Blue Jay Flyer
August 18, 2021
From the Principal's Desk...
Dear Parents/Guardians,
It was great to see so many parents and students in attendance at our Meet the Teacher night on Monday. As a staff we are very excited to welcome our students back into the building, and we pray for a safe and healthy year ahead of us. As the principal, I understand we are dealing with unprecedented times, and I ask for everyone’s patience and understanding as we navigate through the decision making process involving COVID protocols for the school. We know that these protocols have the potential to change, but we have aligned our policies with the schools/ districts in our direct area.
I understand and respect that families have varying opinions (agreement/disagreement) on masking policies, and I want to clarify some points. At the end of our COVID protocols, I linked two separate documents that should be reviewed by each family. The first is a flow chart titled Guidelines for Quarantine After Exposure in K-12 Classroom Settings. This chart will show what students will be forced to quarantine if they are exposed at school. Since not all classrooms provide the ability to sit students at least three feet apart and masks will be recommended but not required, we will only be using the left side of the flowchart.The second document is Hamilton County School Guidance for COVID-19 2021. This document highlights how Hamilton County will handle an outbreak (1 case) in the school setting. It also details signs and symptoms that parents can look for in their students when conducting their morning well checks. This is the guidance we will be using throughout the school year, so while our policies have been communicated, they can change based on the information that we receive from the Hamilton County Public Health throughout the school year.
Some points we want to clarify include:
The best way to keep your student from being quarantined due to a school outbreak is to have the student wear a mask at all times while at school. We do understand that there are areas of the school day that masks cannot be worn, such as lunch. Unfortunately, an exposure during this time period will require a quarantine even if the student is wearing a mask at all other times throughout the day.
As a school we reserve the right to change our policies as we see fit. Our number one priority is to keep the students safe, and we will continue to follow the guidance of the Hamilton County Public Health Department to make decisions based on our COVID protocols.
Collaboration among students is an important part of education. If a teacher requests that students wear masks while working in small groups and close proximity, please make sure your son/daughter has a mask available so they may participate in the activity. If they do not, they may be given an alternative assignment to complete.
Hamilton County will require proof of vaccination if a student is exposed. If your child is vaccinated and you would like to have this record on file at St. John’s, please email a picture of your child’s vaccination card to mgreer@stjohnsdrschool.org.
Since the nurse will be seeing a variety of students throughout the day, we are asking that any student who enters the nurse’s office please wear a mask.
Important School Forms
1. Please check backpacks today for a packet of important forms that were sent home with your child(ren). Please note that these forms must be filled out and returned to the school office NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 2021.
* Students in grades 5-8 received a Cell Phone Permission Form. If you have a student in a lower grade that needs to bring a cell phone to school, you may request a form from the school office or print one from our website under the Parent Info tab.
* Regarding the bright orange Free and Reduced Lunch form, every family must fill one out and return it regardless of whether or not you qualify. You may return it in a sealed envelope or fold the paper in half and staple it together. We only need one copy filled out per family.
2. Also, please log into your parent portal on Option C to complete and sign a packet of additional electronic forms. These must be completed no later than WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMEBER 8th. None of these electronic forms need to be printed and returned.
Any questions, please contact Jill Katterjohn in the school office at jkatterjohn@stjohnsdrschool.org or 385-7970.
Student/Parent Handbook
For future reference, the Student/Parent Handbook can also be found on the school website under the Parent tab.
Attendance
If you need to pick up your child(ren) during the school day for an appointment, please send a note to their teacher(s) that morning stating the reason for early dismissal and if your child(ren) will be returning to school that day.
Contacting Teachers
You can also e-mail teachers at anytime. For e-mail addresses, please visit the school website under the About/Faculty& Staff tab.
Cafeteria
The St. John's Cafeteria will be using The FACTS Management System as our payment source for school lunches. Every family at St. John's has a FACTS account. If you are unsure how to access your account, please contact Cathy Dreyer at cdreyer@stjohnsdrschool.org. Payments of cash or check can also be sent into the school office for lunches. Please reference your student's name(s) with the payment and the funds will be added their lunch account.
To Prepay School Lunches:
1. Login to your FACTS account and click on Prepay Accounts.
2. Click on Add Funds.
3. Follow the prompts as to how you would like to pay. Any monies added to your account will be a lump sum per family, not individual amounts per student. When using a checking or saving account, there is no additional fee. For credit card payments, there is a service fee up to 2.85% per transaction.
***If your family had a remaining balance from last school year in their EZ accounts with Kaldis, your balance has been transferred into your FACTS account. If your FACTS account is not currently active, you should have received a refund check from the school.
Transportation
For any questions regarding busing from Northwest Local, Fairfield or Mt. Healthy School Districts, please call your school district's transportation departments directly.
Transportation Departments:
Northwest 825-4600
Fairfield 829-6603
Mt. Healthy 729-4985
Destruction of School Property
School Uniform Exchange
New School Spirit Wear Items
Why the pink shirts? One of our long time school secretaries, Mrs. Andrea Argus, passed away from breast cancer 11 years ago. In her honor, our teachers donate $2.00 every Friday to wear jeans and a pink shirt and the monies collected are awarded as scholarships to two 8th grade students, one boy and one girl, who will be attending a catholic high school. Students may wear pink spirit t-shirts on Fridays as well. One dollar from every order of our pink t-shirts is donated to the American Cancer Society in Mrs. Argus' honor.
2020-21 Yearbooks
Please contact Laura Heidorn at lheidorn@stjohnsdrschool.org if you would like to purchase a 2020-21 yearbook or obtain pricing and availability for any other previous years.