Nenana City School District - Home of the Lynx

September 2020 Students of the Month Kayla Irwin Jace McBride

Check out the October 2020 Literacy Cafe Flyer (Virtual)

October 2nd, 2020 Greetings, I sincerely hope this letter finds you and your family well. As part of our literacy initiative, Nenana City School is engaging in quarterly book distributions. The plan is for the district to provide reading material to your student(s) to encourage reading at home. We hope to provide your student(s) with one book per school quarter. Due to COVID-19 mitigation measures, we were unable to go ahead with a planned quarterly book distribution in the building via your child’s classroom teachers. Instead, teachers asked their students about what kind of book they might like to receive and tried to order those books or similar ones if they were unavailable. While we can assure you that we did our best to deliver the specific book your student asked for, we also recognize that, sometimes, a story simply isn’t what you thought it was going to be. If your student starts reading this selection and it’s not for them, don’t feel bad! Trade it with a friend, share it with a family member, or simply bring it back to the school and exchange it for a different one. The book distribution is a part of a wider effort on behalf of Nenana City School to foster literacy in our students. We will also be inviting students and their families to monthly Literacy Cafes. Please keep an eye out for an invitation to these Cafes. In a low risk scenario, we plan on feeding you and your family a dinner, providing engaging activities for your child, giving you some time to decompress and ask questions with other adults and professionals, and provide you a book with instructions on specific reading strategies to use at home. In high risk scenarios, we will be delivering materials to you and your readers, and posting informative videos on specific reading activities you can do with your students, including with the books we’re distributing to you now! We also have a Literacy Council that we encourage you to join. The Council meets once a month, talks about literacy goals and programming, and helps guide decisions and processes in the school regarding literacy. We’d love to have your voice in the meeting! If you have questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to reach out to me. My email and phone number can be found at the bottom of the letter. I sincerely look forward to seeing your child in the building as soon as possible. Have a great early winter season, and please encourage your student to check out the included book(s)! Local students can find their quarterly book in the filing cabinet located at the elementary entrance to the school. Each book should have a slip of paper with the student's name on it tucked in the front of the book, along with our distribution letter. If you or your student cannot swing by to pick up their book, please contact Stephen Calkin to arrange for it to be mailed. Best Wishes, Stephen Calkin Social Studies Teacher/Literacy Grant Director scalkin@nenanalynx.org 503-395-7184

The first monthly Literacy Cafe can be viewed at this link: https://bit.ly/2SabClH

With the upward trend of COVID-19 case rate numbers, it is unlikely that we will be able to return to in-person instruction in the coming weeks. To that end, and in effort to sustain the continuity with which we are operating currently, Nenana City School will operate virtually throughout the remainder of Quarter 1 (Oct. 16). According to the State of Alaska DHHS COVID-19 page, here are the numbers and alert levels today. This information is updated by noon daily. https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/ Last updated September 17, 2020, 1:30 PM AKDT Fairbanks is HIGH Cases (last 14 days): 226 Cases (avg. last 14 days): 16.14 Case Rate (avg. last 14 days: 16.83 The Nenana City School is currently operating at the High-Risk protocol.

Nenana City School will continue to operate under high-risk virtual learning protocols for the week of 9/14/2020. According to the State of Alaska DHHS COVID-19 page, Fairbanks numbers reflect high-risk alert levels. Visit the State of Alaska COVID-19 website for more information: https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/ Fairbanks is HIGH Cases (last 14 days): 207 Cases (avg. last 14 days): 14.79 Case Rate (avg. last 14 days: 15.42

Literacy Cafe Flyer - https://tinyurl.com/yxud7eb5

Fairbanks COVID-19 case rate has risen to above 10 this weekend, putting NCS into the High Risk operational zone. This means school will be operating in accordance with our virtual delivery protocols for the week of 8.31.20. Classes will follow the same bell schedule as that of our in-person delivery protocol (see images attached). Teachers will be reaching out to students with scheduled Zoom invites and virtual instruction.

Here is the last page of the Covid-19 Containment Flowchart as well to go with the previous Live Feed posting! See attached.

NCS invites parents to participate in this Friday's Zoom Mtg which will provide information regarding In-Person Start next Monday. Here are the Zoom links: K-6th 1pm Join Zoom Meeting - https://zoom.us/j/93512578335 7-12th 2pm Join Zoom Meeting - https://zoom.us/j/93512578335 Please see attached forms as well, they contain important information for parents if you are unable to attend the Zoom mtg.

Please see the attached image.

Friday, August 14, 2020 UPDATE Greetings Parents/Guardians and Community Members, Teaching staff and administrators have been busy this week finalizing the academic schedule, details surrounding our program operations and participating in virtual training to support our work with students. As we wrap up this week and look ahead to next, I write to provide an update on details surrounding the startup of school. We are looking forward to the official opening of school, via distance education on August 24th. Beginning Monday, 8/17, Nenana School administration will begin making calls to all local families to discuss scheduling. As the week of 8/17 unfolds, parents and students can expect to receive further updates and ultimately communication from teachers. We will post all general announcements on the school website and school Facebook page. One significant update as we look beyond the week of August 24th is regarding the proposed in-person start date. Previous communications identified this date as Sept. 2nd. Please note this has changed, and we plan to begin in-person instruction (risk-level dependent) on Monday, August 31st. Thank you for your attention to this detail. Again, be on the lookout for more specifics next week. Preliminary plans are to send out invites for an information session Friday afternoon, 8/21, so please try to carve out time to join us if possible. Thank you and please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns. kind regards, Dave Huntington

Dear Parents/Guardians and Nenana community members, The school Nenana City School leadership team is hopeful that the information provided in the Restart FAQ (available on school website and FB page) was valuable as you continue to examine what is best for your student(s). In an effort to further clarify the learning options available through the District, the attached infographic has been created and is being distributed. If you have anything that you'd like to discuss, please do not hesitate to reach out to Dave Huntington, dhuntington@nenanalynx.org

Here are the last two pages of FAQ!

Attention Parents - NCS Return to School FAQ, please read all 6 pages attached.

Welcome/Update from new Principal Dave Huntington is available here!

Parent Memo COVID Grading from Principal, Annalee Coy. Parents and students, please be sure to read this memo it is very important. The full letter is attached.

Parent Memo COVID Grading

ATTENTION PARENTS - AT THIS TIME THE NENANA CITY SCHOOL BUILDING WILL BE CLOSED UNTIL MAY 1, 2020. Questions can still be directed to the school telephone system 907-832-5464. Please leave a voice message in the system, and a staff member will return your call. Thank you.

NSLC boarding facility closure information, please see attached letter from Joe Digrande, NSLC Director