From the Voyager Academy Managing Director, Sept. 25, 2020

Dear Voyager Community,

The weather has certainly been unpredictable this week.  I am hoping for a sunny weekend and spending some time outside with my family. The teachers and administrative team at Voyager continue to impress me with their dedication and commitment to our students. They continue to create innovative lessons and challenge all students to reach their potential and expand their critical thinking skills. Our teachers are also committed to ensuring that our students grow and learn and have balance in their lives. Your children are part of our Voyager family and we’re all in this educational journey together.

Parents and teachers are engaged today and in the week ahead discussing student progress during conference meetings. The partnership between home and school is a critical element to paving the road to success for our children. Remember how important it is to stay positive and strong during these uncertain times and know that we are moving forward and making progress even though it looks different than we all had anticipated. We continue to work together to find solutions to challenges that are presented because of the impacts from remote learning and COVID-19.

We understand that the remote learning environment has presented many challenges for our families and we empathize with you as we all struggle to balance the demands of work, school, and family.  Voyager has developed a new community partnership with Student U in Durham to help support our families in need of free child care for remote learning.  Please read important details below about the program and how to apply directly to Student U if you are in need of a free center for your child to complete their Voyager remote learning while you are working.

Take time over the weekend to connect with your child and ask what they are learning about and help them set goals for the year ahead.  Remember to ask them questions that give them the opportunity to share their feelings so you can continue to guide them on their journey.  It’s also important to play together and have fun with one another.  Enjoy a bike riding or hiking in one of our wonderful community parks if you’re feeling energetic.  If you need to calm things down, relax together reading a good book over the weekend.  The most important part is pressing pause and being in the moment with the ones you love.

Please know that we are all here to support your child’s success.  Feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher, building level administrators, school counselor, school social worker, or me if you need assistance or support. Listed below my note are reminders and information about our new community partner Student U, the full year remote learning option, remote access to our school library, food and nutrition for families, and news from our student services team. Don’t forget to check out the upcoming calendar events listed below and read all the building level newsletters to learn more about the exciting learning taking place at each grade level.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

All the best,

Upcoming Calendar Events:           

  • Sept. 21-Oct. 9 - mClass assessments will be completed K-3
  • Sept. 25 -Parent Conference Day/Remote Learning Day
  • Sept. 28 - Sex Trafficking PD Training Session for all staff members
  • Sept. 29 -  Family Connection  Zoom Meet up with Managing Director - 10 am -Zoom Link
  • Oct. 01 - After School Social Skills Virtual Club at 2:45 (K-3)
  • Oct. 5-9 – HS Mid-term exams 
  • Oct. 08 - Parent Enrichment Class 6:00 pm-7:00 pm
  • Oct 12 - 16 - Fall Break
  • Oct. 14 – Report cards go out
  • Oct. 22 – Pre-Act (all 10th graders)
  • Oct. 22 – Board meeting 5 pm
  • Oct. 23 - MS Report Cards for 1st Quarter
  • Nov. 09 - K-3 Report cards sent home
  • Nov. 13 - MS Second Quarter Progress Reports

 

 

Community Partnership with Student U

Student U will provide a supervised remote learning space for families of Voyager Academy students to complete their Voyager school work in a safe supervised learning center while Voyager is operating in a remote learning environment and parents are working. This community partnership will support struggling Voyager families in need of free child care while they are working during the remote learning environment. Applications for the learning center will be prioritized by Student U for families that qualify for free or reduced lunch, have parents that are essential workers, or have become recently unemployed, are experiencing homelessness, are part of the foster care system, or live in public housing.

 

Apply to Student H Here

STUDENT U will establish and operate one or more remote learning facilities with programs that:

  • offer full-day supervision to Voyager Academy Charter School students during out of school remote learning time/weeks;
  • program components: (a) quality academic environments (quiet room, socially distanced student work spaces, internet access, adult to monitor, etc.), (b) recreation and physical activities, and (c) extended learning activities (social emotional learning, STEM, Art, Leadership Development, Character Development, etc.)
  • follow all applicable local, state and federal health guidelines, including applicable guidelines set forth in the Strong Schools NC Public Health Toolkit (K-12) established by the NCDHHS, during the COVID-19

 

Full Year Remote Learning Option

Many families remain concerned with returning to school during the Coronavirus pandemic and have requested the option to continue remote learning throughout the year. The Voyager 2020 – 2021 Year Long Remote Learning Option Enrollment Form is due by September 25, 2020. This is necessary to allow us to adjust class cohorts and plan staffing needs accordingly. The staffing for the option for remote only for the year will be determined by the numbers at each grade level. If there are only a few students, then they would zoom in. If we had large numbers of remote only students at a grade level, we may opt to have a remote only teacher which would operate similar to our current remote learning schedule. Once the enrollment information is completed we can determine the structure at each grade level. If you elect remote learning for the full year you will not have the option to return to in-person instruction. 

Remote Access to the Voyager Library

Our Voyager librarians have developed a request and book pick up/drop off system that will be introduced for our middle school students since they are familiar with how to request a book from the school system. The librarians will be providing information to elementary families in the near future as well so that all students and families have access to our book collections. Please review the program details from our librarians in the link if you are interested in getting books in the hands of your children to promote the joy of reading a good book. Remote Access to Voyager Library

Food and Nutrition Support for Families

From now until December 31, 2020, Durham County Public Schools is providing free meals to all children aged 18 and under.  Drive-through pick up of meals is available weekly from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday.  Pick-up sites are listed here and below. No ID is required to pick up the meals. If you are unable to pick up at the designated time, click here to obtain information on how to have meals delivered to your home.  Additionally, the Student Services Team has compiled a list of parent and community resources that can be found Here

 

 

News from the Student Services Team

 

The Student Services Team is looking forward to our October Student Social!  Please sign your child up by Tuesday, September 29th, using the link below. 

https://forms.gle/AVqxuWJSmUT6gv7f8

 

October Student Social

Date:  Thursday, October 1st

 

Grades:   Kindergarten-3rd
Time:       2:45 pm - 3:15 pm
Activity:   Feelings Bingo. Sign up and you will receive a pdf of a Bingo Board you can print out.

Grades:  4th-8th & 9th-12th 
Time:      3:45 pm - 4:15 pm
Activity:  Charades!


We have plenty of space, although we will need to hire additional staff if our enrollment numbers go up, so we might not be ready for lots of additions by Monday. However, we can accommodate up to 25-30 more families space-wise so feel free to share widely. Our enrollment form is here: https://studentudurham.org/enroll-in-the-learning-center/