August 2020
Welcome back!
Whether your student is learning from home or in person, we are excited to kick off our new, and different school year. Thank you so much for your patience and support! We know you are juggling many new worries and responsibilities these days, and we know it hasn’t been easy. Our hearts go out to you, your children, your families, and everyone affected by COVID-19. We are grateful for all our dedicated Golden Hill Elementary staff! Special thanks to our Maintenance crew who keep our buildings clean and sanitized, our food service staff who provided meals to families in need, and to all those in our community working around the clock to keep us safe.
As we kick the year off, our schedule for the first six days of school will be:
September 3 & 4 – all students will engage in remote learning from home, following their schedule of classes.
September 8-11: In-person students will attend on alternate days, based upon their last names. A-L will be in school on the 8th and 10th, M-Z will be in school on the 9th and 11th. Remote students will attend each day from home. Any household where students might have different last names should attend on the same two days following the oldest child’s last name.
September 14 will be our first day for all in-person students to attend at Golden Hill. To keep us all working together with health and safety forefront in our collective minds, here is a summary of things to know as we begin the school year:
- Student arrival: Please do not drop off your student(s) prior to 8:30 a.m. or outside of the staggered arrival times listed here. We need to be mindful of social distancing at all times. Students must be wearing a mask as they exit the personal vehicle or bus.
Last name begins with: Arrival time window
- A-E 8:30-8:35 a.m.
- F-K 8:35-8:40 a.m.
- L-P 8:40-8:45 a.m.
- Q-S 8:45-8:50 a.m.
- T-Z 8:50-8:55 a.m.
Bus routes are forthcoming and will represent, in some cases, staggered route pick up and drop off times. Students are required to wear masks to board and ride all school buses.
Student dismissal will be staggered to allow for social distancing. All students will be expected to exit the building at dismissal, which will begin at 2:25 p.m.
2. Temperature and health checks: Will occur each day as students and faculty enter the building. Anyone with a temperature of 100 or higher will be screened by our school nurse. As well, you will be filling out the health survey questionnaire on a weekly basis and submitting to school from home. If your child is not feeling well, keep them home from school.
3. Our school day will run from 9 a.m. to 2:25 p.m., Monday through Friday. There will be no after school activities. There will be before and after school Kids Club for those families requiring childcare. All students will follow the instructional schedule for their grade whether remote or in person. Attendance will be taken and follow up will occur with any family not engaged in school.
4. School day: Classes will be held in person and via electronic means. Breakfast and lunch will be eaten in classrooms. It is strongly recommended that students bring a bagged lunch with them, when possible.
5. Remote learning students will be expected to follow the same class schedule as in-person students, accessing their classes via Google Meet and other teacher created platforms. Remote students will be able to hear and interact with their teachers in the same manner as if they were in person. They can post a question or answer via the chat function, or raise their hand by using the icons available in Google Meet. Daily attendance will be taken for remote students and any student found to be absent from a class will receive a parental phone call to follow up. Remote students remain remote for the first ten weeks of school. Parents will be asked to extend the remote learning period for a second period of ten weeks, or be able to change to in-person after the initial ten weeks.
6. Hand washing, the use of hand sanitizer, mask wearing at all times and social distancing are expected of everyone. Masks may only be removed during a supervised mask break and when a student is eating lunch. It is now required in the FUFSD Code of Conduct that masks be worn while on school grounds. Please stress the importance of this with your child as the wearing of masks is mandatory. Mask breaks will occur during times that social distancing exists. We will need to have these occur in classrooms at times. Fresh air breaks and holding classes outside on nice weather days has been encouraged.
7. Access to Golden Hill will be limited. Items being dropped off will be placed on a table outside of the main entrance. They will be brought in by school personnel and delivered to your child. Please be sure to clearly place your child’s name on the item(s) being dropped off.
8. Management of COVID-19: Any person who presents with a fever of 100 or higher, is displaying symptoms of the virus, or is deemed to require additional medical evaluation will be referred from our school nurse to the parent first. The parent and the healthcare provider will decide if any testing is called for. In any case that produces a positive test for COVID-19, the Orange County Department of Health, in concert with our District nurses and medical director, will make decisions in regard to any quarantine or school closure. Please see the letter from our school nurse for more details. This information would be communicated to any impacted student’s family. Testing and contact tracing would be directed by the County Health Department.
9. Students are being asked to behave in a way that we have not asked before. We will make strong efforts to reduce stress and care for their socio-emotional needs each day. Please contact us if your child expresses strong emotion about returning to school. As well, we cannot ask more strongly that students behave as best they can. We are trusting our students to do their part in keeping everyone safe and healthy.
To assist with our back-to-school transition, we strongly encourage you to have your child practice wearing a mask for longer periods of time. Talk to them about social distancing – show them what six feet of social distancing looks like – and have them wash their hands for at least 20 seconds.
Our school year will be different and be filled with questions and some worries. Our complete faith and confidence lies in our collective energies and thinking to continue to work together with our children, their education and safety uniting us to help them achieve their goals and dreams.
Thank you for your on-going trust, support and partnership,
Debbi Lisack, principal
Golden Hill Elementary School