Being Prepared
Disasters can occur within the school walls or beyond. In the event of an emergency, it may become necessary for the school to provide physical and emotional support to CHS students, faculty, staff, and families. Towards this end, the school has developed an Emergency Preparedness Plan in collaboration with an independent consultant. Central to this plan is the continuous integration, coordination, and training of all school and community members. In addition, the school has updated locks, enrolled in the AlertNow emergency contact service, and purchased emergency supplies for the school.
Lice
Head lice infestation represents one of the most common communicable childhood conditions. The School is committed to keeping children lice free, nit free, and in school. To accomplish this, we will routinely screen all children for head lice, continually educate families on lice and follow a No Nit Policy.
The No Nit Policy encourages each family to do its part at home with routine screening, early detection, accurate identification and thorough removal of lice and nits. Specifically, the No Nit Policy means that children may not return to school until all nits are removed and must be cleared by a member of the Nursing Staff.
Information on all aspects of head lice is readily available from the Nursing Staff.
Nursing Staff
The Nursing Staff at the school consists of one full time employee and two part-time adjunct staff members. The Nursing Staff maintains a safe school environment by:
- Establishing and maintaining a comprehensive school health program
- Providing basic first aid for illness and injury
- Educating staff, students, and parents about safe practices
- Collaborating with other school professionals, parents, and caregivers to meet the health needs of each child
Nut Policy
The School is committed to addressing the needs of children with life-threatening food allergies and to creating the safest environment possible. To achieve this, we have created the following policy guidelines.
Specifically, all of our classrooms are nut-free but our lunch room is not. All school snacks are nut-free. All special snacks brought into the classrooms by the school and by families must be nut-free.
We ask for complete cooperation with the following expectations:
- Beginners and Pre-K will be “nut free”: that is, we ask that families do not send nut products in lunches.
- Regular school snacks will be nut free and safe for all children.
- Special snacks provided by families should also be nut free; for children who cannot eat these, families and teachers will develop a plan.
- Grades K–6 will be allowed to bring nut products in their lunches.
- We will continue with safeguards in the community meeting room during lunch period (paper placemats, hand wipes, washing of tables between groups) and we will continue to enforce and monitor our no sharing of food rule.
Massachusetts Anti-Idling Law
The goal of the Massachusetts Anti-Idling law is to improve air quality by reducing unnecessary air pollution from idling vehicles. The law limits unnecessary engine idling to five minutes. The following questions and answers are intended to help drivers determine when engine idling could be considered necessary and when they should shut the engines down.
