Weekly Hot Topics:
● We hope that all families had a wonderful holiday weekend! As we end November and enter December, Nishuane will shift our social emotional learning focus to empathy. A family activity focused on empathy will be sent home with your child soon. December is full of several important events including Parent Teacher Conferences on December 8, 9 & 10. Please see below to learn more regarding Parent Teacher Conferences and other important upcoming events that will be facilitated during the next several weeks!
Important Health Reminders
● Nurse’s Note: Please see the below reminders from Nurse Ndungu regarding travel and COVID-19 vaccinations.
○ Travel: To all parents and guardians, please remember if you will be traveling during the holiday break it is important to share your travel plans with Nurse Ndungu to ensure we are adhering to the district’s travel guidance.
○ Vaccinations: If your child(ren) have an upcoming vaccination appointment, or if your child has been vaccinated, please share this information with Nurse Ndungu as the district is working to maintain accurate student records.
Please contact Nurse Anne Ndungu with any travel or vaccination information at 973-509-4236 or andungu@montclair.k12.nj.us.
● COVID Daily Health Form: Please remember that all families are required to complete the School Safety Check for each child on Mondays and Wednesdays within the Genesis Parent Access portal. This form should be completed on these designated days prior to your child’s arrival at school. Families will receive reminders to complete the safety check, as well as when the form has not been completed. Please reach out to the main office or our school nurse should you experience any difficulty completing the required safety check.
Travel Guidance (Winter Vacation: December 24, 2021-January 2, 2022)
The holidays are right around the corner, and we wanted you to have travel guidance with enough time to plan for the Thanksgiving and December holiday breaks. We understand this is often a time when families visit relatives and gather together. As we continue to follow the science, please see the
CDC guidance for travel in the last row of the linked table. Additional CDC guidance for domestic and international travel
may be found on this webpage.
If your children are unvaccinated and you plan on traveling during these times, they will be set up with virtual learning due to their need to quarantine. This virtual period will be for 10 days if you elect not to test, or seven days with a negative test.
We value you as a partner and ask that you provide your children’s teacher(s)/principal with your travel plans in advance which will assist us in preparing virtual learning upon your return, allowing us to best serve your children.
Additionally, please contact the school nurse, Nurse Anne Ndungu, sharing your travel plans.
PTA Council Reflections Program
● Nishuane will be participating in the PTA Council’s Reflections program. This program is intended to celebrate student creativity around the theme of “I will change the world by…” All submissions are due December 1, 2021.
Please click here to learn more regarding this exciting program!
Nishuane Compliment Jar!
● It has been such a pleasure to welcome your children to Nishuane. Our staff have worked tirelessly to create a bright and welcoming environment for your children's return. In an effort to have staff receive that same love and kindness that they pour into your children; we would like to introduce a virtual compliment jar for Nishuane. These compliments/kudos will be shared with nominated staff members. We hope this compliment jar will bring a smile to our staff members and remind them that they are appreciated. This link will be shared weekly via the Nishuane News. Feel free to add a compliment at any time throughout the school year.
Compliment Jar:
https://forms.gle/7KWsAEttFLpwvCoW7
P.S. In addition to your child's homeroom teachers, don't forget about our Related Arts Teachers, Curriculum Support Teachers, Resource Room Teachers, Paraprofessionals, Nurse, Counselor, Custodians, Office Staff, PTA, and SATp Committee
Outdoor Lunch/Recess Update:
Please dress your child with weather appropriate clothing. On any given day, if the Real Feel temperature outside reaches 40 degrees or below, the building administrator will look at a variety of other weather variables, such as windchill, precipitation, and cloud coverage in order to determine if students will eat their lunch inside or outside for that day. Each variable individually affects whether the air will feel cooler or warmer than what the actual temperature reads. The determination will be made by 9:30 am each morning. Students will continue to go outside for recess, as long as the Real Feel temperature remains above 28 degrees.
Parent Teacher Conferences
Parent teacher conferences will be facilitated on the following dates:
December 8 (evening: 6 p.m.-8 p.m.), December 9 (afternoon: 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.), and December 10 (afternoon: 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.). All conferences will be arranged by your child’s classroom teacher(s) and will be conducted
virtually. Nishuane will follow an abbreviated schedule on each of these school days with a 2:10 p.m. dismissal time. Please see communications from your child’s teacher(s) for additional details.
Parking Lot
Please remember that visitors are not permitted to park in the staff parking lot prior to the start of school, as well as during school hours. This includes when dropping children off at the YMCA before care program. We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Productions
The Nishuane SNAP team has begun to explore creative options for this school year’s school production. We are currently in search of members of the Nishuane community that could potentially provide audiovisual support with the production. If interested, please contact Mr. Eric Eder at
Eeder@montclair.k12.nj.us.
Upcoming SEPAC Events and Resources
The next SEPAC general meeting is Monday, November 29th at 7:00 pm. All members are invited to attend, as well as members of the community.
Corinne Catalano, Assistant Director for Consultation Services at the MSU Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health, will present The Impact of Stress on Behavior: Yours and Your Child's. We all have stressors in our life that come from many different places. Some internal and some external. Some avoidable and others not. How does stress impact the human nervous system and therefore our behavior? Join us to explore your stress profile, your child's stress profile, and the power of insight and relationships. Please see the attached worksheet to help you prepare for the presentation, as well as Corinne's bio at the end of this email.
The Zoom info is:
Topic: SEPAC General Meeting, Impact on Stress Seminar
Time: Nov 29, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86176779474?pwd=Z3pERVFFNmtNVWFHRDQyMjlVdFBzdz09
Meeting ID: 861 7677 9474
Passcode: 661583
Upcoming Meeting Dates:
December 13th, 7:00 pm - Parent/Caregiver Support Meeting - This meeting is open to parents and caregivers and is meant to provide an open forum for discussion and support.
2022 Meeting Dates - The New Year is approaching! General Membership meetings for 2022 are scheduled for 1/31, 2/28, 3/28, 4/25, 5/23 and 6/27 at 7:00 pm via Zoom.