WRMS Weekly Update

According to the COVID-19 Regional Risk Matrix, Bergen County has now been identified as a “orange/high risk” region, which requires public schools to follow new protocols. Below is updated and important information from the Department of Health that all staff, parents, and students must adhere to effective immediately.

Students and staff must stay home and notify the school nurse if they have:

• Tested positive (viral test) for COVID-19

• Exhibit COVID-19 symptoms -

• Daily COVID-19 Home Screening Checklist for Students

• Daily COVID-19 Home Screening Checklist for Staff

• Potential exposure to COVID-19:

• Close contact with a person with COVID-19 in the past 14 days. (Close contact is defined as someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated.)

• Travelled to an area with high levels of COVID-19 transmission in the past 14 days:

• NJ travel advisory list

• International travel advisory

If someone in a student or staff member’s household exhibits symptoms, students/siblings/staff member must also stay home from school until the symptomatic individual receives a negative test result. If the symptomatic individual tests positive, the students/siblings/staff member will need to self-quarantine and must contact the school nurse for further instructions.

OUT OF STATE REQUIREMENTS:

• Traveling Out of State:

• Families traveling to an area on the NJ travel advisory list will be required to have their child(ren) quarantine for 14 days upon their return to NJ.

• Please notify your building administration if you will be traveling to such an area so that your child can be set up for temporary remote instruction.

• Receiving Travelers

• Families receiving guests from an area on the NJ travel advisory list are not required to quarantine their children.

• Students only have to quarantine if someone in the house, resident or guest, becomes symptomatic and tests positive.

• However, as a precaution, parents may choose to proactively self-quarantine their children.

• Anyone who proactively chooses to self-quarantine must notify their school immediately.

If you have any questions on these protocols, please contact your school nurse directly as they are the most knowledgeable on our staff to answer your health and safety questions.

If the local health department calls, please answer the call and provide any requested information to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in our schools and community

Each day your student is in-person, please make sure they bring each of the following with them:

• 2 masks (1 on + a back-up)
• A fully charged, school-issued chromebook & charger
• Headphones
• Refillable water bottles
• Tissue packs
• Individual hand sanitizer
• Other materials according to their teachers

Please review this letter from the Westwood Police Department related to a dangerous technique being used to target middle school age children.

Here are additional resources a well:

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/parents-ultimate-guides

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/parents-ultimate-guide-to-instagram

Young adolescent students are increasingly aware of the world around them. As a result, our students may be struggling to understand the events at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

"While parents and caregivers continue to process these disturbing events, kids are also trying to make sense of what they're seeing and hearing. Kids are often more tuned into our emotions than we realize... You can use the following age-appropriate questions to find out what kids and teens know about the events, and what questions they have, and to take care of their emotional well-being. You can also use this as a teachable moment to help older kids and teens develop critical-thinking and media literacy skills as they witness this historic moment."

Here is a valuable resource: Talking to Kids About the Violence at the U.S. Capitol

We'd love to hear from you! Please take ~15-20 minutes of your time to complete an anonymous online survey that will help us improve your child’s school and our district. We have asked YouthTruth – a nonprofit organization that supports hundreds of schools and districts across the country – to conduct the survey on our behalf. In addition to providing results that can be used to compare over time, this year's survey will also include additional questions aligned to our district goals regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as items related to hybrid and remote learning.

Please take the survey before it closes at midnight on January 22 by clicking this link ytsurvey.org/wwrsdfamily21.

Please note:

• The survey needs to be completed in one sitting.
• We ask that one member of each household fill out the survey.
• If you have more than one child who attends the same school, you may respond to the survey multiple times - one time per child.
• If you write any comments, please do not include your name or anything else that might identify you. Your responses are anonymous, and they will be combined with the responses of other parents and guardians before being shared back with school and district leadership.

We sincerely thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. Your response is incredibly valuable to us.

Currently, the middle school athletic league is planning on moving forward with the season. Tryouts are open to students in grades 6-8, and there are Google Forms for students to sign up. Our boys' coach is Mr. Guy (robert.guy@wwrsd.org) and our girls' coach is Ms. Hartwick (kristen.hartwick@wwrsd.org).

• The Girls Basketball sign up meeting link is here, the signup form is here.
• The Boys basketball sign up meeting link is here, the signup form is here.
• This doc explains the clearance process and has all the links and resources parents need to get you cleared for basketball tryouts. No student can tryout without a cleared physical form submitted in advance.

We will be using Family ID, the same platform as the high school, to organize our medical clearances. As the middle school league has not finalized a schedule as of yet, we do not have a firm date for the start of our season, but we are hoping to start tryouts a week or so after the high school season is scheduled to begin.

Last March, the Helping Hands Club sponsored Penny Wars between the sixth and seventh grade classes to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was a record breaking fundraiser and the 7th graders won a free period for raising the most money. However, we switched to remote learning soon afterwards and they didn’t get their reward. But, we haven’t forgotten! On Friday, January 15th, all current 8th graders will get to sign off and start their weekend early with a free period 1.

Congratulations and great job to all!

We still want to be able to take our students outside and leave windows open as much as possible. Please make sure your students are dressed appropriately so that they can be comfortable. Layers are highly recommended!

Friendly reminder that all lunches must be pre-ordered through our online system PaySchools Central. We cannot accept phone calls or messages. Thank you!

We have a number of students who are missing one or two classes during the course of a remote day. Please be proactive in communicating with Mrs. McDonough and your student's assistant principal (below) if this is a planned absence or technical issues. Our assistant principals will be reviewing each student's attendance to ensure students are attending class when they should be, and discipline may be assigned accordingly.

Also, if you would like to transition your child from all remote to hybrid or from hybrid to all remote, please email your student's assistant principal:

Grade 6: michael.corso@wwrsd.org

Grade 7: barry.albert@wwrsd.org

Grade 8: michael.attanasio@wwrsd.org

We are updating our Hybrid Group Schedule for 2021. Please note that this is subject to change with inclement weather (we always come back from a snow day on the next letter day, we do not skip them) and if/when the conditions allow us to move to increasing in-person occupancy.

The Westwood Regional School District will open online Kindergarten registration for the 2021‑2022 school year on Tuesday, December 1, 2020. This is a pre-registration only; students will not be considered enrolled until parents/guardians submit the required documentation at an in-person registration appointment.

Be aware that your child must reside in the Borough of Westwood or Township of Washington and be five (5) years old on or before October 1, 2021 to enter Kindergarten next September.

For more information, click here. We look forward to welcoming your kindergartener!

If you need help with your school-issued chromebook, please have your student email tech.help@wwrsd.org from their school account.

The Guidance Counselors are available every day to meet with students regardless of whether they are scheduled for in-person or remote learning. In an effort to maintain current safety guidelines, students are strongly encouraged to request meetings with their counselors by emailing them. Counselors will contact the student as soon as possible to schedule an online or in-person meeting. Counselors will continue to see students on an emergency basis, as well.

If your student is having difficulty, be is academic, technological, social emotional or more, please reach out to us! Our trained staff is here to support them whether we are in-person or remote!

Counselors:

• 6th Grade - Ms. Fabrocini (caitlin.fabrocini@wwrsd.org)

• 7th Grade - Mrs. Androulakis (christie.androulakis@wwrsd.org)

• 8th Grade - Mrs. Sparno (jenny.sparno@wwrsd.org)

Nurses:

• District Head and Middle School Nurse - Mrs. Penn (deborah.penn@wwrsd.org)
• Part-time nurse and RN - Mrs. Galow (kenia.galow@wwrsd.org)

Assistant Principals:

• 6th Grade - Mr. Corso (michael.corso@wwrsd.org)

• 7th Grade - Mr. Albert (barry.albert@wwrsd.org)

• 8th Grade - Mr. Attanasio (michael.attanasio@wwrsd.org)

Thank you to the PSO for the mask lanyards!

We are a Box Tops school! Even though Box Tops has gone digital, there are still some products out there that have unexpired traditional clips. If you see the traditional clip on the box, you can still get credit for those as long as they are not expired! Please have your student turn those in by the new main office and keep scanning your receipts!

Please find a Bergen County Mental Health resource document (updated 11/17) for your reference and support. You can also check out the resource page on www.BergenResourceNet.org regarding resources about inclusion, social consciousness and understanding, etc.

Need help buying groceries? NJ SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is New Jersey's food assistance program that can help you buy groceries. Learn more about NJ SNAP at www.njsnap.gov or see their flyer for more information.

Please click here to access an online library of electronic flyers for our community partners.

Please mark your calendars for important upcoming events...

• 1/8 - Progress Reports available in Genesis
  
• 1/18 - No School
  
• 1/21 - Board of Education Meeting, 7:00 PM

Upcoming schedule:

• Monday, 1/11: B Day, Group 1 in-person, periods 1-5, lunch, 6-7
  
• Tuesday, 1/12: A Day, Group 2 in-person, periods 1-5, lunch, 6-7
  
• Wednesday, 1/13: B Day, Group 1 in-person, periods 7-3, lunch, 2-1
  
• Thursday, 1/14: A Day, Group 2 in-person, periods 7-3, lunch, 2-1
• Friday, 1/15: B Day, Group 2 in-person, periods 7-3, lunch, 2-1

Email: shelley.laforgia@wwrsd.org
Website: http://www.wwrsd.org/westwoodrms
Location: 23 3rd Ave, Westwood, NJ, United States
Phone: 201-664-5560
Facebook: facebook.com/WRMiddleSchool
Twitter: @wrmscardinals