GMS parents and families,
This is a message about Updated COVID-19 Protocols and Changes in Remote Learning.
As we emerge from the latest COVID-19 surge, the landscape looks different today than it did two years ago or even two months ago. All students are now back to in-person learning unless they have been medically exempted with documentation from a medical professional. We continue to review the recommendations from The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) and adjust our procedures as needed. Effective February 21, 2022, NC DHHS no longer recommends individual contact tracing and exclusion from school after an identified exposure (regardless of location of exposure). Although exclusion from school is no longer recommended, GMS will continue to notify potentially exposed students or staff so they can receive appropriate public health guidance, testing, and access to any resources that might be needed.
If students experience COVID-19 symptoms, GMS Student Health may ask students to stay home until a school-approved return date. Because we want students to focus on their health and wellbeing, there will no longer be a remote learning option while students are asked to stay home. We understand that while students are home, there may be periods of time when they are experiencing mild or no symptoms. To help students get a head start on making up any missed work, a learning packet will be sent home for students to work on when they are feeling well. Students will also have time to complete the learning packets once they return to school. All work in the learning packet must be turned into the teachers no later than 2 weeks after their school-approved return date.
Once received, teachers will review the material in the packet and provide students feedback to help support their learning. If a student can complete all work for all teachers assigned on a specific date, the student’s absence will be changed to present off-site. If all work is not completed the student will continue to have an excused absence for that day. There might be some assignments that will be graded. In these cases, work not completed will be scored as a zero.
If a student is absent from school and was not asked to stay home by GMS Student Health for a COVID related reason, the absence will be considered unexcused unless documentation supports an excused absence.
If you have any questions do not hesitate to call or email me at [email protected] or 984-292-3021.
Sincerely,