Schley County Schools

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

April 9, 2021 Dear Parents, Grades 3-8 will be participating in the Georgia Milestones EOG tests next week. If you have a child testing, please make sure they are rested and get a good breakfast each day. We look forward to each of them doing a great job and getting to celebrate with some time off during the following spring break week! Please continue to help us stay safe and healthy by: • Masking up • Staying home when sick • Physically distancing as much as possible • Sanitizing hands regularly To ensure you are provided with the most recent information, please see the weekly status report below. This information provides the total number of active COVID-19 cases reported by our system to DPH, as well as the total number of quarantines as a result. COVID-19 Status Report as of April 9, 2021 at 4 p.m. Total Number of In-Person Students and Staff: 1151 (students) + 143 (staff) = 1294 Total Number of Active COVID-19 Cases: ES staff-1, ES students-3, MHS staff-0, MHS students-0 Total Number of Active Quarantines Due to Close Contact: ES staff-0, ES students- 24, MHS staff- 1, MHS students- 5 Thank you for your continued support of our schools! Sincerely, Brian Hall

April 5, 2021 Dear Parents, Participating faculty and staff will be receiving their second dose of the covid vaccine on Friday, April 9th. We once again appreciate the Schley County Health Department for partnering with our schools to make this happen. This week marks the last full week of instruction before Milestone Assessments for grades 3-8. Students and teachers have worked very hard to prepare despite many obstacles. This will be a great opportunity to show off their efforts with far less pressure this year. Please make the necessary preparations to your schedules in order to support our test takers. We want them to do their best so that we can go into spring break on a high note! Please continue to help us stay safe and healthy by: • Masking up • Staying home when sick • Physically distancing as much as possible • Sanitizing hands regularly To ensure you are provided with the most recent information, please see the weekly status report below. This information provides the total number of active COVID-19 cases reported by our system to DPH, as well as the total number of quarantines as a result. COVID-19 Status Report as of April 5, 2021 at 4 p.m. Total Number of In-Person Students and Staff: 1151 (students) + 143 (staff) = 1294 Total Number of Active COVID-19 Cases: ES staff-0, ES students-1, MHS staff-0, MHS students-0 Total Number of Active Quarantines Due to Close Contact: ES staff-0, ES students- 7, MHS staff- 1, MHS students- 0 Thank you for your continued support of our schools! Sincerely, Brian Hall

March 26, 2021 Dear Parents, As this month comes to a close, the number of active cases or quarantines continue to look much better. Thank you for your continued efforts in monitoring each student. Please continue to help us stay safe and healthy by: • Masking up • Staying home when sick • Physically distancing as much as possible • Sanitizing hands regularly To ensure you are provided with the most recent information, please see the weekly status report below. This information provides the total number of active COVID-19 cases reported by our system to DPH, as well as the total number of quarantines as a result. COVID-19 Status Report as of March 26, 2021 at 4 p.m. Total Number of In-Person Students and Staff: 1151 (students) + 143 (staff) = 1294 Total Number of Active COVID-19 Cases: ES staff-0, ES students-1, MHS staff-0, MHS students-0 Total Number of Active Quarantines Due to Close Contact: ES staff-0, ES students- 2, MHS staff- 0, MHS students- 1 Thank you for your continued support of our schools! Sincerely, Brian Hall

Shorter University information video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoXXRiDtBo4

March 19, 2021 Dear Parents, March 15-21 is set aside as School Board Appreciation Week. We want to say thank you to our local board members and all that they do to support our students. Despite the weather interruption, this week was very productive. Covid numbers were much improved as we continue to move towards the end of our 2021 school year. Thank you for your continued efforts in monitoring each student. Please continue to help us stay safe and healthy by: • Masking up • Staying home when sick • Physically distancing as much as possible • Sanitizing hands regularly To ensure you are provided with the most recent information, please see the weekly status report below. This information provides the total number of active COVID-19 cases reported by our system to DPH, as well as the total number of quarantines as a result. COVID-19 Status Report as of March 19, 2021 at 4 p.m. Total Number of In-Person Students and Staff: 1151 (students) + 143 (staff) = 1294 Total Number of Active COVID-19 Cases: ES staff-0, ES students-1, MHS staff-1, MHS students-0 Total Number of Active Quarantines Due to Close Contact: ES staff-0, ES students- 3, MHS staff- 0, MHS students- 1 Thank you for your continued support of our schools! Sincerely, Brian Hall

Elementary students created a video to show appreciation for Mrs. Holloway during Board Member Appreciation Week. FFA officers recognized Mr. Sellars for his board service as well as his help with their John Deere tractor project. Our schools appreciate the time each member contributes for our system.

Schley County Board Members were individually recognized on Friday by students. The Kool Kids Cafe honored Mr. Aldridge while the Schley County High School Jazz Band performed for Mrs. Lumpkin. Mrs. Morrow was surprised at her business by middle school students with personal "thank you's".