OVA Connector
October 28, 2022
Important Dates to Remember
- October 31: Elementary Trail for Treaters @ WSE (2:30pm)
- November 1, 10, 15: Pearson Parent Power Hour (see flier below)
- November 11-14: Pearson Teacher Holiday; students have access to classes and may work, but Pearson teachers will be unavailable
- November 17: End of Trimester I- Pearson work must be completed
- November 18: No School
- November 21: Beginning of Trimester II
- November 23, 24-25: No School, Thanksgiving Break
K-8 Picture Retakes
CKH: Self-Direct
Why focus on Self-Direction?
- Self-direction strengthens relationships. Self-direction helps to grow social skills and develop meaningful, positive relationships with others.
- Self-direction teaches personal responsibility. Learning to self-direct teaches students to take responsibility for their own actions.
- Self-direction helps us to regulate emotions: Self-direction empowers students to regulate their impulses and emotional responses to situations and circumstances in their life.
Very Important Attendance & Truancy Reminders
ATTENDANCE PROCEDURES & POLICY p. 10 -
Attendance is an integral component in a student's education. Learning takes place in collaboration with OVA teachers and engagement with the OVA curriculum. Regular attendance/engagement is always essential for doing your best work in school. Employers will be interested in your attendance record some day. Students who are under the age of eighteen are required to attend school under the State Compulsory Attendance Law.
For a student to obtain credit and to keep parents informed of student absenteeism, school personnel have set up a minimum standard of attendance. Every effort should be made by students and parents to see that absences are limited to reasons of personal illness or a grave, family emergency.
Please remember that our weekly (Wednesday-Tuesday) attendance requirements are as follows:
- Students in grades K-12 are required to participate in at minimum two, two-way contacts per week with their mentor or classroom teacher. Parents and students in grades K-5 can work collaboratively with the OVA mentor teacher to accomplish the two, two-way via zoom, email, or phone call. This means, the teacher initiates contact via Pearson, Remind, Google Classroom, Zoom, email, text message or phone call and the student responds, then the teacher responds (teacher-student-teacher). These two-ways will be logged, and two per week must be completed for a student to have positive attendance marked. Students & parents need to be on the watch for contacts by their mentor and respond to all contacts.
- Students will submit an assignment every Wednesday.
- Students will log in regularly to the appropriate Pearson platform and be working toward completion of their coursework.
Unexcused Absence:
An absence is considered unexcused when a child misses both 2 way communications in a week. When that happens, we check to see if they submitted a Wednesday assignment and if the child has logged in regularly over the course of the week, Wednesday to Tuesday.
OVA Truancy Procedure, p. 11:
Student has 1 unexcused absence Otsego Virtual Academy Director or designee checks in with the child’s teacher/mentor regarding Wednesday assignments and checks login history in Pearson. Communication is sent to the child’s parent/guardian about the requirements for virtual learners at OVA and communicates with local district support personnel about the unexcused absence.
Student has 2 unexcused absences Otsego Virtual Academy Director or designee sends an email/letter to the family. The truancy support at the local district is notified, if applicable.
Student has 3 unexcused absences Otsego Virtual Academy Director or designee sends a second email/letter to the family. Otsego Virtual Academy Director or designee schedules a meeting with the family. The truancy support at the local district is notified if applicable. The Allegan Area Educational Service Agency (AAESA) Truancy Officer is notified.
Student has 4 unexcused absences Otsego Virtual Academy: Student Handbook The student is dropped from OVA and sent back to the local district or school. A parent meeting is scheduled with the local district or school regarding truancy and paperwork is completed for documentation.
Our handbook is linked on our OVA website if you would like to read more about attendance and truancy.
Count Month
Attendance is always extremely important when it comes to education. For our virtual students, rather than a "Count Day," we participate in "Count Month." It is very, very crucial that students respond to their assigned OVA teacher or mentor's two-way communications (emails, Zooms, Google Classroom questions, etc.) during the weeks of Wednesday, October 5, to Thursday, November 8!
Community Events and Activities
All About Pearson
Important OPS & OVA Links
OVA Contact Information
Interim OVA Coordinator/Mentor: Ashley Leneway aleneway@otsegops.org (Oct-December)
OVA Coordinator/Mentor: Amanda Nast anast@otsegops.org
K-8 Virtual Teacher: Kassie LaDuke kladuke@otsegops.org
High School Mentor: Jennifer Herbert jherbet@otsegops.org
About Us
Email: anast@otsegops.org
Website: https://www.otsegops.org/schools/ova
Location: 540 Washington St, Otsego, MI 49078
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/otsegops
Twitter: @OtsegoSchools