Thank you to Christ Church Episcopal School for sponsoring this article.
The Greenville area is home to many excellent schools and parents truly have an array of educational institutions they can choose from to meet their child’s needs. But as a parent, it can be overwhelming to say the least! In the end, how do you know if you’ve made the right decision?
There is one school that stands out for its exceptional curriculum which aims to fulfill the needs of every student and seeks to gives them the necessary skills to excel in the classrooms, on their sports team and in their community. If you are looking around for a great school where your child is given every opportunity to fulfill their potential, from K through 12th grade, take a good look at Christ Church Episcopal School (CCES).
Do you ever struggle to keep up with all the information from your child’s school? GCS Backpack can help you navigate the school year! Grades, attendance, teacher information, and school calendar. It can all feel overwhelming. Greenville County Schools has an excellent solution with their Backpack app.
Here’s everything you need to know about the app to make this school year a little easier.
Backpack is a resource provided by Greenville County Schools to keep students and parents updated. It can be accessed through a browser but is also available as an app.
Things Parents Can Do on Backpack
Easily edit emergency contact information
Check their child’s meals balance and add funds
Find their child’s school and teacher contact information
Enroll additional children
View available programs for their child
See their child’s grades and test scores
Check their child’s attendance and daily schedule
Stay informed about their child’s behavior
Find a link to the school calendar
Student Dashboard
GCS students are assigned an email address and password when they are enrolled and have access to their own GCS Backpack dashboard. There they can view their class schedule, check their grades and test scores, and view their lunch balance.
Students can also use their Backpack GCS dashboard to access the educational apps they use for school.
Parent Dashboard
The parent dashboard has a wealth of information. Parents can view basically the same information as on the student dashboard but with additional features.
You can easily edit your child’s emergency contact information, pay on their meal cards, check their behavior and attendance, and enroll additional students. You’ll also find your child’s teacher’s contact information, their school’s contact information, and a link to the GCS calendar.
Have more than one child in GCS? You still only need one Backpack account. You’ll be able to access each child’s information easily from the main dashboard.
Creating an Account on the GCSBackpack app?
Parents can set up their own account by going to the GCSbackpack website and selecting the “I’m a Parent” option. You’ll need your child’s student ID number to add them to your account. At the end of the process, you’ll be prompted to contact your child’s school to complete your account.
GCS has a page on its website with information and a video with instructions on setting up your account.
Greenville County Schools in Greenville, SC proposed a change to the 2023-24 school year calendar In November and asked for feedback from parents and staff. They announced that results of that feedback and the new 2023-24 school calendar.
Screenshot of GCS 2023-24 calendar
New School Year Calendars Released
UPDATE: December 14, 2022
Greenville County Schools has announced that they have changed the 2023-24 school year calendar. Instead of starting school the second week of August, they will now begin August 8, 2023. The school year will end before Memorial Day Weekend on May 22, 2024.
In an email to media, GCS said: “The calendars reflect a shift to allow the fall academic semester to end prior to Winter Break. This adjustment will be academically beneficial to students, and the feedback received regarding this shift was extremely positive, with 74% of respondents in favor. Midterms, finals and state testing will be completed before students leave for winter break, rather than in January when they return to school after an extended break. “
The 2023-24 School Year Calendar
For the first time, the District is releasing two years of school calendar. Parents can see the 2024-25 school year calendar as well.
GCS said that releasing calendars two years in advance will be the new norm in efforts to help families plan further out. The 2025-26 student calendar will be determined in Fall 2023.
To learn about the feedback GCS received from parents and to view the 2023-24 and 2024-25 student calendars, click here.
Original Post (November 2022)
In a 53-second video, Greenville County Schools outlines their proposed changes to the 2023-24 school year calendar.
They are asking for the change in order to get all the state-required testing done before the beginning of Winter Break instead of doing it in early January when students and teachers return to the classroom.
Screenshot from GCS video
The Proposed Changes
GCS proposes that the first day of the 2023-24 school year would move a week earlier to Tuesday, August 8, 2023 instead of the usual mid-August start date.
The end of the school year would be May 22, 2024, which is before Memorial Day Weekend. Usually, the end of the school year is the first week in June.
Other school districts in South Carolina have already made this change. This current school year, 2022-23, several districts in our area including Oconee, Pickens, a handful in Greenwood, Abbeville, and McCormick, start in early August and even late July.
Feedback is Welcome
Greenville County Schools said that feedback is welcome on these new proposed changes. Parents can email the district at calendar@greenville.k12.sc.us. They are taking feedback through December 1, 2022.
For parents who are planners and have already booked next summer’s vacation, this could certainly hamper their plans. Other feedback we’ve seen is that parents feel that the first week of August is still in the middle of summer. Yet others think that this is a fantastic change because it’s so hard to get students back into the swing of the things right after the two-week winter break in order to take exams.
The other thing to consider is that many private schools follow the GCS calendar so those schools would likely be affected by this change as well.
Whatever you have to say, send an email over to district and let them know before December 1, 2022.
A bill affecting students and families in Greenville County making its way through the South Carolina legislature is almost certain to be passed and signed into law imminently. It demands that students return to in-person learning five days a week by April 26th.
Currently, only high school students are not back to full-time, in-person instruction, which the district is now set to change to comply with the law.
The Greenville County School district said this morning that all plexiglass will be removed at the high school level this Friday (students are eLearning then) and desks will be arranged three feet apart in rows.
“This means that students will not be able to follow the social distancing guidance recommended for our current community incidence rate, but will be seated 3 feet apart without plexiglass,” wrote Tim Waller, Director of Media Relations at GCS.
This new law does not affect students who are in the Virtual Program.
“High school families currently in our brick and mortar (traditional) attendance plan will have the option to attend school five days or to remain on the 75% attendance schedule, beginning Monday, April 26,” said the email to the media. “Students who remain on the 75-percent plan should continue to participate in eLearning on their at-home days.”
The district does not expect mange changes at the elementary and middle school levels since those grades have been back to five days a week, in-person instruction since before Christmas. They don’t expect families in the Virtual Program to ask to switch their kids to in-person this late in the year, especially since it could cause changes in teachers and schedules.
The district has stated multiples times their goal to get students back to full-time in-person instruction as soon as it was safe to do.
If your child wants to participate in the Virtual Program through GCS next year, you can learn more about registering them here.
The Greenville County Schools system will be continuing their Virtual Program into next year and registration is open.
During the 2021-21 school year, Greenville County Schools had about one-third of their students, more than 23,000, in the Virtual Program, where all instruction and schoolwork is done online. GCS will continue to offer this option for next year, the 2021-22 school year.
Registration closes April 23, 2021
Registration is now open to enroll full-time in the GCS Virtual Program and will continue through Friday, April 23, 2021.
The Virtual Program is staffed based upon early signup so if you want your child(ren) to do this program next year, be sure to register. There will be a waitlist if need be.
In an email to media, the GCS press office said that the current registration schedule is “based on an assumption the pandemic will no longer be a serious concern. If during the summer it is apparent school will open in the fall on an altered schedule or with pandemic protocols in place, and/or if vaccines are not widely available for all age groups, additional windows will be made available for parents to select the Virtual Program.”
To register for the Virtual Program, parents must have a BackPack account, which is where parents must fill out the registration information.
Changes to the 2021-22 Virtual Program
Greenville County Schools has instituted the following changes in the Virtual Program for the new school year:
An increased emphasis on attendance in live sessions. Students will be expected to participate in live sessions at scheduled times. Exceptions based on extenuating circumstances must be approved, in advance, by the virtual administrator.
Parents who wish for students to return to brick and mortar instruction will be allowed to make requests. They are encouraged to make an approved transition at the end of a nine-week grading period.
Students in the Virtual Program will be scheduled based on grade level and academic record, not by school. This is a significant change for high school students, who will not be scheduled with teachers from their high schools next year.
The Virtual Program will not be offered at Specialized/Magnet programs such as Charles Townes Center, Language Immersion and preschool/self-contained disabilities.
Virtual Program Challenges
In the first quarter of the 2021 school year, GCS announced that grades were seriously slipping, especially among the students in the virtual program.
Out of the 72,832 students enrolled in Greenville County Schools, 16,047 have one or more F’s, which is equal to about 22% of all students enrolled in the county.
Double the number of virtual program students have more F’s than in-person students. But even comparing numbers from last year between in-person students, this year’s hybrid eLearning and in-person students are having a lot harder time with their studies. Last school year, 5,327 students in in-person learning had one or more F’s and this year, that number is 8,566, a 10% increase.
GCS announced several measures to try to remedy the causes. Progress reports have not been publicly issued yet.
Q&A
GCS has answered several questions about the Virtual Program in this document. And we interviewed Jeff McCoy of Greenville County Schools last summer specifically about the Virtual Program:
The Greenville County School Board had their November 10, 2020 meeting and here are the highlights.
It’s no secret this year has been a huge struggle for teachers, students, and parents as they’ve gone back to school in some fashion or another. But the first quarter grades reveal just how much of a struggle it’s been.
Out of the 72,832 students enrolled in Greenville County Schools, 16,047 have one or more F’s, which is equal to about 22% of all students enrolled in the county.
Double the number of virtual program students have more F’s than in-person students. But even comparing numbers from last year between in-person students, this year’s hybrid eLearning and in-person students are having a lot harder time with their studies. Last year, 5,327 students in in-person learning had one or more F’s and this year, that number is 8,566, a 10% increase.
High school virtual program students seem to be struggling the most, with more than half have one or more F’s. Virtual Program middle schoolers are next with nearly 40% having one or more F’s.
Superintendent Dr. Royster said that these numbers weren’t all together unexpected as the district was worried from the outset about the complete overhaul of the new learning systems.
Associate Superintendent of Academics Jeff McCoy said that many of the F’s are due to students not handing in work.
What is the school district doing to help?
Math and ELA intervention programs in elementary school will continue. These have already been in place. In middle school, Read180 classes will continue.
Starting November 6, GCS will provide transportation for all brick and mortar students, have between 6-8 students per teachers, and compensate teachers for tutoring after-hours. They will work on identifying students with F’s and see what kind of intervention they need. The district uses a process called the OnTrack process that identifies students who need intervention.
Intervention in the K-8 Virtual Program will be looking at 45-60 minute after school sessions at least two days a week. This could happen before or after school and possibly on weekends, all virtually.
There are remediation blocks built into schedules but schools will add more, up to three times per week for elementary and twice a week for middle. Intervention focus will be geared towards reading and math.
If more intensive intervention is needed for virtual only students, GCS is looking at possible in-person options that focus on the core academic areas.
For high school intervention, teachers teach both brick and mortar and virtual and would be available for 30-45 minutes before school. Virtual students are welcome to come to school if they can for this extra work. There will be after school hours for one day a week with the current two days per week in-person attendance. High school students who are struggling may be able to come back to school in-person more than twice a week but overall, there are no plans for high school wide in-person attendance more than two days per week.
How do teachers feel about returning to buildings?
Dr. Royster said they only surveyed middle school teachers, who are generally reticent about coming back in-person. He’s meeting with teachers this week.
The district indicated they are looking at a safe path to move forward to bring back teachers and students and will move forward to do so.
Dr. Royster was asked about those teachers who are still worried about returning the classroom. He said that teachers are expected to show up for school if they don’t have any medical underlying issue. The protocols in place are not designed by the school but rather by public health experts.
Dr. Royster said to expect an announcement early next week about bringing back middle schoolers five days a week to in-person school.
High School Schedule Changes
All high schools in the Greenville County School district will be moving to block scheduling starting next school year, 2021-2022. Classes will be 90 minutes instead of 50 minutes. For detailed information, see this link from GCS.
This is a summary of the benefits of block scheduling that the district posted in the school board meeting:
Greenville County Schools announced that all elementary students, K4-5th grade, can go back to school in-person through a phased in program starting October 12th. There are going to be changes inside classrooms, including the use of plexiglass dividers and masks that have been approved by DHEC.
“That gives us a solution to safely return all of our elementary students and staff enrolled in brick and mortar schools, ” said Dr. Royster.
This does not affect students enrolled in the Virtual Program.
Because middle and high school students have more than 25 students per classroom (the cap allowed with the use of plexiglass dividers), these students cannot go back full-time in person.
Timing
First graders have already been moving to five day in-person instruction and will continue to do so and start their first full week the week of October 12th.
The schedule below is from GCS:
4K & 5K
Week of October 12
Students will attend Monday or Tuesday, based on color group
Students will attend Wednesday & Thursday, October 14 & 15
Week of October 19 is the first full week of attendance (4 Days because October 23 is a professional development day)
Week of October 26 will be first full 5-day week
1st Grade – already underway
Week of September 30
Students attended Monday or Tuesday, based on color group
Students attended Wednesday & Thursday, September 30 & October 1
Week of October 12 will be first full 5-day week
2nd Grade
Week of October 19
Students will attend Monday or Tuesday, based on color group
Students will attend Wednesday & Thursday, October 21 & 22
Week of October 26 will be first full 5-day week
3rd Grade
Week of October 26
Students will attend Monday or Tuesday, based on color group
Students will attend Wednesday & Thursday, October 28 & 29 Week of November 2 will be first full week (4 days because Election Day is the Nov. 3)
4th Grade & 5th Grade
Week of November 2
Students in Blue and Green color groups will attend Monday
Tuesday is a school holiday due to Election Day – no students attend
Students will attend Wednesday and Thursday, November 4 & 5
Week of November 9 is first full 5-day week
What Classrooms Will Look Like
The use of plexiglass dividers and masks will be used in grades 2-5 classrooms where six feet of distance is not possible.
Up to four students wearing masks will sit in clusters with three feet of distance between them plus a plexiglass barrier. Each cluster will be separated by six feet.
If a student in a cluster tests positive for COVID, the other three students will not need to quarantine as long as all safety protocols were followed.
The only time students will be able to remove their mask is during lunch and possibly other instances where social distancing at six feet can be observed.
Kindergarten and first grade students will be socially distanced within classrooms and masks are not mandated unless they are transitioning classrooms or other instances where six feet of distance is not possible.
Students who wish to switch to in-person from the Virtual Program can apply but they would be put on a waitlist. All of the considerations GCS took in order to return to school is based on the current number of students enrolled in brick-and-mortar school.
Transportation Issues
“We know, based on the analysis of our current riders, we will be able to bring all of the elementary students to school on time,” said Dr. Royster.
“We will have a number of middle and high school students that will now be late because of elementary students, which will vary but could be up to 30 minutes late. We are looking at what we can offset what they would miss.”
GCS said they are in desperate need of bus drivers. Apply here.
Kids will not be socially distanced on the bus and are still required to wear masks. We reached out to GCS to clarify this and received this answer:
” Because of this change, there will be two elementary students per seat which does not allow for 6-feet of social distancing. (Normally, there are three elementary students per seat.) Kids will be required to wear masks for the entire bus ride, to and from school. The state Department of Education says buses should filled to 67 percent capacity, which is essentially two students per seat.”
What Are Teachers Thinking?
GCS surveyed their teachers and staff last week about the plexiglass plan.
Among the 3,800 teachers who responded to the survey:
83.5% reported protocols such as mask wearing and social distancing have been followed with little to no resistance,
12.7% reported employees have done well, but students have been less compliant,
82.1% of teachers indicated that have felt very safe (42%) or somewhat safe (40.1%) from COVID while at work this fall.
GCS teachers are divided over returning to full-time in-person instruction:
51% of all teachers reported feeling comfortable with the idea of moving to five-days-a-week face-to-face instruction when in accord with DHEC regulations,
60% of elementary teachers indicating they were comfortable.
As the case has been over the summer and fall, GCS will be daily monitoring compliance with these protocols and the number of COVID cases among students and staff.
“A significant change in either could result in a return to a hybrid schedule or 100% eLearning,” said GCS in an email to media.
Greenville County Schools just released their 2020/2021 Return to School Parent Resource Guide. This plan is the final draft which is still pending approval.
Greenville County School’s stated primary goals in their final plan are:
to “return students in [their] traditional (non-virtual) programs to full-time, in-person instruction as soon as it is safe to do so.
to “keep students, employees, and and community safe”
that “any decision or recommendation will be based on objective information provided by diverse scientific, public health, and medical experts”
Their “return to in-person school will be a stepped process that allows [Greenville County Schools] to analyze trends before moving closer to [their] goal of full-time, in-person instruction.
Our Kidding Around readers that watched our Facebook Live with Derek Lewis on July 14, will likely remember that we learned that this fall is different than last spring in that the goals are to return the children to in-person school and that Greenville County Schools believes that a measured approach will allow them to more successfully bring the children back full-time without compromising safety.
While this is the “final plan”, there is a significant note at the beginning of the documentation.
“This is an outline of the Greenville County Schools Re-Opening Plan in response to COVID-19. Portions of this plan are subject to change if their implementation as written is not effective or sustainable for our community.
The correlation between COVID spread and Attendance Plans is pending approval by the South Carolina Department of Education and the Board of Trustees”
Greenville County Schools Virtual Option
Consistent, virtual instruction for the entire year
Certified GCS teachers
All students receive Chromebooks.
All students can continue to access their local school supports and activities.
Tests will be proctored remotely and instruction will be structured.
The deadline for enrolling in the virtual option is July 27th.
Greenville County Schools Traditional Options
The traditional option (in-person instruction) involves three scenarios that will be determined by the district, based on the COVID-19 spread-rate
Low Spread: Traditional In-Person Instruction
Medium Spread: Hybrid: In-Person and eLearning
High Spread: 100% eLearning or minimal In-Person
When GCS is on 100% eLearning, students will have an experience similar to the Virtual Program, with structured chunks of instruction, proctored tests, and daily interaction with teachers.
In the hybrid plan, students get the benefit of in-person, small group, intensive instruction one- or two-days a week. The remainder of the week they will work remotely by watching instructional videos, reading, conducting research, and completing assignments. Their classroom teacher will be available during his/her planning period if students need to ask a question or get clarification.
Attendance Plan five is 100% in-person learning, with students attending school five days a week. It is possible that during the upcoming year different attendance plans could be in effect for different schools or school levels, based on conditions ranging from the community spread rate for COVID-19 to variable weather conditions across the county.
Students who opt for our traditional school program will follow the district’s Attendance Plan Roadmap to determine in-person attendance at school. Under the GCS Roadmap, Plan 5 reflects a regular school schedule, with five-day-a-week, in-person instruction. Attendance Plan 1 has ¼ of students in the school buildings each day, Monday through Thursday; Plan 2 has ½ of students in attendance each day Monday through Thursday; On Plan 5 all students are in attendance five days a week.
Social distancing is only possible on Attendance Plans 1 and 2, but a return to Attendance Plan 5 does not necessarily signal a return to “normal.” All precautions will be followed until further notice.
You can fill out a form to request a change in your student’s color designation.
What Is Greenville’s COVID Spread Right Now and How Is It Measured?
DHEC ranks three data points as high, medium, or low for each county. The data points are how many people are sick per 100,000 people. Whether more or less people are getting sick in the community. How the percentage of people that receive a positive test of those that are tested.
Right now Greenville County registers as high in all three categories.
Didn’t the American Association of Pediatrics Say that Children Should Go Back to School?
Since their original statement recommending that children return to school the AAP has released a follow-up statement to clarify their position:
“Local school leaders, public health experts, educators and parents must be at the center of decisions about how and when to reopen schools, taking into account the spread of COVID-19 in their communities and the capacities of school districts to adapt safety protocols to make in-person learning safe and feasible. For instance, schools in areas with high levels of COVID-19 community spread should not be compelled to reopen against the judgment of local experts. A one-size-fits-all approach is not appropriate for return to school decisions.”
There Will Be Daily Temperature Checks for School Staff, Visitors, and Symptomatic Students
GCS will strictly adhere to COVID-19 prevention protocols, including daily temperature checks and health screenings for employees and any school visitors allowed beyond the office. Students who are symptomatic must also be screened.
Social-distancing Will Be Maintained As Much As Possible
Students, teachers and other staff must maintain social-distancing (six-feet of physical distance in all directions) throughout the school day.
Social-distancing will be required on Attendance Plan 1 and when possible on Plans 2 and 5.
To assist in this effort, class transitions will be staggered.
Hallways will be marked with lanes to maintain spacing. Visual cues and reminders will be placed throughout buildings.
Bathroom breaks will be staggered.
Entrances will be monitored to prevent overcrowding.
Masks Will Be Required When Social Distancing Is Not Possible
Masks will be worn by staff and students (grades 2-12) when social-distancing (6 ft.) cannot be maintained. This includes the hallways, bathrooms, entering and leaving the buildings, the bus, and when working in small groups.
Students in preK-1st grade will be encouraged to wear masks but not required to.
Medical documentation will be required for a medical exemption.
Required distancing is only possible in Attendance Plans 1 and 2.
Visual cues will be in place to remind everyone to follow precautions.
Masks must be cloth or disposable and must cover nose and mouth securely.
Families are expected to provide their children’s masks, but free masks will be available for those on free or reduced meal status.
Meal Procedures Will Vary Depending on the Plan
All students will receive free breakfast.
In Plan 1 (1 day of in-person school): Students will eat in the cafeteria.
In Plan 2 (2 days of in-person school): Students will eat in the cafeteria OR classroom depending on the layout of the school and other factors.
In Plan 5 (5 days of in-person school): Students will eat in their classrooms.
Meals will be offered to all eLearning and Virtual students. Note: We believe that this is for students that qualify for free or reduced meals.
There will be no guests at lunch.
Disinfecting and Air Quality Protocols Will be Followed
Students and employees can rest assured that all protocols will be followed to keep GCS buildings safe.
Outdoor air ventilation rates have been adjusted for maximum air exchange.
All domestic water systems have been flushed.
Custodians will be equipped with electrostatic sprayers to provide quick and thorough sanitation of large spaces.
High-touch areas will be sanitized regularly throughout the day. Desks will be sanitized between occupants.
Hand sanitizer will be provided in all classrooms and throughout all facilities.
Restroom soap dispensers will be checked and filled regularly.
All water fountains will be turned off and no-touch water bottle stations will be installed. Students will be encouraged to bring water bottles. Disposable cups will be provided.
Recess
Children will still have recess and it will be outdoors as much as possible. Students can take off their masks if they are social distancing during recess.
Visitors
Visitors and volunteers will not have access to the interior to the school. They will remain in the office and will be required to wear a mask. If circumstances require the visitor to enter the school, they will be escorted at all times and required to wear a mask.
You will not be allowed to visit your child’s school beyond the office area. This includes PTA and SIC members and will be the policy for all plans including Plan 5.
Buses
The buses will be cleaned and disinfected twice a day.
Students will wear masks on the bus.
Buses will only seat 50% of capacity.
Students from the same household may sit together.
Field Trips
All in-person field trips are currently suspended.
Special Education
Students that are in self-contained elementary/middle school classes will meet 2 days a week in both Plan 1 and Plan 2.
Quarantine/Exposure Mandates
Exposure to COVID-19 may result in students and staff being isolated away from school. GCS will follow DHEC guidelines related to mandated quarantines and student/family notifications. Parents and employees are required to monitor themselves and their children for COVID-19 symptoms. Students and staff should be excluded from school if they have:
Any one (1) of the following:
Fever—or
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing—or
Loss of taste or smell—or
New or worsening cough
Any two (2) of the following:
Sore throat
Muscle or body aches
Chills
Fatigue
Headache
Congestion or runny nose
Diarrhea
Nausea or vomiting
Greenville County Schools states that they do not have have enough substitute teachers on a normal year to meet their needs. If their staff becomes sick it will impact the safety of students as it will affect student supervision. Staff health must be maintained.
The final plan states that “students or staff need medical documentation to return to school.” We are not currently sure what medical situations this applies to.
Attendance
There will be no perfect attendance awards this year.
Attendance will be taken by logging into Google classroom for eLearning and Virtual School.
Live Instruction will be recorded for students that miss it.
Extracurricular Activities
The plan includes a number of details on extracurricular activities such as that children should come dressed for the activities. Here is what stood out to us:
When possible, masks with mouthpiece slits should be worn in band.
Bell covers will be recommended for band instruments, especially indoors.
There will be no indoor choral or ensemble singing until there is more information on how to do so safely.
Any allowed theater performances (plan 5) will be streamed virtually with no audience.
Opening dates for sports have been announced but there will be no extracurricular activities in Plan 0.
Athletes will be required to wear a “scarf” when not actively participating.
Pros and Cons of Returning to In-Person Instruction
Greenville County Schools has set aside the week of August 17-21 for LEAP (Learn Evaluate Analyze Prepare) days. The South Carolina Legislature requires school districts to offer these instruction days to students in response to the COVID-19 school closures. The first official day of school in Greenville County is Monday, August 24.
K-8 graders who plan to attend traditional, in-person school will have the option to attend for ½ day based on the GCS Roadmap Attendance Plan 1. (7:45-10:15 for elementary students, 8:30-10:45 for middle schoolers.) “Blue” students whose last names begin with the letters A-D will attend on Monday, “red” students (letters E-K) attend Tuesday, “green” students (L-Q) attend Wednesday and “purple” students (R-Z) attend Thursday.
Students in grades K-8 who sign up for our Virtual Program (deadline July 27) will attend Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday OR Thursday during the afternoon (12:00-2:30 for elementary, 12:30-3:00 for middle). They will also follow our color coded grouping according to their last names.
Friday is a make-up day for any student who was unable to attend on their color-coded day.
During their ½ day of LEAP, students will meet their teachers and the classmates who share their Attendance Plan color grouping and practice social distancing. They will also be issued/trained/refreshed in the use of the Chromebooks and Google Classroom and take tests that are required by the state to be conducted in person to help determine their academic strengths and weaknesses.
High school students will ONLY pick up their Chromebooks on August 17-20 at their high school following Attendance Plan 1.
Breakfast and lunch will be served each day to students in the K-8 LEAP program. Students who attend must be enrolled in GCS to attend LEAP. Transportation will be provided to those who completed their transportation forms by July 15 and requested bus service. Parents should visit the GCS website or call 355-3111 to learn how to enroll their children if they were not in GCS last year or for information on requesting bus transportation.
In keeping with the original calendar, teachers will still report to school August 10 for teacher work days used to prepare for the new year.
Do you have questions? We will interview Derek Lewis tonight at 8 pm on our Kidding Around Greenville Facebook page. Send your questions to bethany@kiddingaroundgreenville.com.
Have you ever wondered what your kids are eating for lunch? Local mom Kristina Hernandez interviewed Joe Urban, director of Food and Nutrition Services of Greenville County Schools. She asked him all the questions about school food that you might have wondered about but never asked. Here are the answers!
Food. Our kids eat it every day at school during the school year. They grab those lunch trays and peruse the options, talk to the nice lunch lady, and ultimately choose what they want to nourish their bodies and get through the rest of the day.
But where does that food come from and who decides what to make?
Last year at The Children’s Museum of the Upstate’s Countdown to Kindergarten event, I met Joe Urban. Joe and his team were manning the new Greenville County Food Services (GCFS) food truck, a somewhat revolutionary concept that brings much-needed food into under served areas of the county.
I ended up having a great conversation with him and started following his Instagram account (@schoolfoodrocks), which seriously made me want to get in line with my kid at school every day to try their lunch options. They post all kind of yummy options – roasted vegetables, fish tacos, and braised brisket – stuff that I’d love to learn to cook in my own kitchen. This was no ordinary school lunch food. My interest was piqued so I reached out to Joe to learn more.
As the school year heats up, Joe and his team are working hard to deliver tasty and healthy options to 76,000 kids in 101 school and special centers. They have 750 employees who serve breakfast, lunch and after school snacks and are the largest food service program in the state, and 44th in the entire nation.
Joe is the Director for the Food and Nutrition Services department of Greenville County Schools, which means he oversees the food service operations for all Greenville County Schools locations. He was kind enough to answer our questions about food service at Greenville County schools.
My conversation with Joe Urban
Kidding Around Greenville: How does the Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services decide what to serve every day at GC schools?
Joe Urban: We have developed a three-week repeating cycle menu for all grade levels. Elementary students have four different menu choices every day for lunch, and Middle and High students have seven to nine different choices every day. All schools offer a scratch-made Soup and Salad Bar three times each week and up to six different varieties of fresh fruit selections daily. The cycle menu will be modified twice during the school year to account for new recipes and seasonal ingredients.
KAG: How do you come up with new recipes?
JU: We pay close attention to trends in the foodservice industry and develop recipes based on what is hot right now in the fast casual and higher education (college) segments of the industry.
Today’s students are very food savvy and demand higher quality ingredients. Students love international foods, especially Asian, Italian, and Mexican and they also like to customize their meals. We listen closely to what they say and develop our menus accordingly.
Good examples of this include our Build Your Own Taco Bar, the Build Your Own Mashed Potato Bar, the Build Your Own Mac-N-Cheese Bar, our student-created Penne Pasta Pie, our new Meatball Sub, and our new Build Your Own Grain Bowls featuring Korean BBQ and Mahi Mahi with a large variety of topping choices including Kimchi and Pickled Red Onions.
High quality seafood including Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon, Mahi Mahi, Alaskan Pollock, Catfish and others will be served a minimum of once per week in Elementary schools and twice per week in Middle and High schools this year. New concepts including a Build Your Own Chicken & Waffle Bar, a scratch-made Soup & Sandwich Bar, a Build Your Own Burger Bar and others are currently in development and will be tested with students during this upcoming school year.
KAG: Where do you source your ingredients?
JU: We work with a number of local vendors and source as many products as possible locally. Through our produce vendor, we have developed strong relationships with local farmers who plant fields specifically based on the needs of Greenville County Schools.
We have also entered into a new partnership with a local cattle farmer in Brasstown, NC to source all the ground beef we will be using in our scratch-made meals. These cattle are humanely raised, fed a strict vegetarian diet, are always on grass, and are never treated with antibiotics. Fresh, no antibiotic ever beef in school meals is a huge commitment on our part to ensure our students only receive the highest quality food possible.
KAG: Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services is the largest in the state. How do you manage serving good food on a daily basis to thousands of kids a day?
JU: It takes a huge team of highly trained and dedicated foodservice employees to meet our quality standards on a daily basis. We are very fortunate to have buy in from our employees on our mission to reinvent school food. We believe that we are positioned correctly at this time in our careers to push the perceived boundaries of school food service and provide our students with the greatest dining experiences possible.
KAG: Can you tell me a bit about your food truck? It’s pretty new, right?
JU: We purchased the food truck one year ago to help us increase the number of meals we can provide to needy students during the summer months. We operate more than 50 school and community feeding sites in the summer months as part of the USDA funded Summer Food Service Program.
We realized quickly that although we had these sites scattered throughout the county, there were many pockets of our community that needed our services but were not able to make it to one of our sites due to transportation issues. The food truck is the perfect answer to that issue: we simply take the food right to the kids that need it the most.
During the school year, it gets used as surprise pop up events at high schools to sample new menu items during lunch, sample fresh fruit to elementary students, and support various school functions.
KAG: Can parents volunteer to help Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services come up with recipes/test food – or is there something parents can do to help your mission?
JU: We welcome any suggestions and parents are always welcome to come sample items with us during their student’s lunch period.
KAG: Your Instagram page looks delicious. How do you decide which schools get to try out those meals?
JU: The vast majority of the food shown on all of our social media platforms are served at all schools. When we test out new items the schools are chosen by random so we can test the items out with different students as often as possible.
You can follow Greenville County Food Services on Facebook at Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services, on Twitter at SchoolFoodRocks, and on Instagram at @SchoolFoodRocks.
Will you look at school lunches in a new light this school year?
Meet Kristina, KAG Food Expert
Kristina Hernandez is a mom of two girls, freelance writer and photographer and New Jersey native who is thrilled to call the Upstate her new home. She loves cooking, trying new foods, and checking out all that Greenville has to offer.
