Middle School News: August 13, 2021
It has been a great week at the middle school. The students and staff are working hard to get to know each other along with sharing the expectations for each team of teachers. It appears that our students are settling in nicely and understanding the ins and outs of middle school (4th and 5th grade students are still elementary students in the middle school building.) Our fourth and fifth graders are also off to a great start! We certainly appreciate all the supplies you provided along with the support you have provided your children and staff. Thank you for your patience as we continue to work through back to school kinks! The very best thing you can do for your child this year is to make sure they attend school if at all possible and that they arrive on time. You are doing a great job with this request!
CAR LINE UPDATES: Oh my, everybody’s favorite topic! Thank you for being so patient as we are diligently working to make the car line procedure better and better. Listed below are a few updates:
The morning carline at the middle school begins at 7:45 and ends at 8:15. We have given a grace period as carline has been a little bumpy this week. It will certainly get better! We will give one more week of grace. After next week, we will begin with tardies.
Please make sure your child is unbuckled, has on their mask and has their belongings when you pull up to drop off. The goal is for the student to quickly step out of the car so that cars can continue to move through the line.
Parents are allowed to now park in the BACK of the high school parking lot and walk over to the back of the middle school building. If you are going to walk over, please remember you are walking at your own risk and parents MUST walk with our student.
We are trying to support both elementary and middle school parents during the carline. Parents who have an elementary student and who have a middle school student are being allowed to turn right once they come through the elementary line and need to get to the middle school. As long as the middle school drive is not full, the elementary staff can send you to the middle school. In the afternoon the middle school line begins loading and moving at 3:15 hoping to end at 3:45. We try to merge elementary school/middle school cars into the traffic. The officer on duty closes the middle school entrance until 3:10. This allows the elementary traffic to move and leave campus.
We are working on adding more staff to the after school and before school programs so that we can make our car line system more efficient.
PTO BACK TO SCHOOL PARTY: Thank you to the PTO for organizing our back to school party. Thank you for coming out to join the Voyager community.
WHAT DO I DO IF MY CHILD HAS BEEN EXPOSED TO COVID?
Contact Mrs. Johnson and your child's teacher
Mrs. Johnson or the school nurse will contact the family and talk you through the quarantine/isolation process.
Students may still work from home during this period. The teacher will provide assignments for the student and the parent will need to complete a daily on-line attendance.
VAMS HAS SOME SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF:
It has been an awesome start to the 2021-2022 school year and we want all to continue going well. As we seek to ensure the health and safety of all students and staff, we would like to take a moment to update our safety procedures. We have made some changes as we attempt to do everything in possible to keep students learning at school.
1. It is imperative that students begin school each day with a mask that fits them properly. Please make sure your child has a mask that will stay up over their nose. This is our number one safety feature.
2. When we returned in April of last year, we had specific directions for lunch. We will continue to reinforce the fact that students will have 14 minutes to eat lunch and then their masks will go back on. If possible, students will eat lunch outside or will be spread out throughout the classroom if possible.
3. Students will be asked to keep their masks on for outdoor recess if and when they cannot be at least 3 feet apart. If they are distancing during outside play, the mask may be removed.
4. Students need to continue to wash hands and use hand sanitizer when needed.
5. If students have any symptoms of sickness, the student should remain home until they have no symptoms. Please do not send a child to school if he or she has a fever.
6. Our school nurse and managing director are keeping a very close eye on the ever changing safety guidelines for schools. We will keep you updated as information is shared with us.
7. If we have a student who tests positive for Covid, that student will be asked to isolate for 10 days before returning to school. Voyager will send out a health email that tells families we had a positive case within our school community. We are not allowed to share specifics about the case which means grade level information will not be shared. Positive cases are reported to the health department. Students who are exposed to a positive Covid individual within their home, should report that to the building principal as soon as possible. That student will be asked to quarantine based on the most recent guidelines. All cases will be followed by the school nurse. If a student begins to show any Covid symptoms then that student would need to quarantine. Thank you for working with us as we seek to keep every student and every staff member as safe as possible. I understand we may not like the various guidelines, but I think we can all agree we need to do everything possible to keep our Voyager family healthy.
VOYAGER NEEDS SUBSTITUTES: If you are interested in being a substitute teacher for Voyager Academy Elementary, you may apply on the school website or you contact our Assistant Principal, Mr. Mitchell and he will talk you through the process of signing up to assist us. Thank you for your willingness to help.
DISMISSAL UPDATE: Car line begins at 3:15 and we will strive to end at 3:45. Please pick up students on time so staff may leave when carline is over.
WHAT ARE WE DOING AT VOYAGER THIS WEEK?
Our teachers began teaching and the students began learning Day 1 of school. I have been amazed at all the learning that has taken place. Students seem to be enjoying all that they are learning and seem happy to be at school. We are certainly glad our students are back!
Need Information
As always if you have questions or have concerns or have suggestions feel free to contact me at gjohnson@voyageracademy.net. I am happy to help you or if I don’t know the answer, I will find out for you!
Loaner Computers
Help, we have not received all of the loaner computers that were provided for the past school year. We need all of the loaners returned so please drop off the loaner during the school day. Make sure you also bring the charger! We really need these loaners ASAP so we can do maintenance if needed and provide students with them.
Thanks for your continued support!
Gwen Johnson
Middle School Principal