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Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Each year, the Office of Transportation Services reviews the bell schedules for all Fairfax County public schools and makes minor adjustments as necessary to improve on-time arrivals.
As you can imagine, developing this school year’s bell schedule has been extremely challenging due to the pandemic.
You may remember that new school bell schedules were announced in July. Our school’s bell schedule was changed. However, given the all-virtual start to the school year, there was no need to implement the new bell schedule.
At the School Board Work session on December 10, Superintendent Brabrand presented a revised phased- plan to return all students who have selected the in-person option starting in January, 2021. Staff worked to improve start times and end times for all levels.
Barring any changes to the plan that may be impacted by the pandemic, the following bell schedule will be in place effective January 12, 2021 for ALL students, virtual and in-person, at Graham Road is 9:45-4:15. The structure of the school day will remain the same but the times will be slightly adjusted to fit within the new start and end times. Until further notice, students will continue to log onto enrichment sessions from 9:00 - 12:00 on Mondays.
We feel this plan is a significant improvement and less disruptive over what was presented in the original plan last summer.
The fifteen (15) minute reduction in the school day is due to the increased cleaning time required between bus runs. Additionally, as more students return to school, the number of students allowed on each bus will be reduced substantially to meet social distancing requirements. With fewer students able to ride a bus at the same time, FCPS has no choice but to adjust the times that our buses are transporting students.
We understand that changes may present a hardship to some of our families and staff. However, it is the only way we can return all our grade levels to in-person learning, while following the critical guidelines to help keep our students and staff safe.
Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Lauren Badini, Principal
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