Carson City School District checklist for students, families regarding today's return to school

With today's start of the Fall 2020 school year, Carson City School District officials note schools will run differently this time around due to the pandemic. Below is a list of key information students, parents and families will want to be familiar with as students return to school on this Monday, Aug. 24.

HYBRID SCHEDULE
Students will have a digital homeroom class every Monday where they will check-in, participate in a lesson and have the opportunity to work with their classroom teachers digitally as needed.

(At Carson High School, the check-in period will be from 7:45-9:15 a.m. After 9:15 students are expected to begin their school week. It is recommended high school students check all of their google classrooms for weekly assignments and lessons).

Students will then attend school in-person either Tuesday/Thursday or Wednesday/Friday. Students are expected to check into their classes digitally (via google classroom) on the opposing remote learning days as if they were in class. Teachers are taking roll the first 10 minutes of each class. And remote attendance does count.

Cohort 1: Tuesday/Thursday in person, Wednesday/Friday asynchronous (remote) learning
Cohort 2: Wednesday/Friday in person, Tuesday/Thursday asynchronous (remote) learning

All students should, by now, have been assigned their specific Cohort. If any parent or guardian did not receive this notification via personal phone call, robo call, email or letter home; they are encouraged to contact their child(ren)’s school directly.

In this short video, Raymond Medeiros, director of Innovation & Technology for the Carson City School District, discusses how we are helping students with technology whether they are participating in school via full-time remote learning or through a hybrid – blended learning model where students will attend in-person twice weekly and participate remotely three days each week.

REMOTE LEARNING SCHEDULE
For Grades 6-12: students who do not attend school in person will be enrolled in a software platform that provides online instruction. Their progress will be monitored by licensed staff, but course content will be delivered online through the software. In addition to online readings and practice exercises, instruction and assignments may include other activities such as video tutorials and projects. All courses necessary to fulfill Standards of Learning and graduation requirements are guaranteed for students.

For grades K-5: Students will receive both synchronistic instruction (class meetings, small group, and one-on-one) and asynchronistic instruction (pre-recorded lessons that focus on essential standards in each core subject area of reading, writing and math). Students will be engaged in synchronous learning, approximately 2.5 – 3.5 hours of screen-time per day, and approximately 2-3 hours of asynchronous teacher assigned activities (i.e. individual reading, math practice, etc.) per day.

INFINITE CAMPUS UPDATES
Parents and guardians who have not already done so, will still need to complete their annual online registration updates in Infinite Campus for each of their students.

FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICES
Beginning Monday, Aug. 24, meals (breakfast and lunch together) for students in the Carson City School District will be available at all school sites for pick up from 9-11 a.m. Students may go to any school to get meals regardless of the school they attend.

Additionally, on Monday, students participating in the hybrid – blended learning model in Cohort 2 will also be able to obtain prepackaged meals for Tuesday simultaneously.

Students participating in the full-time remote learning model should plan to pick up meals at any school site Monday and then plan to contact Nutrition Services, 775-283-2150, at least one day in advance of needing meals.

Nutrition Services will be addressing remote learner nutrition needs on a case-by-case basis.

Please note, starting Monday, Aug. 24, meals will be rung up per a student’s free, reduced or paid status.

With the start of the new school year, Nutrition Services will no longer have access to the USDA waiver (obtained last spring when the pandemic closed schools) allowing them to feed all children under the age of 18 free of charge.

Also, because of the expiration of the USDA waiver, ONLY enrolled students in the Carson City School District will get meals from schools Monday, Aug. 24.

LOCKERS
Lockers will not be offered for the 2020-2021 school year unless there is a medical or specific educational need (schools ask students and parents to contact school counselors for these needs). The reasoning for no lockers is because students will not have access to their school locker three days each week (sometimes with several days in between). Also, if the district is forced to close schools for pandemic reasons and they end up having to go full-remote education, school officials do not want to have students’ educational materials stuck in a locker they are unable to access.

At Carson High School, if students were unable to clean out lockers last spring because of the abrupt school closure, they will need to complete that task by Friday, Aug. 28. Any items left in the lockers after that point will be donated or disposed.

SENIOR PROJECTS
Due to COVID 19, senior projects have been cancelled for the 2020-2021 school year at Carson High School. Senior English teachers will have portions of the project that will remain as part of their classroom curriculum.

For more information regarding these changes or other aspects in returning to school, please visit the Carson City School District website at CarsonCitySchools.com, or contact an individual school site directly.

STUDENT PARKING AT CARSON HIGH SCHOOL
Students at Carson High School will still park in the North parking lots. No individual parking spots will be sold this year. Rather A Lot (northwest) or B Lot (northeast) parking assignments will be offered. Parking will also be reduced to $10 this year.

About Carson City School District
Located in Nevada’s capital, Carson City School District offers public education to approximately 7,600 students throughout Carson City. The district includes 6 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, 1 alternative high school and 1 comprehensive high school. Carson City School District boasts many successes including impressive graduation rates, strict safety measures, programs for gifted students and advanced-placement classes, among several others. In a joint venture with Western Nevada College, the Carson City School District Jump Start College program allows students to complete their senior year of high school and freshman year of college simultaneously. For more information, visit carsoncityschools.com.