As we celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 26, we asked a few Cheatham County students what they are thankful for this year. Please enjoy the video, and we hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Please remember that there is no school for students Nov. 23-27. Classes will resume on Monday, Nov. 30.

It feels like the 2020-21 school year just started, and yet it’s already time for us to start planning for the second semester. For the second semester, our elementary and middle schools will operate on the traditional schedule and our high schools will begin on the hybrid schedule. Families will continue to have the all-virtual option. Families need to make their choice for the second semester by Friday, Dec. 4. Please direct your questions to your student’s principal and notify your student’s school by this date IF you decide to make a change from your current status. Additional details can be found here.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are offering a paperless ticket option and a quicker way to enter middle school and high school basketball games and wrestling matches this season. Fans can purchase tickets online by using GoFan. It is the goal of the district to fully move to the GoFan online system by Dec. 1 with no gate box available for cash sales. A minimal amount of printed tickets will be available for purchase at the basketball games and wrestling matches through Nov. 30. Additional details can be found here.

Cheatham County has been given an amazing opportunity to send a Special Olympic athlete to the 2022 Special Olympic World Winter Games in Russia. Will Ethridge has been chosen to attend the games in Kazan, Russia. This is the first time a Cheatham County athlete has attended any world games hosted by Special Olympics. Ethridge is a Life Skills teaching assistant at Harpeth High School. Read more about Ethridge by clicking here.

Students at Kingston Springs Elementary School are already getting into the season of giving. Thanks to their work, the Ark Community Resource Center will have hundreds of jars of peanut butter and jelly to hand out to South Cheatham County families in need. KSES hosted its annual Peanut Butter and Jelly Jam food drive last week, and, as always, it was a huge success. This classic sandwich is a good source of protein and is easy for school-aged youth to make on their own. The students collected 1,438 jars of peanut butter and jelly this year. Brooke Daugherty’s fourth-grade class was the winner with 159 jars. The school has been hosting the food drive for about 13 years.

We would like to THANK both the Cheatham County Commission and Cheatham County School Board for supporting our new school bus garage. This project is part of the district’s five-year strategic plan. The School Board has been reviewing the project for the past year and it is finally coming to fruition after the County Commission voted unanimously on Monday, Nov. 16 in a 12-0 vote to fund it. We are so appreciative of the County Commission’s financial commitment to this project. The anticipated completion date is fall 2021 and it will be built near the Sycamore High School-Sycamore Middle School campus.

Our schools celebrated National Red Ribbon Week Oct. 23-31. The week promotes the importance of living drug, tobacco and alcohol free lives. Students took part in a variety of school activities and special-themed days encouraging them to be drug free. THANKS to the support of the Cheatham County Community Enhancement Coalition, our School Resource Officers were able to hand out a variety of materials, such as water bottles, bracelets, pencils and shirts, to our students. The Coalition also provided gift cards to the SROs with the most participation, creativity and spirit at their schools.

The Cheatham County Literacy Council and Ashland City Elementary STEM Academy will hold a Book Walk on Saturday, Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ashland City walking track behind Midway Supply. The featured book for this walk will be “The Legend of the Christmas Pickle” by Michael Shoulders. All families are invited to attend this free event.

If you live in Tennessee and have been impacted by the pandemic since March 1, assistance may be available for mortgage, rent and utilities. The Tennessee Department of Human Services along with Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and the Financial Stimulus Accountability Group created the Tennessee Community CARES Program to invest $150 million in coronavirus relief funds to help non-profit organizations with ongoing efforts to address health and economic needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit www.covidhousingassistance.com to apply and learn more about this opportunity. The deadline to apply is Nov. 30.

We encourage everyone to protect themselves against the flu virus this year by getting vaccinated. Vaccination is the best way to protect against the flu and severe complications from the flu. Flu vaccines can be administered at a variety of places such as private physician’s offices, walk-in clinics, pharmacies and health departments. Also, while we are out of school this week, we encourage our families to clean their children’s personal items such as backpacks, lunch boxes and water bottles to help prevent the spread of germs.

Nov. 23-27 – Thanksgiving Break, No School

Dec. 3 – School Board Meeting, 7 p.m., Board Annex

Dec. 18 – Winter Break Begins, 10:45 a.m. dismissal

Dec. 21-Jan. 1 – Winter Break, No School

Jan. 4 – Teachers Return to School

Jan. 5 – First Day Back from Winter Break for Students

Jan. 8 – Report Card Day

Jan. 18 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day, No School