode: 618806
BIT OF NEWS: SCS FUNDRAISER FOR SOLAR ENERGY
The Stuyvesant Cove Stewards (SCS) is raising funds to cover the cost of a solar-powered charger to be implemented in Stuyvesant Cove Park! This renewable energy source will help the park close to UNIS become more sustainable and power future community events. It will also promote the importance of solar education among park-goers and Green Workforce trainees from the Hope Program. SCS is a student-run organization and club that uses hands-on volunteering, fundraising, and student teamwork to incorporate green ideals and sustainability into our local community.
Donate at https://go.rallyup.com/scssolarfund (extended to June 14th) and reach out to scs@clubs.unis.org if you have any questions!
BIT OF NEWS: MESSAGE FROM THE NURSE
The JS and UNIS Student Health Office would like to thank Sophia Li, J4 and the World Peace Organization for their generous donation of hand sanitizers and face shields. We will be distributing them to the students as a way to encourage health and safety during their summer vacation.
From all of us in the JS and UNIS Student Health Office, enjoy the summer break and stay healthy and safe!
REMINDER: CHROMEBOOK & iPAD RETURN
Student Chromebooks & iPads Must be Returned no Later than June 18
All iPads and Chromebooks assigned to students by the school will be collected at the end of this term on Thursday and Friday, June 17 and June 18.
If your child is learning remotely, or your family is leaving New York and your child will not be attending school in person on June 17 or June 18, please contact your homeroom teacher, with a copy to fzammarano@unis.org, to coordinate the return of your child's school issued device to the campus on a date no later than June 18.
REMINDERS: WHEN YOUR CHILD IS SICK / LEARNING MODEL CONSISTENCY
When Your Child is Sick
When your child is sick with stomach ache, fever, headache, etc. there is no expectation from the school that they should attempt to learn remotely. If your child has symptoms that would normally have kept them at home prior to COVID-19, please do not have your child log in to classes. We hope that time will be taken for them to rest and recover. It is difficult for teachers to engage students who are not feeling well, they distract their classmates, and the school believes that children recover more quickly when they are permitted to disconnect and rest.
Learning Model Consistency
And, the expectation is that Junior School students attend school consistently, through the end of this school year, in accordance with the learning model the family has opted for at this time (either hybrid, fully in person or fully remote). Inconsistent in person attendance is disruptive for the class as a whole and for the individual student. It is extremely challenging for your child's teachers who need to plan lessons and have materials ready in advance. The school believes that a consistent schedule reinforces learning and appropriate classroom behavior, and reduces anxiety.
Dismissal for Parents and Guardians
At dismissal please stay in motion, circling through the tents as you wait to pick up your children, or wait outside the main gate between pick ups. Despite the warmer weather, the school has not relaxed it's policies regarding gatherings. Please do not linger or sit down in the tents to wait for a second child, or gather within the school gates to speak with other parents or teachers. At dismissal our goal is to have as few people on campus for the shortest time possible, and always in motion. Thank you for understanding and support as we work to keep our community safe.
REMINDER: TRANSITIONING BETWEEN MODELS OF LEARNING
Following recent changes with CDC guidelines and NYDOH rules, UNIS is welcoming many of our students on campus every day.
Three Models of Learning are now offered to UNIS families:
Option 1: on campus every day
Option 2: hybrid schedule (continuing the yellow & blue group rotation)
Option 3: fully remote learning
UNIS will continue offering the hybrid model through June, as a transition path for remote families, and to help reduce the logistical challenges associated with the return of a large number of students on site.
If you would like to request a learning model change for your JS child, please send an email to both jsoffice@unis.org and your homeroom teacher with a minimum of 2 school days notice.
Note that fully remote students requesting a transition to on campus learning (either hybrid or full time) require health clearance from the Nurse as the first step. Please follow these directions to initiate the process:
If you decide to opt for in person learning, either hybrid or 100% in person, please inform these departments at a minimum of 2 full school days in advance of the date that you would like to have your child return (for example, no later than Wednesday afternoon of the week prior to a Monday return):
jsoffice@unis.org
mrivera@unis.org
schoolnurse@unis.org
your homeroom teacher
The first step will be for the nurse to confirm that all of your child's health forms are in order and that they are cleared to return to campus.
After you have the nurse's health clearance, please coordinate directly with your homeroom teacher the best date for your child's return to learning in person.
Inform jsoffice@unis.org about the agreed upon in person start date.
When your child returns to campus, you'll need to complete the daily Ruvna Health Screening that you will begin receiving by text and email each morning at about 5:00am.
You'll also need to update School Dismissal Manager (SDM) with your dismissal plan for each day that your JS child attends school on campus. The dismissing teachers will rely on the information you provide in SDM to escort your child to the correct location at the end of the school day (for example: pick up / care program / yellow bus).
Note that your child will not be permitted to take the bus unless the SDM report printed for our Transportation Department each day indicates your choice of that dismissal option. Please contact Charles Umbach at transportation@unis.org as soon as possible if you want to arrange for yellow school bus service.
We look forward to welcoming your child back to campus!
REMINDERS: HEALTH AND SAFETY
1. Arrival: To speed arrival for everyone, please have your child take possession of their backpack and lunch before they approach the entry gate in the morning and check to see that their mask is on, fits well, and is covering their nose.
2. Late Arrival: The late arrival of students in the morning delay our faculty and staff moving back to their positions. The JS students are expected to arrive no later than 8:30 and the gates should be closing no later than 8:40. Please ensure that you arrive at the time assigned for your child's grade.
3. Masks: Be sure you have packed spare masks in a clean bag in your child's backpack, as well as an extra bag to hold used ones. For the safety and peace of mind of all, do not send your child to school in a vented mask. We understand that many of you do use vented masks with filters inserted. But our teachers cannot be certain that every vented mask has the filter necessary to keep them safe. Please respect our community and do not send your child to school in a vented mask.
4. Use Remote Learning on Days with Appointments or Travel:
We ask that you opt to have your child learn remotely on days when you have scheduled appointments outside of school or when you need to leave early for travel.
Because parents and caregivers are not permitted inside the school gate, a request for either late arrival or early dismissal for a JS student requires that school personnel leave their work in order to escort your child. There is no guarantee that we can free staff from their work duties at any point during the day to accommodate late arrival or early dismissal.
Instead of requesting an early pick up or notifying of late arrival, please enter Remote Learning as an Exception in SDM to alert your teacher that your child will connect remotely instead of joining in person.
Of course, if your child falls ill during the school day, the nurse's office will coordinate an early pick plan with families.
5. For those families electing to change their current model during the remainder of this 2020-21 school year:
Moving from Fully Remote to Hybrid / Fully in Person - Families give at least 2 full school day’s notice to the homeroom teacher, schoolnurse@unis.org and jsoffice@unis.org that they would like their child to attend on campus. Health clearance from the nurse is required before any student can attend in person. The expectation is that the student will then remain learning on campus for the remainder of this school year on a consistent schedule, either in the Hybrid model or Fully In Person.
Moving to Fully Remote from Hybrid / Fully in Person - Families give at least one day’s notice to the homeroom & jsoffice@unis.org so that teachers have an opportunity to send the student home with necessary materials to learn from home. The expectation is that the student will remain remote for the remainder of this school year.
The last step is to update SDM with your dismissal plans for each day your child is on campus.
6. Returning to Campus After Illness:
Based on CDC and NYSDOH guidance, students who are sent home or become ill may not return to UNIS until the following:
WITH A COVID TEST: MUST BE A PCR NOT A RAPID (AS PER NYS)
A negative COVID test must be emailed to the health office for clearance to return to on campus learning.
At least 24 hours symptom free.
WITHOUT COVID TEST:
Must have a physician note. Must explicitly state that the student or employee is cleared to return to school. Physicians must also document an alternative diagnosis if symptoms are due to illness (ie- lab confirmed influenza, strep throat) or preexisting diagnosis and not COVID.
Must be fever free (less than 100F) for 3 days with no fever reducing medications and improvement of symptoms
AND must be 10 days post-symptom (No symptoms in last 10 days)
AND report general feelings of wellness.
* Note: a signed note by the health care provider documenting unconfirmed acute illness, such as viral upper respiratory illness (URI) or viral gastroenteritis will not be accepted. If this is the physician indicated diagnosis, please know a negative COVID test will also be required to be cleared for on campus learning.
We kindly ask if your child is exhibiting symptoms consistent with COVID to have them tested so we can alert potential contacts within UNIS. This helps us keep everyone safe. If you feel these symptoms are due to a cause other than COVID, please have your physician clearly document this in your return to school clearance letter.
Mt. Sinai are our consulting physicians and can help find a Mt. Sinai practice that will offer expedited results. You are also free to utilize any testing practitioner you are comfortable with.
For anyone who needs confirmatory testing, please email AccessDowntown@mountsinai.org or call 646-531-1504 and identify yourself as a part of the UNIS community. If there are any issues, please reach out to their team directly at BusinessHealth@mountsinai.org and they will assist.
If you are a parent and you are having your child tested at Mt. Sinai, please know you will need to create a MyChart account to access your minor child's test results. You will also need to ask the practice manager to upload the results to the mychart account, as it doesn't happen automatically for minors.
For health related questions please email: schoolnurse@unis.org and mrivera@unis.org
7. Social Distancing Outside of UNIS: Exercise caution and, whenever possible, to stay clear of gatherings where social distancing or face masks might not be the norm. We advise students and families to be particularly vigilant on playgrounds and during play dates, keeping in mind the impact they may have on the safety of everyone in our community.
8. COVID Testing: We recommend that students be tested at least ONCE a month, preferably every two weeks. All UNIS Faculty and Staff will be pool-tested every other week on campus.
9. When Your Child Learns From Home For A Medical Reason: If you elect to keep your child home for a medical reason (allergies, running nose, etc.) but your child feels well enough to engage in learning remotely, please inform your teachers as far in advance as possible, and certainly before 8:00am. It is challenging for your child's teachers because they need to plan lessons and have materials ready in advance.
Note that when your child is sick there is no expectation that they should log in to class - we hope that time will be taken for them to rest and recover.
If you do plan to have your child engage remotely at any point during the school day, it is crucial that your teachers are aware before the school day begins for them at 8:00am, and preferable the day before, by emailing your teacher directly and using SDM to alert the office. Informing your teacher in advance allows them to anticipate and prepare to support your child as a remote learner. Appearing on the screen when they are expected in the classroom can be disruptive for the class and divides your teacher's attention.
Thank you for your support.
REMINDERS: REMOTE LEARNERS
Instruction begins at 8:40 each morning. Remote learners are expected to connect with their homeroom no later than 8:40 to participate in Morning Meeting. Students who try to connect after that time disrupt the class and pull the teacher away from the rest who are already engaged in person or remotely. It is tremendously important that students are ready to join at 8:40. Meanwhile, we recognize that due to technical glitches or late arrivals, not all teachers will always be able to start at 8:40. We thank you for your patience. But, once the class begins, students who join between 8:40 and 9:00 are missing important direction and are inevitably disrupting the class. Let's try our best together!
Question related to technology should be addressed by email to tech.support@unis.org only. Tech Support will need your child's full name, teacher name and grade in order to assist you quickly. Please do not disrupt your teacher's instruction time to address tech support issues for your family. We understand it can be frustrating sometimes; we recognize it and are working hard to address the glitches we are facing. But we have noticed teachers trying to troubleshoot a system while teaching, a system that really requires technician intervention. They do it out of caring and concern about their students not being able to connect. Please help them by reaching out to our Tech Department for support instead.
All families should check their internet connection. The audio when your child connects from home should never be distorted - it is disruptive to the class when that happens and is likely the result from a poor connection at home. You should have at least 3mbps up and download. A 5mbps up and download will ensure optimal quality. You can check your bandwidth here: fast.com
If you have technology issues, please send an email to tech.support@unis.org
If you have academic tech questions, please contact Ms. Zammarano at fzammarano@unis.org
All other times: If you are having trouble logging in at any other time, please call 212-584-3100 for technology support.
REMINDER: UPDATE YOUR CHILD’S DISMISSAL PLANS in SDM
Our homeroom teachers follow the instructions entered by parents in School Dismissal Manager (SDM) each day. Please update your SDM account to regularly indicate what the plans are for your child each day of the week. SDM is always mandatory for Dismissal but can easily be used for Attendance as well. If your child will be learning remotely on a day that he/she is normally scheduled to be on campus, please use SDM and select "Remote Learning as an Exception". On days when your child will not engage in classes either remotely or in person, please use SDM to mark your child "Absent".
SDM is the only way of letting the dismissing teacher know where your child should go at dismissal. In addition to indicating that there is an 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.
No student will be placed on a bus at dismissal if their SDM account does not authorize their ridership on that date. They will be placed in the Care Program instead.
School Dismissal Manager (SDM) is the sole method of communicating dismissal plans to UNIS JS
Parents are asked to use School Dismissal Manager (SDM) to keep the dismissal process safe and orderly for all of our JS students. Emails, notes or verbal instructions to inform the homeroom teacher and the JS Office (except after 1 pm, see below) of dismissal plans are not accepted.
Parents have been issued a username and temporary password by email. Please use these to log in to SDM at www.schooldismissalmanager.com from a desktop or laptop for the initial set up. You cannot use a phone to set up your account.
The Parent Login area is found at the top right of the SDM homepage.
Parents are first required to set their “Default Dismissal” for the remainder of the school year. Note that the default dismissal option is only available on a smartphone if you are using the app.
Parents can set “Recurring Exceptions” if needed.
Parents can set any “Exception” to the default dismissal if needed.
Parents are required to check every week to confirm that the information provided on SDM is accurate for the week ahead.
The cut-off to add a one-time “Exception” to any day’s dismissal is 1:00 pm. If a change in your plans occurs after 1:00 pm on any day, you may phone the JS Office up until 2:30 pm. But the expectation is that all changes will be made by parents directly in SDM before 1:00 pm.
After 2:30 pm the School cannot guarantee that dismissal changes will be relayed to all relevant departments in time for dismissal.
Parents are encouraged to download the SDM Apps for Apple and Android and update their child's dismissal instructions with a click or two from their phone.
REMINDER: UPDATE YOUR PARENT CONTACT INFORMATION
Please take the time 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 recently, we encourage you to do it today.
All departments at UNIS 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 into 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