From the Voyager Academy Managing Director, Aug. 20, 2021

Dear Voyager Community,

It was wonderful to meet so many families at the PTO Welcome Back picnic and at the High School Open House and Middle School Curriculum nights this week.  We appreciate and value the connections we have with our families so that we can all partner together to ensure the success of our students academically, socially, and emotionally. Thank you to all our parent volunteers that support our schools.  Please reach out to your building principal if you are interested in volunteering in the school or to the Operations Manager, Patrice Johnson, if you would like to assist with classroom lunch deliveries or support the before and after care program.

 

Our third graders did a terrific job being prepared and working hard on their beginning of grade (BOG) testing which was held this week as part of the Read to Achieve initiative. Reading at home with your child will continue to build those skills and develop a lifelong love for reading.

As I walked through the classrooms this week I also saw our students actively engaged in Spanish, Geometry, Language Arts, Circle Time, and PE. Teachers are doing a great job building connections in the classroom to support the needs of their students and creating student centered lessons for active learning.

Thank you all for your support and cooperation with our COVID safety protocols and procedures. Please remember to keep your child home if they have any COVID symptoms or if they have been told to quarantine because of an exposure. We have posted a COVID dashboard on our website to keep the community informed of our cumulative cases.  To date, we have had 14 community related COVID cases.  None of the cases to date are part of a secondary school transmission.  We have also posted a COVID concern form on the website to allow for anonymous reporting. We appreciate your assistance keeping our school community healthy and safe.

Feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher, building administrator, or student support if we can assist your family in any way.  Please review the information below for upcoming events and additional resources.

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Upcoming Events:

 

Date
8/24/21	5th Grade Curriculum Night via Zoom	5:30 PM
8/25/21	8th Grade Curriculum Night via Zoom	5:30 PM
8/26/21	Board Meeting – MS Art Room	5:00 PM
8/31/21	Elementary Curriculum Night – 2nd & 3rd Grade	Zoom links will be shared
8/31/21	High School Yearbook Pictures
8/31/21	Elementary Curriculum Night – K & 1st Grade	Zoom links will be shared
9/1-9/16/21	ES & MS Step it Up Fall Fundraiser
9/6/21	School Closed for Labor Day Holiday

 

Updated COVID Safety Protocols and Procedures

The leadership team continues to meet with state education leaders, NCDHHS leaders, and our Duke ABC Science Collaborative physicians and team to help navigate the Covid pandemic safety protocols.  We are making some additional modifications to further improve our safety measures. An outline of our procedures is included below.

• Please remember to keep any sick child home from school and contact your building principal and school nurse with updates. They will provide any additional guidance needed.
• Continue universal masking of all students, staff, parents, and volunteers while on campus in doors. Please make sure your child’s mask fits properly and remind them to keep it over their mouth and nose throughout the day.  Masks may be removed when outdoors when social distancing can be maintained.
• Frequent opportunities for handwashing will be made available for students. Classroom tables, high touch surfaces, and classrooms will be cleaned and sanitized for safety.
• Over 90% of Voyager staff are vaccinated. Testing and Covid screening will begin on campus for all interested staff and students whose parents provide consent.  Unvaccinated staff will be required to participate in weekly Covid screening testing to identify any asymptomatic cases to mitigate any potential spread.
• Staff are encouraged to utilized the following strategies to keep students safe during meals.
  • Have lunch outside whenever weather permits
  • Socially distance children when indoors while eating by alternating groups that are actively eating during the lunch period
  • If students must be indoors and cannot social distance, monitor the unmasked eating time to keep under 15 minutes to limit close contact exposures
• Voyager will continue to provide communications to our families about Covid cases on campus. We will begin to identify the grade level of a case but cannot provide any other identifying information to protect the privacy of the individual who tested positive.  Any close contacts to the positive case will be notified by the school and/or local public health department. The school will also continue to maintain the Covid data dashboard on our website at the building level.
• Those students who are masked and exposed to a masked, infected person in the classroom (within 6 ft, cumulative 15 minutes) do not meet the school definition of close contacts. That is – they are not required to quarantine from in-classroom activities. However, they are still required by public health to quarantine from other activities (e.g., extracurricular activities and sports).  Parents of close contacts will be notified so they can take additional quarantine precautions for activities outside of the school day.  Please keep in mind that per current local health guidelines, these students are still able to attend school.

NCDHHS Toolkit

K-12 Public Health Guidance 7/21

 School Nurse Update

A BIG SHOUT OUT to our Vikings that have signed up for our surveillance testing program!! Testing will begin next Tuesday 8/24. Our testing program provides an additional layer of detection and protection to our Voyager school community. If you haven’t signed up yet, still need a little more time to decide, or would like to participate at some point in the future, you can email Mrs. Skoff (cskoff@voyageracademy.net) to enroll your child. 

 

Parent Calendar for 21 - 22 Activities

The 21-22 Voyager Parent Activities calendar lists all programs and activities so all families have access to the events and programs offered on campus. The calendar is posted on the school website. 

To subscribe to 21-22 VA Parent Calendar

• View 21-22 VA Parent Calendar on Voyager Website under the Calendar tab
• Select the plus sign at the bottom right of the calendar to add to your Google calendar
• This will open your Google calendar

• Select other calendars, add calendar
• Select subscribe to calendar
• Once subscribed, Voyager events will populate on your Google calendar
•  

Before & After Updates

• We have been able to hire additional staff and have added new families to the before and after care program.  We are continuing to recruit staff and are striving to accommodate all families. Families currently on the waitlist will receive an email advising them of their updated status. If your status indicates open for enrollment, you will have 48 hours to claim your spot and a day/time to complete your registration. 

• Registration for before and after care is temporarily closed. The difficult decision was necessary to ensure we stay within the state mandated staff to child ratios. Families can sign up for the waitlist using this link. Space will be allocated to wait list recipients on a first come first served basis. Siblings will be kept together for registration when an opening is available.  That means if you have an ES & MS student, their slot comes available at the same time.The waitlist is under Activities and Fees in Charter Pay. The can also be found on the Voyager website before/After Care Program page under parent resources. Here is the link https://charterpay.org/school/voyager/item/767aa9f1-cde1-4102-aa87-48941807f209

• We do not have a single day, drop-in or punch card option for early release days. The 2 and 3 day after care options are fixed days. Families will be asked to provide which days their student(s) will be attending.
• If you have difficulty with Charter Pay or need help setting up your account, reach out to support@chartersuccesspartners.com or 888-485-4643
•  

Lunch Program

We are really excited about the new look, ease of ordering and the family portal features. The website makes it quicker and easier than ever to order lunch for your student(s), add funds to multiple accounts and view your order history. If you need assistance email foodnutritionservices@voyageracademy.net.

What you need to know:

1. There are two systems that work together for ordering and payment
   1. LINQ ONLINE ORDERING - View and order student/staff meals.
   2. TITAN FAMILY PORTAL -Pay your school fees, manage your students accounts and apply for free and reduced meals.
2. Pre-Payment Options - Please take advantage of the options to prepay your student's meal accounts.
   1. Send/mail Check or money order, made payable to “Voyager Academy” to school with your student. Please place the payments in an envelope marked clearly with your student's name, their ID #, their teacher's name, the $ amount and the check #. Turn in prepaid deposits to the teacher or school office.
   2. The online payment system is coming soon.  This is a simple safe and a secure way to make payments to your students account 24 hours a day at your convenience. (Currently unavailable, but coming soon)
   3. Download and Print Out a pre-formatted #10 Envelope for making Deposits

2. Ordering Rules
   1. There are 2 options for meals. The Lunch meal, which follows USDA meal guidelines or a Vegetable plate. 
   2. The vegetable plate contains 3 vegetables (generally two of the same on the day's menu and a third vegetable/legume) with a fruit. It is an optional choice and is not available as a free or reduced lunch meal. The component guidelines for FRM is very specific. 
   3. You can pre-order the days you want to purchase a meal for the week or the full month. (You select which days within that week/month)
   4. There is a week advance Order Cut Off date. All orders must be made the Monday of the week before. 
   5. We can not accept day before or same day orders. Changes/cancellations can be made up to 2 days before the meal date.
   6. We have relaxed the ordering rules for week 1 and 2 of the school year while Chase Bank completes our point of service account. 
   7. Images/photos on the menu are for promotional purposes and are not actual meal photos.
3. Free and Reduced Lunch meal pricing is available at Voyager Academy.
   1. Applications must be renewed each school year. If a new application has not been completed, the student will automatically revert to “paid” status.  
   2. Verification of income is required. Please submit supporting documentation to foodnutritionservices@voyageracademy.net after you complete the application. You can view the  USDA Child Nutrition Programs Income Eligibility Guidelines (2021-2022)