BSD Family Updates

Monday, September 20, 2021

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The U.S. celebrates Hispanic Heritage month beginning on September15, which is the national independence day of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica; followed closely by Mexico's independence day on September 16th.

The month honors our families with ancestry from Spanish and Latin American Spanish-speaking countries. In the Bremerton School District, roughly 23% of our students identify as Hispanic or Latino.

COVID-19 health & safety update

We are so thankful to have students back in school. We grateful for your understanding and support of our COVID health and safety protocols such as hand-washing/sanitizing, and wearing masks.

As you may be aware, local health experts are concerned over the delta variant, which is now the predominant strain of COVID-19 in our county and is twice as transmissible as the first variation of the virus. If a case of COVID-19 is confirmed in our schools we take the following steps:

Our District COVID supervisor and nurses work with each school's COVID-19 supervisor to conduct contact tracing.
If there are close contacts or possible contacts of a confirmed case, we will notify those families by email and phone call.
We work closely with Kitsap Public Health District in providing close contacts with public health information on their next steps (e.g., quarantine, testing, date of return, etc.).

We are doing everything we can to protect the health and safety of our students and staff. We want to sincerely thank you for your support and commend our students for their perseverance and adapting and adhering to all of the changes and health and safety measures in our schools.

https://www.bremertonschools.org/Page/8842

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Have you completed your ABCs?

It is time for our Annual Back-to-school Check-in process or ABCs (formerly known as the Annual Demographic Update). Please log-in to Skyward and complete this important process for your student(s) ASAP. Thank you!

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State testing update

Last spring’s state testing was postponed to fall 2021 as the state prioritized critical in-person instruction time for the benefit of students, families, and district staff.

During the month of October, most students in grades 4–11 (except 10th grade) will take assessments rescheduled from last spring. Students will only spend a short amount of time on each subject test.

The results from these abbreviated assessments provide a picture of students' academic achievement based on previous learning. For example, 4th grade students will be given the 3rd grade assessments (that they would normally have taken in the spring). Knowing your student’s achievement level (1 through 4) will provide an important piece of information as the school year progresses. Teachers will use this information to plan lessons and units to build on student strengths.

Your student’s school will be providing more information, including the dates that your student(s) will be completing the assessments next month.

All Washington students will return to the typical annual assessment schedule by completing the spring administration covering this year’s content in May or June.

You can learn more about these assessments on our website.