St. Bartholomew’s EAGLE’S NEST

November 23, 2020 Hello Parents and Guardians,

This week we anxiously await Thanksgiving and thinking about all that we are thankful for. I am certainly grateful to be here at St. Bartholomew’s and to work with the faculty, staff, students and parents of this community. During this time of uncertainty in our world, we can be consumed by the negatives that bombard us every day. This Thanksgiving, let us make a special effort at our Thanksgiving table to focus on some positives! How has the pandemic made a positive change in our lives? I know that may seem hard to do, but they are there! Uncover them together as a family. –“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34

Wishing all of our Saint Bartholomew’s families a happy and blessed Thanksgiving! Stay happy and healthy! See you back to school in person on Monday, December, 7th !

November 30th-DECEMBER 4th VIRTUAL LEARNING- As stated in our previous email and call to our families, November 30 through December 4th is a virtual learning week for our students. This action was taken because of the rising number of COVID cases in Union County and there is a concern about traveling and spread of the virus over the holiday.

Your child will have a full day of virtual learning on Monday and Tuesday. They will follow their regular school schedule. On Wednesday, they will follow the regular virtual Wednesday schedule. On Thursday and Friday they will follow a half day schedule as they would when we have a half day at school. Please read teacher instructions carefully. Preschool will notify parents about their virtual times. ALL students are expected to follow the virtual learning rules this week while on Zoom. If you are not following the virtual learning expectations, a teacher may ask you to leave and you will be marked absent for the day. You will be responsible to complete all work for the day at home.

1. Be up, dressed in your school uniform, and log in on time each morning to your first class. If you do not log on, you will be marked absent after 15 minutes. If you have trouble logging in, a parent must contact your teacher via email to let them know.

2. You need to use Google Classroom and Zoom on a device from home to watch live streamed instruction following your middle school schedule. You are also responsible for homework.

3. There is no food or drink present during instruction time. 4. You may not use phones, music streaming, social media apps, or use other electronic media

during instruction. 5. Discussions among students should not be occurring unless a teacher is leading a class discussion.

Students need to remember to be respectful and listen to the speaker (the teacher or student that is speaking) at all times.

6. A student should NEVER play with a teacher’s screen and write on a teacher’s presentation that a teacher is sharing!

7. Students need to be visually present at all times during their instruction. 8. If earphones or ear buds are being used, they are to be for instructional purposes only. You

should not be listening to music or texting friends during your instructional time. 9. Parents and siblings should be mindful of what can be heard and seen during video conferencing.

Your child should be in a reserved, quiet area for learning. 10. Students are expected to follow St. Bartholomew’s code of honor and demonstrate academic

integrity for assignments, tests submitted to their teacher. Remote learners are to adhere to all school policies and procedures in the school handbook.

11. No photos, screenshots, or recording should be taken from any video conference sessions.

VIRTUAL INSTRUCTION- When setting up virtual instruction in the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, it was set in relation to COVID. Students MAY NOT get on virtual instruction if they are absent for the day for other illnesses, for travel, or a doctor’s appointment. A student may only use virtual instruction for these purposes:

1. They have an active case of COVID-19. 2. They are waiting for test results of a COVD test. 3. They registered for virtual learning in August/September. 4. In order to go virtual for these reasons, a letter must be sent to the school principal at:

sbaprincipal@stbacademy.org

Students who log on virtually for other reasons will be asked to leave the Zoom and complete the work that is listed in their Google classroom or to get the work the next day upon their return as they normally would for a sick absence.

RETURN TO IN-PERSON INSTRUCTION- If you are planning to join us in person for learning on December 7th after being at home on virtual learning during the first trimester, you must send back the in person learning form to the school office via email by Monday, November 30th. We will need to know how many students to plan for on Monday, December 7th. If we do not hear from you via this form, we will assume that you are remaining virtual for the second trimester. You will have a chance again at the beginning of the third trimester to come back to school in person.

FOOD DROP OFF- Thank you so much for your generous, non-perishable food donations this morning. You can still bring in food to drop off at your entrance door tomorrow morning (Tuesday) Food will go to St. Bartholomew’s food pantry.

REPORT CARDS- This trimester, report cards will be available to view on Power School only on December 1st. Parents should log in with their Power school username and Password to view the report. You may print it out from home if needed. If you have trouble accessing the report, please contact the school office. We will be open November 30-December 4th from 8:30-12 each day.

TEACHER CONFERENCES-By now, you should have received the sign-up form via email for teacher conferences. Conferences will be held on December 3rd and 4th virtually with teachers during the time period that you signed up for. Please be mindful that our teachers are seeing many families during a short period of time. Please have questions that you’d like to ask ready and view your child’s report card BEFORE entering the conference. If you should need more time than the allotted time, the teacher will be happy to make other arrangements to discuss your concerns. Students will have a half-day virtual schedule on this day due to the scheduled half-days.

TRAVELING FOR THE HOLIDAY- Please remember that there is a quarantine state travel list in place. If you are traveling over the Thanksgiving break or are having relatives from other states visit you, practice social distancing and mask protocols. We have been blessed and fortunate to have minimal cases or spread of COVID in our school and we want to come back safely after the holiday so that we can celebrate the very Holy time of Christmas together! If you become ill or have a student that tests positive over the break, please email the school nurse and school principal to notify us. Even though we are closed, it is important for us to keep track of positive cases and exposure to keep our community safe and to make sure you quarantine for the appropriate amount of days.

UNION CATHOLID DAY OF HOPE- Our eighth grade students were invited to Union Catholic’s “Evening of Hope”. Information went out via email to parents. If you can attend, please RSVP and log in virtually on November 24th for this special evening!

NEW SCHEDULE - The Middle School students received a new class schedule for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year. By now, your child’s teacher should have contacted you with the new schedule. I thank you for your patience as we had to work the kinks out last Thursday and Friday. The new schedule affected some lower grade specials classes, so some specials times have changed. This is important to know as you

DROP OFF/PICK UP TIMES AND ROUTINE-I do understand that the schedule change caused afternoon pick-up issues as well. We are currently working this out and will send a phone call and email home during virtual week of the new pick up times. Times will only vary by five or ten minutes to shorten the wait for siblings.

We are also working with our facility manager and the Scotch Plains police department on transitioning to a more effective drop off and pick up routine since the cold weather will bring snow. This will cause all of the cones and barriers to be removed in order to plow. Along with the dismissal times, we will be sending home a new map and drop off protocol via phone and email. Both things will begin upon return on December 7th. I’d like to thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation as this will be the final change and process we will use for the rest of the school year.

BOXES OF JOY- Thank you for all of your boxes of Joy! If you would like to still participate in this project, we will be collecting boxes until November 30th. You may drop them off at the school office during virtual week between 9:00-12:00.

THANKSGIVING PRAYER SERVICE- Thank you to the eighth grade for reading and leading our Thanksgiving Prayer Service on Tuesday, November 24th. Grades 1-4 will attend at 9:30am and Grades 5-8 will attend at 10:30 am. We will remember all of you in our prayers on this day. Although parents cannot join us in the church due to COVID restrictions, you can join us virtually. Anyone who wants to watch can go to the parish website: stbartholomewchurch.org and click on the livestream tab at the top.

TAG DAY TUESDAY- Tomorrow, 11/24 is Tag Day Tuesday. For $1.00 your child can wear non-uniform clothes to school. Please follow the rules in the school handbook.

“Delicious Orchards Fundraiser Pie and Donut Pick Up Information”

Pies and Donuts will be available for pick up through drive by only in front of the convent on Tuesday, 11/24 between 12- 12:30. Please remain in your vehicle during the drive by. If you have any questions please reach out to Genevieve at 201 334-7416 or perezgenevieve@yahoo.com.

Blessings and Peace! Ms. Harrigan, principal

Your Nurse’s Corner

Hello! It's Nurse Polo: The screenings are going very well. Thank you for returning the permission slips. I'm sure some of your children made you aware that they got screened. What a delight to meet the ones I hadn't met and spend some time getting to know them. Please continue to send in the Health Records with a copy of vaccinations, if u haven't already done so, especially for new students and Kindergarten. You will be receiving individual letters if you are missing paperwork. Keep in mind as you celebrate Thanksgiving, how lucky we are as parents, students, faculty, and staff to be part of such a great school. As we spend time with our families,let's do our part to stay safe so we can continue to be part of SBA every day for our children and students. As you all know, the numbers of Covid 19 continue to rise in the state of NJ and all around us, so please take all necessary precautions. Remember, if you have to do a 14 day quarantine because of a Covid 19 positive test result before you can come back to school, the requirements are: a Doctor's note and a Negative test prior to the return to school. For the parents of PreK3 and PreK4 please make sure you keep sending in the Influenza Vaccine paperwork, if I don't receive it by the end of the month, you will get an individual reminder. If you have any questions or concerns I can be reached at mpolo@stbacademy.org Have a Blessed Thanksgiving Maria Polo RN

HSA CORNER Please help support our Hsa fundraisers. All funds raised go directly back to our student programs! Purchase items as Christmas gifts! Thanks for your support!