Finneytown Local School District
Community Update 10/9/2020
Superintendent's Message
Dear Finneytown Families,
I hope you are doing well. We miss having children in our classrooms. I’ve listened in on a few lessons and the children and staff are amazing! We all know that for the vast majority of our students, remote learning is not optimal. Having said that, I am amazed at how well things are going. Staff, students, and families are to be commended for this. It is definitely a team effort. When it is a team effort, our students win.
The second semester is only 2 weeks away. This first semester was short but it still seems impossible that it is almost over. Report card grades will be posted in ProgressBook and elementary schools will send out copies as well. Conferences will be scheduled sometime soon. Watch the principal newsletters for the information for each building.
Pickup for 7 days of breakfast and lunch is free for all Finneytown students and available each Tuesday. Please see the website for details.
Transportation has contacted families about bus service for this year. Due to the change to 2 miles instead of 1 mile, as well as students moving from one building to the other, many families who had bus service last year will not have bus service this year. If you have questions about whether your child will be able to ride a bus, please call transportation at 513-728-7220.
Fall sports also had shortened schedules and are about over. The schedules and specifics for winter sports are decided at the state level and information will go out from athletics or in the Secondary Campus principal newsletter. Unfortunately, almost all other activities and events are not possible right now. We are not able to allow our community or others to use facilities like we normally do because of the pandemic.
As was announced yesterday by Governor DeWine, Hamilton County is still Red in the Ohio Public Health Advisory System. Let me recap our plan for school this year. Then I’ll discuss what is happening for the 2nd quarter.
Families chose to have their students in one of two campuses, the Flex or Hybrid Campus or the Virtual Campus. This choice was for a semester. In November, families will get to choose for 2nd semester. Currently, 40% of our students are enrolled in the Virtual Campus and 60% are enrolled in the Flex Campus. Families made choices that best fit their family circumstances. Many are still afraid to send students to school to be more exposed. Some want to get them back in school and feel very comfortable with the protocols in place that everyone will have to follow. Others are struggling with either choice. Please know it is a family choice. If you chose for your child to return to the buildings, please know they must follow the protocols like masks and building safety protocols. If they cannot or will not (without a medical waiver) follow the protocols we will need to revisit Virtual Campus as an option.
At this point, families could choose to move from Flex to Virtual for the 2nd quarter but cannot choose to go from Virtual to Flex. The reason for this is staffing. Right now, staff teach the Flex students in the morning and the Virtual students in the afternoon. We can do this with current numbers of Flex students and still be able to space students out in the classrooms and have all Flex students attend every day Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday mornings when we bring students back to the building. That is why we cannot move more students to Flex for the rest of this semester.
Next semester, if more families decide to choose the Flex Campus, we will have to revisit our plans and probably go to a plan that has part of students at school 2 days and the rest on 2 other days in the week to still be able to maintain social distancing. The other three days would be remote learning. We will make that decision once we know how many families choose Flex and Virtual for 2nd semester. More to come.
Remember that if your child is sick, that child needs to stay home. The latest chart we’ve been given is below. If anyone has one of the symptoms in category 1, COVID is suspected. If anyone has 2 or more symptoms from category 2 COVID can be suspected. If your child is sick, please call your school to report the absence.
Our Plan Follows the State Health Alert System
Virtual Campus students are virtual regardless of the level/color. Same schedule throughout even if there is a snow/ice/cold day. This is the only choice that will be consistent throughout the year.
Level 1 Yellow – Flex students and staff in school in the mornings as described above, with social distancing, hand washing and sanitizing, face masks, and other protocols in place. There will also be remote assignments to do at home to round out the educational week.
Level 2 Orange – Flex students and staff in school in the mornings as described above, with social distancing, hand washing and sanitizing, masks, and other protocols in place. There will also be remote assignments to do at home to round out the educational week.
Level 3 Red – Flex students attend remote classes like they are doing right now. Staff in school with social distancing, hand washing and sanitizing, masks, and other protocols in place.
Level 3 Purple – All students and staff at home with remote learning.
If we have a snow/ice/cold day that we cannot come to school for safety reasons, all students will be on remote learning. Staff will not need to report to school and will work from home. Instead of it saying Finneytown Schools are closed on the television reports, it will say Finneytown Schools are all remote due to weather.
As I mentioned above, Hamilton County moved back to Level 3 Red last week and it was announced yesterday that we remained there. Hamilton County is still Red as of now.
We were in Level 2 Orange for several weeks and we have been planning for Flex students to return to classes for the second quarter starting on Monday, October 26, 2020. Unless Hamilton County moves down to Level 2 Orange or below, we will not be able to have Flex students return yet.
Our plan from the 2nd quarter and going forward will be decided each week when the state releases the Alert Level information on Thursday each week. We will remain all remote until we move down to Level 2 Orange or below.
Please know I am watching intently. I watch all indicators but Indicator 1 averages info over 14 days so doesn’t change based just on current data. Here is the information from the state on this indicator.
New cases per capita: This measure considers how many new cases have occurred in the last 14 days relative to the population of a county. More cases mean a greater potential for spread among individuals living in that county, and contributes to a county’s overall risk level. A county is flagged on this measure if it exceeds 50 cases per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks. This is the cutoff between areas of moderate incidence and moderately high incidence as defined by the CDC. This measure does not include incarcerated individuals.
That indicator in Hamilton County was 114.25 yesterday. That has a significant impact on our county being Level 3 Red. Please help us get back to Orange or below. Wear your face masks, practice good hand washing and hand sanitizing, and stay 6’ away from others. We must all contribute to help our neighborhoods be safe and healthy so we can get our children back into our schools.
As we move forward, I will monitor the Thursday rollout of the Alert Level status.
When the level is published, I will send out information letting everyone know what the current level is and if students report to school on Monday of the following week or work remotely.
Here is an example of what this may look like:
- On Thursday, Hamilton County is Orange – I will email that Flex students will report to school the next Monday.
- A week later, Hamilton County is Orange – I will email that Flex students will continue to report to school the next Monday.
- Another week later, Hamilton County is Red – I will email that Flex students will not report to school the next Monday. They will go back to remote learning from home.
- The next week later, Hamilton County is Orange again – I will email that Flex students will report to school the next Monday.
We will continue through the quarter and the 2nd semester following the Alert System until we no longer need the Alert System because the Pandemic has subsided or there is a vaccine in place that is knocking the spread level so low that we do not even need to be yellow.
It is messy and not ideal, but the safety and health of our students and staff must come first.
As we go through the year, we do not know what we might encounter. We may have to make changes we don’t even foresee right now. Please know that I will communicate what we know as soon as we know it and can make decisions. This is not ideal and not what we want, but it is what we are faced with and our plan to get through it.
As always, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Let me quantify that. To be honest, I have concerns about not seeing our students every day. Our staff has the same concerns. Once we get through this, I am hoping never to face anything like this again in my career. I don’t mind making decisions about what is best for our students and staff. I do not like making decisions about which of the two bad decisions we choose. I don’t like making decisions with information that changes constantly so that we have to keep making different decisions. This pandemic has presented us with many options that are less than optimal. It has not afforded us many good options.
Respectfully,
Superintendent Terri Noe
Welcome Kate Welling, District Nurse
Lisa Wedig, Behavior Consultant
Welcome New Staff Members
2.Matt Oldham- Intervention Specialist (Secondary)
3. Annie Christy- ELA (Secondary)
4.Jacynda Barton- ELA (Secondary)
5. Kerry Finley- School Psychologist (Secondary)
6. Kayla Fields- Music (Whitaker)
7. Carrie Bouldin - Intervention Specialist (Secondary- not pictured)
Construction Update
Stadium at the Secondary Campus
The turf is done on the field and it looks great! Stop by if you get a chance. The company was working on resurfacing the track and will hopefully be finished at the end of the week. There is some asphalt that was torn up at the service road entrance. That will be fixed soon as well.
New Elementary Building
Thanks to all who participated in the man meetings with the architects. I am happy to report that we have stayed on schedule and the new elementary project is still on track despite the pandemic. It should be finished and doors open in July 2022 to begin the new school year in August 2022. Initial groundwork will begin in November then actual groundbreaking will be in early spring 2021. This is an exciting time in Finneytown for many reasons.
We hope to have the first renderings of the outside of the building to share soon. There have been numerous meetings about this as well. The architects surveyed a whole group of people. They took that data, additional group input, the surrounding neighborhood architecture, and feedback from various other groups and came up with some preliminary renderings. Those have been ranked at two different meetings and the results are what we will have soon to share.
Springfield Township held a Zoning Waiver meeting and our architects presented the preliminary plans for placement of the new school on the property. The Township approved the use of the property for the purpose of building the school.
We’ve held one neighbors meeting with those who live directly around the school property.
We will be holding more in person or by Zoom as the fall and winter progress to help keep all people updated.
We have not heard from OFCC yet about the funding for the new secondary building. When we get notice I will let you know.
Tell Us How We Are Doing?
This survey will be made available to all Finneytown families through future newsletters, as well as the building websites. Notification will be sent in the coming weeks and we ask that all families complete this survey so that we can make informed decisions about how we connect and support our learning community.
Thank an Aide Today!
Catalyst Mental Health Services
- Brent Elementary, Mrs. Nancy Rouse nrouse@finneytown.org
- Whitaker Elementary, Mrs. Britany Utley butley@finneytown.org
- Secondary Campus (6-7), Ms. Emily Style estyles@finneytown.org
- Secondary Campus (8-9), Mrs. Cathy Counts ccounts@finneytown.org
- Secondary Campus (10-12, A-K), Mrs. Emma Brown emmabrown@finneytown.org
- Secondary Campus (10-12, L-Z), Mrs. Stephanie Belschner sbelschner@finneytown.org
Math Adoption
Professional Learning
We have partnered with Katrice Quitter and Lena Patton from Hamilton County Educational Service Center to offer a districtwide series titled One Degree Shift. This series of engagements focus on implicit bias, equity, inclusion, and being anti-racist. We are also engaging in a districtwide book study around these topics. We also continue our learning and discussion on Restorative Practices and Responsive Classroom.
In addition, our staff has been engaging in new ways of instructing students. We have learned about Zoom, breakout rooms, Flipgrid, Screencastify, the new math curriculum, Google Classroom, and many more. We are so proud of our staff's commitment to connecting and educating students in a new way!