September 2020 HHASD Newsletter
Inspire. Persevere. Grow.
~ Volume up to hear the videos included. ~
All of our lives have changed, and that is dramatically true for our current students. Today is an exciting day-- the first day of school should be. But it is also a day that we have waited nearly six months for, and that may cause a little anxiety. I have a simple message for you, and then I am going to turn it over to Kid Superintendent because Kid President (for those of you who remember him) grew up… he has more words of wisdom to share. While his video was created to inspire staff in his district, his message boosts spirits and warms hearts.
Here is my message: Everything will be okay. It is going to be different; it may look different and it may feel different. There may be bumps along the way, but we will get through this together. Our district may be small, but we are also pretty mighty. As you prepare to come back today, I hope you have a sense of renewed hope for the opportunities and adventures that may come our way. I hope you believe in yourself and each other, and even if things get tough or messy this year, know that together, we are capable of some pretty amazing things.
Yours in Education,
Tara Villalobos
Now don't forget to watch Kid Superintendent!
New HHASD Team Members!
Ms. Miranda Gammon, FLES - 4th Grade
Ms. Lisa McConnell, District Food Service Coordinator
HHASD welcomes Lisa McConnell to our Food Service staff! Lisa recently moved to Wisconsin from California where she had worked in food service at the high school level. Lisa most recently worked with Chartwell, at Arrowhead High School. Lisa’s family owned a deli in Upstate New York, so she has been in the food industry a major part of her life. In her off time, Lisa loves to hike and be outdoors.
Ms. Rachel Quill, District Reading Specialist
HHASD welcomes Rachel Quill to the Holy Hill Area School District as the new Reading Specialist. Rachel lives in Slinger with her husband and two boys. She is excited to take on this role in our district and comes to us with a great deal of experience and enthusiasm! She has previously been a Reading Specialist and Literacy Coach in the Oconomowoc and Campbellsport School Districts and taught in the Germantown district. Rachel enjoys spending time with her family, golfing, reading, concerts, travel and bowling!
Ms. Nikki Rickert, RMS - 6th Grade Mathematics
HHASD welcomes Nikki Rickert to the Holy Hill Area School District as the new 6th grade Math teacher at Richfield Middle School. Nikki graduated from UW-Whitewater in 2017 and has since had experiences teaching Math, Geography, and Science in the School District of Beloit. Nikki is eager to join the Richfield Middle School team! Those close to Nikki referred to her as “interactive and fun,” “kids love how supportive she is,” and “ her personality is fun-loving and sweet.” Nikki is also excited as she is currently planning her wedding!
Ms. Lauren Singer, RMS Special Education
HHASD welcomes Lauren Singer to the Holy Hill Area School District as the new 5th and 6th grade teacher of Special Education at Richfield Middle School. Lauren recently graduated with a Master’s Degree in Inclusive Education from Cardinal Stritch University and is excited to join the rewarding profession of Education! Those colleagues close to Lauren describe her by stating, “the kids love her,” “she relates with ease with all kids,” and “Lauren is adaptable to any situation and does so with a smile on her face.” Lauren enjoys spending time with her family and enjoys partaking in outdoor activities.
Staff Recognition!
5 Years of Service
Holly Carini
Katie Fedel
Nathan Heinritz
Jeni Kastner
Karin Pacetti
If you are interested in being considered for the Parent Sounding Board, please complete the form by clicking on the button above. Thank you!
Again-- all parents of HHASD students are welcome to attend meetings; our office will contact parents who are selected to represent a specific grade level later this month (depending on response rate of course!).
Board Meeting Notes
School Calendar Update - September 25th 2020 - School-from-home day
Our hope is that we are still all face-to-face at this point in the year; if we are September 25th is our day to test our systems-- ensuring that all students can properly apply the skills they learned during the first two weeks of school to login and complete work from home; assignments will be given ahead of time.
If school buildings are closed by this point in the year, we will be learning virtually and this would be a 'typical' work day, except that our teachers will not be conducting meetings - rather, they will be engaged in professional development and planning.
Friday, Sep 25, 2020, 08:00 AM
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In addition to the calendar change cited above, the HHASD School Reopening Plan was approved. Several facets are linked below.
The Parent Student Handbook was approved and is also linked below.
Plat School was sold on Monday, August 17, 2020, to John and Allison Loosen. A letter was co-authored by the village and district and sent to all residences within 500 feet of Plat School last week.
Our contract with Go Riteway was updated.
Several policies were updated and/or discussed. Specifically,
Policy 9150 (School Visitors) was discussed. This year, due to the pandemic, visitors will not be permitted unless there are extenuating circumstances. Any visitors who are permitted must wear a facial covering and follow any other requirements laid out by administration in order to keep our students and staff safe. This policy was not updated because the language within the policy gives our administration the freedom to respond to external situations (the pandemic) and respond accordingly.
Administrative Guideline 8450 (Management of Selected Casual-Contact Diseases) was also discussed. The addition of Covid-19 was included in this guideline, along with information about how to limit or mitigate the spread, and the conditions students (or staff) must meet in order to return to school. That information follows:
Symptoms: cough, temperature of 100.4 or higher, diarrhea or vomiting, chills, headache, muscle pain, nausea, new loss of taste or smell, shivering, sore throat, runny nose/congestion, unusual fatigue
Incubation Period: 2 - 14 days
Contagious Period: Not yet known. Potentially up to twenty days
Return to School: After a negative test OR 10 calendar days (not school days) and 24-hours symptom free.
School Photos!
Monday, Oct 12, 2020, 08:15 AM
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Is there a daily routine I should follow?
In being partners in education, we have a few expectations and procedures designed to keep everyone at school safe and healthy.
Everyday before-school please review the list of general illness and covid symptoms and check your child's temperature. please keep children home if they are experiencing any signs of illness.
Send your children to school with a mask. If students and staff wear masks appropriately, we have a significantly better chance to remain open for face to face instruction. (You may choose to send a few masks.)
This year more than ever we need your emergency contact information in Skyward to be up to date so that if a student is ill and must be sent home, we can reach you or your child(ren)'s emergency contact. The expectation is that he or she will be picked up within 30 minutes.
If you have questions please check the district website or contact your school office. This year will be different but we are committed to providing a high-quality educational experience we wish all of you a successful healthy new school year
Virtual Learning/Livestreaming Classes
Under typical circumstances, our team would prefer to serve students face-to-face. Unfortunately, due to the current COVID-19 public health emergency, the district has determined that in certain situations it may need to offer students and families a virtual instructional delivery option. This option was shared with families last month, with approximately 85% of families choosing face-to-face learning, and approximately 15% of families choosing virtual learning.
This means that some of our instruction has the potential to look different this year. For some classes, teachers will provide large group instruction and live stream this with students at home. At other times, teachers may wish to provide instruction to small groups of students, using virtual formats. We believe this is important in order to provide virtual learning that is similar to in-person learning opportunities. Some instruction may lend itself to small group instruction, similar to what happens during the in-person school day. For example, in a reading or math class in an in-person classroom, teachers may put students into small groups to provide more specific instruction. In addition, teachers may use small group instruction for virtual discussions or book discussions.
Protecting the privacy of our students is of the utmost importance to the district. Under FERPA and corresponding Wisconsin law, a student’s information is protected from disclosure to third parties. Your child’s information is confidential, but in a digital format, where small group instruction may occur, others will have access to your child’s image, participation, and possibly the work produced by your child while in the session. All student information is confidential, and we expect that nothing shared or presented in these sessions will be shared with other people outside of the sessions. In order to keep student information confidential, families are expected to respect the privacy of other students; group sessions shall not be recorded (including screenshots), and information regarding other students shall not be shared with others outside of the group session.
If you have questions or concerns about the use of the district’s virtual platforms, or the virtual delivery of services in general, please contact your child’s principal to discuss your concerns.
What if we have a positive case?
Beginning with the start of the school year, the Holy Hill Area School District plans to inform staff and families in the form of a letter if there is a confirmed COVID-19 case within either school. Staff members are asked to notify a building or district-level administrator if they, or a family member, have a confirmed, positive test result, or if they learn of a student or family impacted by covid. Parents, if you or a child, tests positive, please notify the school office as soon as possible. The health department will report confirmed cases to the school district. As a district, we will not disclose the name of the staff member or student who has been confirmed, however, the district will be responsible for contact tracing. at the grade level, building-level, or district-level, staff members and families will receive the notification letter in the event of a positive case. Additionally, if a staff member or student was in close contact with the individual who was confirmed positive, there will be an additional letter outlining information and next steps for those impacted. A 14-day quarantine or negative test result may be necessary.
As stated, this procedure will be followed for each new case beginning September 1, 2020. Below we have included a sample letter and guidelines for quarantine and isolation. We look forward to partnering with you and keeping everyone informed as we navigate through the 2020-2021 school year.
SAMPLE Parent/Staff Letter_Positive Case in School
SAMPLE Close Contact to a COVID-19 Case in the School
DHS & County Guidance
Recognizing that schools that resume in-person instruction will likely experience outbreaks of COVID-19, DHS’s goal was to create a consistent but flexible approach to responding to outbreaks so our schools and local health departments had the tools and information they need to respond.
The reality of the current status of the virus in Wisconsin is that we will see outbreaks in schools. The fall semester is going to be a difficult one. It is important for us all to be supporting our schools and local health departments and allowing them to make the best decisions possible for their parents, kids, teachers, and community. We want our district and health department to be prepared so that outbreaks can be addressed quickly and the students, school staff, and entire community can be as safe and healthy as possible.
Busing, Ms. Howe
Thank you to all of the families who responded to our surveys regarding your choice of face-to-face vs. virtual instruction and for indicating your need for busing under the new COVID-19 guidelines. Please know that if your needs have recently changed regarding busing, we will work with you as best and as fast as we can. Reminders:
- All students must be wearing a mask on the bus at all times covering the mouth and nose completely.
- Students will ride one person to a seat unless there are siblings from the same household on the same route.
- If you have a sibling on the route, you will be required to sit together so that we have enough room for our single riders.
If you are requesting to add busing since our routes were completed, we will need to relook at our routes to potentially reconfigure the route in your area or the surrounding areas to make room for you. This might mean modifications to families route and pick up and drop off times as we firm up routes when changes occur. In the interim, new bus requests may take some time to arrange and we may need you to provide alternate transportation temporarily if you have a late bus request.
We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we navigate through a re-entry plan that is as safe and as manageable as possible.
Denise Howe
Business Manager, SFO, CSRM
Holy Hill Area School District
(262) 628-1032 x1101
Fax: (262) 628-2546
Go Riteway Bus Safety
Fall Athletics, Mr. Shelsta
Parents,
The Girls Basketball Fall season (7th & 8th girls) for the Braveland Conference has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each team in the Braveland “Central” Conference (Richfield, Lake Shore, Steffen, Brown Deer, and Whitefish Bay) has canceled their Girls Basketball season. There has NOT been a decision made on the Winter Basketball season. We are currently looking into other options for our basketball players (skills & drills sessions). Information will be available in a couple of weeks.
We are planning on having a Cross Country season for our student-athletes. Cross Country is an outdoor sport where physical distancing is much easier to maintain. There will be strict guidelines during each event that each school is expected to follow. Mr. Cirillo will hand out permission slips and other information about Cross Country within the first two weeks of school.
We would love to have a “typical” school and athletic year at Richfield MIddle School. However, the safety of our student-athletes will always be our top priority. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Please email me if you have any questions about the athletic school year. Thank you.
Paul Shelsta
Athletic Director
Pupil Services Updates, Ms. Tomich
Join Our Team!
The Holy Hill Area School District is currently seeking a few individuals to support our special education students at Richfield Middle School. These positions are part time. If you are interested please contact Cyndi Tomich, Director of Pupil Services or Ryley Laird, Principal at RMS at 262-628-1032. You can also apply online through WECAN at wecan.education.wisc.edu.
Search for: "Holy Hill Area School District."
Immunization Reminder to HHASD Families
FLES Insider, Ms. Shattuck
RMS Happenings, Mr. Laird
Join Our Team
Certified Vacancies:
- Band/Orchestra at RMS
- Guest Teachers (short-term)
- Guest Teacher (long-term - kindergarten and third grade)
Support Staff Vacancies:
- Paraprofessionals
- Health Room Aide
- Food Service Worker
- Library Media Assistant
Village of Richfield Voter Registration Week
Qualifications:
- Must be a United States Citizen
- Have resided at your current address for at least 28 days
- Will be at least 18 years old on or before Election Day
- Are not currently serving a sentence including incarceration, parole, probation, or extended supervision for a felony conviction
What to Bring:
- An acceptable Proof of Residence Document (Electronic Documents are Accepted)
While this is not a comprehensive list, these are the most common type of Proof of Residency Documents used by new registrants
- A current and valid State of Wisconsin Driver’s License or State ID Card (Must contain voters current name and address)
- Bank or Credit Card Statement
- Utility Bill – gas, electric, or telephone service statement (For the period commencing no earlier than 90 days before Election Day)
- Real Estate Tax Bill
- Paycheck or Paystub