Tremont Families update December 8, 2021

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Parent Newsletter: December 8th, 2021

Hi Tremont Families! We hope you’ve all had an amazing week! Can you even believe there is just one more week left before winter break?? We are SO excited to be coming up on a week full of fun, festivities, and lots of joy so we’re wishing you all a restful weekend. Thanks, as always, for all you do to support our Tremont Lions!

• Pick-up + Power School 

  • For a student to be allowed to be picked up by an adult from school, that person must be a contact for the child in PowerSchool. If you want your child to go home with someone who is not listed in PowerSchool as a contact, just call the office to get them added. Thank you!

• Planned Absence Reminder: 

  • Please remember to complete a Planned Absence Excuse form as soon as possible if you are planning to take your student(s) out of school before the winter break begins. Absences are not excused for travel/vacation without an approved Planned Absence Excuse form submitted before the absence begins.

• A Note from our Counselor: 

  • Dear Families:  you may have heard or read the new report from the Surgeon General regarding Youth and Mental Health.  The link for the full report is here:  https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-youth-mental-health-advisory.pdf We can all do our part to support our youth in America.  Take action for family members and caregivers is presented on pages 16-18.  This section provides tips for use of technology and resources. Be well, Jean Allocco, School Counselor

• COVID Tests 

  • We do have plenty of test kits available for testing.  They can be picked up at the front desk. They are good through the end of the year. 

• Learn about helping children regulate their feelings - save the date!

  • The Zones of Regulation is an evidenced-based curriculum that helps children learn to regulate their emotions.  It is used in elementary schools across the country, including all five Upper Arlington elementary schools.  Learn more about this curriculum by joining Kathy Lawton, Ph.D., the director of Burbank Early Childhood School, for a special parent zoom on Thursday, January 6 from noon until 1 p.m.  The Zoom link will be emailed to all elementary parents prior to the event.  It will also be recorded and posted on the district’s YouTube channel.

• Updates from Technology

  • During the week of December 20th K-8 students will have the Zoom app removed from their iPads with the exception of students who may have a specific need to retain the app.  Those needs may include enrollment in the online academy, remote counseling, quarantine, other unique educational circumstances as decided by families and building principals.

  • UPDATED INFO PowerSchool Will Be Online This Weekend 

    • Powerschool was scheduled to go offline for an Oracle update.  That update has been cancelled.  Full access will remain with all PowerSchool portals.

  • AirDrop Advice for All

    • The technology department advises staff and students to disable Airdrop on devices unless you are actively using that feature.  This will prevent unwanted images/files to be sent to your devices. Tracking malicious senders is extremely difficult and most times impossible.  It is easy to turn off and on:  Settings>General>AirDrop.  Switch to Receiving Off.

  • Belonging Through Books - WOSU Digital Read Alouds

    • A few months ago, this WOSU introduced subscribers to their Belonging Through Books Project, an ODE grant-funded project they are undertaking with local non-profit Harper's Corner to provide diverse and inclusive storybooks to local elementary schools. In our efforts to make these types of books accessible to students everywhere, they have teamed up with some authors from the book list to record a series of digital read alouds for use in school and at home! Visit wosu.org/belonging for the link to their YouTube 

Empowering our Parents/Guardians as Partners in their Students' Learning- NEW & EXCITING

• The Upper Arlington City School District Technology Department would like to partner with our families to improve communication between school and home, and empower parents and guardians to help keep students safe online. We have just completed the setup of the Lightspeed Relay Parent Portal which will give parents and guardians added visibility into internet activity and provide browsing controls for their students during after school hours. This is a simple tool so that parents and guardians can be more informed about the browsing habits of their student(s) and have a way to control internet access to the student’s iPad.

• Features include:

• Weekly Parent-Guardian Report sent to your email - sent once a week on Sunday.

• Parent-Guardian Portal Dashboard that provides a summary of your student’s most recent browsing activity. 

• Ability to switch between multiple students in your family from the same dashboard.

• The ability to establish healthy screen time limits while at home by limiting internet access on the device to 1 hour, 3 hours, or overnight.  When browsing access is paused by a parent, students will see an alert page indicating that the parental pause is active.

• Up to two custodial parents or guardians will be automatically enrolled based on the contact information provided in PowerSchool.  In your first weekly emailed report, there will be instructions on how to create your portal account.  These reports will be auto generated beginning the first week of January.