20-21 School Year Updates

What's New This Week?

February 3, 2021

Happy First Week of In-Person Hybrid Learning! It’s been a true joy to see so many of your students back in our buildings, and we are so excited to see the Thursday & Friday crew tomorrow!  Our team compiled just a few of the happy moments captured across our network in this video- we hope you’ll take a moment to watch! 

We have been so proud of the student and staff commitment to health and safety demonstrated so far. 

For those students who will have their first day in our buildings tomorrow, we would like to remind you of a few essential items before heading to school. 

Please Complete the DSST Daily Screener Tool Every student and staff member must complete their daily health screener before they arrive on campus each day. Please support your student in completing this important questionnaire, using their DSST email address and DPS student ID as the password. If the screener is green after completion, you are good to go. If your screener is red, please call your school’s Front Office for the best next steps. You can learn more about using this tool by reviewing the guidebook or watching this video. 

What to Bring? 

• Check Your School Communications and Website: See what your specific DSST school is asking students to bring.
• A Mask: Students and staff must wear a mask all day except for while eating.
• A Charged Computer with a Charger: Even for in-person learners, a computer will continue to be an essential tool for learning throughout their day. Make sure it’s fully charged and that your student has their charger on hand.
• A Water Bottle: Because students will no longer be able to use a water fountain, it’s important that they have a water bottle on hand to refill and stay hydrated throughout the day.
• Winter Coat & Clothes: We’ll have as many lunches and breaks outside as possible
• A Bag: Students will not be able to use a locker, so they must  have a bag that can fit everything they’ll need while at school.
• Remember to bring all of these items home with you every day, as inclement weather may require remote learning days and students will not have access to their lockers to store anything overnight.

Thank you for your attention to these important details and guidelines- it is instrumental in helping the day run smoothly and keeping our community safe. It has been so wonderful to have your students back in our buildings, and we are so excited to see more smiling faces tomorrow morning! 

Read the full update here.

 

Health Monitoring Metrics

Per the recommendations of public health officials, DSST will use DSST COVID-19 school data to largely inform return to school decision making. We remain committed to:

• Grounding decisions in science
• Prioritizing safety to ensure we can keep the DSST community healthy
• Considering the educational needs of our students and families
• Communicating transparently and in a timely fashion (giving advance notice of decisions when possible
• Extending grace to each other and all parts of the community as we navigate this process together

Click here to view the Health Monitoring Metrics dashboard and learn more about our decision-making process.

 

To keep our community safe, DSST will be requiring any team member or student participating in in-person opportunities to take a health screener from home prior to traveling to a DSST school, in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. This screener asks community members to take their temperature as well as identify if they are experiencing or could have been exposed to someone experiencing any other COVID-19 symptoms. This tool will save students and families time while mitigating the risk of a community spread by quickly supporting our community with wellness checks at home.