Mattie Lively Elementary School

Visit our virtual learning program's Orientation, Technology Help & Resources web page for information, how-to videos, and key contacts to help you.

COVID-19:Stop the Spread- Daily Reference Guide for Families  

In the interest of public health and to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Bulloch County Schools has put in place preventative measures at all of its offices, schools, and other buildings and locations. Your family has a key role in keeping our schools as safe and healthy as possible. Please refer to our COVID-19: Stop the Spread - A Daily Reference Guide for Families website to remind you of your daily role before school. A printed reference flyer will be sent home with each child the first week of school. Please refer to the flyer or website daily to determine if your child should attend school.

Bulloch County Schools' School Nutrition Department will provide meal service to all families whose children are enrolled in the school district's Pre-Kindergarten - 12th grade virtual learning program.

• How to Order? Parents/Guardians must complete this online meal service pre-order form by each Thursday to be able to pick up meals on the following Monday. The online form is available on each district and school website and social media. It will also be emailed to all virtual program parents and students. Keep the link to use each week.
• What Does a Meal Box Cost?
  • Breakfast is free for all students.
  • Lunches:
    • $11.25 per week for Pre-K -5th grade students who qualify for full-priced meals  

    • $12.50 per week for 6th - 12th grade students who qualify for full-priced meals. 

    • $2.00 per week for Pre-K - 12th grade students who qualify for reduced-priced meals. 

    • Free, no cost for Pre-K - 12th grade students who qualify for free meals.  

• How Do You Pay for Meals? The school district uses MySchoolBucks to provide parents/guardians a convenient online website and mobile application from which to manage a meal payment account and make payments online. You can also make a payment by cash or check at curbside when you pick up your meals.

• What Do You Receive?This service provides a one-week supply of five breakfasts and five lunches for each child in grades Pre-Kindergarten - 12th. The first two week's menus are attached below. Thereafter, the meal menus will be the same as those served in the traditional program, and the menus are posted on the school district's website and printed in the local newspaper.
• Who Can Pick Up? Meals may be picked up by a parent, guardian, caregiver, or the student if he or she is old enough to drive.
• What Time to Pick Up? There are two available time frames to choose from for meal pickup: 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. or 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
• Where to Pick Up? 
  • Meal boxes are for curbside pick up only on each Monday when school is in session.
  • The pick up locations are outside each of the school district's nine elementary schools. 
    • Families with children in middle and high school, will go to their home's zoned elementary school to pick up meals. 
    • School Nutrition staff will set up outside the elementary schools during the two time frames.
    • They will place a box of food for each child inside the family's or student's vehicle.
    • Participants are asked to remain in their vehicle.
• How does my child qualify for free or reduced-priced meals?
  • If your child was a student in our school district last year, and he or she qualified for either free or reduced-priced meals last year, your family's application is still valid for your child to continue to receive free or reduced-priced meals through September 29, 2020. 
  • To either apply to qualify for free/reduced-priced meals as a new student or to renew your previous year's application, a parent or guardian must complete a 2020-2021 Free & Reduced-Price Meal Application.
  • Our school district will provide a printed application to all students or you can complete the application online via this link. 
  • A completed form must be received and processed prior to September 29, for returning students to continue to receive this benefit.                      

Updated 7/30/2020:  Bulloch County Schools will open for the first day of school on Monday, August 17, with both a traditional face-to-face and a virtual option from which parents can choose for their children. The school district will continue its mission to ensure student success and schools will work with families to ensure engagement, learning,  academic skills mastery, and as many school experiences as possible.

"This is a plan that gets our students back to school, and it provides our families with options," said Superintendent of Schools Charles Wilson. "There will be more details to come, but we have provided two initial flyers that cover key points about the plans."

The return-to-school plan comes after 18 weeks of ongoing planning and re-planning to adapt to ever-changing global pandemic conditions and guidelines from seven separate national and state agencies and extracurricular associations. The Bulloch County Board of Education approved a recommendation from Superintendent Wilson on July 9, to provide the plan's two instructional model choices (traditional and virtual) for Pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade students. 

The Board also approved a two-week delayed start to the school year which was to have originally begun on August 3. The delay was to accommodate the Board's June 25, request to add an all-virtual option for all elementary grades to the school district's original return-to-school plan and to provide time to obtain parents' instructional model choices for nearly 11,000 students. By the end of July, the school district will contact all parents by email and by telephone if necessary, to seek their individualized instruction model choice for each child. A prompt response from parents will be critical to the school district's ability to deploy technology and faculty support to meet students' needs by August 17.

The superintendent chose to recommend the choice of a traditional instruction option after he sought community feedback and nearly 900 parents responded online and by telephone with questions and concerns. The superintendent hosted two community livestream sessions on July 2 and July 6 to provide an overview of planning efforts since March, current conditions, state guidelines, and answers to questions that covered more than 10 key areas. Nearly 1,000 people participated live, and more than 10,000 have viewed the sessions' videos.

Two flyers about the two instruction options are attached. These are also initial answers to some frequently asked questions:

Will the school district make announcements about COVID-19 positive cases among students and employees?

At the direction of the Department of Public Health, and to comply with federal privacy laws, the school district will make no mass announcements about COVID-19 positive cases that involve its students or employees. All contact tracing and notification will be done through the proper channels of the Department of Public Health. Medical information about any student or employee is also protected by federal privacy laws and will not be released by the school district.

Will schools close if there is a COVID-19 positive case(s)?
Schools are considered critical infrastructure. Short of a mandate by the Georgia Governor's Office to close schools, the school district will follow its established infectious diseases and illness protocols in that it will consult with the Southeast District Department of Public Health's guidance for any recommendations to close portions of a school, a school, or the district temporarily for public health. This is not a new protocol. It is the same protocol we follow annually during the flu season. Should schools close temporarily for a length of time, students in the virtual model would continue instruction in their online platforms, and students in the traditional model would be transitioned to distance learning with their Bulloch County Schools' teachers providing instruction online via Google Meets and other technology platforms of which students are already families.  The district would provide students Chromebooks and Internet resources as needed.

Will schools close to deep clean for COVID-19 positive cases?
The virus is relatively fragile, so standard hygiene practices, such as cleaning hands with soap and water, can help remove and kill the virus. According to the Department of Public Health, the virus can live and potentially infect a person for only two to eight hours after being deposited on a surface. Therefore, special sanitizing processes beyond the routine deep cleaning methods we've already enacted, including closing schools to further deep clean every surface in the building, are not necessary or recommended to slow a spread. 

Deep cleaning protocols for COVID-19 for our facilities happen every day and throughout the day in all school and office classrooms, common areas, restrooms, and other touch points. Custodian teams were trained in March on how to properly disinfect surfaces for COVID-19, and they have successfully implemented these practices since that time for our staff. This will continue when students return.

Will there be school Open House events?

Our traditional, large-group Open House events have been cancelled for this year and will not be rescheduled. Each school, at their own pace, will communicate to families about their child's class schedule, their teachers, and any other necessary orientation information.

Is gifted/QUEST instruction offered in the virtual instruction model?

Yes, gifted instruction is available through the virtual instruction platforms

• Designated gifted faculty in the school district are preparing pre-recorded lessons that will be embedded into the Edgenuity platform for middle school and SchoolsPLP for elementary school. 
• The school district will host its traditional fall and spring testing windows for gifted services.
• The district will use the curriculum resources that were already in use, so students will be familiar with them.  Both the traditional and virtual gifted programs will use Envisions and Noetic Math units for elementary gifted students and the Renzulli Learning System for middle school gifted students.
• If you have specific questions about certain Advanced Placement courses and offerings through Georgia Virtual School, please pose those questions directly to your high school counselor, who is the best expert to advise you on your individual child's academic journey toward graduation.   

May parents view sample lessons/instruction for the virtual program?

Sample virtual program videos are available on the school district's website for the Edgenuity platform for grades 6-12 and the SchoolsPLP platform for grades K-5 are posted.

For additional information about the logistics and day-to-day operations of both the virtual and traditional instructional models, please visit our COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions webpage.

Bulloch County Schools established a dedicated Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) website on March 5. Please visit it here. It serves as an online resource for the following: 

• Answers to your frequently asked questions about district and school operations for the return to school and how to post your additional questions.
• Safety alert news
• Trusted national, state, and local public health resources and tips to help keep you healthy
• Information about print and digital resources to keep kids engaged in learning
• An up-to-date list of our free meal sites for children ages 0-18 through July 31