Principal’s Update October 19, 2020
I hope everyone had a great Fall Break. We are excited for the second quarter of school!
Links:
News:
- Weekly lesson plans posted by teachers.
- We have had a relatively healthy year so far. We will continue all safety protocols that we established in July. As a reminder:
- All students are asked to conduct a self-screening of their health indicators each day before going to school. If an individual has any of the COVID signs, he/she should not report to school.
- If a student has been tested and he/she is awaiting the results of the test, he/she should not report to school until he/she receives a negative test.
- We will continue to require the use of masks at school in any setting in which social distancing cannot be accommodated. (Strenuous activities and eating will continue to be the exceptions to the rule.)
- Everyone is asked to follow proper protocols when coughing or sneezing.
- Everyone is encouraged to wash hands frequently throughout the day.
- Parent-teacher conferences will be held virtually on Thursday, October 29 and Wednesday, November 4. Links for scheduling the conferences will be posted in the weekly lesson plans sheets linked above. Please keep in mind that many of our teachers have one hundred or more students throughout the day, so it is a challenge to talk with every parent. If a teacher that you want to conference with is full, please reach out with your question via email and he/she will either set up a different time to talk to you or correspond by email to answer your questions or concerns.
Virtual School Information
- If you are having technology trouble, email our tech team at [email protected]
- All students should be logged into Google classroom every day. We ask parents to check Powerschool and help to encourage your child to log in to Google Classroom daily, and complete all assigned work. Here is the daily schedule for students.
Upcoming Dates:
October 23: Report Cards available in Powerschool (after 3pm)
October 29 and November 4: Parent Teacher Conferences (virtually)
School Counselors
Need assistance with a class? We encourage you to reach out to your teachers if you need some help with a class. Other options might include:
1. Math tutoring after school each Wednesday, from 3:30-4:30pm.
2. We have a corporation tutoring list. Please reach out to any staff member or your school counselor for a copy of that list.
3. AskRose Homework Help — Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s AskRose tutoring services are now available for middle and high school students confronting math and science homework difficulties. Approx. 30 Rose-Hulman students are available from 7-10 PM, Sunday through Thursday during the school year, to help students in grades 6-12 review math and science concepts. Connections can be made at 877-275-7673 or AskRose.org. This service is available at no cost.
4. Indiana’s Call and Learn free tutoring service for K-12 students is being offered by retired teachers, courtesy of the Indiana Retired Teachers Association. Retired teachers will assist Indiana’s K-12 students with language arts, math, science, and social studies. Students can call (No internet is needed.) 1-877-45-STUDY toll-free [1-877-457-8839], 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Thursdays. Students in grades K-6 connect with a general education teacher. Grades 7-12 connect with a teacher with expertise on a specific subject: math, science, language arts and social studies. All calls are anonymous and recorded; student privacy is guaranteed and no student data is gathered. There is no limit to how long calls last or the number of times a person can call. Parents and caregivers are welcome to contact the hotline for assistance with students in their homes. The service is available to all students, regardless of whether their school is engaged in remote learning, in-person learning or any combination.
Athletics
Try-outs for 7th and 8th grade boys basketball begin Monday, October 19. 8th grade try-outs will be 3:30-5:30pm and 7th grade try-outs will be 7:00-9:00pm. In order to participate in try-outs, all athletes must have the following documents submitted:
–current IHSAA athletic physical (dated on/after April 1, 2019)
–IHSAA health history update form
-“Junior High Athletics” electronic forms completed at https://greenfield-central.rankonesport.com/New/NewParentLogin.aspx
Our competition schedule is available here. This schedule still continues to change as well: http://gcjhsathletics.weebly.com/team-schedules.html
COVID-19 Information:
The COVID-19 Parent Screening for Parents provided by the Indiana State Department of Health lists the following symptoms that will result in a student being sent home, or signal for a parent to keep a student home:
- Temperature of 100 or chills
- Sore throat
- Cough or shortness of breath (especially new onset, uncontrolled cough)
- Diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, abdominal pain
- Headache (particularly new onset of severe headache, especially with fever)
- New loss of taste or smell
- This list does not include all possible symptoms. Other symptoms may be considered when determining when a student should stay home.
Symptomatic students or staff members may return to work/school per the ISDH Return to School Guidance. The simplified version is that symptomatic students and staff may return when:
- Symptoms are improved for 24 hours, fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing agents, and a negative COVID-19 test. Documentation of the negative test is required.
OR
- Ten days have passed since the onset of symptoms, symptoms have improved for 24 hours, and fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing agents. No documentation is required from a healthcare provider.
OR
- Alternate diagnosis given by a healthcare provider. Documentation from the provider must give a return date and state that his/her illness was “not related to COVID-19” or “Cleared to return to school/work”.
If a student or staff member is symptomatic, all siblings and household members must stay home. This means siblings and household members will be sent home even if asymptomatic. Household contacts must remain home for 14 days if the symptomatic household member chooses to not get tested. If the symptomatic household member receives a negative COVID-19 test result or receives an alternate diagnosis from a healthcare provider, all siblings and household members may return to school/work sooner than 14 days as long as documentation is provided and they remain asymptomatic.
If a student or staff member is identified as a close contact to a non-GC related confirmed COVID-19 positive case (for example, spouse, grandparent, non-GC co-worker, etc.), documentation must be provided by a health department or healthcare provider indicating the first date of return. GC is not responsible for initiating or conducting contact tracing on non-GC related exposure. This documentation must have the student or employee’s name on it and their earliest return to work/school date.
If your student is asked to stay home for 10 days by the clinic, which is following CDC guidelines, he/she will be coded in PowerSchool attendance as VIRT- COV — Virtual Temporary due to COVID -19. This is the coding that the Indiana Department of Education has asked us to use. This coding DOES NOT mean that your student has been moved to our corporation’s virtual program.
Please understand that only staff members see this information. Also, it does not necessarily mean that your student has COVID-19, it just means that your student is absent due to a COVID-19 situation. If your student is asked to quarantine, he/she should reach out to his/her teachers via email and/or Google Classroom so that your child can stay connected and working during the absence.
Reminders:
Math teachers offer tutoring after school each Wednesday, from 3:30-4:30pm. 7th grade students will meet in room E-111 and 8th grade will be in B-142.
Connections:
We have multiple ways for you to obtain information regarding what’s happening at GCJHS.
Website– http://gcjhs.gcsc.k12.in.us/
Twitter- @GCJHS_principal
Facebook – Greenfield Central Junior High School
Instagram– gc_jhs
Email- You can sign up on our webpage to receive the GCJHS Parent Newsletter email weekly with news, information, and upcoming important dates.
PowerSchool App- Get up-to-date grades for your child, missing or incomplete assignments, attendance and school announcements. Search for “PowerSchool Mobile” in your App Store. Once you download the app, you can search by school or type in school code 3125.
You will receive the GCJHS Parent Newsletter email weekly with news, information, and upcoming important dates. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please email “Stop” to [email protected]
—
Mr.JackPrincipal, Greenfield Central Junior High School
