New Covenant Christian School
sCHOOL UPDATES

REOPENING PLAN FOR 2020-2021 ACADEMIC YEAR
Our school leadership has worked diligently to prepare a plan to reopen our schools for the upcoming academic year with goal of promoting the health & safety of our students and staff.
REMOTE LEARNING
Hybrid/Remote: Attendance will be recorded each day by student logging on to google classroom. In case of a failure of the internet system, students may call in to record attendance.
Each subject teacher will also keep a record of each student’s attendance in his/her class during remote learning.
Parents will be called each day of the absence or lateness of their child. Students who are consistently late and/or absent must be reported to the office by homeroom as well as subject teachers. At which time a letter will be sent to the parents’ referencing the attendance requirement of NYSED and the consequences of being absent too often. A follow up call will be made to the parents to see how we can assist in correcting any issue that might be occurring.
- Teachers will provide a method to parents by which they may be contacted with questions regarding their child or remote learning.
- Teachers will receive training on how to use chosen remote learning platform to interact with families, Sept 1-9.
- Teachers who need, will receive internet enabled devices provided by the school.
- Parents will receive training and support in the use of Google Classroom or Zoom, at the beginning of the year and throughout as
necessary. - For families who do not have access to a device, the school will provide a device to the student.
- Students without access to the internet will be instructed by telephone.
- The school has ordered learn at home materials that will be distributed to families.
- All oral and written communications and interactions will be in the family’s home language.
- School will share NYCDOE Learn at Home Early Childhood Instructional Resources and how to access it with families.
- Teachers will use remote platform to share activities related to current classroom study and create activities on how to implement study
at home as well as how to use household items for play and learning. - Teachers will support parents in creating a home schedule that will be developmentally appropriate for students, as well as transitional
activities and routines that work best with young children.
For remote learning, teachers will login two times each day to communicate with students, check assigned work, offer guidance and support to students, and also update parents/guardian on students’ progress.
- Remote learning: Class starts at 8:30 a.m. – Teacher contacts students daily to give instruction for the day. Teacher will be available to interact with students between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
- The teacher will give instructions from the specified curriculum/scope and sequence, assessing at intervals to evaluate if students are mastering the grade level learning standards. The teachers will use project-based learning, thinking-based learning, and collaborative learning to engage the students in both models.
- Projects and homework will be posted through Google Classroom. Students will be required to submit some assignments online. In the
event that there is a surge in the COVID 19 virus and school has to be closed, the students’ transition to remote learning would be seamless. - Teachers and students will continue with the in school weekly schedule. Teachers will be online at their scheduled time every day to give instructions, answer questions and interact with students. Each subject teacher will be expected to be available at least one afternoon after school hours to provide assistance to students in order to ensure that everyone is at the level they should be.
- Teachers are instructed to give assignments that will develop the critical thinking skills, that is more reports and projects that will be in line with the curriculum of a given subject.
- The aim is to ensure that all students are benefiting from classes, online or in person, and are equipped to go on to the next level of their academic life.
TESTING
a) Testing Protocols
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- Our school will not provide diagnostic testing for COVID-19. However, we will refer students, faculty and staff to TESTING SITES
WITHIN THE COMMUNITY, FOR WHICH WE KEEP AN UPDATED LIST IN THE OFFICE, in consultation with the local health department officials. - Testing of symptomatic individuals, close contacts of COVID-19 suspected or confirmed individuals, and individuals with recent international travel or travel within a state with widespread transmission of COVID-19 as designated through the New York State Travel Advisory will also be done at this facility before allowing such individuals to return to in-person to the school.
- Our school will not provide diagnostic testing for COVID-19. However, we will refer students, faculty and staff to TESTING SITES
b) Our method to monitor against such metrics is
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- Daily Health checks- screening and temperature
- Monitoring students within classroom
- Train staff on identifying symptoms of Covid-19 and ensure that teachers have updated of list of covid-19 symptoms.
- Communication and monitoring Local Health information on Covid-19.
CONTACT TRACING
a) Contact Tracing
- Staff will conduct contact tracing to determine the level of exposure within the school community.
- In case of a positive test, we will work with local health departments to trace all contacts of the individual, in accordance with the New York State Contact Tracing Program and maintaining confidentiality as required by federal/state law/regulations.
- In the case of an employee testing positive for COVID-19, we will trace close contacts in the workplace by schedule. Those contacts will be informed by phone, text, and/or email that they may have been exposed to COVID-19.
Class and school closures
If a case of COVID-19 is confirmed in a class, the families of the students in that class and the teacher(s) will be informed. The school will assist in contact tracing, and the confirmed close contacts of the positive case will be sent a letter informing them that they have been in contact with a positive case of COVID-19. Clear directions to seek medical attention and quarantine for fourteen (14) days will be included in the letter. The rest of the school population will be informed in writing and by phone notifying them about the positive case identified in the school. They will be informed whether or not their child was in contact with the positive case.
If two (2) or more COVID-19 cases are identified in the school, the school will be closed to be disinfected and the school population required to self-quarantine for fourteen (14) days. The school community will be provided with updated information during the closure.
Positive cases will be reported to state and local health departments, and the school will make best efforts to comply with the procedures required by such health departments.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Parents were invited to an in person meeting, which they could also access remotely via Zoom. In this Re-opening Plan meeting, school officials addressed potential concerns and discussed the school’s response to the pandemic with regards to keeping children safe in school and their responsibilities in this endeavor as well. The discussion also centered on accessing information on an ongoing basis.
Please see below for the detailed version of our reopening plan. We acknowledge that it is a work in progress and will keep you updated as changes are made.