Contents: Student and Family Handbook • Schedule – Distance Learning Day Starts Wednesday, Sept. 16  • Absence/Tardy/Early Dismissal Procedures • Daily Health Screening • Meals and Menu

Happy Friday, Families!

We hope your students had a great first week back in school! In spite of the obvious differences (like wearing masks), it felt like the good old days to see and hear students learning with their teachers and having fun together! We want to reiterate how grateful we are to all of our families, faculty and staff, and the community for making our reopening possible. 

As we head into the weekend, please keep in mind that if anyone in your household travels to a location other than those counties with low rates of active cases, and/or if a household member has contact with visitors from a location other than those counties with low rates of active cases, it may be necessary to quarantine to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our school community. A detailed map showing the counties with low rates versus high rates of active cases is updated every Friday and is available on the State of Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development website: https://accd.vermont.gov/covid-19/restart/cross-state-travel. VSNB students, families and staff are expected to adhere to the Vermont Department of Health’s travel and quarantine guidance: https://www.healthvermont.gov/response/coronavirus-covid-19/traveling-vermont.

Enjoy your weekend, and thank you in advance for taking note of the updates and reminders below.  

Warm regards,

Tim Newbold

Head of School

Updates and Reminders

The 2020-2021 Student and Family Handbook is available

Click here for the 2020-2021 Student and Family Handbook, which contains the school’s most up-to-date policies and procedures. 

Throughout the year, all school communications and COVID-19 information/resources will be archived on the VSNB website at https://vsnb.org/covid19-2020-21/. 

The “normal” Schedule Starts Next Week

Full-day in-person instruction (and instruction for distance-learning-only students) will be on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Wednesdays will be the designated day for all students to do distance learning, starting on Wednesday, September 16. As a reminder, the updated school calendar is available here: https://vsnb.org/calendar.

Absence/Tardy/Early Dismissal Procedures 

• If your student will be absent, please contact the office at 802-442-5955 or info@vsnb.org. The office staff will notify your student’s teacher.
  
• If you know in advance that your student will be tardy, please contact the school with your student’s estimated time of arrival. The office staff will notify your student’s teacher. Tardy students should use the main entrance doorbell and wait to be greeted by a staff member, who will conduct the health screening and sign the student in. The adult who brings the student to school, must not leave until the staff member gives the thumbs-up that the student has passed the health screening.
• If your student will be tardy and needs a school lunch, please call the school before 8:40 a.m. Our food service program works differently now that we are able to offer free meals, and orders must be placed by 8:40 a.m.
• If your student needs to be picked up early, the parent/guardian must email or call the school with notification. The main office will inform your student’s teacher of the early pick-up. Anyone, other than a parent/guardian who is picking up a student early must be on your student’s Emergency Contacts list. 

The adult picking up a student should ring the school doorbell upon arrival. An office staff member will meet you at the door to sign out your student. Please be prepared to show your photo ID (e.g. a driver’s license). The process of dismissing a student early may take up to 10 minutes, and we ask that you please build this extra time into your schedule.

Health Screenings

A parent/guardian must complete students’ Health Screenings on a DAILY basis.  If it’s possible for a parent/guardian to do it ahead of students’ arrival by using the TeacherEase health screening tool, this ensures that we can keep morning arrival moving quickly. 

You can use the TeacherEase health screening tool in one of two ways. 

• Go to www.teacherease.com on any web browser and log in. You will use the same login that you used when registering your student. When you log in, a screen will pop up asking you to complete the Daily COVID-19 Screening Questionnaire for each of your students. Follow the prompts and answer the series of questions. After you “save” the questionnaire, you will be instructed to either send your student to school or keep your student home and call the school nurse. 
• Or, Download the TeacherEase app on your phone or mobile device. Log in using the same login that you used when registering your student. Follow the instructions above in #1. 

If you do not complete the health screening at home, a staff member will conduct it with a parent/guardian upon arrival at the school. 

Meals

As a reminder, breakfast and lunch are FREE for ALL students until December. A grab-and-go breakfast can be picked up in the lobby each weekday morning from 8-8:30 a.m. For lunch, students can choose one of the following: the main menu item, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or a yogurt meal. 

Main Menu for the Second Week:

•Monday, Sept. 14th 

Lunch – Zee Zee Fun Meal, cheese stick, sunflower seeds, fruit, veggies

Breakfast – Whole Grain Cereal, fruit, milk

•Tuesday, Sept. 15th 

Lunch – Walking Pizza, flatbread, pepperoni, mozzarella, marinara, fruit & veggies

Breakfast – Whole Grain  Muffin, fruit, milk

•Wednesday, Sept. 16th – Distance Learning for all students

Lunch – Chicken & Pasta Salad, fruit & veggies – lunches can be picked up from the Abbey Group bus – please see schedule below*.

Breakfast – Whole Grain  Sweet bread, fruit, milk – breakfast can be ordered on Tuesday morning and will be sent home with students on Tuesday afternoon.  

•Thursday, Sept 17th 

Lunch – Italian Hoagie, fruit & veggies

Breakfast – Whole Grain  Bagel, fruit, milk

•Friday, Sept. 18th

Lunch – Chicken Nuggets, goldfish, fruit & veggies

Breakfast – Whole Grain  Cereal bar, fruit, milk

A menu for the last two weeks of September will be available soon. Students who bring lunch from home and wish to purchase milk may do so for 50 cents.  (Students who order a free school lunch will receive milk with their meal.) Please send your student with milk money on the day of purchase or you may prepay via check made payable to “VSNB Lunch Program.”  For as long as we are able to offer free lunches to the students, The Abbey Group will not be doing billing and therefore, they can no longer offer milk on-account.   

*Abbey Group Bus Schedule for FREE Meal Delivery 

North Bennington Route

09:10 – Former Chem Fab BCIC Building- Location Duration: 0:20

09:30 – Power’s Market- Location Duration: 0:15

09:45 – N Bennington Train Station- Location Duration: 0:15

10:00 – Harvest Hills- Location Duration: 0:10

10:10 – Dunham Ave & White Creek Rd- Location Duration: 0:10

10:20 – The Village School- Stop only

10:22 – Sunset Trailer Park- Stop only

10:25 – Harwood Hill Rd & Settlers Rd- Stop only

10:30 – 1558 Settlers Rd- Stop only