Dear BCS Students/Families,
We hope you have a wonderful weekend!
The DOE (as you may have heard in the news) will be experiencing citywide staff shortages as the vaccine mandate goes into effect. This will impact BCS in various but subtle ways – 98% of our teachers are vaccinated, 95% of other staff in other roles are vaccinated. However, we are still constantly impacted by systemwide ripple effects (School Safety, kitchen staff, nursing shortages, etc.) and with day-to-day absence coverage of our own staff. Please be patient with us. As always, we are doing the very best we can with available staff and resources, and we appreciate your understanding.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuesday Mastery Support – please stay afterschool with teachers
- All students should stay for Tuesday Mastery Support with teachers afterschool from 2:20pm-3:15pm – this allows students time to check in about questions, get help with school work, and to resolve NXs if they have them
No phones in class or crew, including at lunch
- Please review the Electronics policy for students
- Students who need support with keeping their electronics away will get reminders, parents will be notified, and Restorative Practices Coordinators will design a support plan including holding onto the device during the school day
Tentative due dates for grades for all classes and crew – grades updated in iO
- Thurs 10/28 by noon – progress report
- Wed 12/8 by noon – progress report
- Tues 1/25 by noon – final Sem 1 grades due
- Please make sure that you can access PupilPath to regularly check your grades and mastery levels
We are surveying students if they have a device at home
- Crew leaders will be surveying
- We will give ipads with keyboards to students who do not have a device, based on available inventory
Masks outdoors
- All students and staff must wear a face covering when riding on school buses and anywhere on school property, indoors and outdoors, regardless of vaccination status. This is DOE policy.
- This includes outdoors, for walking trips, instructional lunch, etc.
- If you can maintain >3 feet distance from others, you can take off the mask for longer breaks outdoors.
COVID notifications to the community
- After we notify close contacts, we send out a general update to the community that someone in the school has tested positive so everyone is aware, our notification of close contacts is what teachers observed but may not be exhaustive
Weekly COVID testing – if unvaccinated, please consent
- Our weekly COVID testing has been going smoothly. We test 10% of students who are unvaccinated and have consented.
- If you are unvaccinated, please consent to COVID testing in school using your NYCSA account or by emailing Scill@bcs448.org and she will update the system for you
- Weekly testing helps us to catch asymptomatic cases early which helps everyone in the community – this is nasal swab testing done by Dept of Health trained officials
Please stay home if you are sick
- If you are feeling sick, please stay home
- Please email your crew leader (who will notify your teachers and the attendance office) to excuse your absence
- Check Google Classroom regularly to stay on top of your schoolwork and email your teachers for help
- We want you to stay on top of work and to get healthy so that you can return as soon as possible to school
- This is not a remote option – students must attend in-person school in order to pass classes
Please get vaccinated
- Please get vaccinated (https://vaccinefinder.nyc.gov/) – students who are vaccinated are less likely to contract COVID if in close contact with someone who is positive and if they are asymptomatic, they do not need to quarantine for 10 days if exposed to someone who is positive
- Please update proof of your vaccination to the DOE Vaccine Portal (https://vaccine.schools.nyc/)
PCR tests are more effective than a rapid test
- If you have an option, please get PCR testing instead of a rapid COVID test – they are more reliable in detecting a positive result
- If you took a COVID test, and it is negative but you are still feeling sick, please take another one before you return to school to be sure you are negative
- Any positive COVID tests must be reported to Scill@bcs448.org (please forward Scill your results) for community health reporting to the DOE
Shout outs on Instagram
- Please complete the Shout out form for any teachers exemplifying the core values or any classmates you would like to shout out – we will post on Instagram and we share with students and their families
Math and ELA Screeners
- We are using Math and ELA screeners (NWEA Map Tool) in Grades 6-10 (including all students in UG Geometry)
- We will begin administering them in October (during the school day in students’ ELA and Math classes), enabling us to collect information to adjust instruction and best meet student needs
- We have previously used these screeners in Grades 6-8 beginning in 2019 so our teachers are familiar with them
- We also administered the ELA/Math screeners designed by the Performance Standards Consortium (the organization that supervises the NYS Regents waiver) in Grades 9-12 as another way that teachers can get information to adjust teaching to help students
- The DOE has also said there will be a social/emotional screener but we do not have any details about that yet
Special Education Recovery Services
- Families of students with IEPs are hearing from the DOE (see letter here) that schools will be reaching out with information about additional after school and/or Saturday academic recovery services. Our team is drafting a plan based on our resources and needs. We will be updating families in late October to discuss available options and schedules, likely additional Mastery Support time with teachers afterschool for students with IEPs.
Amazon Wish List – more stools
- Please help purchase items off our Amazon Wish List
- Right now, we would most like STOOLS from the wish list to help with sitting outside at lunch
- Please choose Friends of Brooklyn Collaborative Studies as your charity on Amazon Smile and donate to BCS while you shop at Amazon at no cost to you!
PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED
Up and down staircases are labeled
- Staircases are labeled with up and down arrows – please be mindful of following them as you travel between classes.
5-min Family Survey – COVID Vaccination
- To support our families, BCS has partnered with the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.
- We want to understand the questions and concerns you have about COVID-19 vaccination. All responses are confidential and anonymous. We appreciate it if you take five minutes to fill out this brief questionnaire – answer the questions from the parent perspective. Link: https://cunysph.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9RHzqraRwqZNx0a
- We will use your information to co-create and facilitate panel discussions about COVID-19 vaccination that will ideally address vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccination rates in our community
All families, please fill out the lunch form online
- All families must complete the online Family Income Inquiry Form even if your child does not eat school lunch
- The lunch status of your child provides valuable funding to our school and can make your child eligible for fee waivers and scholarship opportunities
- Our school zip code is 11231
- Our school name is listed as 15K448 – Brooklyn Sch for Collaborative Studies
Morning recess for Grades 6-8 every day – 8:15am-8:45am Mon-Fri
- Come play with your friends and meet new peers!
- Every morning in the yard, Grades 6-8 students can come play
- Jose will be in the yard to provide any sports equipment needed
Operoo forms system
- Our system for collecting forms is now active – families will be receiving emails and texts to log into Operoo to fill out the required DOE forms (blue card, media consent, etc.)
- If you have questions about Operoo, please contact Parent Coordinator Tracey@bcs448.org
Log into Pupilpath
- Please check your BCS student email account – we emailed you student and parent access information to PupilPath, please share with your parents. (Note: parent access information was emailed to the student in the same email – if you did not receive, you can also email Scill@bcs448.org for a registration code)