Otsego Jr. High
Weekly Update - April 8, 2016
Mr. Wiley's Message:
Recently you may have heard of a situation at Perrysburg Junior High School in which a 14 year old boy used a cell phone to videotape another boy in the restroom. Upon leaving the restroom, the boy electronically distributed the video to his friends. As you can imagine, when news of the video got out, things became rather chaotic. The boy who did the recording was disciplined in accordance with the rules of the school, according to the Perrysburg administration. My guess is that the boy at the very minimum was suspended, and possibly expelled. In addition, charges were filed against the boy for pandering sexually oriented material, a felony in the state of Ohio. It is possible that this 14 year old boy could see some serious jail time for a spur of the moment decision that he probably thought would be funny.
I bring this up because as we raise teenagers, we know they do not make good decisions all the time, they just are not capable due to their brain development. Add to that a smartphone and you have the possibility of some serious misconduct. The consequences for misusing these devices can be severe and life changing for both the perpetrators and the victims. For the Perrysburg situation, there’s a 14 year old boy who may spend time in jail, and his victim now has a video on the world wide web that will never go away and may forever haunt him.
About a month ago, I met with Tim Atkins from the Wood County Prosecutor’s Office and several Wood County Sheriff’s Deputies. The purpose of the meeting was to clarify situations like what happened in Perrysburg. The answer was pretty simple: Whenever there is a nude picture of a minor on an electronic device, it is against the law. The bigger crime is when you send that picture to another person. You have now transmitted child pornography and you will be looking at some serious felonies, even if you did not create the picture.
Handing a teenager a smartphone requires responsibility on their part, just like handing them the keys to a car. My 13 and 14 year old boys both have iPhones. I made sure to tell them, before I gave them the phones, to NEVER request a nude picture nor send a nude picture to someone. And I remind them of that frequently (as recently as last Wednesday). I encourage you to have the same conversation with your children also. Not once, but every so often. Ask them if anyone has ever requested a “sexy pic” of them. Check their phone text messages and photos. Remember, if you are paying the bill or they are under 18, you have the right to go through the phone. This is a case of “You can never be too safe or overprotective,” because as you can see in the Perrysburg case, one unwise choice by a 14 year old can have far-reaching and long-range consequences.
State Testing for 6th, 7th and 8th grade will be held April 11-29
Spring 2016 State Testing
Over the next 4 weeks, students will complete state testing. Otsego has created a schedule to minimize loss of instructional time for all course. In grades 6-12, we will be running a block schedule four days a week (see the calendar below for specific dates). This block schedule can be confusing at first, so here are a few points that may help make sense of block scheduling.
A block schedule will double the length of all classes (Math and Language Arts become 3 periods long and all other courses become 2 periods in length)
Doubling class length will mean that it will take 2 days to get through one day of classes.
Block Schedule A will run 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th period classes.
Block Schedule B will run 5th or 6th period class, then 7th, 8th, & 9th period classes.
Everyone will eat lunch at the same time on both block schedules.
Lunch is still 30 minutes and will take place at 10:46-11:16.
All the teachers have an individualized bell schedule, so they know when to release students to the next class.
Students do not need to know what times classes run.
Students do need to focus on 1) knowing which block schedule is running that day (A or B) and 2) which color day is being followed (Orange or Black). If students know those two things, they will know which class to go to next.
Again, all teachers know the times of the class changes and will dismiss when needed.
Lastly, exams will be tested one subject a week:
The week of April 11th, all grades will be taking the Language Arts exams during LA classes.
The week of April 18th, all grades will be taking the Math exams during Math classes.
The week of April 25th, 6th grade will be taking the social studies exams during social studies classes and 8th grade will be taking Science exams during Science classes.
When students are not taking a test, students will participate in classes as usual.
Take some time to look over the calendar below and reread the bullet points above. It may take some time to start to understand this process. Teachers will help students along the way. After the first week, it will get much easier.
If you have any questions, let me know.
Yearbook order form
Orders Due by April 29, 2016
Band and Choir Concert
Appropriate dress is important to their presentation. Students should be in their "black and Whites" ready to warm-up in the high school band room at 6:30pm. Please remember girls are to be dresses in black pants. Yoga pants and the like are not considered acceptable dress fro the performance state.
Rich Dubler
Director, Otsego Bands
Brien Sewell
Dirctor, Otsego Choirs
6th grade camp May 25, 26 & 27!
modern camping complex nestled away in the woods adjacent to Harrison
Lake State Park in Fayette, Ohio. Camp features complete indoor and
outdoor living and recreational facilities. The classes that are held
during camp follow Ohio's state curriculum standards. Camp gives our
students an opportunity to learn in a different setting
Check out what's going on in the JH!
Mrs. Hamrick's 6th grade Science comparing sedimentary rocks!
Ms. Moser's PE doing the bunny hop!
Honors book discussion groups!
Miss Liverani's class comparing the characteristics of the different kinds of rocks in Science.
HS students interacting with JH students!
Mrs. Fitch's class #piccollage #NationalPoetryMo nth illustrating "A Dream Deferred #otsegokinghts #otsegojhs
Jr. High Sports Schedule & Forms
Invitational for 4/8/2016 canceled. No practice.
Otsego Knights JH Track 2016
Friday April 8 @ Woodmore JH Invitational 4:00
Friday April 15 @Patrick Henry JH Invitational 4:00
Monday April 18 @Rossford 4:15
Wednesday April 20 Woodmore (home) 4:15
Saturday April 23 @Swanton MS Invite 9:00 a.m.
Monday April 25 @ Lake 4:15
Wednesday April 27 Genoa (home) 4:15
Friday April 29 @ Elmwood Invitational 4:00
Monday May 2 @ Eastwood 4:15
Wednesday May 4 Fostoria (home) 4:15
Tuesday May 10 Elmwood (home) 4:15
Friday May 13 NBC Championships @ Fostoria 4:00
Coaches: Scott Bernthisel, Brandon Fitch, Matt Rohn
Athletic Director: Charles Spencer
Athletic Attendance Policy (See item #4 in Athletic Responsibility Waiver)
To participate in a contest or attend practice, an athlete must be in school all day of the contest unless prior arrangements are made with the principal. In the case of a week night contest, an athlete or cheerleader must be in attendance the entire following day in order to participate in the next contest.
This eligibility policy will apply to any student athletes, managers, statisticians, cheerleaders, and other extracurricular activities at OJHS involving students in grades 7 and 8. The junior high school principal or district superintendent may declare a student immediately ineligible for involvement in a serious offense.
OTSEGO LOCAL SCHOOLS… There’s an app for that!
FOOD SERVICE UPDATE
Cafeteria News:
As many of you are aware, we have allowed student’s to charge meals this year. As we are approaching the end of the year we will no longer allow charging. STARTING APRIL 5th there will be NO CHARGING of meals. If the student does not have enough money on their account to cover the meal at the elementary they will receive a cheese sandwich. At the jr. high/high school their lunch will be pulled.
If a jr. high/high school student isn’t sure if they have enough money on their account they should ask the cashiers prior to going through the meal line.
We also have some students who are on free and reduced lunches with outstanding balances, they must be paid. These balances occurred prior to the paperwork being received by the cafeteria. You are responsible for the charges. The charges do not go away at the end of the school year. If they are not paid they are carried over to the following year.
If you have a senior with meal charges, they must be paid for you student to walk in graduation ceremonies.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you,
Jeanne L. Jeffers
The K12 online payment program is up and running and working Great!
OFFICE STAFF
Michael Wiley, Principal
Email: mwiley@otsegoknights.org
Website: http://otsegoknights.org/junior-high-school
Location: 18505 Tontogany Creek Road, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: 419-823-4381
Twitter: @OtsegoJHS
Jessica Frank, Administrative Assistant
Email: jfrank@otsegoknights.org
Website: http://otsegoknights.org/junior-high-school
Location: 18505 Tontogany Creek Road, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: 419-823-4381
Twitter: @OtsegoJHS