As we begin the second semester of this school year, my hope is that you had a pleasant and restful Christmas break. For our students, many have been involved in activities and practices. I’m quite sure this spring semester will go by quickly, so it will be very important for students to start off on a good foot and get back into the habit of keeping up with their school work. It seems that the biggest downfall for a student is getting behind then not being able, or perhaps not being willing, to get past work turned in. This can be a setback that is very difficult to overcome. I ask parents to please help our teachers by staying on top of your students and be aware of what they have for schoolwork before it becomes an issue.
With a new variant of the Covid-19 virus upon us, I urge parents to keep your children home when they are ill, take them to your health care provider if they keep having symptoms, and the follow the advice of your health care provider. It harms our efforts a great deal when children who may be contagious with any illness, but with Covid it creates a whole different situation. We have seen colleges and professional sports teams have to cancel games because of Covid spreading within their teams, and we do not want to go back to that very bad time we had earlier in the pandemic. Again, please listen to your health care provider. They can give you the best and latest information on what you should be doing to protect your child, as well as all students and employees of our school district. Keep in contact with the school and your child’s teachers to keep up with work as best as possible.
If you are not able to check your child’s grades or assignments with your phone or other device please contact the school so you can be set up for that capability. There should be no reason that you don’t know where you child is sitting grade-wise. Even a simple e-mail will do it, so stay in touch. Grade reports should not be a surprise, and if there is a question it can be answered easily by finding out what your child has not turned in or what grade they received on a quiz, test, etc.
Finally, we have received some complaints about student driving after school gets out for the day. There are times when we can check our cameras and see which car it may have been. The best way to get our local law enforcement to make their presence known is to call them and let them know exactly what you saw, when, and to please come and monitor traffic as it proceeds away from the school. We can’t ticket a driver, but law enforcement can. All kids should feel safe walking or driving home from school. Please be careful out there! Let’s have a great second semester of school and a great 2022.
Sincerely,
R. Todd Porter
Superintendent
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