Providence Elementary

PROVIDENCE ELEMENTARY REOPENING QUICK GUIDE

The purpose of this document is to give you quick access to information that you will need during our COVID-19 school reopening.  Please note that this document will change as new information is made available and new directives are given.

School Arrival:

• Students are to have their mask on as they enter the bus, exit their car, or enter school property.  
• School entryways will have grade levels painted in chalk outside the doors indicating which grades can enter using those exterior doors. 
• Aides will prop open the doors they are assigned to minimize touch on the doors/handles.  
• Once students arrive they need to go straight to their classroom.  If the teacher is not there, they need to wait six feet apart in the hallway or follow a specific direction from the classroom teacher. 
• Once inside the classroom, they can either stay and do a self-start, or they can exit the building and play outside until the 9:00 bell.  No students will be allowed to enter a classroom that is not their own, and students may not loiter in the halls.

Dismissal: 

• Masks stay on until students are in their vehicles or off of school property.
• Dismissal times will be staggered.  5th & 6th grade will go at 2:48, 3rd & 4th will go at 2:50, Grades K-2 will go at 2:52.  
• Students needing to pick up younger students need to wait outside in a family determined spot, six feet from other families until their sibling is released from class.  They can then leave together.
• Bus - Students riding the bus will need to wait in their family groups, socially distanced, in their bus line until their bus arrives.
• Walking - Students walking home will need to remain one sidewalk block behind the next family group.  While waiting for the crossing guard, student family groups will wait six feet from other family groups until the crossing guard signals them to cross.  As they walk forward they need to maintain a distance of 1 sidewalk block between family groups.
• Car Pick Up - Students waiting for a car to pick them up need to go with their family group in the pick up area and wait as a group, socially distanced.  When their parent has pulled forward in the loading zone, the group may go to the car and get in.  

Classroom:

• When possible, classroom doors need to be propped open for students to enter and exit without having to touch the door handles.
• When heat is a concern, teachers should use their evaporative cooling unit and place it near the door of the classroom, then crack a window  open a few inches to allow for an air stream to be created across the classroom, creating better air flow and less air stagnation.  
• Have hand sanitizer on a small table or bookcase near the door.
• Students should sanitize as they leave the classroom environment and when they re-enter. 
• There should be 2-3 opportunities for students to wash hands with soap and water throughout the day.  If this is done prior to leaving the classroom, sanitizer is not necessary.
• Student desks should be separated so desks are not touching, and all desks should be facing forward.  
• Students will be assigned seats, and seating charts will only change on the first day after a weekend or other break.  (This supports contact tracing with the minimal number of students to potentially be exposed.)
• High-Risk students should be placed near open windows, doors, or be allowed to be spaced out further from peers. 
• Excess furniture should be removed from the classroom to allow for greater physical distancing. No more than one table should remain.  
• When possible, the classroom teacher should create a space of 6 feet between where he/she teaches at the board and where the first row of student desks begins.
• Teachers should use the school provided disinfectant spray to spray student desks and high touch surfaces at least twice daily.  Students may wipe desks/surfaces with paper towels or clorox wipes.

Prep:

• Students will be placed in a seating chart for each prep class.  Physical distancing will be practiced as much as possible.
• High-Risk students should be placed near open windows, doors, or be allowed to be spaced out further from peers.
• Hard surfaces will be cleaned between each class.
• Teachers must pick up students on time from prep.  The 5 minute window between each class is for cleaning of that area and to allow ventilation and clearing of the room between groups.
• Music~
• PE~
• Art~
• Library~
• Computers~

Lunch:

• Lunch times will be staggered as much as possible.
• Numbered stars will be placed on the lunch table that are 4 feet apart, (2 stars per bench), indicating where each student should sit. Students will be staggered on the opposite side of the table so no one is directly facing anyone else. 
• Students will eat, then dump their tray and head out to the  doors straight to the playground area.   
• Paras and the custodian will sanitize each eating place between classes.

Hallways:

• Nonessential furniture needs to be removed.
• When walking your class down the hall, walk on the right side.  

Drinking Fountains:

• Drinking fountains will be turned off in the hallway and in the classrooms.
• Families will be asked to send their students with a refillable water bottle.   These can be refilled from the sinks in the classroom.

Bathrooms:

• Only 5 students in a bathroom at a time.  Waiting students can use the vinyl spots to help them gauge their space they need to give each other as they wait in line.
• Grade level teams should plan to stagger their bathroom breaks prior to recess.
• Wall stickers will be placed in the bathroom helping students to remember to physically distance while waiting inside the bathroom for a sink.

Recess:

•  Masks On:
• Masks need to remain on if students are playing on the playground equipment/slides/jungle gyms., or if students are standing or sitting in a group that is closer than 6 feet away from each other.
•  Masks Off: 
• When playing soccer, football, tag, or activities that allow for students to have little 1-1 contact with another student in a space less than 6 feet, for more than a minute or two.
• When groups of students are talking or playing in a manner that allows them to be 6 feet apart or more.
• Judging 6 Feet:  
  • Have students stand in an open area with arms outstretched.  Tell them to make sure that as they turn in a circle they can not touch anyone, and their hands are more than one ruler apart from each person they see near them.
•  Before School:
• Students who remain inside must stay in their own classroom and not loiter in the halls, or enter the classroom of another student.
• Students may be outside with friends from different grade levels. Recess guidelines apply.
•  During School:
• Only one grade level out at a time. Please stick to your schedule
• Prop the recess doors open as you exit and enter the building.  Then secure the doors behind you.

School Cleaning:

• Our head custodian will have an electrostatic sanitizing gun that will be used on high-touch surfaces throughout the day.
• Our head custodian will be using a ‘Ghostbusters’ type backpack that disperses a gas that sanitizes as he walks down the hallway.
• High-touch surfaces are places like door handles, drinking fountains, office counter, faculty bathrooms.
• Bathrooms in the school will be cleaned/sanitized twice during the day, and once after school each day.

Checking Kids In & Out:

• In:  
• Parents will be asked to leave their children at the door and the student will stop at the office and take a slip to class stating that they have checked in for the day.
• Out:
• Parents will call the school when they are on their way and the office staff will have the child ready on the benches outside the main office.
• Dropping Something Off:
• Parents who are dropping something off for their child or who need to talk with them, will be asked to wait at the office with their mask on for the child to come down.  

Visitors & Volunteers:

• Only essential volunteers will be allowed to enter the building.
• Essential volunteers are those individuals who assist in the instruction of Tier 1 curriculum, without whom, the instruction could not be delivered. 
• Volunteers will need to have their temperature checked upon arrival, wash or sanitize their hands, and have a mask on at all times when in the building.
• No additional children may accompany the volunteer.
• Parents will not be allowed to come to lunch with their child this year. 

Field Trips:

• I do not encourage field trips that require you to put your grade on one or two busses.  If possible, look for opportunities for a field trip to come to you that your class or grade could go outside for the presentation, or into the gym, where you could practice appropriate social distancing.  These field trips should be directly tied to your core.

Evacuation Drills:

• Drills will be conducted in 3 rounds.  This will allow everyone the chance to do an evacuation drill without us trying to cram all students out of the door at the same time.  
• Your evacuation group will be identified the day of the drill.  
• When these drills are conducted I will use the intercom to begin and end each drill.
• Your evacuation points will not change.