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Note From the Superintendent #5

September 18, 2020

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Community Update for Friday, September 18, 2020

Good afternoon parents and guardians,

I just wanted to take a brief moment to update you on some of the things going on in the district.

School Meals: 

• Starting Monday, September 28th District OR-1 will provide all breakfast and lunches at no cost to all enrolled students through December 31st 2020.  The USDA recently provided waivers through the end of this year to allow school districts to offer breakfast and lunches to all enrolled students at no cost while also providing the district reimbursement for the costs associated with the production and serving of the meals. 

Key Points of the Program

• The waivers that have been extended by the USDA allow districts to go back to the first day of school and claim all breakfast and lunches served. Because of this, District OR-1 will be crediting all meals that were paid at full (or a reduced) price back to each student account in the date range of August 13th through September 25th, 2020.  
• Because the program currently only runs through December 31st, the district will maintain the balances already on student accounts so that money will be available in the accounts the second semester. At this time, no payouts will be made on current account balances. 
• Starting again in January 2021, we will return to our regular pricing and meals will again be charged to student accounts as normal. 
• If a junior/senior high school student chooses to purchase an extra entree or ala carte item, they can still do that, but those items will need to be paid in cash as these extras are not covered by waiver extension.  This “extra entree” and ala carte option is not available at the elementary.  
• Lunch counts will still be taken in the morning at both buildings to ensure accurate lunch counts.
• Students in the high school will need to let teachers know they want a second entree at the time the lunch count is taken. Students will pay for the extra entree at the end of the lunch line.
• Kindergarten-3rd grade students “recess milk” will still be charged to accounts and those will still need to be paid for by families.  When families send in money for “recess milk”, the money will be credited to the student account.
• In order to facilitate the most accurate meal counts, we are asking families to sign up online for breakfast ahead of time. In order to sign up online, families will be directed to a link on our website. That link will be available at the beginning of next week. 
• All other current procedures the district has in place for breakfast and lunch will stay the same.

• Please note that some menu items may need to be adjusted as necessary to accommodate the higher volume of breakfast and lunches. 
• Thank you in advance for your flexibility and patience.

Upcoming “No School for Students” Days:

• I would like to personally thank all of you for your understanding and grace as we work through these challenging times associated with COVID. In order to remain proactive to the ever-changing conditions associated with the pandemic and maximize our opportunities to keep our schools open with students on campus, we have scheduled some additional COVID Response Days for our staff.  These “no school days for students” allow our staff time to continue to enhance our district's remote learning capabilities, deep clean our buildings, and collaborate on ways to further increase student achievement and learning. 
• For your planning purposes, we will not have school for students on the following dates: 
  • Wednesday, October 14th, 2020 - No School for Students
  • Wednesday, November 4th, 2020 - No School for Students
  • Wednesday, December 9th, 2020 - No School for Students

COVID-19 Update: 

• We have had a few cases of COVID -19 in our district, and the total confirmed positive cases in our district currently stands at 3. Although I would like that number to be zero, the low number is a testament to our staff, students, and families adhering to our district procedures and complying with guidance from our local health departments. 

Parent-Teacher Conferences:

• Parent-teacher conferences are set for next Tuesday, September 22nd from 2-8 p.m. School is out that day at 1:30 p.m. as previously scheduled for the HS and 1:10 p.m. for Bennet Elementary.
• This year’s conferences will be much different from any other year because we are conducting the conferences in a “digital” format. Parents should be receiving communication from teachers and building principals about how the conference process will work for their child.
• Parent-teacher conferences are a great way to gauge your child’s progress at school and connect with teachers. 

Thank you again for your support of our district. 

Have a great rest of your day and enjoy your weekend,

Michael Hart 

Superintendent of Schools

Go Panthers!