FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6th, 2020
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL AND ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL Dear St. Albans City School Families, We hope you are all enjoying these last few days of beautiful weather, they are really nice for students to be outside. We want to share that Tuesday night we got the confirmation for the final negative test from our first COVID case. There was no spread at school. The UVM data issues had an impact on the amount of time it took to get all of the results. Last night we learned we have another positive case in our school community. We worked with the Department of Health and did the necessary contact tracing last night and made all phone calls to those that were in direct contact and would be called by the DOH today. If you were not contacted, it is because no one in your family had a minimum of 15 minutes of exposure when the person could have been infectious. So you should not be impacted by this case as it relates to school. While we understand the stress that people feel when they hear there has been another case, please understand that this will happen. We cannot control that. We can help mitigate the spread by remaining diligent to our procedures, wearing masks correctly and consistently, staying in our pods, remaining 6 feet apart as much as possible and washing hands. Also we must stay home when we feel sick - even if in past years we would not have done so. It may seem hard in the moment, and yet it is best in the long run to keep our whole school community healthy. We will let you know when we have cleared this next case. Until then, we thank you for all you are doing during this difficult time. Keeping our schools safe and open is really important for our students and families, and it is the whole community following the protocols that makes that possible. We remain Raider Strong, Joan and Stacie |
| NOTICE: The Maple Run Unified School Board seeks two parent/community members to participate on the Superintendent Selection Committee. Interested parties should email Brenda Comstock bcomstock@maplerun.org no later than Monday, November 16, indicating your desire to participate and in what capacity: parent/community member or community member. |
| IMPORTANT DATES NOVEMBER Conferences. No School Friday, November 6th. Veterans Day Wednesday, November 11th. Grades 3 & 4 come to school four days a week Starting Thursday, November 12th. For Families: DIgital Safety Tips and Tricks. Led by teachers who are also parents. Thursday, November 12th. 6:30 PM. Zoom Signup will be in future announcements MRUSD Board Meeting Wednesday, November 18th. 6:00 - 9:00 PM. Zoom Meeting link at https://www.maplerun.org/o/mrusd/events when available. Thanksgiving Break. No School Wednesday - Friday, November 25th - 27th. DECEMBER BFA Experience Tuesday, December 1st. 6:00 to 8:00 PM MRUSD Board Meeting Wednesday, December 2nd. 6:00 - 9:00 PM. Zoom Meeting link at https://www.maplerun.org/o/mrusd/events when available. Wednesday, December 16th. 6:00 - 9:00 PM. Zoom Meeting link at https://www.maplerun.org/o/mrusd/events when available. Winter Break - No School Wednesday, December 23rd - Friday, January 1st. |
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PICTURES STORY WALK INSTALLED This week Ms. Rankin organized the installation of a story walk at the north end of the walking path. Pages of a picture book were mounted on top of wooden stakes and can be read in order by following the path in a counterclockwise direction. Here is a preview of the book: "Fletcher the fox was born in the Spring, so he has never seen a fall season before. When his favorite tree starts to lose its leaves, he is worried. Is his tree sick? What is happening? Follow Fletcher on his adventure to find out answers and celebrate fall changing to winter! Beautiful watercolor artwork accompanies this fun seasonal story." Ms. Rankin. There are 13 laminated storybook reading spots located about 60 to 80 feet apart. We hope they last in this often windy and wet environment. The students shown are Travelers. CHICKEN CARE BY USA STUDENTS A group of 7th and 8th-grade students from Team USA attends to the needs of the school chickens each day. This work entails collecting the eggs, cleaning out the trays of sawdust and droppings, and filling the drinking water dispensers. A side benefit of the work is the opportunity to pick up and pet the chickens who are well used to being handled. Here are some photos of the group that visited the chickens on Thursday, 11-5-2020. SOLAR SYSTEM FOR THE CHICKEN HOUSE Here are a few pictures of the solar system used to power the lights and a drinking water heater in the chicken house. Chickens need 12 hours of light a day to keep laying eggs. The solar-powered lights provide the extra “daylight” needed for this purpose at this darker time of year. The solar system is housed in the compost shed. There are solar panels on the roof, a storage box for some lead-acid batteries, a charge controller to keep the power entering the batteries from the panels safely, and an inverter to change the stored electricity in the batteries to AC current for the lights and heater. Mr. Rouleau, the manager of the system, explained the solar equipment to the photographer. WARM WEATHER Thursday’s weather 11-5-2020 was incredible and a genuine reprieve from the low temperatures and wind on previous school days. Ms. Jarvis got the bicycles out for her PE classes. They used the bus circle for a riding loop. This group of students practiced their basketball dribbling skills in a PE class using small kickballs. OPEN DOORS SEWING Open Doors is an afterschool program that gives students and chance to learn new skills or move around in ways that are fun and helpful for development. Ms. Trainer coached these five students as they learned basic sewing skills. Their project was to create glove monsters. 11-2-2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
VIDEO FOR INTERPRETING MATH AND LITERACY REPORTS On October 29th, Mr. Ashton and Mrs. Levine held a Zoom session to give an overview of how to read and understand the new I-Ready and Lexia reports. These reports evaluate your child's' ability levels in mathematics and literacy. Here is the recorded Zoom Video LINK from that meeting with families. |
OPEN BUS WINDOWS As cold weather approaches, state guidelines for Covid bus safety are changing in order to keep our students safe and provide a level of comfort (Link to VT State Government Document). Students will continue to wear masks, have temperature checks, use hand sanitizer when not using gloves/mittens, and have assigned seating. Regarding proper ventilation, p.16 to 18 of the guidance (Link) includes that a MINIMUM of five windows (Driver, 2 front, 2 rear) should be opened all the way during cold weather. During inclement weather a minimum of 10 windows should be opened halfway, to reduce rain/snow from entering the bus. As always, students should dress accordingly to stay safe, warm, and dry. Thank you for understanding that we are following all recommendations to keep everyone safe. | ||||
OPEN DOORS Program Time: 2:30 to 4:00 pm MONDAY NOVEMBER 9TH Arts and Crafts Sewing Healthy and Creative Cooking Group Games THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12TH Arts and Crafts Sewing Healthy and Creative Cooking Group Games |
YEARBOOK COVER ART WANTED Hello 8th Graders and other artists. The yearbook committee is starting to put together the 2021 yearbook and we are asking for your help. A cover design for the yearbook is needed by Friday, November 10th. If you have creative ideas and original artwork to share with us, then let us know right away. We want the blue and white school colors to be used for the artwork. The back cover should also use the school colors. There should be room on the front cover somewhere for a title and date, and on the back there should be room for a quote. We welcome inspiring quotes even if you don’t want to submit artwork. These are cover samples from recent yearbooks. Your submission may look completely different. Thank you for the help and if you have any questions, or are looking to submit cover art or a quote, then please contact Molly Clark at mlclark@maplerun.org or Mr. Craib at mcraib@maplerun.org |
HELP AND ADVICE FOR FAMILIES Nov 12th. Digital Safety Tips and Tricks: Increased access to technology and the internet provides amazing opportunities for students to learn and connect, and it also requires the school and families to work together to keep students safe. In this practical session led by teachers (who are also parents!), we will share some great digital safety resources and strategies. Link to sign up for the online meeting |
DRAMA Scripts from last Spring’s play, that was canceled due to the shift to remote learning, need to be returned to Ms. Hartman as soon as possible. Thank you. mhartman@maplerun.org |
MENU BREAKFAST
LUNCH
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WEATHER FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK |
BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK
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