MEM Principal's News: November 2020

Testing Options

Quarantine Guidance

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from all of us here are Memorial School. Although this may not be a traditional Thanksgiving gathering for you it is our hope you all enjoy your time away from school and reflect on what we have to be thankful for.

Stuff the Turkey Food Drive
We have had a tremendous response to our "Stuff the Turkey" Food Drive. We can't thank you enough. Proceeds will go directly to the Bedford Community Food Pantry at Bedford Presbyterian Church.
Thanks for helping us support Bedford families!

Wellness Newsletter

Memorial's Wellness Team helps provide the Memorial community of parents and teachers with support and tools that we're using to educate our students. The newsletter is updated every week with resources and ideas for everyone to enjoy. Please click HERE to access the Wellness blog. You'll also receive a friendly reminder over the weekend.

Mrs. Davison's Enrichment Riddle of the Week

Brainstorm as a family and have fun with this. Mrs. Davison has added her "Riddle of the Week" to her blog and it includes a form where people can submit answers. Check it out HERE.

Adopt-A-Family 2020

Through the generous donations of others in our school community, we have been helping families through the holidays. We strive to ensure that all Memorial students have an opportunity to have positive experiences with friends and family during these times. We are excited to let you know that the wish lists for our families are available! There are several families that need our support. Please click HERE to see how you can contribute to make the holidays extra special for our families in need.

MEADOW FARMS GIFTS

Prizes related to sales for the Meadow Farms Gifts, Wraps and more fundraiser are being processed. Meadow Farms will ship them directly to students homes next week. Enjoy your prizes students!

HANNAFORD COMMUNITY BAG PROGRAM: For the month of November, the PTG will receive a donation of $1 for each purchase of the Community Reusable Bag (cost of bag is $2.50) at the Hannaford store located on KILTON ROAD.

AMAZON SMILE: Did you know that everytime you make a purchase on Amazon you can support the PTG? Visit AmazonSmile, and select "Bedford NH PTG" as the organization that you wish to support or simply go to Bedford PTG's unique link HERE. We recommend that you bookmark this unique link as only purchases made at smile.amazon.com are eligible for donations. Now everytime you shop at Amazon a percentage of your purchase price is donated to the Bedford PTG!

Reminders

A Shift in Contact Tracing
NH DHHS has informed us that they are no longer able to do contact tracing for positive COVID cases that originate outside of school. It is now up to schools to assist with the tracing and set the return date for students in these cases. As such, we are relying heavily on parents/guardians reporting positive cases of family members or others with whom their child has had close contact to our school nurses. We greatly appreciate you working with us to keep our schools a safe place to teach and learn.

Governor's Mask Order
Yesterday, the Governor issued a mask order for NH. Click HERE to see that order. While K-12 schools are considered exempt from that order, the Bedford School District will be adhering to it in the areas where we had not been before. The rationale behind this decision is two-fold. 1. An added layer of mitigation is prudent given the rising cases of Covid and transmission rates around us. 2. This additional measure supports our ongoing effort to keep our schools open. Thank you for your support during these challenging times.

Hybrid through the Holidays
The Bedford School District will remain in our hybrid model of education through the holiday season. Our layered approach to mitigate Covid has proven successful since the start of school. While we have seen many individual cases throughout the district, we have not experienced transmission, clusters or outbreaks. Bedford would consider a move to fully remote learning under 3 conditions:
1. Governor's Order
2. Transmission in a school or schools that we are unable to contain
3 Lack of staffing to keep a school open

Holiday Travel
The CDC recently recommended that families DO NOT TRAVEL for Thanksgiving. Please keep in mind that individual decisions made by all members of our community can have a direct impact on one another. The Bedford School District humbly asks that each of us do our part to stay safe, flatten the curve, and maintain open schools.

It is important to note that if you travel out of New England there is a mandatory quarantine period. There is now an option to shorten the 14 day quarantine by getting a PCR based test on the 7th day or after and having it come back negative. Once you receive the negative report your child may return to school. Please notify Anna Cook, school nurse at 627-1776 X-23204, if you intend to travel outside New England.

Important reminders from the Health Office:

If your child misses school and the absence is related to illness please call the absentee line (school nurse monitors absentee line). Please leave a reason for the absence (this helps school nurse with decreasing calls she has to make). If the illness, even mild symptoms or singular symptoms, is related to the covid screening criteria the recommendation is to get tested for covid. Please leave a message on the absentee line to the nurse if you plan to have your child tested and then follow up with the nurse about the results. If your child is ill please keep them home and have them tested. Please call the school nurse with any questions.

Please click HERE for specific information on how Bedford and DHHS are working in concert to keep our students and staff healthy. This information includes school exclusion thresholds, testing sites, and an updated dismissal note.

Drive Through Meal Pick Up (Change of Location)

If you have been or are planning on picking up meals for your children the drive through meal pick up site has moved from the gym entrance at the High School. It is now at the high school concession stand (building outside by the football field) and will no longer be at the high school gym entrance. It's open every school day from 9am-12pm. Meals are all FREE for any children in the community ages 2-18.

Dressing for the Weather - Recess

Our goal is to have students will go outside for recess (after eating lunch) as often as possible. Please make sure to send your child to school with a warm coat, hat, mittens/gloves, snow pants and boots (when appropriate). Snow will be coming and we want all our students to be prepared by staying warm while having fun.

Cancellations and Delays
If school is to be canceled or if there is a delayed opening, the District will notify parents/guardians using the School Messenger Notification Service. This system will send a telephone call to the primary emergency number, email message and/or text message designated by the parents/guardians at approximately 5:30 AM. In addition, the following television stations will be contacted: WMUR TV (Channel 9, Manchester), and BCTV (Channels 16 and 22). It is also posted under News and Notes on the District website and District Facebook page.

Distance Learning will continue and students should be completing the assigned work as scheduled.

If it is necessary to call a 2-hour delay at the start of school, buses will make their normal pickups 2 hours later than the usual time and the morning kindergarten and BEEP classes will be cancelled. The school day will end at the regular time.

School Attendance on Distance Learning Days

As is outlined in our reopening plan during Distance Learning Day students are expected to complete tasks assigned by their teachers for the purposes of extended learning, practice, review, and reinforcement. These are school days so if you are planning on not having your child participate on these days they will be marked absent from school for that day. Please notify the office by calling the Attendance Line at 627-1776 Option #1 if your child is unable to attend or participate. Thank you!

Friday, November 20, 2020

Principal's Notes 11/20/20

Message of the Month

Respect - (Kind words and actions, Empathy)

Important Dates

November 25-27 – Thanksgiving Break
December 24-January 1 – Holiday Recess
January 15 – End of Quarter 2
January 18 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Observance
January 22 – Report Cards Released Online

Parent Resource Documents

Testing Options

Quarantine Guidance

Our school Resource Officer continues to be a presence in our schools. Here she is visiting with a couple of our kindergarten students this past week.

A Shift in Contact Tracing
NH DHHS has informed us that they are no longer able to do contact tracing for positive COVID cases that originate outside of school. It is now up to schools to assist with the tracing and set the return date for students in these cases. As such, we are relying heavily on parents/guardians reporting positive cases of family members or others with whom their child has had close contact to our school nurses. We greatly appreciate you working with us to keep our schools a safe place to teach and learn.

Governor's Mask Order
Yesterday, the Governor issued a mask order for NH. Click HERE to see that order. While K-12 schools are considered exempt from that order, the Bedford School District will be adhering to it in the areas where we had not been before. The rationale behind this decision is two-fold. 1. An added layer of mitigation is prudent given the rising cases of Covid and transmission rates around us. 2. This additional measure supports our ongoing effort to keep our schools open. Thank you for your support during these challenging times.

Hybrid through the Holidays
The Bedford School District will remain in our hybrid model of education through the holiday season. Our layered approach to mitigate Covid has proven successful since the start of school. While we have seen many individual cases throughout the district, we have not experienced transmission, clusters or outbreaks. Bedford would consider a move to fully remote learning under 3 conditions:
1. Governor's Order
2. Transmission in a school or schools that we are unable to contain
3 Lack of staffing to keep a school open

Holiday Travel
The CDC recently recommended that families DO NOT TRAVEL for Thanksgiving. Please keep in mind that individual decisions made by all members of our community can have a direct impact on one another. The Bedford School District humbly asks that each of us do our part to stay safe, flatten the curve, and maintain open schools.

Important reminders from the Health Office:

Drive Through Meal Pick Up (Change of Location)

Wellness Newsletter

Mrs. Davison's Enrichment Riddle of the Week

Brainstorm as a family and have fun with this. Mrs. Davison has added her "Riddle of the Week" to her blog and it includes a form where people can submit answers. Check it out HERE.

AMAZON SMILE: Did you know that everytime you make a purchase on Amazon you can support the PTG? Visit AmazonSmile, and select "Bedford NH PTG" as the organization that you wish to support or simply go to Bedford PTG's unique link HERE. We recommend that you bookmark this unique link as only purchases made at smile.amazon.com are eligible for donations. Now everytime you shop at Amazon a percentage of your purchase price is donated to the Bedford PTG!

Reminders

Picture Retake Day

Geskus has decided to schedule picture retakes at our school on November 23rd, which is an A-K day. However, L-Z and Remote families are welcome to come in for retakes during that time as well. The photographers intend to arrive at approximately 1:00 PM and be here 1.5 hours or so. For planning purposes, it would be helpful to know how many students will be having retakes, so that we can put together a rough schedule. HERE is the flyer with the information. Please call the office at 627-1776 and let us know if you are planning on having your child's picture retaken. Thank you!

Stuff the Turkey Food Drive
Now through December 18 is our annual "Stuff the Turkey" Food Drive. Proceeds will go directly to the Bedford Community Food Pantry at Bedford Presbyterian Church. We greatly appreciate any canned or boxed donations you are able to give. If you would like to join us in helping our Bedford pantry, please send the items into school with your child. Remote students can drop off items in the foyer of the building 6:30am-5:00pm Monday-Friday.
Thanks for helping us support Bedford families!

Adopt-A-Family 2020
Through the generous donations of others in our school community, we have been helping families through the holidays. We strive to ensure that all Memorial students have an opportunity to have positive experiences with friends and family during these times. We are excited to let you know that the wish lists for our families are available! There are several families that need our support. Please click HERE to see how you can contribute to make the holidays extra special for our families in need.

Dressing for the Weather - Recess
Our goal is to have students will go outside for recess (after eating lunch) as often as possible. Please make sure to send your child to school with a warm coat, hat, mittens/gloves, snow pants and boots (when appropriate). Snow will be coming and we want all our students to be prepared by staying warm while having fun.

Cancellations and Delays
If school is to be canceled or if there is a delayed opening, the District will notify parents/guardians using the School Messenger Notification Service. This system will send a telephone call to the primary emergency number, email message and/or text message designated by the parents/guardians at approximately 5:30 AM. In addition, the following television stations will be contacted: WMUR TV (Channel 9, Manchester), and BCTV (Channels 16 and 22). It is also posted under News and Notes on the District website and District Facebook page.

Distance Learning will continue and students should be completing the assigned work as scheduled.

If it is necessary to call a 2-hour delay at the start of school, buses will make their normal pickups 2 hours later than the usual time and the morning kindergarten and BEEP classes will be cancelled. The school day will end at the regular time.

School Attendance on Distance Learning Days

Friday, November 13, 2020

Principal's Notes 11/13/20

Message of the Month

Respect - (Kind words and actions, Empathy)

Important Dates

November 6 – Report Cards Released Online (Grades 2-4)
November 11 – Veterans Day – NO SCHOOL
November 19 & 20 – School Spirit Days "Rainbow Day", wear your favorite color
November 25-27 – Thanksgiving Break
December 24-January 1 – Holiday Recess
January 15 – End of Quarter 2
January 18 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Observance
January 22 – Report Cards Released Online

Parent Resource Documents

Stuff the Turkey Food Drive

Now through December 18 is our annual "Stuff the Turkey" Food Drive. Proceeds will go directly to the Bedford Community Food Pantry at Bedford Presbyterian Church. We greatly appreciate any canned or boxed donations you are able to give. If you would like to join us in helping our Bedford pantry, please send the items into school with your child. Remote students can drop off items in the foyer of the building 6:30am-5:00pm Monday-Friday.

Thanks for helping us support Bedford families!

Adopt-A-Family 2020

Dressing for the Weather - Recess
Our goal is to have students will go outside for recess (after eating lunch) as often as possible. Please make sure to send your child to school with a warm coat, hat, mittens/gloves, snow pants and boots (when appropriate). Snow will be coming and we want all our students to be prepared by staying warm while having fun.

Cancellations and Delays

If school is to be canceled or if there is a delayed opening, the District will notify parents/guardians using the School Messenger Notification Service. This system will send a telephone call to the primary emergency number, email message and/or text message designated by the parents/guardians at approximately 5:30 AM. In addition, the following television stations will be contacted: WMUR TV (Channel 9, Manchester), and BCTV (Channels 16 and 22). It is also posted under News and Notes on the District website and District Facebook page.

Distance Learning will continue and students should be completing the assigned work as scheduled.

If it is necessary to call a 2-hour delay at the start of school, buses will make their normal pickups 2 hours later than the usual time and the morning kindergarten and BEEP classes will be cancelled. The school day will end at the regular time.

Spirit Days

Our Spirit Days for this month are Thursday, November 19th (B group) and Friday, November 20th (A Group and Remote Students). The theme for these November days is "Rainbow Day" Wear your favorite color.

Wellness Newsletter

Mrs. Davison's Enrichment Riddle of the Week

Brainstorm as a family and have fun with this. Mrs. Davison has added her "Riddle of the Week" to her blog and it includes a form where people can submit answers. Check it out HERE.

GIFT CARD FUNDRAISER: ONE order only this year (order due date is November 20th). Get a head start on holiday shopping! We are featuring many local area merchants, along with your favorite national businesses. Purchasing gift cards through the PTG provides support for the Bedford schools with no additional cost to you!

For more information about this program on the PTG’s website click HERE.

For Hybrid Student Families: To download an order form and memo with program information, please click HERE.

For Remote Student Families: To download an order form and memo with program information, please click HERE.

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Reminders

Picture Retake Day

Geskus has decided to schedule picture retakes at our school on November 23rd, which is an A-K day. However, L-Z and Remote families are welcome to come in for retakes during that time as well. The photographers intend to arrive at approximately 1:00 PM and be here 1.5 hours or so. For planning purposes, it would be helpful to know how many students will be having retakes, so that we can put together a rough schedule. HERE is the flyer with the information. Please call the office at 627-1776 and let us know if you are planning on having your child's picture retaken. Thank you!

Contact Tracing through NH DHHS
It has been our experience lately that NH DHHS is very delayed in contacting families with contact tracing information, and as a result, it’s possible that students come to school without knowing they have been in close contact with a COVID positive person (and should be quarantining). Please know that if your child has been contact traced as a result of contact within school, you will be called by the school (most likely, Anna Cook, our nurse) rather than wait for DHHS. However, if the contact happens outside of school, we will not know about it. My ask is that if your child tests positive, you contact the parents/guardians of any child who has been in contact with your child during outside of school activities, so that the child can quarantine and/or get tested in a timely fashion. Hopefully, things will slow down soon at DHHS. Thank you!

School Attendance on Distance Learning Days

Travel Reminder
As you begin to plan for Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season, please keep in mind the NH DHHS Travel Guidance, which the Bedford School District is following:

If a staff member or student travels outside of New England, do they need to self-quarantine for 14 days upon their return to New Hampshire? Yes. The general recommendation from the NH DHHS General and Employee Travel Guidance is that those who have traveled outside of New England need to self-quarantine and self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms for 14 days upon their return to New Hampshire. Exceptions to this recommendation can be made for “essential employees” or for staff who have to conduct “essential travel” as outlined in the public health guidance linked above, and the Universal Guidelines. Schools/districts should develop policies to address situations in which students may need to travel for child custody and/or education related purposes (e.g., visiting colleges). You can find a link to this document HERE (pg. 6).

Also, students cannot test out of quarantine with a negative COVID-19 test. They must complete the entire 14 days. Please take a look at our Quarantining Protocol/Flowchart for more information.

In order to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff, it is essential that we adhere to the policies and procedures outlined in our Hybrid plan.

Important reminders from the Health Office:

DHHS states getting a flu vaccine is more important than ever during 2020-2021 to protect yourself, your family and your community from flu. A flu vaccine this season can also help reduce the burden on our healthcare systems responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and save medical resources for care of COVID-19 patients.

Now more important than ever to get the flu vaccine!

NH DHHS Influenza resource

Flu resource for parents

Immunizations and Physicals The New Hampshire state law requires written documentation of vaccines being up to date and on file in the nurse's office as well as a physical on file at the start of preschool, start of kindergarten and if a new student. There is a state report that the school nurse is required to complete each school early November. Please assist the school nurse by sending in any updated vaccines and updated physical forms.

Morning Announcements for Distance Learning & Remote Students

It's been great seeing the kids who join us remotely for our morning announcements. I enjoy seeing them and connecting on their "home" days. This will continue being done using the Google Meet invitation embed into their Google Classroom doc. Just type in mem to join. It will take place each day at approximately 8:05 AM. It is not required and there’s nothing for parents to do.

Friday, November 6, 2020

Principal's Notes 11/6/20

Message of the Month

Respect - (Kind words and actions, Empathy)

Important Dates

November 6 – Report Cards Released Online (Grades 2-4)
November 11 – Veterans Day – NO SCHOOL
November 19 & 20 – School Spirit Days "Rainbow Day", wear your favorite color
November 25-27 – Thanksgiving Break
December 24-January 1 – Holiday Recess
January 15 – End of Quarter 2
January 18 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Observance
January 22 – Report Cards Released Online

Parent Resource Documents