Schley County Schools

Dear Parents, I hope everyone enjoyed a restful few days for fall break. Activities have resumed with a return for the short week of school. Our Lady Wildcats advanced in the Class A playoffs! The annual homecoming football game and homecoming dance are planned for tonight and Saturday night. You are reminded that after school begins next week for both the elementary and middle grades students. Please take advantage of this opportunity for extra instruction and assistance. Transportation will be provided. Our local health department in cooperation with CORE will once again be onsite at Schley County Middle High School offering free Covid 19 vaccine shots on Friday, October 22nd beginning at 5:30. Flu shots will also be available. Their tent will be at the center gate of the football field entrance. They will be able to assist anyone in or outside of the Friday night football game. Please help each school by informing us if your family does come into contact with a Covid positive person away from campus. If a member of your household tests positive, everyone in contact with that person within your household should quarantine. Days for household quarantines can only begin when the exposure is over, either by the separation from the Covid positive person or when the Covid positive household member is deemed negative, without symptoms, and the appropriate days have passed. Our numbers will reflect all known active cases of students in or out of the school setting as of the date and time listed. Below is this week’s report. COVID-19 Status Report as of 4:00 October 15, 2021 Elementary School – Students 4 positives and 22 quarantines. Middle High School – Students 6 positives and 5 quarantines. School Staff – 4 positives. Sincerely, Brian Hall

Dear Parents, Fall break for students begins today and will continue through Tuesday. We hope everyone has a safe and restful few days off so that they will be ready to return on Wednesday! Thank you for all the hard work to get this first nine weeks completed. We appreciate the effort of our students, teachers, and parents. Report cards were issued this week allowing everyone to assess the accomplishments made thus far. As we move towards the end of the first semester, I want to encourage parents to utilize the after school instruction that will be offered beginning October 19th. Transportation is available and students will receive snacks each day. Actual afterschool days are Oct 19,20,21,26,27,28 Nov 2,4,9,11,16,18. Please contact your child’s teacher or school if you have not received information about attending. Our local health department in cooperation with CORE will be onsite at Schley County Middle High School offering free Covid 19 vaccine shots today beginning at 5:30. Flu shots are also available. DPH will also be partnering with Schley County Schools for On-Demand Testing. DPH will provide a licensed clinician to aid both schools in contact tracing efforts. This person will also be able to provide testing for students and staff. Expected roll out for information and implementation is 2 - 3 weeks. We encourage everyone to mask up. It is required on all buses. Masks provide a layer of protection when spacing may not be more than 6 feet. Each school will continue to notify parents if an exposure occurs. Please help each school by informing us if your family does come into contact with a Covid positive person away from campus. If a member of your household tests positive, everyone in contact with that person within your household should quarantine. Days for household quarantines can only begin when the exposure is over, either by the separation from the Covid positive person or when the Covid positive household member is deemed negative, without symptoms, and the appropriate days have passed. Our numbers will reflect all known active cases of students in or out of the school setting as of the date listed. Below is this week’s report. COVID-19 Status Report as of Friday October 8, 2021 Elementary School – Students 6 positive and 24 quarantines. Middle High School – Students 9 positives and 20 quarantines. School Staff – 5 positives. Sincerely, Brian Hall

We encourage students and parents to use the Infinite Campus portal to access grades, assignments, and more. If you need help creating an account or accessing an account, then please email wildcathelp@schleyk12.org. Please communicate using the email you previously provided to the schools.

Free COVID-19 VACCINE at Friday's Football Game

Dear Parents, Each week I try to briefly include relevant school information, as well as comments, for weekly news or events followed by the repeated request to mask up and watch for symptoms. This week saw an increase in our positives for the Friday report. The impact seems to still be in middle school from last week’s quarantines that registered as positives this week. Your help is needed. Morning announcements are made encouraging mask wearing, and we continue to furnish masks daily. Many students wear their masks and are doing a decent job of wearing them in the correct way. This has improved greatly among some of our athletes, which as a group, are trying to preserve their team and season. We have continued to encourage everyone to mask up while allowing it to be a choice. It is still a choice except on buses where masks are required. Our teachers are tasked with many things daily - to space, to monitor, to keep groupings the same, and to instruct students. I have so much respect for what they have done and are doing. They do not need another job of policing mask wearing. Speaking for them, they would simply prefer having all their students healthy and in attendance each day. For that to happen with the schedule ahead, we need everyone to partner in the effort. Fall break is approaching, along with attractions like the fair, which will gather many people together. We need a united conscious effort to protect everyone upon their daily return to school. Mask up to provide the necessary layer of protection to others. Please help each school by informing us if your family does come into contact with a Covid positive person away from campus. If a member of your household tests positive, everyone in contact with that person within your household should quarantine. Days for household quarantines can only begin when the exposure is over, either by the separation from the Covid positive person or when the Covid positive household member is deemed negative, without symptoms, and the appropriate days have passed. Our numbers will reflect all known active cases of students in or out of the school setting as of the date and time listed. Below is this week’s report. COVID-19 Status Report 4:00 October 1, 2021 Elementary School – Students 2 positive and 27 quarantines. Middle High School – Students 12 positive and 49 quarantines. School Staff – 2 positives. Sincerely, Brian Hall

School Bus Drivers Needed!

October 1st COVID - 19 Vaccine

Dear Parents, Throughout this week, we have seen an increase in both cases and quarantines primarily in middle grades. Both the elementary and high school numbers showed declines. Some cases were linked to school related events outside of the classroom resulting in shutdowns for two extracurricular groups. Also, there were more quarantines resulting this week due to exposure of students that attended class, presented symptoms, and left school to be tested. Part of the difficulty of this virus is knowing what to look for because it presents itself differently in many cases. Strep cases and flu have been present and symptoms can rapidly show themselves. Please check with your student daily. Do not dismiss small symptoms. Consult with your pediatrician or family health care provider if at all possible. While we want students in school, some cases may warrant closer monitoring of an oncoming illness at home. We continue to encourage everyone to mask up within the buildings. Masks provide a layer of protection when spacing may not be more than 6 feet. Each school will continue to notify parents if an exposure occurs. Please help each school by informing us if your family does come into contact with a Covid positive person away from campus. If a member of your household tests positive, everyone in contact with that person within your household should quarantine. Days for household quarantines can only begin when the exposure is over, either by the separation from the Covid positive person or when the Covid positive household member is deemed negative, without symptoms, and the appropriate days have passed. Our numbers will reflect all known active cases of students in or out of the school setting as of the date and time listed. Below is this week’s report. COVID-19 Status Report as of 4:00 September 24, 2021 Elementary School – Students 3 positive and 19 quarantines. Middle High School – Students 16 positives and 37 quarantines. School Staff – 1 positive. Sincerely, Brian Hall

Dear Parents, Our elementary school is in full swing with parent conferences as we continue to approach the end of the nine weeks. Also, the middle high has completed many student conferences for academic concerns identified from progress reports. Both schools will be announcing plans for after-school programs set to begin in October. This after-school support will extend to high school with transportation provided. As information begins to roll out, we encourage anyone needing assistance in any area to please take advantage of the after-school instruction. For any student riding a school bus to or from school, masks are required. Buses are supplied with extra masks and hand sanitizer. Daily compliance is expected of all students. We encourage everyone to mask up within the buildings as well. Masks provide a layer of protection when spacing may not be more than 6 feet. Each school will continue to notify parents if an exposure occurs. Please help each school by informing us if your family does come into contact with a Covid positive person away from campus. If a member of your household tests positive, everyone in contact with that person within your household should quarantine. Days for household quarantines can only begin when the exposure is over, either by the separation from the Covid positive person or when the Covid positive household member is deemed negative, without symptoms, and the appropriate days have passed. Our numbers will reflect all known active cases of students in or out of the school setting as of the date and time listed. Below is this week’s report. COVID-19 Status Report as of 4:00 September 17, 2021 Elementary School – Students 9 positive and 13 quarantines. Middle High School – Students 8 positives and 16 quarantines. School Staff – 1 positive. Sincerely, Brian Hall

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be holding our annual Title I Meeting virtually this year. The Schley County School System invites you to view this helpful information. Click the link to view this 11-minute video. https://5il.co/z6s1

Dear Parents, During the short week this week, very little contact tracing within the schools occurred. The majority of additions to the quarantine and positive lists were added over the four day holiday and a significant number of our quarantines from elementary school are set to come off on Monday. Our local health department in cooperation with CORE held a vaccination drive this morning with good participation. We encourage anyone (ages 12 and up) that has not been fully vaccinated to get their vaccination. Locally, DPH will host another drive through vaccination event on October 1 from 9:00-12:00. We encourage everyone to mask up. It is required on all buses. Masks provide a layer of protection when spacing may not be more than 6 feet. Each school will continue to notify parents if an exposure occurs. Please help each school by informing us if your family does come into contact with a Covid positive person away from campus. If a member of your household tests positive, everyone in contact with that person within your household should quarantine. Days for household quarantines can only begin when the exposure is over, either by the separation from the Covid positive person or when the Covid positive household member is deemed negative, without symptoms, and the appropriate days have passed. Our numbers will reflect all known active cases of students in or out of the school setting as of the date and time listed. Below is this week’s report. COVID-19 Status Report as of 4:00 September 10, 2021 Elementary School – Students 5 positive and 47 quarantines. Of the 47, 29 are non-school related. Middle High School – Students 12 positives and 24 quarantines. Of the 24, 11 are non-school related. School Staff – 3 positives. Sincerely, Brian Hall

We will use our Alert Notification system to share important information like school closings due to bad weather or other pertinent alerts and news. If you are like most you don't bother with calls or texts that you do not recognize. You can easily create a contact on your phone for number 98900 and name it something like "Schley County Schools" so that when you receive a text from our Apptegy Alert Notification you will recognize the number. This is a NEW number so please add it. Even though 98900 looks like it is missing some digits for a phone number, your phone doesn't care.

Dear Parents, There will be no school on Monday September 6 and Tuesday September 7th. Please enjoy the four day holiday and stay safe until we return on Wednesday. We appreciate everyone’s effort to let us know about exposures within households as well as the extra precautions many have made to check on symptoms. A good number of our quarantines have been household quarantines. Each fever, sore throat, or nasal congestion justifiably initiates more parental concern. Thankfully, many of our quarantines have been initiated by parents that avoided school exposure. Please continue to be vigilant in all of your efforts. I also want to thank our entire school staff. From serving meals to transporting students, our routines have drastically changed. We have many new tasks and more responsibilities in addition to our regular duties. Many are stepping in and filling in without hesitation. I truly appreciate the work of our teachers. Despite the many obstacles and hurdles, they have made adjustments and continue to try and prepare our students academically. No tasks are easy right now and we all wish for a safe return to normal. Until that happens, we must show patience and offer consideration for others. Together, we can make a difference. We encourage everyone to mask up. It is required on all buses. Masks provide a layer of protection when spacing may not be more than 6 feet. Each school will continue to notify parents if an exposure occurs. Please help each school by informing us if your family does come into contact with a Covid positive person away from campus. If a member of your household tests positive, everyone in contact with that person within your household should quarantine. Days for household quarantines can only begin when the exposure is over, either by the separation from the Covid positive person or when the Covid positive household member is deemed negative, without symptoms, and the appropriate days have passed. Our numbers will reflect all known active cases of students in or out of the school setting as of the date and time listed. Below is this week’s report: COVID-19 Status Report as of 4:00 September 3, 2021 Elementary School – Students 1 positive and 35 quarantines. Of the 35, 16 are non-school related. Middle High School – Students 11 positives and 36 quarantines. Of the 33, 21 are non-school related. School Staff – 2 positives. Sincerely, Brian Hall

Dear Parents, The 2021-22 school year is well underway. We are already at the midpoint of the first nine weeks of school with progress reports going out on Wednesday September 1st. The elementary school is set to begin fall parent conferences once grades are sent home. Please note the Infinite Campus login instructions that will be included with your child’s progress reports. Make sure you are accessing student grades to keep track of academic performance. If you need assistance with this process, please contact your child’s school. In the next few weeks, our new assessment program MAP will be shared with parents for addition grade level progress review. More information will be forthcoming as we complete the initial assessments. Labor Day holidays are September 6 and 7. There will be no school on these days. We very much encourage everyone to mask up. It is required on all buses. Masks provide a layer of protection when spacing may not be more than 6 feet. Each school will continue to notify parents if an exposure occurs. Please help each school by informing us if your family does come into contact with a Covid positive person away from campus. If a member of your household tests positive, everyone in contact with that person within your household should quarantine. Days for household quarantines can only begin when the exposure is over, either by the separation from the Covid positive person or when the Covid positive household member is deemed negative, without symptoms, and the appropriate days have passed. Our numbers will reflect all known active cases of students in or out of the school setting as of the date and time listed. Below is this week’s report. COVID-19 Status Report as of 4:00 August 27, 2021 Elementary School – Students 2 positives and 21 quarantines. Of the 21, 13 are non-school related. Middle High School – Students 3 positives and 25 quarantined. Of the 25, 16 are non-school related. School Staff – 2 positives and 1 quarantined. Sincerely, Brian Hall

Dear Parents, Our school year is about to begin its fifth week of learning! Thank you for your help in getting this year off to a great start. On Monday, the 2021 Milestone data was released. Schley County achieved high state rankings in 3rd grade ELA (#10), 5th grade ELA (#6) Math (#9) Science (#4), 7th grade Math (#9), and US History (#4). Schley County ranked very well among other state public school systems. More detailed information can be found at: https://www.gadoe.org/External-Affairs-and-Policy/communications/Pages/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?PressView=default&pid=885 These accomplishments are even more remarkable given the difficulties and distractions students, teachers, and parents have been faced with over the last two years. Unfortunately we are still faced with many Covid 19 concerns. Families continue to be impacted and many households were even quarantined in the days prior to our start. This prevented many students from starting their school year until this week. While we would like to focus on and even celebrate numbers such as those mentioned above, numbers for quarantines and positive cases continue to be monitored and will be posted each Friday just as last year. We will include as much information as possible, but we very much encourage everyone to mask up. It is required on all buses. Masks provide a layer of protection when spacing may not be more than 6 feet. Each school will continue to notify parents if an exposure occurs. Please help each school by informing us if your family does come into contact with a Covid positive person away from campus. If a member of your household tests positive, everyone within your household in contact with that person should quarantine. Days for household quarantines can only begin when the exposure is over, either by the separation from the Covid positive person or when the Covid positive household member is deemed negative, without symptoms, and the appropriate days have passed. Our numbers will reflect all known cases of students in or out of the school setting. Below is this week’s report: COVID-19 Status Report as of August 19, 2021 Elementary School – Students- 4 positives and 18 quarantines. Of the 18, 10 are non-school related. A third grade class of 16 was quarantined as a teacher tested positive. A Pre k class was closed yesterday because of possible student exposure from Monday. Middle High School – Students -11 positives and 54 quarantined. Of the 54, 24 are non-school related. If they remain symptom free, 30 students will return from quarantine on Monday. Thank you for your continued support of our schools! Sincerely, Brian Hall

Microsoft Store is offering free virtual camps with a fun collection of creative workshops and virtual fieldtrips to helps kids 8+ practice digital skills and explore new concepts. For more information please see https://5il.co/u42y

The Emergency Broadband Benefit will provide a discount of up to $50 per month toward broadband service for eligible families and households who are struggling to stay connected during the #COVID19 pandemic. Eligible households can also receive a discount of up to $100 for the purchase of a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers. For more info, please visit: fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit.

Attention Middle & High School Virtual Students, Laptop returns for virtual students will be Friday, 5-21 from 1:00-3:00 PM in the high school cafeteria. Please drive through where the middle high school buses pickup students. We will have staff ready to receive your laptop for any grade level. Your virtual supervising teacher will also be sending you a message about this.

We are having a Concession Stand on Friday, May 7. Order forms are due by tomorrow.

Dear Parent or Guardian: Effective July 1, 2021, children 16 years of age and older, who are entering the 11th grade (including new entrants), must have received one booster dose of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4), unless their initial dose was administered on or after their 16th birthday. More information at https://5il.co/rxfi Estimado padre o tutor: A partir del 1 de julio de 2021, los niños de más de 16 años de edad que entren al 11mo. grado (incluidos los de primer ingreso) deberán haber recibido una dosis de refuerzo de la vacuna conjugada contra el meningococo (MCV4), a menos que les hayan puesto la primera dosis al cumplir 16 años. https://5il.co/rxfj