February 17, 2021

Dear Parents/ Guardians,

I am writing to you to explain a process we have added in order to be more efficient.

Beginning Thursday, 25^th of February, a monitor will take the temperature of students as they prepare to board the school bus in the morning. If the child's temperature is 100.4 or higher, the student will be returned home.

This process will mean that the students will not have to wait for their temperature to be taken after exiting the bus in the morning. Unfortunately, we do not have enough monitors to do every bus. Therefore many of the students will still be checked at the school door in the morning.

Thank you and if you should have any questions or concerns contact the building principal.

Thank you for all of your efforts during this difficult time.

Sincerely yours,

John C. Morgano Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools

February 10, 2021

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We set aside 8 snow days in the 2020-2021 calendar. Thus far we have used 7 snow days. Once we use the last one, (the 8th snow day), we will use virtual learning days should the need arise to close in-person instruction. Teachers will utilize virtual instruction on these days, working from home since the school buildings will be closed. 

The JSHS will be learning asynchronously (no live meets).

The elementary school will also be learning asynchronously, but with a live meet in the morning to explain the day's independent assignments.

Should you have any questions regarding this plan please contact your child's principal or teacher. 

This has been a stressful year for students, parents, and teachers; I think we are all looking forward to returning to "normal". Hopefully, that will be possible in the fall. 

Thank you for all of your efforts during this difficult time.

Sincerely yours,

John C. Morgano Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools

February 3, 2021

Sincerely,

John C. Morgano Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools

January 14, 2021

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Due to the COVID-19 positive test result for one of our employees at the high school building, the JSHS building will be closed tomorrow, Friday, January 15th for deep cleaning and reopen on Tuesday, January 19^th (Monday school is closed for Martin Luther King Observance). Since students are on remote learning tomorrow this should have a minimal impact.

In-person learning will resume on Tuesday, January 19th as originally planned.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Our plan will always have the safety of the children as our number one priority.

Sincerely,

John C. Morgano Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools

January 8, 2021

Dear Parent and Guardians,

In an effort to provide time to both the students and the teachers to complete assignments and to practice prior learning, we have set aside three dates during which all students will be virtual and will be asynchronous. That means that the students will complete assignments, practice etc. work provided by the teacher.  During these times, students will not be online with their teacher however the teacher will respond to questions emailed to them those days.

The dates are January 15, February 8 (already on the printed calendar as a conference day) and March 5.  

Thank you for your support as we navigate uncharted territory. Our students have more teacher contact time than many other schools. A number of schools have two days per week of in-person, Wednesdays off {no new work and no teacher support}, and Thursday and Friday online. This means that just looking at Wednesdays, our students will have about 40 more days of instruction by the end of the year compared to many other schools.

Once again thank you for making our plan work for our students. Our plan will always have the safety of the children as our number one priority.

Sincerely,

John C. Morgano Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools

Sullivan County Public Health Services and Sullivan BOCES have hosted a School Community Forum on Wednesday, Nov. 4 to provide answers to commonly asked COVID-19 related question.

Public Health staff explained what to expect if you test positive for COVID-19  or if your or a family member is exposed to someone who has tested positive. They explained contact tracing; the difference between isolation and quarantine, and where you can get tested.

If you would like to view the meeting, please click the link below.

Sullivan County Public Health Services clarifies when to quarantine, or isolate as COVID-19 cases rise

Please visit:  https://sullivanny.us/Departments/Publichealth/Coronavirus   for up to date information.

When Should I Quarantine?

Health Department staff remind residents that quarantine is used to keep someone who has been exposed to the virus (and who might be contagious even without symptoms), from spreading it to others.

Quarantine is for people who been in contact with someone who has COVID-19 and requires staying at home for at least 14 days while monitoring symptoms. During this time period an individual could develop active infection and become contagious. The average incubation period is 5 to 7 days, but it could take up to the 14^th day.

A “close contact” means that you were within six feet of a COVID-19 positive patient for more than 15 minutes, provided care to someone with COVID-19, had direct physical contact, shared utensils or cups, or were directly sneezed or coughed on by someone diagnosed with COVID-19.

If you become symptomatic and get tested you should be on quarantine until those results come back. That includes if you have had a rapid COVID-19 test and a PCR.  Individuals must wait for BOTH results to come back prior to resuming normal activities. A negative rapid test does not mean you are cleared, both tests must come back negative.

When Should I Isolate?

Isolation is for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and requires people to stay in their homes for at least 10 days while monitoring symptoms.

“People in quarantine should stay home, separate themselves from others, and monitor their health," said Nancy McGraw, Public Health Director.  "Please note that if you get tested during quarantine, you will still need to complete the full period even with a negative COVID test result.”

Source: Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. (2020, March 10). New study on COVID-19 estimates 5.1 days for incubation period: Median time from exposure to symptoms affirms earlier estimates and supports CDC's current 14-day quarantine period. Science Daily. Retrieved November 16, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200310164744.htm

Clarification on Wednesday's Academic Schedule

Dear Parents,

In case there may have been some dialogue amongst the community about modifying Wednesday’s schedule. I wanted to let you know after some further discussions on the modification of Wednesdays, this will be on hold until further review with the planning in greater detail. If the change does occur, a logical time to begin any structural changes is at the beginning of the second quarter, November 16th. 

We have a meeting tomorrow, however I wanted to make sure that the parents are not confused. Changing Wednesday’s schedule will impact child care, specials and learning to read and parents will need time to plan should we modify how we educate children. Presently, we are not changing our current plan.
Sincerely, John C. Morgano, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools

State Mandated Assurances in order to open in September 2020

Department of Health Safety Plan-August 10, 2020

PLANNING FOR RE-OPENING THE SCHOOL DISTRICT INFORMATION

Please click below
Planning For Re-Opening Information Page

PRIOR SUPERINTENDENT LETTERS REGARDING CORONAVIRUS

Please click below
Prior Superintendent Letters to Parents/Guardians

Alanna Lupi

Jacob Fisher

Deputy Sean Grady - SRO

Dakota Finck
Josh Glantz
Sue Glantz    
Paige Spradling

ACTS OF KINDNESS(AOK) INITIATIVE BEGINS AT ELDRED SCHOOLS

As I have said many times in the past, the Eldred community is full of nice, kind kids with good parents.

We are not reminded of that fact often enough.

Our schools have a number of programs that stress the positive actions of our students. (Please see the list below).

I would like to take that a bit further. We are going to begin a couple of initiatives. Please find the button on our webpage where students, teachers, staff and parents can be "acknowledged" for doing something good for someone else and/or the community. It doesn't have to be something extraordinary - just an action that makes someone's day just a little easier. It can be anonymous or you can give your name.

We will be sharing this information with everyone at our monthly BOE meeting. (Those individuals identified as “AOK” will be acknowledged at a BOE meeting, of course, we will check with the person who was "made known on AOK" to be sure they want to be publicly acknowledged. Some people like to keep their good deeds quiet.)

We will call this button the  Acts of Kindness "AOK" button (please click).

In the same vein, we will have boxes at each school where this information can be dropped into the box.

We are all on this journey together. It's important we support each other. You may click on the icon below.

Sincerely,
Dr. John C. Morgano
Superintendent

_______________________________________

In an effort to provide you with factual information regarding our efforts to make our schools the positive learning environment we all want for our children, I present the following initiatives that are occurring in our elementary and JSHS school.

A course is being offered for teachers to design an elementary addendum to the Code of Conduct that will be more aligned with the needs of elementary school students and reduce the frequency of problematic behaviors.

       GRM initiatives:

• Walk and talks
• Brief individual counseling
• Brief small group counseling
• Conflict resolution/peer mediation
• Anger management
• Emotion identification
• Social skills training
• Worry warriors/coping strategies for the anxious
• Coping strategies for grief/loss
• Teacher and parent consults
• Resources and referral
• Grounding techniques, breathing sets, mindfulness, visualization
• Heavy work/sensory breaks
• Think sheets
• Behavior contracts
• Positive reinforcement plans
• Token economies/group contingencies
• Model: ignoring, effective commands, acknowledging expectations and verbal reinforcement, attention grabbing signals
• SEL lessons – small group or whole class by invitation
• Post positive potty papers
• Provided Principal with wall clings with positive affirmations

Have done in past

• Restorative circles
• Restorative justice
• Yoga4classrooms
• Bibliotherapy/writing to address trauma

All Grade Levels K-6

• Social-emotional learning lessons on Mondays
• PATHS curriculums
• Choose LOVE (it introduces courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion)
• Peer mediation
• Role play during counseling sessions
• Model positive behavior and social skills
• School Resource Officers (SROs)
• DARE Program
• “Too Good For” program (10 week program providing 1^st grade resources to address social emotional learning experiences.

PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Support) Mackenzie

• PBIS follows Mackenzie Manners: Be safe, Be respectful, and Be responsible
• Big BEE and Little BEE awards monthly for 2 students that show Mackenzie Manners throughout the month.  Golden trophy awards are presented to the 2 classes that exemplify the best teamwork during PE classes for the month.
• Quarterly Caring Classmate awards are presented to students in the primary grades exemplifying kindness and empathy to their peers.
• Individual classroom teachers employ their own reward systems.  Some examples include prize boxes, happy cards, high fives, and tickets.
• Logical Consequences are being created and will hopefully be implemented in September.  These will be created by the teachers under the guidance of Dr. Morgano.
• Socktober sock drive
• December PJ drive
• "Soup"er Bowl donations
• Koala and Kangaroo collection for Australia

_______________________________________

      JSHS initiatives:

• Counselors are visible and available during lunches
• Coping skills
• Meet with counselors individually
• Work on calming and de-escalating skills
• Teaching positive self-talk and positive self-image
• Teach respect rights and responsibility
• Try to breakdown social situations to assist in building social skills
• School Resource Officers (SROs)

PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Support) JSHS

• Welcome Back ice cream social at the beginning of the school year and an end of the year ice cream social.
• Winter Welcome back with donuts and coffee coming back from winter break.

Activities to build kindness, empathy, and compassion run by PBIS:

• Homecoming Week/Spirit Week where the classes dress up to show unity.
• Pep rally - students learn about all of the clubs/sports that are available to students. Classes merge together, play games to show cooperation. 
• Color Wars (spring) classes work together to compete against other classes. 
• "Soup"er Bowl  donations
• Student of the Week
• PBIS is working on "What to do" videos modeling the positive behaviors of the PBIS matrix once completed will be posted in a Google Drive for all teachers to be able to incorporate with their lessons throughout the year 

PBIS have done in past

• Peer mentoring program which we match 7th graders with upperclassmen to mentor them through their first year at the high school.

_______________________________________

            District initiatives:

• Character building/Anti-bullying Speaker
• DASA Training – 6 hour course for all staff
• DASA Training Program for community members
• Suicide Prevention training for staff
• Suicide Awareness implementation
• Speaking with students to educate them on bullying
• Open door policy for students to speak with Superintendent, Principals, Counselors on topics such as bullying of self or others
• “A O K” (Acts Of Kindness) button on the District webpage seeks to focus on and increase positive behaviors

The Eldred Central School District takes emergency preparedness very seriously. We have a comprehensive safety plan that assists our staff and Emergency Responders to respond swiftly should an emergency occur. We provide ongoing crisis management training to school administrators and other key staff members throughout the school.

Emergency response plans are in place at the school. An Emergency Response Team oversees the plan, and team members have assigned roles and responsibilities should an emergency occur. The team meets regularly to review procedures and conduct annual training and drills so that students and staff are aware of the most effective and safe emergency response.

Click for school emergency and student release information

Report An Incident

Eldred Central School District is committed to providing a safe, supportive environment free from harassment, bullying and discrimination for all students. The District encourages the involvement of staff, students, parents and community members in the implementation and reinforcement of the Dignity for All Students Act (“DASA”).
If you believe you, or someone else, has been the target of harassment, bullying, cyber-bullying, and/or discrimination, please use this form to report all allegations.
School/district personnel witnessing an incident or receiving a report of an incident must complete and submit this written report within two (2) school days. NOTE: School/district personnel must also orally notify the principal, superintendent or their designee no later than one school day after witnessing or receiving a report of an incident. In order to qualify under DASA, the offense must be in violation of one or more of the protected classes that are: race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender and sex. The law applies whether an individual actually belongs or is perceived by others to be part of a protected class.
All complaints will be treated in a confidential manner. Anonymous reports may limit the district’s ability to respond to the complaint. A prompt and thorough investigation will be conducted for all incident reports.
Please complete this form and return it to a school administrator or Dignity Act Coordinator.

Every student should look forward to coming to school and see school as a safe place.

 Eldred CSD- DASA Incident Reporting Form (Click)

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