Office Procedures

COVID Office Procedures 2020-2021

Welcome Parents

Hello Panther Families and welcome back to what we know will be another wonderful year at Pleasant Green.  In this video we will be going over these Office procedures and the changes we have made to comply with District, CDC, and Health Department regulations as well as school policy changes that we feel necessary to ensure the continued safety of our students and staff.  You will notice a few new topics that haven’t been part of policy in prior years, but if one thing is certain we can count on the year 2020 to force change and new ways of doing things.

Contact Information

The first topic of conversation is contact information for Parents, Guardians, and emergency contacts.  We at Pleasant Green hold student safety as a top priority.  Part of being able to maintain that is by ensuring our records are always up to date so in the event that there is an emergent situation we are able to make contact with families as quickly as possible.

 Each year we ask parents to review and make updates to registration cards so we can correct that information in our student records.  The most vital of this information are phone numbers, email addresses, and addresses.  We use the first two forms of communication most often when sending out school information and updates.  It is vital to the safety of your students that this information is kept up-to-date.

 Often times throughout the year phone numbers and emails change and it is so easy to forget to update the school of these changes.  This is where we ask that parents and guardians be sure that when and if these changes occur we at the school are informed.  In order to make changes to a students permanent file, you must present identification to the office prior to those changes being made.  If you ever question who might be listed as a contact for your student, this information can be found online via the parent portal.  We will touch base more on that later in this video.

If you notice that at any point throughout the year you are not receiving school related phone calls or emails, be sure to contact us to get the problem fixed.  We prioritize communicating information with our panther families.

In some cases a student might have an individual that has been court ordered to have no contact with a student.  These individuals can also be listed in a students profile as as NO CONTACT or DO NOT RELEASE.  If your child is part of any kind of legal stipulation, please provide the office with court documentation so we can make note of this in their file.  We do not have the ability to enforce these no contact orders without documentation on file so it is pertinent that these records are provided and maintained.

We have been asked several times about emergency contacts and when those individuals are contacted.  Parents and legal guardians are ALWAYS the first individuals we attempt to contact under any circumstances.  Emergency contacts are used when we are unable to make contact with a parent or guardian.  Students will always be able to be released to those listed as an emergency contact. 

Attendance Procedures

Attendance Procedures are something that will look a bit different this year.  The four main areas of concern this year are Absence Reporting, Vacation Requirements, Policy vs. Covid , and Tardies.

Absences are still expected to be tracked and reported to us by parents as they would in normal years.  Face to face learning students will be marked absent by their teachers each day they are not in attendance.  That absence will only be changed to parental excused if a parent calls the front office to make us aware of why the student is absent.  We will be keeping detailed notes on why a student is absent and reported symptoms.  When we are provided with a Dr. note for appointments those absences will then be changed to a medically excused absence. We ask that parents be diligent about reporting absences to the office so we can be sure to have accurate information if it is needed by our nurse or health department for contact tracing purposes.  Please do not rely on your child’s teacher to relay this information to the office, it is parent responsibility to make sure the office is aware.  Students who are placed in quarantine or are exposed to COVID-19 must also be reported to the school.  Our school nurse will then follow up with the family to obtain more information and let the school know how many days we can anticipate the student to be out of school.  In these circumstances these absences are tracked as medically excused absences as well.

Attendance tracking for our distant learning students will look a bit different.  Their attendance is going to be tracked as participation.  Teachers will be keeping track of those not participating in their google classrooms each day and reporting that information to the office.  If your student is not an active participant in their distant learning classroom, school personnel will make contact to address these concerns.  Distant learning students are expected to maintain learning at the same pace as our face to face students. 

Vacation policy has not changed this year.  Policy states that the principal can excuse up to 5 days per year for a vacations however this has to be pre-approved by both the teacher and principal prior to the vacation.  Vacation request forms can be obtained through the front office.  Upon approval, those days will not count against the student for truancy.  However, there are some CDC guidelines that we must comply with in regards to vacations.  If you travel outside the country (this includes to Mexico and Canada) you are required to self quarantine for 14 days upon your return.  Your student will not be able to attend school for the duration of self-quarantine, in which case we could consider distance learning for those 14 days.  If you travel within the United States, Utah does not currently have any quarantine regulations so your student will be able to return to school as normal when back from vacation.

In a typical year, we would be required to start truancy procedures after student has missed more than 7 days that are not medically excused, however due to COVID-19 truancy will be reviewed on an individual basis.  Students are not to attend school if they are exhibiting any Covid related symptoms so as long as there is communication from parents regarding absences, and we are able to make notes on student files we have been advised to offer leniency for attendance. 

Tardy students will need to report to the front office as normal to check in.  Our tardy bell rings at 9:05am so if your student arrives after that, you can plan on them entering through the front office as they did in years past.

Contactless Student Check-Out

This year we have implemented a contactless student check out system.  This can be done in the following 3 ways: Call Ahead, Park and Wait, and Front Foyer.

On this slide you will see a QR code as well as a bit.ly link.  Both of these will take you to the online form that is required to be filled out with each student check-out. A separate form is required for each student.

Contactless Student Check-Out bit.ly link – https://bit.ly/3lhCGN5

If you choose to call ahead, please fill out the online form prior to calling.  Once submitted, call us to let us know you are on your way.  We will verify that the form was received and then get the student ready for your arrival.  When you arrive, you can just pull into our drop off lane on the west side of the school and call in to let us know you are here.  We will come out to the car with your student and check identification before releasing them to you. 

Our 30 minute parking stalls have also been designated for our park and wait system.  No Contact Check Out signs will be posted in these designated stalls with the QR code and bit.ly link for your convenience.  If you choose to park and wait, please fill out the form first and then call to let us know you have submitted it.  We will verify that the form was received and come out to the car to check identification.  We will send your student to your car when they are ready to go.

We are going to minimize access to the school beyond the front foyer as much as possible to protect our office staff and maintain a sanitary space for students and staff.  If you choose to come into the building to check your student out, we ask that you still fill out the form online as you wait in the front foyer.  Once submitted, call to let us know that you have submitted the form and are waiting in the foyer.  We will verify your identification through the window and prepare your student to leave.  If you do not have access to internet on your phone to complete the online form, We are happy to provide you with a Chromebook to complete the checkout form in the foyer. 

Isolation Room & Student Check-Out

Many of you may have already heard us refer to our Isolation Room.  This is a District requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The isolation room is a designated space for students who are exhibiting obvious COVID symptoms.  Symptomatic students will be taken to this room while waiting for a parent to arrive.  This space is intended to minimize exposure to our healthy students and staff in the building. 

If you are informed that your student is ill and in isolation, you will want to arrange a time for pick-up.  You will be required to fill out the same online check-out form as described in the previous slide.  The QR code and bit.ly link will be posted on the doors designated for pick up of students in isolation.  When you have arrived to the isolation room pick-up doors, you can either ring the doorbell or Call to let us know you have arrived.  Students in isolation will ONLY be released to parents at the designated isolation pick-up location (which is pictured on the next slide) to ensure minimal exposure to the rest of the building.  Parent, Guardian, or adult responsible for pick up will still be required to present their ID to staff at the Isolation Room Doors.

Where is the Isolation room Pick-Up Door?

The Isolation room pick-up door is located on the North side of the building where the pod joins up to the brick building.  We ask that you please not park in the bus zone when using this pick-up location. 

Mask Mandate & Protecting our Staff and Students

As we all know there is a Mask Mandate in effect.  This requires that masks be worn at all times while on school property.  We reserve the right to deny entrance to our facility and grounds without a mask on.  Despite mixed opinions regarding masks, we will fully enforce the mandate that is in place and ask for cooperation from everyone.

The safety of our staff and students is a top priority.  We spend an extensive amount of time during the day sanitizing our building and touch surfaces.  To better serve everyone, we ask that you DO NOT ENTER the building if you are experiencing any of the following symptoms:

• Fever or Chills
• Cough
• Shortness of Breath or difficulty breathing
• Sore Throat
• Fatigue
• Muscle or Body Aches
• Headache
• Loss of taste or smell
• Nausea, Diarrhea, or Vomiting

Despite your state of health, we are committed to still serve our community, but we ask that if you aren’t feeling 100% healthy call in so we can still help from a safe distance. 

Visitor Policy

At this time, we can not allow visitors into the building.  We hope that this changes in the near future because we love our families and seeing students from previous years.   Separation has been hard, but it is in the best interest of everyone that we adhere to this policy.

Access to the building will only be given when required or essential.  In which case temperature checks are a must.  Any individual that requires access beyond the front foyer or office will be required to have their temperature checked prior to entrance.  This applies to contractors and maintenance crews who might be working on site.

We understand that there will be times that parents require meetings with teachers or administration.  We will attempt virtual meetings in all cases via zoom or google meet.  If for any reason we can’t successfully meet virtually, we will accommodate a face to face meeting in a space we can maintain safe social distancing.

Parent Portal & School Communication

After living the last nearly 6 months in a pandemic, we have had to learn to rely on digital resources for things we once did in person.  This year many families completed their registration online via the parent portal.  Now that we have crossed this bridge it is likely that we will continue to utilize this resource for future registrations and other areas as well.  If you haven’t set up a parent portal, we recommend doing so right away.

 The parent portal has been  available to parents for a long time, but wasn’t used frequently at the Elementary level.  We hope now that we have many of our families set up with it, more parents will take advantage of the valuable information you can get from in.  Through the portal you don’t just have access to registration at the beginning of the year.

 You can access gradebook, which is where you can check in on your students and see how they are doing on assignments and grades prior to report cards coming out.  It is a great way to keep your students accountable for their own learning.

You can also access PayPams (our online lunch payment system) through the portal. We get many calls in the front office regarding lunch transactions or balances, but it is not information we have access to.  If you sign up for a PayPams account you can monitor transactions, account balances, and make payments with a credit card.

Many are already familiar with our SEP Scheduler, as we have used it for many years now.  Portal just offers a quick access to the system.

Parents also have the ability to review their student contact cards in the portal.  Unfortunately, you can’t make changes to contacts through the portal, but you can verify information and inform the office of any changes you see that need made. 

There are many other resources available through the portal and we encourage you all to go in and explore to ensure that you are getting the most out of what is available to you.

As we mentioned previously, we communicate with our families via phone calls and emails.  What you might not know is that we also have a school website that can be found at schools.graniteschools.org/pleasant green, a facebook page and twitter page both with user name @PleasantGreenEl that we update regularly with the same information that we send out in phone calls and emails.  We encourage families to check into these social media platforms for updates and important information. 

Class Dojo is another communication app that teachers have used to communicate with parents and many families are already familiar with it.  If you haven’t set up a Class Dojo or heard from your teacher about how to connect to their classroom, please reach out to them for that information. Along with the classroom dojo, we are working on setting up a way for administration and staff to communicate through the same ClassDojo app as well. 

Questions or Concerns

We hope that we were able to provide clarification on how you can expect our office and some of the school to function this school year.  As always, we are committed to this awesome community that we love.  If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to call us at 385-646-4972 or you can email the Principal, Allison Peterson at ampeterson@graniteschools.org or the Principal’s Secretary, Jessica Inman at jminman@graniteschools.org. 

Here’s to another fabulous year, Growin’ with our Gnomies!