Frequently Asked Questions

The VCS Re-opening Plan will be driven by four key health and safety pillars that we expect ALL students and staff to follow:

1. STAY HOME IF YOUR’RE SICK! Don’t come to school if you feel sick (fever, sore throat, headache, body aches, chills, loss of smell, cough, etc. ) We simply cannot afford to take any chances when it comes to our health.
2. MASKS ON!  Students must wear a mask at all times, with two exceptions, removing them for mask breaks (to be determined by your child’s teacher/principal (more will be given to younger students) and when eating and/or drinking.   VCS is still finalizing mask usage with regards to outside Physical Education classes. If students are taking PE on outdoor fields with 12’ markings, masks may not be required.
3. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE! Students and staff should practice social distancing as much as possible. This will be more than doable in typical classrooms with 11 to 14 kids. In classrooms with more than 14 students, larger spaces that support 6’ distancing will be utilized. In unique settings that can’t be socially distanced, we will utilize special polycarbonate dividers per New York State Education Department and Department of Health guidelines.  Please note, this doesn’t mean that kids won’t be closer than 6’ at ALL times.  Students may closer, on a limited basis and for short durations of time, while wearing masks.
4. WASH YOUR HANDS!  Students and staff will be required to wash their hands frequently and well! To incorporate vigorous hand hygiene we will be providing students with not only in-class lessons, but special videos on the importance of hand washing. 

The bottom line is If we do these four things – stay home if we’re sick, wear masks, socially distance and practice good hand hygiene we will have a much  better chance of staying healthy and keeping our schools open!

Parents and visitors will not be allowed to come to their child’s building, especially at the very start of the school year. Parents will only be allowed into buildings in the event that they need to pick up a sick child.  Limiting visitors will help us achieve the most successful social distancing measures and maintain the safest, healthiest environments for students, staff, and ultimately our entire community

Our goal is to increase fresh air into classrooms as much as possible. 

• Three of our buildings (Primary, Junior High and Senior High) have 100% of their air circulated from the outside. In addition, the vents are separated to minimize any intake of air that was just used. 
• While our Early Childhood and Intermediate Schools do not have 100% ventilation, they do have a significant amount and we have added 20% outside air into those buildings via air dampers. We are also installing high capacity MERV filters in these buildings to minimize the opportunity for the virus to enter. 
• In addition to filtration systems, we will also rely on “fresh air” to circulate through classrooms through windows. In other words, teachers will be allowed and encouraged to safety open/crack windows. According to the Department of Health, open windows (even minimally) are beneficial in creating healthier environments. Please note: fans will not be utilized as they are known to move air and potentially spread droplets. 

This is our top priority and will require a variety of initiatives. We will maintain social distancing as much as possible, have stringent mask wearing policies, and we will  reinforce and teach hand washing and cleanliness practices on a daily basis. In addition, we have hired the equivalent of eight new cleaners who will not only sanitize and clean our buildings, but implement new pandemic protocols for significant cleaning of high touch surfaces and bathrooms. We are also instituting very specific guidelines for when students and staff feel ill and/or are sent home for illness. For more information, go to the Health & Safety section of the VCS Reopening plan.

Any staff member or student who shows signs of illness will be instructed to report to the School Nurse for assess- ment. The School Nurse will then make a recommendation, if needed, for the student to be sent home/picked up by parent/guardian and directed to follow up with their Primary Care Physician. In the event a student or staff member has been identified as testing positive for COVID-19, the District will work directly with the Ontario County De- partment of Health to support contact tracing and council parent/guardian or staff on the need for quarantine.

Masks must be worn almost all times by students and staff.  (There may be time when teachers need to remove masks for instruction purposes. In these cases, 6’ must be maintained.)

The following are specific questions regarding Masks.

The VCS health and wellness strategy encompasses multiple steps that will require commitments from students, staff and parents. Visual Flow Chart Explaining Daily Process

• The VCS health and wellness strategy will begin with a daily screening process. Parents will be expected to fill out this health screening form online or via a phone app each morning before school. (Instructions to come). The daily screening from will take approximately 20 seconds to complete and will ask basic health questions, such as, ‘Do you have a fever?’ ‘Have you been in contact with someone with Covid?” etc. We are depending on parents to be honest about their child’s health when answering the daily screening form. We do not want your child coming to school if they are feeling ill.
• Forms will be checked by school nurses on a daily basis. Parents who do not complete the daily form will be contacted. Forms with “yes” answers will be forwarded to the nurse for immediate follow up. 
• If a child begins to feel ill after coming to school, he/she will be sent to their building’s health office for further evaluation by a school nurse.  The nurse will make a determination on whether the child needs to simply rest a bit or be sent home. There are two rooms in every building’s health office – one for those with Covid-like symptoms and another for students/staff with non-Covid ailments.  
• If a nurse suspects your child has Covid-like symptoms, you will be asked to pick up your child immediately and schedule an appointment with your pediatrician. 
• If your doctor determines your child is fine, you must get medical clearance before you send your child back to school.
• If your doctor feels your child’s symptoms are potentially Covid and recommends a Covid test, you can work with your child’s pediatrician and the school to find recommend testing locations.
• After a Covid test your child must stay home until results the results are in.
• If your child does not go to doctor or get tested per your physician– they will not allowed back to school and will have to wait at least 10 days to come back (per CDC guidelines)
• If your child tests positive, The Ontario County Health Department will contact VCS. The Ontario County Health Department will then take over the process of quarantine development. 
• The Health Department will decide:  -
  • When your child comes back to school
  • Who gets quarantined from buildings (The County will ask specific questions/ follow contact tracing questions)
• Please note, that if your child is socially distancing in class and wearing a mask, it may make the difference between quarantining or not –VCS does NOT make these decisions. The Health Department is in charge.
• Due to FERPA/HIPPA laws – while the District will know if one of its students has Covid-19, not everyone will be informed, only those who may have been in close proximity of the Covid-positive patient.

VCS is implementing a rigorous cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting process that will ensure all areas of our buildings meet the highest health and safety standards: 

• Buildings will be cleaned, sanitized and disinfected every night, after students and staff depart for the day. Each morning will be a brand day with a brand new building in terms of cleanliness. 
• During the regular day, while students and staff are in our buildings, newly hired cleaners (approximately 12 to 16 new cleaners) will be responsible for cleaning high touch areas all during day – 2-3 times a day. Examples of high touch areas include bathrooms, door knobs, light switches, etc. 
• Teachers and staff will also be utilizing special cleaning agents in their classrooms that kills bacteria and viruses. These cleanings will be done in between classes on desks and other high touch areas. 
• If a health emergency occurs in a classroom, students will be removed from that space until cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting can be completed. 
• Since the vast major of elementary students will eat in classrooms, special cleaning practices will also be implemented before and after lunch. Larger trash bins will be implemented into lunch spaces.

• Buses will be sanitized every evening and in between every bus run
• Passengers will be required to wear a mask at ALL times. There will be one child per seat and no more than 25 students on a bus at any time.  Siblings will not be able to sit together as that would put them closer to the student (non-relative) in the seat next to them. 
• Buses have recently been given the approval to carry typical hand sanitizer. This hand sanitizer will be important for continued cleanliness on the bus. 
• Wearing a mask is mandatory. Any student who is not medically excused and refuses to wear a mask will not be allowed on the bus. Extra masks will be available to students who do not have one.

The first day of school has been shifted from Tuesday, 9/8 to Thursday, 9/10 to give teachers two extra days to practice and prepare for new schedules and safety protocols. This change was not made to delay our school reopening but to create a safer, smoother re-opening. Note: This later re-opening will eliminate the two Superintendent’s Days previously scheduled for October and March so that teaching days are not lost.

September 10th is Blue
September 11th is Gold

Building administrators have planned virtual orientations to not only create greater re-opening consistency across all buildings, K-12, but to also minimize people on campus to start the actual re-opening process in the safest, most success manner.

Our teachers are working very hard on highlighting and streamlining critical content  so that on the days students are not in school, they can successfully learn independently. Teachers are working to focus on the most essential content standards. Teachers will utilize a model that engages students with higher level concepts and skill work  in the presence of the teacher. Students can then both practice these concepts and potentially learn new content on days they are not in person. Students will also have the ability to communicate with their teacher/s during this time. We believe the smaller classes will also give teachers a greater opportunity to communicate and give feedback to students while they are in front of them. 

We understand the difficulty of having students attend school partially during the week, however,  it may be difficult to adjust schedules because of the constraints on class size due to social distancing. If you have children with conflicting schedules please email your child’s principal/s to see what we can do to accommodate your family’s needs. We have tried to schedule siblings in school on the same days. 

Yes! Art, music and Physical Education are important parts of your child’s education and will be implemented into their schedules (indoors and outdoors) utilizing social distancing and masks when needed. 

Students will be evaluated on both their engagement in lessons (both in-person and on-line) as well as on the quality of  their assigned work.

Building specific information will be coming to you directly from your child’s building principal. This type of information will also be posted on building websites. 

To successfully meet this possibility, we are providing professional development for all of our teachers throughout the summer and into September so that they will be able to offer both synchronous and asynchronous options to students and allow for a more structured schedule than in the spring.

Children will be assigned their own learning manipulatives. In rare cases when teacher manipulatives must be shared, staff will sanitize them before sharing them. 

Yes, while we want parents to commit to the 10 to 13 week program commitments, we realize medical issues always take precedent. 

We tried to maximize the time we are able to safely have our elementary students in front of our teachers and staff because of the challenges of on-line learning for this age group. We believe although five out of 10 days is not ideal, the extra day of  in-person instruction equates to over 20 hours of additional  time per month. At the secondary level, teachers will have a full day without in-person instruction every week to support  their on-line students and develop additional distance learning content necessary to fulfill NYS graduation requirements and content standards.

The District is pleased to be offering music instruction to students.  We will be adhering to health and safety guidelines.

Students who are 100% online learners will participate in virtual lessons.

Definitely! Our counselors and student support services staff will work diligently to communicate with you and your children, whether it is via Zoom or in-person. We are always willing to have a face-to-face meeting with parents (with social distancing requirements) regarding the well-being of your children. Our counseling staff will also be proactively teaching social-emotional skills throughout the school year.

• VCS Food Services Department will be offering both hot and cold entrees this fall to both hybrid and remote learners. Items will be pre-wrapped and packaged. 
• Students will order their lunches a week in advance utilizing a new via a new on-line ordering system. (Details to come.)
• Elementary and SHS students will eat their meals in their classrooms, while JHS students will also eat in classrooms but have approximately 50 students eat in the cafeteria. The social distance in the cafeteria will be greater than 6 feet based on this number. 
• There will be significant protocols in place for handwashing before and after meals and specific traffic patterns will be followed when students pick up their meals from the cafeteria.  
• Cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting will take place after all meals in both cafeterias and classrooms. 
• VCS Food Services will offer curbside meal pickups for remote learners at the Senior High School concession stand (near the turf field) between 3:30 and 5:30 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays. Wednesday pick ups are for Thursday and Friday meals. Friday pick ups are for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday meals.

Yes, unlike the spring, students will need daily access to technology that they can bring to and from school, whether it is their own Chromebook, laptop or tablet or one that is borrowed from VCS.  

There are no more left to distribute at this time, however you can sign up to be on the waiting list.

Specific guidelines detailing whether your child will need to bring a device to and from school can be found at the individual building websites. For example, our youngest learners at the ECS may not need to bring devices to school. However, students in the VIS will. Please refer to your individual building directions and guidelines.

This year, VCS has over 1000 Chromebooks, however we cannot honor every request. We encourage those with their own devices to bring them to school for instructional purposes. This will minimize sharing and spreading potential germs.  

In addition to limited Chromebooks, VCS has a limited supply of “hot spots” to distribute to those families who do not have internet access at home.  

There are no more left to distribute at this time, however you can sign up to be on the waiting list.

If you have requested a chromebook back in August, and failed to pick it up, you can email techhelp@victorschools.org to set up a time, or starting on Thursday 9/9, the chromebooks that were requested in August will be available in each of the schools. There is still a small number that need to be picked up.

If your child's chromebook stops working or breaks at home, they need to email techhelp@victorschools.org. If your child's chromebook stops working or breaks while they are in school, they can visit the school library to get a replacement chromebook. The librarian will then issue the child a spare chromebook and put in a help ticket for the broken chromebook.

There will be limited chromebooks available in the building. Carts will not be available to sign out like how they were last year. Students in grades 2-12 are expected to either bring their own device to school with them, or bring their school issued chromebook with them to school.

Victor's Bring Your Own Device Policy
 

• Buses will be sanitized every evening and in between every bus run
• Passengers will be required to wear a mask at ALL times. There will be one child per seat and no more than 25 students on a bus at any time.  Siblings will not be able to sit together as that would put them closer to the student (non-relative) in the seat next to them. 
• Buses have recently been given the approval to carry typical hand sanitizer. This hand sanitizer will be important for continued cleanliness on the bus. 
• Wearing a mask is mandatory. Any student who is not medically excused and refuses to wear a mask will not be allowed on the bus. Extra masks will be available to students who do not have one.

In an attempt to settle in and establish the best social distancing and health and safety practices, VCS will not start clubs and other extracurricular activities at the beginning of the year. 

As long as the Health Department approves, we hope to transition them back into our schools at the end of September. Unfortunately, due to social distancing, we will not offer an activity bus run right away.

Community Childcare Options
Community daycare centers have worked together to organize daycare solutions at current market prices. If your family is in the hybrid model and in need of daycare please see the options listed below.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11LvQKp6jfzbouP5UQrDGGgkqqG8SJl_0DuHPhQj7q-4/edit?usp=sharing

There will be recess at the elementary level - with masks, however space is a premium. Certain buildings, such as the Intermediate, may not be able to use their playgrounds due to social distancing and sanitizing constraints as well as completing the development of a new playground. The Primary School, however, may have the ability to use its playground. The bottom line is there will be recess. More information will be on the individual building websites. 

School times won’t be changing, however with increased numbers of student drop offs and pick-ups by parents, traffic flows will look significantly different. We appreciate your patience as we implement these new traffic patterns. Please note, building administrators will be extending drop off times until we all get used to the new traffic patterns. More specific information on pick up and drop off information can be found on the building websites. 

VCS tennis courts, outdoor track, and turf field will be open for informal public use starting Tuesday, September 1st.

People must observe social distancing rules on all school facilities and wear protective masks if not able to social distance. Individuals not following these protocols will be asked to leave and will jeopardize the continued use by others.

Use by individual organizations for team sports and activities is not allowed at this time.