August 3rd, 2020

Good Morning Parents, Guardians and Students:

Welcome to the 2020/2021 School Year
Welcome back to school for the 2020/21 school year. I want to especially welcome our sixth grade students as this will be a new and exciting adventure for you! This has been a precarious spring and summer with so many questions of how we will open our school year. I will provide as much specific information as possible for us here at Newton. I appreciate all of the support this spring and summer from our parents, community, PTO and Accountability Committees. Your input and feedback has been extremely helpful to me.

Student schedules will be available in the student and parent portal on August 19th. We will be conducting a hybrid/blended model of learning for our students. Half of our students will attend each day and we will be implementing our regular four block class schedule with Knight Time each day. Students will attend on either A or B day and all students will be off on Wednesday. This means students will attend school in person two days a week and be home for three days a week. When students are home the expectations will be for them to be completing their assignments and class work at home. Grading will be done in the A, B, C, D and F manner. When students are home they will be expected to complete an attendance form each day and submit to us by 11:00 am. Additional instructions for this will be found in the students google classroom.

The blended learning model will assist us with social distancing in classrooms, hallways, lunch etc as we will have half of our student population in the building at a time. The A, B days will be broken up as follows:  A days will be students with the last names beginning A-K and B days will be students with their last names beginning L-Z. A day will be held on Monday and Thursday, B Day will be held on Tuesday and Friday. Please click here to view the schedule. This will be consistent in all secondary schools in the district. We will also keep our lunches per grade level, one sixth grade lunch, one seventh grade lunch and one eighth grade lunch each day. Appropriate social distancing and seating will be available to spread the students out in the cafeteria and lunch lines.

Instruction is designed to meet the academic, social-emotional and safety of our students. 

• Students will be in a maximum of five different classes each school day. This will help reduce the number class transitions and the number of student groups an individual student may be interacting with throughout the day.   
• Student support services including Literacy Support, GT Services, English Language Development and Special Education Services and Mental Health Services and Support will be in place to meet student needs.  
• In an effort to limit student contacts, there are no field trips, assemblies or large gatherings at this time. 
• Students will be utilizing Google Classroom as a support for learning during the instructional day.  Our teachers will be using Google Classroom to support learning whether we are in face-to-face sessions or if we move to a distance learning platform at any time during the school year.  
• We want to support families in using Google Classroom at home, so please be looking for our upcoming Family Academies for using this great tool to support your children. 

If you need assistance with home internet access please access this link.

To ensure additional social distancing as students enter the building we will be requiring students to use the following entrances:  sixth grade will enter through the Northwest doors or the Northwest courtyard doors, seventh grade will enter through the east doors/gym entrance to the building or the southeast doors adjacent to the sidewalk leading to the main entrance. Eighth graders will enter through the main entrance doors that face Arapahoe Road.

No parents or outside visitors will be allowed into the building.

Students and staff will be required to wear masks while at school. If a student forgets to bring a mask to school we will provide a mask for them. We will not assign lockers to students this year, students will bring their materials/supplies with them to class in their backpacks. If you need assistance acquiring a backpack please let me know.

This fall back to school night and conferences will all be held virtually. Staff will record a five minute video for back to school night to summarize expectations for their classes. The video will be posted on teacher websites, I will provide a link in a future newsletter for you to access. Parent conferences will be conducted via google hangouts, stay tuned for additional information.

In an effort to promote physical distancing and reduce additional student groupings, middle school athletics and after school clubs/activities will be postponed until the second semester of the school year. We will revisit the possibility of offering athletics/activities during the second semester in early December. We will still be providing opportunities for student organizations, such as student council, during the day to the greatest extent possible.

The question of health is a huge question for everyone, we ask for your support in not sending your student to school if they are not feeling well, have a fever, or have been around someone with symptoms of COVID-19. As always, please adhere to the How Sick is Too Sick guidance when determining if your child should come to school. Once at school, all students will participate in a health screening which will include a temperature check of students who are demonstrating symptoms. Thank you for your partnership in keeping students who are not well at home so that we can support the health and safety of our school.

• Students will practice hand hygiene throughout the day.   Building these hand hygiene routines will support our health and build good habits.
• We will have sanitizing stations at our entrances and cafeteria.
• Specific guidance about positive COVID cases, contact tracing, and quarantining will be in place.  The district is working with Tri-County to finalize this.

Parents will be expected to provide detailed information (click here) when their child is absent.  Parents will be asked to complete the detailed attendance information via form on the website.  Parents of students who are out sick but do not complete the form will be called to check on symptoms. 

We will conduct school pictures on two different days to accommodate students on both A and B schedules. Picture days will be August 31st and September 1st. On September 1st we will also provide pictures for all Newton Students Enrolled in the TOPS Program. The TOPS Program Pictures will be taken after school from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. This will be the only opportunity provided for pictures for TOPS Program students.

LPS Nutrition Services 
LPS Nutrition Services will be utilizing a new system where families can make online payments for students' meals.  We are no longer using MySchoolBucks so families are not able to make payments with their old accounts.   Please use this link, https://family.titank12.com, to begin the process of making a new account.  Simply click on "Sign Up Today!" to begin the process.  Families will be able to check what their student has purchased for the day, put limits to their account and much more. Additionally, families will be able to fill out their Free and Reduced meal application at this link.  If you have questions or need assistance, please call the Nutrition Services department at 303-347-3355.

• Microwaves in the cafeteria will no longer be provided to heat up food being brought in from home.

Transportation

• Current guidance from health officials limits ridership to maintain appropriate physical distancing.
• Buses will be cleaned after each route, before a new group of students is transported, in accordance with the guidance from health officials.
• Students will need to practice physical distancing at bus stops
• We ask parents to help us in this effort.
• A limited number of students will be able to ride the bus due to physical distancing requirements
• It will be necessary for significantly more parents to transport their students to and from school
• Students whose families qualify for free/reduced lunch will have priority
• Students who require special transportation per their individual Education Program (IEP) will be provided transportation with health measures in place
• If your student is a bus rider, please review the information from Transportation and talk to your student about what is expected on the bus: Bus Transportation Expectations.
• We will be working to keep students safe and physically distanced as much as possible when they arrive and enter the school, and when they leave at the end of the day.

The health, safety and well being of all of our students and staff has always been a priority to us at Newton and will continue to be so. If you have additional questions or concerns please feel free to contact me. Students: Fill out this counseling request if you need to speak to a person on our mental health team.  A member from the team will schedule a time to connect with you as soon as possible.

We are looking forward to beginning the school year and partnering with you to keep everyone safe throughout this journey.

James O’Tremba
Principal, Newton Middle School