District Communications
District communications including weekly updates, COVID-19 & more.
Family Updates – July 17
July 17, 2020
Dear WSD Families,
Summer break is usually a chance to take a break from the responsibilities and routines of the school year, but this summer is obviously heavily weighed down by our uncertainty about the reopening of school. I recognize that you and your children need to know how to plan for school this August and what to expect. We are working hard to figure this out, together. Our WSD Reopening School Steering Committee, JFK Team and WMHS Team have been meeting frequently to work on the WSD Reopening Plan.
Please know that the #1 stated Purpose of our Reopening Plan is to “Safely reopen WSD schools for all students, staff and families” and the #1 stated Guiding Belief is “Student and staff health, safety, and wellbeing first for ALL”.
Our WSD Reopening School Steering Committee is led by myself and COVID-19 Co-Coordinators/School Nurses Liz Parris and Katharine Monje. Our steering committee is composed of four teams. Each team is meeting independently and as a whole committee, as well as coordinating with school-level teams. The four teams and their responsibilities are as follows:
- The Continuity of Learning team is charged with creating in-person, hybrid & remote learning models and systems to support the social and emotional needs of students. Their goal is to be fully prepared for shifting health scenarios prior to the development of a vaccine.
- The Health and Safety team is responsible for developing universal precautions, daily health screenings for all students and staff, exclusion/inclusion policies (when and why students would not be allowed to come to school due to risk of posible contagion), how to best serve students with special health needs, proper protocol for cleaning and disinfecting the building, how to quickly respond to a positive case, and contact tracing procedures.
- The Operations team is working on a plan for providing student meals during in-person learning and remote learning, safety protocols for student transportation, higher-risk staff procedures, and emergency procedures. Their team is also working with an engineer to improve building air quality and create an isolation space for students who experience symptoms at school using Center for Disease Control guidelines.
- The Communications team is committed to delivering regular, timely, accessible and compassionate communications with students, families, community, and staff with clarity around health data, learning models and other school operations (meals and material distribution, etc). The team is working closely with WSD’s home/school liaisons on a plan to communicate with our English Language Learning families. The team is planning how to best coordinate with local health officials to communicate dismissal decisions and possible COVID-19 exposure. In case of exposure, communication to the school community will align with the school’s emergency operations plan. Messaging must counter potential stigma and maintain confidentiality of the student or staff member as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act.
Family Survey
Our Family Survey (which was sent out on 7/7/20) has been completed by 162 families. That is approximately 55% of our families. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please do so now.
In the survey, we ask about comfort levels with our hybrid-learning model and in-person learning model. In the charts below, 1 is “Not comfortable at all” and 5 is “Very comfortable”.
There were many thoughtful responses to our question, “Are there any specific measures the WSD can take to increase your comfort level with the Hybrid Learning model?” Here are a few examples:
- More interaction with teachers to make sure my child is up to date with schoolwork.
- Having the same day schedule for both my children.
- I would like to make sure that remote options for younger kids will not be too burdensome. We want school to be functional and promote learning, but mostly promote LOVE of learning.
- My comfort level would be increased if on the remote days, the focus was on connecting students, movement, and creative ways to incorporate tech (scavenger hunts, project based learning, etc.) with very limited time spent on instruction or having kids sit sedentary on devices. We as adults cannot handle hours of virtual meetings and our kids should not be expected to do so either.
- I assume daily temp and symptom checks for every body entering the building, required return home on check failure, masks, social distancing, redundant hand washing, a plan in place for uncooperative students and families, and a plan in place for the potential outbreak. I think with care this might be doable, esp. if we are prepared to increase precautions when they become necessary. If any of these are not part of the plan, those would be the measures to increase my comfort level.
Thank you for your incredibly valuable feedback! Your continued support in this process is critical to our success as a district. We need your continued input on reopening school. To gather your feedback, we’re using a tool called Thoughtexchange. All of our voices matter, so your participation is crucial and valued.
Click here to participate: https://my.thoughtexchange.com/809360299
You’ll be asked to respond to one open-ended question, consider and assign stars to some of the ideas shared by others, and learn what’s important to our community.
Winooski School District Community Forum on Reopening Schools
All families, staff and community members are invited to attend our online forum for a presentation of our Reopening Plan progress and to ask questions and get answers from our Leadership Team. The community forum will be held on Thursday, July 23 from 5pm-6:30pm via Zoom. We are working closely with our home/school liaisons to develop the best way to offer this information session to our newcomer families. Join the meeting by clicking https://wsdvt.zoom.us/j/93667104871 or by calling: +19294362866,,93667104871# US (New York)
Some additional updates:
District Updates
- Sadly, due to health and safety concerns, our annual WSD Back-to-School BBQ in August has been cancelled.
- If you’ve driven by our campus recently, you have noticed that our Capital Project construction is fully underway! Read more about our construction updates in the August WSD newsletter
- Speaking of our WSD newsletter, if you haven’t seen it already, you can catch up on our end of year celebrations, and read about some of our racial justice work in our July issue.
JFK Elementary Updates
WSD has half-day early releases during our school year for parent-teacher conferences and professional development for our staff. In years past, JFK has offered half-day release activities for our students. We have utilized our support staff to support our students during these activities.
As with most things for the 2020-21 school year, we have had to examine our practices and how they align with the COVID19 guidelines. One of the guidelines is that we keep students in “pods” so that they interact with the same students and adults during their time in school. This practice means that our early release activities will not be able to take place during the 2020-21 school year. The need to maintain the integrity of groups with students and adults means that we would have to have at least 23 different groups running, and the staff to support those groupings.
Not being able to run the early release activities means that our support staff will be able to participate in the professional development that happens at JFK during the early release days. As a school, we value the work that our support staff does and the difference they make with our students. As we continue to learn and grow around important districtwide efforts such as our equity and anti-racist work, it is vital that all our staff have access to professional learning.
For families, this means that students will need to be picked up on time for each of the early release days. Please consult the school calendar, and the JFK handbook when you get it, to find the days and times for our early dismissals.
As always, please connect with us if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you,
Sean McMannon, WSD Superintendent
Reopening School Survey
Dear WSD Families,
The Winooski School District (WSD) is planning for your children to return to school this August. Our district strongly believes that in-person instruction is by far the best learning model, as long as it is safe and healthy for our students and staff. As supported by The American Academy of Pediatrics, our priority is to have our students physically present in our schools in order to reduce the documented negative educational and social impacts of school closure. While our goal is in-person instruction for all students, we must be prepared for rapidly changing situations based on the most current health data and guidance.
Please take the time to fill out our Reopening School Survey. The survey should take approximately 10 minutes to complete and contains important information about our planning process. Your feedback is essential to help guide our Reopening Plan.
Thank you for your responses!
76th Annual Athletic Banquet
Wearing a Mask in Winooski
Wear a Mask or Face Covering in Winooski
The City of Winooski strongly encourages all of our residents and visitors to wear a mask or face covering when you’re not at home. This simple, thoughtful, and selfless act shows that you care about your neighbors. Governor Phil Scott and The Vermont Department of Health continue to ask all Vermonters to wear a mask or face covering whenever you are not at home. This includes inside any public building and outside whenever you are within 6’ of another person.
Data shows that wearing a mask or face covering slows the spread of COVID-19, especially before a person has any symptoms. A mask or face covering protects other people around you.
“Wearing a mask to protect others shows strength, not weakness. Please continue to follow guidance from the Department of Health to help slow the spread. We’re still fighting this pandemic, and it takes all of us working together and caring for one another.” – Governor Phil Scott
Please see the following resources for mask and face covering guidance:
CDC Resources
- Signage for Open Buildings: Please Wear a Face Covering Signage
- About Cloth Face Coverings
- How to Safely Wear and Take Off a Cloth Face Covering
- How to make your own cloth face covering – Dr. Jerome Adams, U.S. Surgeon General
Vermont Department of Health Documents and Signage
- Face Coverings for Children
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, children ages 2 and older should wear a face covering in settings where they cannot keep a distance of 6 feet away from others. We can help children understand how to protect one another and make face coverings part of our daily routine so that play, learning, and other activities can be as safe as possible.
Arabic | Chinese | English | French | Karen | Kirundi | Lingala | Nepali | Somali | Spanish | Swahili | Vietnamese
- Using Cloth Face Coverings to Slow the Spread of COVID-19
Arabic | Burmese | Chinese | English | French | Kirundi | Nepali | Somali | Spanish | Swahili | Vietnamese
- I’ll Protect You, You Protect Me
Arabic | Burmese | Chinese | English | French | Kirundi | Nepali |Somali | Spanish | Swahili | Vietnamese
Mask Signage for Reopening Businesses
The City of Winooski is recommending that any business following the State’s “Restart Vermont” guidelines use the following signage to avoid confusion regarding the use of masks and facial coverings:
- Masks Required Poster
- Please Wear a Cloth Face Covering
- Workplace Safety Guidelines
- Restart Vermont Signage
Vermont Multilingual Task Force Videos
- Masks: Why we Wear Them, How to Make/Take Care of Them
Arabic | ASL | Bosnian | Burmese | French | Kirundi | Maay Maay | Nepali |Somali | Spanish | Swahili | Vietnamese
Other Helpful Resources
- PSA: Cover smart. Do your part. Slow the spread.
- PSA: Prevent COVID-19: Wear a Cloth Face Covering
- How to Sew a Fabric Face Mask- New York Times
- Coronavirus: Which Mask Should You Wear?
Local Mask Making Initiative
The City of Winooski is partnering with Vermont Teddy Bear to support their goal of creating 125,000 cloth masks for Vermonters – we need your help! Volunteer Home Mask Makers are needed to make re-usable fabric masks. Vermont Teddy Bear will supply you with a kit of cut fabric and elastic, at-home makers will only need a sewing machine and thread. Once completed, volunteers can drop their sewn masks off in the book return at the Winooski Memorial Library. A portion of the donated masks will stay right here in Winooski to support our community! If you are interested in being a Volunteer Home Mask Maker, contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Olivia Miller: [email protected] / 802 655 1392 – please leave your name and contact information.
Celebrate the Class of 2020!
Wondering how you can Celebrate the Winooski Class of 2020 on Saturday?
You can participate in three ways:
1) For Actual Graduation Day Coverage – Tune in to live radio using the following link: bit.ly/WSD_Class_Of_2020_Radio
Start listening at 9:45 am to hear the Commencement Address, student speeches, and special tributes to each graduate.
2) You can also follow the WSD Facebook page (www.facebook.com/
3) Below is the schedule for our Mobile Graduation Procession. When we are in your neighborhood, please come out to wave a flag, a green balloon, or just cheer on our graduates! (Remember to follow all health precautions by maintaining physical distracting, wearing a mask, and washing your hands!)
Welcome ……………………………… Kai Daud (9:45)
Words to Class of 2020 ……………. Maryam Alchaderchi (9:47)
Graduation Speaker………………… Leon Wheeler, Former Principal of WHS (9:50)
Graduation Procession Route:
10:00am – Starts in front of Winooski High School.… Xavier Clark, Ramadan Hassan, Peguy Kulemfuka, Susmita Limbu, Isaac McIntire-Nunez, Milan Magar, Kassidy Rotuno, Farhan Sugow
10:10am – Main Street Neighborhood………………. Garraat Somboon, Jaysean Coleman, Najlaa Aref
10:15am – East Spring Street Neighborhood……….. Wendo Mbilizi, Scott Hunt
10:20am – Hood Street Neighborhood………………. Sara Schmoll
10:25am – Bernard Street Neighborhood…………… Andy Siki
10:30am – East Allen Street Neighborhood………… Abbas Abdulaziz
10:35am – Weaver Street Neighborhood…………… Kai Daud
10:40am – Champlain Place Neighborhood……….. Corbin Lawrence
10:45am – Forest Street Neighborhood……………..Prajwal Pradhan
10:50am – Elm Street Neighborhood………………..Shamir Gurung, Chandrika Kadariya, Najib Ali, Caleb Moore, Reeta Chamlagai, Lek Nath Luitel, Ali Hussein, Bishal Limbu, Maryam Alchaderchi
11:00am – Hickok Street Neighborhood……………. Alexis Gordon
11:05am – Malletts Bay Avenue Neighborhood……. Isha Mayange
11:10am – St. Peters Street Neighborhood………… Azee Zar
11:15am – North Street Neighborhood……………… Adison Granger
11:20am – Brisson Court Neighborhood……………. Parker Kane
11:25am – Dufresne Drive Neighborhood………….. Sophia Do
11:30am – Pine Grove Terrace Neighborhood…….. Dhiraj Dhakal
11:35am – West Spring Street Neighborhood…….. Austin Benoit
11:40am – Weaver Street Neighborhood………….. Padam Tiwari (In Honor and Memory)
Thank you for your continued support!
May 28, 2020: Digital Safety & Wellbeing
Dear Winooski Families, The Winooski School District is committed to supporting every family in our district through the various challenges the pandemic has created. Below are a few resources we hope will help. Support for Distance Learning and Keeping Your Teen Safe...
Updates: May 22, 2020
Dear WSD Families, Our school year is winding to a close while many aspects of our future remain uncertain. This can be a confusing and stressful time — for you, for our families, for our students. In the midst of this turbulent time you are exhibiting extraordinary...
Art Across the Year
Our Winooski Middle School students have worked hard in Visual Arts this year to produce artwork of incredible quality and depth. During this strange period of remote learning and social distancing, we are unable to gather in a physical space to view and celebrate...
Digital Safety and Wellbeing: Tackling Difficult Conversations in the Digital Age
Children and youth today spend an average of 53 hours a week with entertainment media, more than any other activity but sleeping – and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s no surprise then that young people today are navigating the ups and downs of learning,...
Updates: May 4, 2020
Winooski School District will hold our final round of learning material distribution on Wednesday May 6th from 9-10am at the site closest to your child’s home. When you pick up materials please stay six feet away from others in line, wear a cloth face covering, and...
WSD Welcomes Nicole Mace as Finance Manager
Nicole Mace will be joining the Winooski School District (WSD) as Finance Manager. Her first day is Monday, May 4. Nicole worked for eight years at the Vermont School Boards Association (VSBA), first as the General Counsel and then as Executive Director. Last year she...
April 26, 2020: Continuity of Learning
Dear WSD families, We hope you and your family are healthy and had a restful April break. School is starting back on Monday, and we are moving from the Maintenance of Learning to the Continuity of Learning, meaning that students will be introduced to new content and...
April 16, 2020: Learning Materials, Veggie VanGo & More
Dear WSD Families, I hope this message finds you well. I have a few quick reminders about tomorrow's material distribution and Veggie VanGo, as well as April break and our new meal schedule. Learning Materials Our third round of material distribution will take place...
April 10, 2020: Continued Learning Information & Material Distribution
Dear WSD Families, I am so proud to be part of the Winooski learning community. Over the past few weeks, our faculty and staff have been collaborating to cultivate continued learning, opportunities for connections, and ongoing support for all WSD students. Our...
April 2, 2020: Continued Learning Information & Material Distribution
Dear WSD Families, We hope you are all staying healthy, and that you and your children have settled into a healthy routine. For many of you the prospect of being responsible for your children’s education for the next few months adds stress to an already uncertain...
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