Dr. Fehrman's Friday Follow-Up
October 8, 2021
#StrongerTogether Shout Out
A huge thank you to the nearly 70 parents who submitted their interest in serving on the Parent or the Public Health Health, Medical, and Science COVID-19 Advisory Teams. I have selected the parents to serve on these teams and scheduled the first two meetings for both of these teams to meet. These meetings will be held in a roundtable format, and members of the public can submit questions for the advisory teams to discuss in our upcoming meetings. The team members are listed below. You can review additional information about these highly qualified individuals as well as our meeting dates on the CSD webpage (click on the “Advisory Council” link on the left menu).
The purpose of the Public Health, Medical, and Science COVID-19 Advisory Team is to:
Review emerging COVID-19 data to provide guidance to CSD.
Provide guidance regarding appropriate and applicable COVID-19 mitigation strategies and protocols to maintain a healthy learning environment.
Members of the Public Health, Medical, and Science COVID-19 Advisory Team:
Dr. Sandra Valencia
Jesse Blanton
Michele Hlavsa
Colleen Kelley
Nancy Messonnier
Hogai Nassery
Daniel Payne
Bianca Perri
Rachel Smith
Allison Walker
The purpose of the COVID Parent Advisory Team is to:
Review established and proposed COVID-19 protocols and procedures in CSD and provide the parent perspective before changes or new procedures are implemented.
Members of the Parent COVID-19 Advisory Team:
Jill Wasserman
Sara Weathersby
Shavona McCelp
Becky Slemons
Alduan Tartt
Emily Master
Jessica Murdock
Marisa Gonzalez
Kent Thagard
All stakeholders can submit questions for the advisory committees to discuss in our upcoming meetings here.
October is National Principals Month
Research has shown that the school principal is second only to classroom teachers when it comes to the impact on student achievement. And a recent study released by the Wallace foundation states that the impact a principal has on student achievement has been underestimated in the past and is likely much higher than previous research has shown. I am honored to have such amazing leaders at all our schools. This group of highly qualified and passionate leaders put in countless hours to support our students and staff. I am so thankful for all of our principals. See the FULL list of all of our principals here.
Job(s) Well Done
CSD transitions to a new fiber-optic network
On October 3, City Schools of Decatur fully transitioned to the fiber optic network jointly built with the City of Decatur. The new network, with an expected 20-year lifespan, provides built-in resilience not previously available, will lower operating costs, and eases CSD’s implementation of future network enhancements.
Click here to view the FULL article: https://www.csdecatur.net/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=40&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=11026&PageID=1
School Visits
This week I stopped by Oakhurst and Renfroe and, as always, saw the most amazing teaching going on in both schools.
At Oakhurst, I had the extreme pleasure to visit Shannon Staton’s Game Day Class which is a Reading and Math Enrichment Class that all Oakhurst students get to attend. Ms. Staton engages students in learning through games. Her creativity is endless! When I stopped by, students were playing Pigs in Space and then they moved to a game of Gettin’ Piggy With it! as they explored and deepened their understanding of number sequences. I wish I had a teacher like Ms. Staton when I was in elementary school! She is an expert at making learning very difficult concepts fun!
My visit to RMS took me to three math classes; Ms. Frazier, Ms. Corbett, and Ms. Botta-Seignious. All three classrooms were examples of the best math instruction I have seen in years! Ms. Frazier transitioned her students from their warm-up activity seamlessly to four differentiated groups based on how they performed on their pre-assessment to ensure full mastery of the content or to provide an opportunity to extend and deepen their learning. Ms. Corbett’s class was deeply engaged in applying their math knowledge to real-world situations through an interactive online module where they were engineering a water slide by using their knowledge of triangles. And Ms. Botta-Seignious’s students were also working in differentiated groups to fully master the content. As Ms. Botta-Seignious worked with small groups, she expertly asked questions that focused on determining if students understood the underlying concepts of the content they were learning. Great job Ms. Frazier, Ms. Corbett, and Ms. Botta-Seignious.
CSD Transportation Department
The City Schools of Decatur Transportation Department is happy to announce the adoption of an innovative mobile device app and website entitled, Here Comes the Bus®.
Here Comes the Bus is a bus and student tracking software tool that helps keep you informed and your children safe as they travel to and from home and school on the school bus. This free app can simply be downloaded, create a secure account, add your students and you’re all set!
See our School Code here: City Schools of Decatur ( 29749 )
What will you see with Here Comes the Bus?
Real-time location of your child’s bus on a map
Scheduled and actual bus arrival times at home and school
Confirmation that your child’s bus has arrived at the bus stop, at school or both
Push notification* and email alert when:
The bus has entered the radius around the home stop
The bus has been substituted
To sign up to track your child's bus, click here.
To learn more about Here Comes the Bus, visit https://www.csdecatur.net/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=40&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=11024&PageID=1
Have Questions? please contact the school district via email hctb@csdecatur.net
COVID-19 Information
Weekly COVID-19 Testing
We will have a soft launch of the weekly COVID-19 testing program next week. Our testing team is still experiencing supply chain issues, but we will test Monday and Tuesday of next week. The schools scheduled to begin testing are F.AVE, Talley, Winnona Park, Clairemont, and Glennwood. If we receive additional supplies by early next week, we will be able to launch the rest of the testing sites the week of October 18th.
Community Information
A Discussion about Trust Between Citizens and Public Institutions
On Wednesday, Oct. 13 from 6-7:30 p.m. join the Decatur High School student leader and member of the Student Coalition for Equity Kayla Evans, alumni, and co-founder of the Coalition Koan Roy-Meighoo, and City Schools of Decatur Superintendent Dr. Fehrman as they take part in a panel discussion with Fonta High (co-chair of the Beacon Hill Black Alliance) and Captain Jennifer Ross (Decatur Police Department) on the importance of trust between citizens and public institutions.
The event will create space for an honest dialog about trust as the foundation for constructive and purposeful civic engagement and institutional responsiveness. The conversation will explore the trust deficit in the United States and how that impacts race relations in particular, as well as discuss effective strategies to nurture trust between citizens and public institutions. Hosted by Decatur's Better Together Advisory Board.
For more information and Zoom registration, please visit: https://www.decaturga.com/bc-btab/page/anti-racism-speaker-series
Indigenous Peoples' Day
Please join all the CSD lower elementary schools PTA DEI committees for a reading of the book "Christopher Cologre Ogre It's Over" by Dr. Oriel Maria Siu to honor Indigenous People's Day.
Event date: Tuesday, October 12
Time: 5:00-6:30pm
Indigenous People’s Day celebrates those who survived the conquest of the Americas instead of those who violently colonized. While the official date is October 11th, we are celebrating October 12th because that's the day Columbus landed on Hispanola in 1492 in recognition of the Tiano peoples who populated the island.
Dr. Siu earned her Ph.D. from UCLA and is a scholar of Central Americans in the diaspora.
PRAISE FOR CHRISTOPHER THE OGRE COLGORE, IT'S OVER!:
"A Pioneering Children's Book" LA Times on Rebeldita the Fearless
"This book shifts the paradigm in elementary school curricula regarding Columbus and white settler colonialism. It's wonderful!"
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous People's History of the United States
Brave & Kind Books will be stocking the book if your family would like to purchase for your personal library:
The reading will take place via Zoom hosted by Winnona Park Elementary. Children will be able to submit questions for a Q&A session after the reading. Please click this URL to join: https://csdecatur.zoom.us/j/94949411614
Have Questions? Email Winnona Park DEI Co-Chairs Jeanie Dizon: jduquedizon@gmail.com and Nicole Guidotti-Hernandez: nmgh24@gmail.com
Children’s Environmental Health Walk
The City of Decatur is hosting its Children’s Environmental Health walk on October 14th at Legacy Park from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mayor Patti Garrett will lead the community in the walk. We stand in support of Environmental health for our scholars and our families in the City of Decatur!