Brunswick-Brittonkill Central School District

Financial Aid night Virtual Oct 21 6 pm Link to follow

Dear Secondary School Families: Happy Friday! With September now in the books, we are looking ahead to another busy month. Considering where we were with time this summer, I can’t say enough about how smooth of a start we have had! Our goal is to keep the positive momentum rolling as we plan our next steps in the school year. Our Continuity of Instruction Committee has been assessing our current progress to date and starting to build the cohort calendar for the late fall/early winter. If your child is fully remote, it is important to note that parents/guardians have until October 23 to notify the counseling department if there are any changes in your child’s mode of instruction (hybrid learning vs. remote). We will need this information to ensure we are always meeting the needs of all of our students and following safety guidelines. We appreciate your continued support! Here are some important updates for this week: Open House - Wednesday, October 7!: Our new virtual open house program is ready for its test drive! The staff has worked hard to construct a meaningful and safe experience that we hope you will enjoy. The program consists of short videos and live sessions with teachers. : Open house videos: Videos will be sent out to all families sometime before the program begins. The videos will contain important information from your child’s teachers and may be viewed whenever it is most convenient for you! Live Meets with teachers: On the evening of October 7 we will hold 15 minute Google Meet sessions with parents from 5:15-8:00pm. Please click on the link below to view the entire schedule. Mr. White and I hope you will join us to kick off the program at 5:15 pm! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K-4THXc9daHlir-Xb9X633SYwXLi82uF49D03P_yPwA/edit?usp=sharing School Picture Day(s): Please mark your calendars! Adirondack School Portraits will be coming for our annual school picture event. Here is the plan for all students: 10/13: 11th and 12th Grade (Blue Cohort Day) 10/14: 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade (Red Cohort Day) 10/15: 9th and 10th Grade (White Cohort Day) Fully Remote Students: May come into school (check-in at front desk) between 7:30 am-3:30 pm on Oct. 13th, 14th or 15th. ***There will be a window of time on October 13th and 14th from 2:15-3:30 pm after school day hours. Picture Retake Day: November 23 from 11am -3:30pm. Chromebooks: This will be the last week for scheduled Chromebook pick ups - Mon-Fri 9-2:30 in the front lobby of our building. Please email adenovellis@brunswickcsd.org if you need to arrange (for grades 7-12). Principal’s Advisory Committee (P.A.C.): I wanted to inform you that we have a brand new student organization up and running called PAC. PAC is how the school administration at Tamarac High School empower and encourage students to develop leadership skills and take an active role in leading proactive school change. This year PAC is open to all 11th and 12th grade students who will attend monthly meetings and work collaboratively throughout the year. Using a consensus building model, the committee is currently focused on identifying our priority goals. Mr. White and I are truly excited to be working alongside these incredible students to help make our school community even stronger! Stay tuned for more... Calendar: Mon. 10/5 = WHITE DAY, Tues.10/6 = BLUE DAY Wed. 10/7 = RED DAY, Thurs 10/8 = WHITE DAY, Fri 10/9 = Virtual for 7-12 students 10/2: Interim Report Period for Quarter #1 Ends Thank you for your all that you continue to do at home during these challenging times. I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing weekend! #TamaracStrong Sincerely, Ken Rizzo Principal Tamarac Secondary School

Dear Tamarac Elementary School Families, We would like to notify you that we are planning to conduct a fire drill in the elementary school Friday September 25, 2020, consistent with New York State requirements. We will take a modified, staggered approach to how the drill is conducted in order to minimize the risk of spreading infection while ensuring that students and staff understand how to get to safety in a situation where evacuation is required. At this point, we are planning on evacuating classes individually by coming to the door of each classroom one-at-a-time to announce the drill. We will not be using the fire alarm at this time. Teachers will escort their classes outside the building using the appropriate exit closest to the classroom. Teachers and students will walk out to the designated meeting area for their classrooms, and attendance will be checked. The class will then be called back into the building. We estimate that the process will take approximately 10 minutes per class. Students will be instructed that in the case of an actual emergency requiring evacuation, an alarm will sound, and the entire building will evacuate at once. We appreciate your understanding and flexibility with these modified fire drill procedures. Sincerely, Rich Pogue Principal, Tamarac Elementary School

Good afternoon: Tomorrow morning you will receive a health screening to complete for your student. You should receive one for each student. It is a quick questionnaire aimed at ensuring our school community is stop the spread of COVID 19 and keep the spread from Tamarac Schools. I would appreciate if all families(in person, remote and hybrid) complete the health screener. A reminder will be sent if you do not complete the initial screening. If you have any questions, please let me know. I thank you in advance for your cooperation. Angelina Maloney Superintendent

Support the Tamarac Senior Class 2021 https://www.boonsupply.com/collections/611081-tamarac-high-school-class-of-2021

Dear Tamarac Elementary School Families, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Kelly Onorato, and I am completing an internship with Mr. Pogue as I pursue my New York State School Building Leader certification. I am so grateful to be continuing my learning in the Tamarac community, and I am happy to support you and your children alongside Mr. Pogue this fall. I will be with Tamarac Elementary full time through October 26, 2020. Mr. Pogue and I are pleased to say that we have successfully completed our first full week of school for the 2020-2021 school year! Whether students are with us in-person or virtually, it is wonderful to finally have our days filled with smiles, laughter, and learning again. Understandably, our necessary health and safety procedures give this year a different feel compared to years past, but our students are already showing great resilience and an eagerness to learn. They may be having the easiest time with our new “normal”. We greatly appreciate your flexibility with modified arrival and dismissal procedures this year. We have been fine-tuning our procedures to protect student and staff health while increasing efficiency as much as possible. Moving forward we will begin allowing students to enter the building at 8:40 AM. We will continue to exercise some flexibility with late arrivals at this time to allow for an orderly temperature screening process. Upon arrival, students will continue to enter the building at their designated grade level entrances after having their temperatures screened. Students with a temperature reading of 100.0 degrees F or greater will be screened a second time. If their temperature reads 100.0 F at that point, they will be escorted to the isolation room and a parent or caregiver will be contacted to pick up their child. For dismissal, we have shifted to beginning the process at 3:00 PM. Once aftercare students have been dismissed from their classrooms, students picked up by parents or caregivers will be dismissed alphabetically. Signs will continue to be placed at designated exits indicating which students may be picked up at which exit (i.e., A-F, G-O, and P-Z). When you arrive to pick up your child, please wear a cloth face covering/mask over your mouth and nose, and maintain an appropriate social distance from those around you when waiting in line. We have painted blue dots on the front sidewalks for your reference to assist in maintaining social distancing protocols. Your cooperation has been vital to a smooth and safe pickup process; thank you for your patience and understanding as we improve this procedure. We are all in this together. As we adapt to our new routines during the school day, we will be re-integrating our “SMART” approach to behavior education and support. For families unfamiliar with this approach, each letter represents a category related to schoolwide behavioral expectations: S = Safety; M = Manners; A = Accountability; R = Respect; T = Task. We will be communicating more about our SMART approach to behavior in the upcoming months, and we believe that consistent and positive behavioral expectations will support our students in retaining a sense of normalcy as they continue through the school year. Enjoy this lovely September weekend with your children, and please give them time to rest and recharge. We all need to build up our stamina after many months away from our typical school routine! I hope they are as happy as I am to return (virtually or in-person) on Monday. Warmly, Kelly Onorato Elementary Principal Intern

The Brunswick CSD is proud to announce that ALL students can eat free breakfast and lunch. The USDA has extended funding to allow BCSD students meals free of change through December 31 2020 or when funding runs out. Please contact Joy Wright at jwright@brunswickcsd.org w/ ?'s

Dear families, We look forward to another year of feeding your students especially from our brand new MS/HS kitchen. If you are learning remote or hybrid and wish to order school meals, we have set up an ordering system to assist you in the process. You will need to order weekly by Thursday at noon for the upcoming week. email us at: foodordering@brunswickcsd.org We will need: Student(s) full name Student(s) grade Number of meals for the week, clarify number of breakfast & lunches Dates you are ordering for: example week of 9/21 - 9/25/20 Guardian contact & cellphone Please note, do not request a meal on the day your student is participating in, in-district learning. Pickup of meals will be every Monday at 9:00am located at the auditorium entrance. If you have a hardship and cannot pick up your meals, please note this in your ordering and we will try our best to accommodate. If you do not qualify for free or reduced lunches you must pre-pay for your meals. We cannot accept cash at pick up. If you need a free and reduced lunch application, please go to our website at brunswickfoodservice.org If you have questions please contact me. Sincerely, Joy Wright Brunswick CSD Cafeteria Director 518-279-4600 ext 2208 Sincerely, Cafeteria Manager Brunswick HS

Parents and caregivers of HS Fully remote students should check their email for a welcome letter

Secondary School families: Have your students check their school emails to look for Google Classroom and/or emails from your teachers!

Good evening Tamarac ES Families: AM Drop Off - Due to the increased number of parents driving children to school this year, we are allowing parents to drop off students as early as 8:30 am and continue through 9:00 AM. Over the first weeks of school, we aim to determine a reasonable window of time for arrival procedures. Generous flexibility will be exercised during the first weeks of school concerning arrival times as we fine-tune the arrival process. For safety reasons, no parents are allowed to drop off students in the bus parking lane - it will be blocked off to all vehicles except buses. Parents are asked to drop off students near the main crosswalk to the elementary school; there will be a faculty member to assist with crossing. This year, we will be employing three entrances to facilitate COVID-19 safety protocols: Kindergarten and 1st grade students will be entering the building at the entrance nearest the playground and Route 2 - this is the entrance/hallway that leads to their classrooms. 2nd and 3rd grade students will enter through the main entrance and 4th and 5th grade students will enter near the cafeteria. Adults will be there to assist getting students to the proper entrance. Social distancing and appropriate spacing does need to be maintained as students enter the building. Once students are in line to enter the building, all students will have their temperature taken and recorded; students with a temperature of less than 100.0 degrees Fahrenheit will be able to enter the building. Any students with a temperature of 100.0 degrees F or greater will be assessed again - no student with a temperature of 100.0 degrees F or greater will be allowed to enter class, and will instead be escorted to our isolation room to await pick up by a parent or guardian. If your child does not have a temperature, they will be brought to their classroom as we prepare for the day. At this time, the student may pick up a grab-and-go breakfast which they may eat in the classroom. PM pickup - To begin, no cars will be permitted to enter the bus parking lane at any time; parents must park in the parking areas near Route 2 or near the football field. To speed up student pickup in the afternoon, we will begin dismissing students at 3 pm. We will start by escorting kindergarten and 1st grade students to the parent pickup area starting at 2:55 PM, which is by the doors near the cafeteria (as we have done the past few years). Then, we will begin calling down the remaining students alphabetically so that families can pick up all their children at one time; this will happen in 3 waves. Students will need to be physically distanced as they wait to be picked up. Our established sign out procedures will continue. Our goal is to have all parent pickup students released from the building by 3:15 PM - hopefully this will reduce some of the congestion of vehicles exiting on to Route 2 at dismissal time. As with all processes this school year, this will probably take longer than usual as we get used to putting names to (masked) faces. We are still fine-tuning many things in this building as we enter this very unprecedented time. Let us know if you have any questions at rpogue@brunswickcsd.org Sincerely, Rich Pogue

Dear Parents/ Guardians: We apologize for any confusion regarding Questar issued chromebooks. We have coordinated with Questar and have resolved the issue and would like to clarify the plan for technology moving forward. Your child will be issued a chromebook by Questar. That chromebook will allow them to log into both their Questar and Brunswick CSD Google accounts and be used at both locations as well as allow for more of our chromebooks to remain in the district to be available for our students on campus. If you have already been issued a Brunswick CSD Chromebook please return it to the school. You can drop it off at the reception desk in the Secondary school lobby from 8-3 tomorrow (Thursday) or send it to school with your child on Friday. If you have not picked up a Questar Chromebook please call or email Anthony Denovellis at 518-279-4600 ext 2616 or adenovellis@brunswickcsd.org to arrange a time to pick it up in the main lobby of the Secondary school. Please remember to bring your Brunswick CSD Chromebook and charger to exchange for the Questar Chromebook if you had already been issued one. Thanks you for your patience and understanding, Sincerely, Ken Rizzo

Brunswick CSD Families: Please read the following letter regarding meal ordering for hybrid and remote learning for the upcoming school year. https://5il.co/ks73 Thank you and have a wonderful afternoon!

​Brunswick Secondary Families: Please see the following regarding Remote Learning Plans for the 2020-2021 Academic Year: https://5il.co/kraf​ Thank you! Brunswick CSD

Dear Tamarac Parents/Guardians of 6-12 Fully Remote Students: All staff are now back in the building and we have been making final preparations for our remote learning students. If you are the parent/guardian of a high school student, please continue to be patient as the team finalizes its plans. We hope to have all of the high school information to you in advance of our two forums on Thursday afternoon. You are encouraged to reach out to the team leaders or teachers directly if you have any questions regarding specific information in each plan. There is also a virtual 6-8 remote forum at 4:00 and a virtual high school remote forum at 5:00 on Thursday, September 10, 2020. We look forward to a great school year with your child! Sincerely, Ken Rizzo MS Link for Thursday: meet.google.com/fix-tdif-cbh HS Link for Thursday: meet.google.com/fsg-prnx-drg

Good Evening, Brunswick CSD Families: This is a reminder that we will be holding a Virtual 6th Grade Orientation for Parents & Families TOMORROW, Wednesday, September 9, 2020, from 2:30-3:30 PM. The Google Meet link to join is: meet.google.com/skc-gwhg-xkh If you have any questions, please reach out to building principal, Ken Rizzo, at krizzo@brunswickcsd.org. If you cannot attend the orientation, we will be recording and posting it to our district website under "News" shortly following the orientation. We look forward to welcoming our newest middle school students and their families to a new year at Tamarac Secondary School! Thank you! Brunswick CSD

Brunswick CSD Families: Please see the following letter regarding bus transportation for the upcoming school year: https://5il.co/kps5 Thank you! Brunswick CSD

Attention Elementary Families! Please see the following update from Elementary Principal, Mr. Pogue: https://www.brunswickcsd.org/article/301736?org=bcsd

September 4, 2020 Dear Tamarac Families, With the arrival of the holiday weekend and the unofficial start of fall, I find myself reflecting on the summer that was and the many twists and turns along the path to next Friday. I am grateful for the many students, staff, and parents who have helped to get us to this point; collaboration and hard work have opened the door of opportunity for this school year. The ultimate reward of reopening our wonderful school for your children brings me great joy and happiness. Educators all share a common gene - love of children. I realize that there are unknowns and many questions that you still seek answers to - if I had them all I would share them now. As a parent, I know first hand that having the information in hand well in advance makes planning of routines and responsibilities at home much easier. If this were a normal September, we would be in a much different place. I cannot thank you enough for your patience and understanding throughout this summer. There is nothing more important than the safety and well being of your child - the final few days of summer with all of the staff back for the first time, is paramount to finalizing our plans. Friday, September 11 will be here before you know it. I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that it is also a day of remembrance for our nation. On a personal note, I will never forget what happened on this date three days into my teaching career in 2001. This year, the day will also mark a new beginning in education and many great opportunities for our children. I know I speak for the entire staff when I say that we cannot wait to welcome them back to school! Please have a healthy and safe Labor Day weekend - the weather looks terrific to be outside soaking up the sun! Sincerely, Ken Rizzo Secondary School Principal

Calendar Update for 6th Grade Students & Families: Friday, September 25, and Friday, October 30, will both be fully remote days for all 6th grade students. All 6th graders will be home on these two days and learning remotely. We have updated our "Events" page on our website to reflect this calendar update, and we will be discussing this change further with parents next week at our orientation program. Thank you!