Our students bring us a lot of joy!!

September 5, 2014

Good evening!

Today was a defining point at Columbia Elementary! As you have heard from our previous conversations, we are making a strong effort to integrate technology more and more into our classrooms.  The pure and simple reason for this integration is that our students as they leave Columbia Elementary and head towards graduating High School then off to College, High Education/Advanced Training, or right into the "real world," they will need these skills to survive and be competitive with others.  As most of us live in the world of Smartphones, Microsoft Office, Google, and other technologies, we do not want to cheat our students from gaining these skills.  The defining moment today, occurred when I walked into a second grade classroom and saw the students the most excited I have ever seen them about learning.  As I have seen them excited before, I have never seen them so hyped up as they were about using Chromebooks in their classroom for the first time.  This picture below shows it all:

We have the Best and The Brightest here at Columbia Elementary and we want to give them the best education possible.  

Today we had our Annual Team Picture as we celebrate our "National Holiday of Columbia Elementary Day:)!" HR Images our new picture company met us by climbing on the roof and taking a our picture.  This picture will be available for purchase again this year and we will be placing it on a new banner for the front of our building again.  There were many smiles and lots of "cheeses."  The students did an excellent job and they looked great in their orange and black!!  Just FYI, we will be having our individual picture day on September 26, 2014.  We will have more information to you in the near future about both of these items.

Just a few housekeeping items:

a) Progressbook-If you have a child in Grades 2-5, you are able to access their grades 24/7 on Progressbook.  Today we sent home a letter for parents that did not have an account previously set up.  If you had an account in the past, we will be sending home a letter in the near future, but also feel free to contact us at 740-393-5975 if you need your account information again.  This is an excellent way to see how your child is doing in class and how many missing assignments they may or may not have in specific classes.  If you can check on your child's grades at least once per week, we are able to head off a lot of problems before they become major problems (i.e. missing assignments/homework).

b)Attendance-We are starting to see an increase of absences, tardies, or early dismissals.  As we want to raise our students to be The very Brightest and the best people to compete for jobs in their future, we need them to be here as much as possible.  We cannot expect them to do well, if they are not in class.  Please be reminded of our attendance policies:


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STUDENT ATTENDANCE POLICY

Regular attendance is essential to maintain satisfactory progress in school. Absences/tardies shall be construed to mean any time a student is not physically present in the building other than school business.  The Ohio State Board of Education has adopted regulations governing excuses from past and future school attendance and within the framework of Section 3321.04 of the Ohio Revised Code. These rules and regulations are binding upon the authorities empowered to issue excuses from attendance.

REGULATIONS GOVERNING ABSENCES

The following, taken from the Ohio Revised Code, indicates the regulations governing excuses for absences from school:

1. The explanation of each past absence/tardy shall be made by the parent to the superintendent or to the person designated by him to approve or disapprove past absences.
2. An excused absence/tardy from school may be approved on the basis of any one or  more of the following conditions:
1. Personal illness – the approving authority may require the certificate of  a physical if he/she deems it advisable.  If your child is ill, he/she should remain at home until well enough for full participation in school. When your child is absent, please notify the school by calling the school by 9:00 a.m. When your child returns to school he/she must have a written and signed note, either by parent/guardian or a physician. The note must have the students first and last name, date(s) of absence and reason. If a note is not turned in, it will be counted as an unexcused absence.
2. Illness in the family.
3. Quarantine of the home.
4. Death of a relative.
5. Act of God.
6. Observation of a religious holiday.
7. An emergency or set of circumstances that prevent student’s attendance.          
8. Vacations - Parents and students are urged to take their vacations during the scheduled school vacation times on the school calendar. If this is impossible, the student must present a note prior to the time of the absence and fill out the necessary form to take to the teachers. It is the student’s responsibility to make arrangements with the teacher. We ask that parents avoid vacations during Achievement Testing and other standardized testing periods. If you request work prior to vacation, the work must be turned in immediately upon return. You must contact the school and fill out the application for absence from school form in order to get a possible excused absence for vacation. If the form is not filled out, it will automatically count against the allotted ten days.              

3. Early Dismissal
1. If student leaves after 2:00 p.m. this is considered early dismissal. This must be approved by the principal prior to the beginning of the school day.  If the student leaves after 12:00 and before 2:00, the student will be marked as a PM absence.
2. No student may leave school prior to dismissal without a parent or guardian either submitting a signed written request or coming to the school office personally to request the release.  No student will be released to a person other than a custodial parent(s) or guardian without a written permission note signed by the custodial parent(s) or guardian.  
3. If your child leaves the building during the school day, you must sign him/her out of the building.  The sign-out sheet is located in the office.  If your child returns to school, he or she is to check in at the office and the adult must sign the child back in to school before the child returns to class.  

4. Late Arrivals / Tardies:  If student arrives after 9:00 a.m. and before 10:30 a.m., the student will be considered tardy.  After 10:30am, the student will be considered an AM absence.

5. Make-up assignments – a student unexpectedly absent from the school will have  as many days as he/she was absent to make up the work. A note from the parent  or doctor must be submitted to the office the same day the student returns to school.  Request for homework must be made by 9:00 a.m. and you must wait until 3:00 p.m.  to pick up the work.

6. After a student has been absent/tardy for a total of ten days, they will be placed on Medical Status. A doctor’s excuse will then be required each time the student is absent/tardy or it will be counted as unexcused.
7. A student will be considered habitually truant if the student is absent/tardy without a legitimate excuse for 5 or more consecutive school days, for 7 or more days in 1 month, or 12 or more school days in 1 school year.  Furthermore, a student will be considered chronically truant if the student is absent/tardy without a legitimate excuse for 7 or more consecutive school days, for 10 or more school days in 1 month, or 15 or more school days in 1 school year. Any student that is considered to be either habitually or chronically truant will be referred to The Knox County Juvenile Court System for Truancy.
8. According to the Knox County Court System any of the following consequences can occur for Truancy Issues:
1. Court Appointed Diversion Officer Involvement
2. The School can file for Educational Neglect of the Parent/Legal Guardian
3. Contempt Charges will be filed for not following a Court Order.  This may lead to jail time for parent/legal guardian.  

The elementary school principal (or designee) shall be charged with the responsibility of notifying students and parents of the student’s attendance. The principal shall hear any appeal from the policy and make recommendation in fairness to the student and the policy.

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C) Homework-Students are expected to complete their homework assignments.  Our teachers assign homework at times to support the learning that takes place in their classrooms.  A lot of this homework is assigned to see exactly what the student understands.  The expectation most of the time unless otherwise stated is that the student complete this homework independently. This allows us to determine what additional support or enrichment the student needs to better serve their educational needs.  We encourage parental support on homework, there just clearly needs to be a defined line of helping the student better understand the homework material verses giving specific answers.  As I witnessed last year, we had students that let their missing homework counts significantly negatively impact their grades.  Please help us make sure that your child, our student, is completing their homework on time.  I would encourage you checking in with your child on a nightly basis about what homework they may or may not have.  Teachers have been known to communicate with parents through agenda books, e-mail to make sure these assignments are getting completed.  

Please know that my intentions with talking about homework that is not being completed is true in nature, I have seen too many students not do well in specific subjects because of their missing assignments.  As we love each of them just like all of you, we want to make sure that they do their very best.  

  

D) Promoting our Students-When you are posting pictures or information about Columbia Elementary on Facebook or Twitter be sure to use our Hashtag of #MVCOLUMBIATIGERS.  I would like to challenge everyone to post at least one positive success per week using this hashtag about at least one student success (Please do not use full student names for security purposes).

E) PJ DAY is on Friday September 12th-To help support our Fifth Graders for their Outdoor Education Camp this year. This is a fundraiser where all students that want to wear their PJs (school appropriate of course) can pay $1 to do so.  

F) PTO Meeting is on Monday September 8th at 5:30pm in our library.

G)Fifth Grade Parent Meeting about Outdoor Education is on Monday September 8th at 6:30pm.

H) New Librarian at Columbia Elementary-We are so excited to be improving our Library at Columbia Elementary with a new addition to our Instructional Team, Mrs. Megan Garrett.  Mrs. Garrett was one of 50 applicants for this position. We interviewed 7 of the 50 applicants were they had to go through a traditional interview plus a performance evaluation.  Two of the seven applicants were recommended to our Superintendent, Mr. Bill Seder for a Final Interview.  Mrs. Garrett successfully completed all of these steps in the process.  We are very excited about the knowledge, skills, ideas, and passion for students that she brings to our elementary.  Please be sure to welcome here to our Team.


I hope the information above is helpful in nature.  Truly my goal is to improve my communication with all of you about the items and elements that affect your child's education. My hopes are that it is accepted in that same fashion.  As always, feel free to contact me with any questions and/or concerns at 1-740-393-5975 or mdill@mvcsd.us.

Go Tigers!
Matt

Be sure to like us on Facebook at MVCOLUMBIA