Frequently Asked Questions

• TK-2 March 29, 2021 • 3-5 April 12, 2021

BUSD is returning to the same start times for schools that were used prior to the pandemic. These are listed below, along with the new end times. In order to avoid large groups of students congregating at school entrances, class start times will be somewhat staggered. We will have more info on that soon. For Cragmont, this will be 9am-2pm. The school day is a bit shorter for the rest of this year to account for the additional work day responsibilities that will be assigned to staff.

During the four days prior to school reopening, from March 23th to March 26th, we will shift to several days of a Wednesday Distance Learning schedule to permit teachers and school staff to complete their final on-campus preparations for In-Person Learning, and to prepare for Distance Learning teachers to meet their new classes. During these days, you can expect that your child will participate in a morning Zoom class with their teacher, and that enrichment and Special Education teachers will balance online instruction with setting up their own instructional spaces, trainings, and rewriting schedules. During these days, teachers will participate in COVID safety training, be oriented by their principal about campus modifications and procedures, and set up their classrooms. Teachers will be guided to set up their classrooms in the following manner, consistent with current guidelines from the California Department of Public Health.

Most Cragmont teachers will be teaching in-person. You are most likely to keep your student’s current teacher and classmates if you opted for the in-person plan. For teachers who do not return to school, class cohorts will stay together and will be assigned to a different in-person teacher. For families who chose distance learning, your child will likely be assigned a new teacher. Class lists for students who will remain in distance learning are being made the week of March 15. These lists will be based on several priorities: • Priorities for New Distance Learning Class Lists • Match current teachers and students if possible • Keep current classes together as much as possible • Keep current school assignments together as much as possible Families can expect to hear from the district about Distance Learning teacher assignments on the following dates: • TK-2: Tuesday, March 23 • Grade 3-5: Tuesday, March 30

• First, teachers will try to set up the classroom with six feet of social distancing between student chairs. (Principals have been trained to assist with this, and the district will provide examples of possible room configurations.) • If this is not possible, some classes may be moved to larger viable instructional spaces, if available. (Classes will not be assigned to cafeterias.) • If needed, teachers may adjust student seating to no less than four feet of spacing.

• Staff and students will provide daily health forms and stay home if ill. • Face coverings, stable groups, hand washing, thorough cleaning, ventilation, and air purification are all key elements of risk mitigation measures in place at every BUSD school. • All people on campus will be required to wear a mask. All students who return to school will be required to use a personal reusable water bottle for water consumption. Water bottles will be provided to students who need them. Water bottle filling stations will be available on campus. • School staff will continue to be tested for COVID every two weeks, and a student testing plan is also in development with more details coming soon. • All staff have had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and most have already received at least one dose or are scheduled to do so soon.

• We have masks for kids who don’t have them. • Acceptable masks are surgical masks, dust masks, cloth masks and clear masks. • Unacceptable masks are bandannas, gaiters, cloth mask with vent or N95 with vent. Face shields are allowed but also require a mask. • Kids may bring a mask to change into if they wish.

Teachers are planning ways to manage mask breaks for students during the day.

All staff and teachers have been offered vaccines.

Staff members, BUSD employees, students, and adults with permission from Principal Cannon will be the only people allowed on campus.

The maximum group size will be determined by the number of desks that can be safely set up in each classroom.

• Students will be allowed to work together & play together with masks and socially distanced in small groups in classrooms. • At recess, each cohort will be assigned to a specific area of the playground and may not mix with another group. • Students will wash hands before and after recess. • Sports equipment can be shared within a cohort. • Outside, distanced, masked, stable groups is the plan.

• BUSD and the PTA will be working with staff and teachers to try to provide individual classroom supplies for each student that are maintained separately for exclusive use by each student. • The Cragmont PTA will publish a teacher supply wishlist and fundraising opportunity in the near future to help fulfill this reopening need.

Backpacks are allowed! In the backpack you may bring: • Clothing (layers for warmth) • Water bottle • Lunch box Please do not bring school supplies from home.

School lunch will be provided as usual but will be in a grab-and-go format. Students will walk to the door of the MPR and pick up wrapped lunch and go to a designated portion of the playground or back to their classroom to eat. Students will be supervised by their teacher or a staff member. Elementary school students engaged in In-Person Learning will receive a free brown bag, grab and go breakfast and a free, heated grab and go lunch daily.

IEP goals and services will be honored for in-person learning. DLAPS will continue to be honored for those who choose distance learning. Returning to in-person learning, we are still going to face considerable challenges to delivering all our programs and services. These include requirements that students are not pulled by Special Ed from several classrooms into one small group (a very common strategy that Special Ed teaches use to help students from different rooms who share the same goals); restrictions on the movement of IAs between classrooms; and distancing guidelines for staff who go into multiple classrooms during one day. Like we did before, we will be asking our Special Education teachers to share with families how they will support students on their caseload. This will happen as Special Education teachers rewrite their schedules to reflect in-person support, and the distance learning supports that they will continue to provide to Special Education students who remain in Distance Learning.

The role of our important IAs is being negotiated and their safety and that of our students is foremost in the planning. We don’t know what this will look like yet.

Yes, the BUSD Teacher on Special Assignment (TSA) for School Climate and Culture is gathering SEL lessons for teachers, and he is providing professional development for staff meetings. Cragmont has “booked” him for a staff meeting this month.

There is an extensive list of protocols that were developed by our new BUSD nurses, Amanda Frey and Julia Ingoldsby, that we will follow in the event of a possible COVID case or a confirmed COVID case. These protocols are in the BUSD Pre-KElementary Campus Safety Plan.(https://www.berkeleyschools.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Pre-K-and-Elementary-School-Campus-Safety-Plan-2020-21-rev22721.pdf)

If the whole class (including the teacher) needs to quarantine, the whole class will move to DL with the teacher, assuming they are well enough to teach. If just one student needs to quarantine, they will be given a work packet. It’s not clear at this time if a student would be able to move to DL for the period of quarantine.

A child in quarantine will be given a work packet and won’t join a DL classroom.

We will follow the advice of the BUSD nurses, the City of Berkeley, and Alameda County.

The State recommends no travel beyond 120 miles from home. If you travel out of state, you should quarantine for 10 days. There is no mandatory school exclusion for travel, per the Berkeley Health Department.

The City of Berkeley and BPD have been alerted that we will need to bring back our crossing guards for Marin @ Spruce and Regal @ Spruce crossings. The PTA will be seeking volunteers to act as crossing guards at the Marin @ Cragmont crosswalk. The safety flags are still available for use at this crossing.

Each room has alcohol based wipes, hand sanitizer, and spray cleaner. The teachers can use all of these cleaners throughout the day. When students leave for the day, Mr. Ray and Mr. Duy will spray surfaces in each classroom with our disinfectant mister. The windows and doors will be closed with the air purifier left on high to clean the air overnight.

All interior spaces have improved ventilation and air filtration that allows the air in the classroom to be cleaned 2 to 4 times per hour. In addition, the district is investing in an indoor air quality monitoring system,” upgrading the existing HVAC equipment with “needlepoint ionization”, and the installation of an Indoor Air Quality Monitoring System to create and ensure a more healthy environment for the Berkeley Unified School District Community to thrive in. More information about this project can be found here. Please see item 13.1 from the January 6th BUSD Governing Board meeting.(https://agendaonline.net/public/Meeting.aspx?AgencyID=232&MeetingID=81666&AgencyTypeID=1&IsArchived=False) All windows will be open for increased ventilation, so students may need to bundle up. Facilities is working on sun and rain shelters for the courtyard. These measures in combination with mask wearing, distancing and stable groups form the basis of our safety plan.

Buses can only transport a portion of our students at a time. We expect all of our bus-riding students to still have access to BUSD transportation. We may have a staggered start/end to our school day to accommodate our transportation needs.

Requests for home-to-school transportation from parents or caregivers should be emailed to transportationdept@berkeley.net. Please indicate the student’s name, school site, and grade. If the student is eligible for transportation and the department is able to provide transportation within current social distancing guidelines, parents will be notified of the start date, bus-stop location and pick-up and drop-off times. Parents and caregivers of students who qualify for bus service through their IEP should notify their case manager that their student is returning and will need bus transportation.

Students must wear a face-covering while riding the bus, and parents or caregivers must remain with students until the bus arrives to pick the students up. Parents or caregivers need to be at the bus stop in the afternoon for student drop off for Pre-K through Kindergarten students.

It is unclear at this time if it will be possible to change your selection after you have made an initial election.

All regular attendance policies and truancy procedures will return to standard rules and policies with this reopening plan. All regular attendance policies will be enforced.

The Distance Learning schedule features one additional class per day with the classroom teacher: Schedule: • 9:00 --Whole Class • 10:00 --Group A • 11:00 -- Group B • 1:00 -- Whole Class • 2:00 --Specialist Instruction Previous BUSD principal (and now central office Director) Michelle Sinclair will serve as the administrative lead for families in the Distance Learning program. She will provide support for issues related to class assignments and distance learning. She can be contacted at michellesinclair@berkeley.net. Each student’s new teacher will complete the Fourth Quarter report card for students in their Distance Learning class. Families who select to remain in Distance Learning will not lose their home-school assignment in the 21-22 school year. Please continue to check our BUSD Elementary Family webpage for new updates about elementary schools.

Previous BUSD principal (and now central office Director) Michelle Sinclair will serve as the administrative lead for families in the Distance Learning program. She will provide support for issues related to class assignments and distance learning. She can be contacted at michellesinclair@berkeley.net. Each student’s new teacher will complete the Fourth Quarter report card for students in their Distance Learning class. Families who select to remain in Distance Learning will not lose their home-school assignment in the 21-22 school year.

Nutrition Services will continue to operate free Grab and Go meal distribution sites for Distance Learning students for the remainder of this school year. Distribution sites may be modified as students return to our schools. Any changes will be announced in advance.

For students engaged in In-Person Learning, all school supplies will be provided at their school. For students remaining in Distance Learning, school supplies continue to be available at the Ed Hub. Ed Hub Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 3:00-5:00 pm Ed Hub Location: 1701 San Pablo Ave. (The Berkeley Adult School). Please enter on Curtis Street, between Virginia and Francisco Street.

As far as before-school-care and afterschool-care, those programs are being discussed by the program supervisor and staff and implementation plans are being developed at this time. We will have limited availability for afterschool due to space constraints but hope to provide options for families most in need.

The BEARS and LEARNS programs will be operating in a limited capacity. If you are interested in enrolling your student in BEARS, please contact: Ashley Stepney: ashleystepney@berkeley.net. If you are interested in enrolling your student in LEARNS, log on to berkeleylearns.asapconnected.com/ starting on Tuesday, March 16 after 9:00 a.m. to complete the application. Priority will be given to families based on need.

We do not know at this time.

Afterschool programs will be able to provide snacks once programs are in session.

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