Gary Carpenter
Please join us in recognizing the Fern Ridge School District (FRSD) Employee Of the Month for August, Mrs. Leiisa Boytz. Leiisa was hired by the district in December of 1997 and has worked for multiple buildings in multiple positions over the course of the last 19+ years. Leiisa’s current assignment, where she has been for nearly a decade, is at Elmira High School where she serves as the School Bookkeeper and Athletic Secretary. Leiisa is a tremendous resource to the administration and staff, as well as to parents and students. She is a dedicated employee who is excellent at what she does. Her responsibilities in her current role are too numerous to list, suffice to say she has a wide range of them and is a critical part of many activities that occur at EHS. One of the things that Leiisa mentions that she enjoys about her job is the “wide variety of duties” that it entails. She also mentions that she loves her “EHS Family” that includes all the staff, students and parents. In her spare time Leiisa likes to garden, sew and spend time with her family. Please join me in recognizing Mrs. Boytz, as our Employee of the Month!
Fall Sports sign-ups will be here before you know it! Sports Registration night at EHS is scheduled for Thursday, August 3rd from 5:30-7:30 PM. Below is some information.
- Fall Sports include: Boys and Girls Soccer, Boys and Girls Cross Country, Football and Volleyball.
- Registration night is August 3rd—mark your calendar.
- The first day of Fall Sports practices are scheduled for Monday, August 14th.
- All paperwork must be turned in by noon on Friday August 11th in order to be eligible to practice on Monday.
- If you need an updated physical for 17-18 (needed every 2 years), it is best to get scheduled early. There is one “low-cost” option at FRMS from 10AM-4PM on the 14th ($20). Unfortunately, this is the only day the Dr. was available, so if your physical has expired and you utilize this option, you will not be able to practice until the second day, August 15th.
Go Falcons.
Visit the following link to check out a new video promoting the great things in our District. Thanks to the EHS Film Club and their advisor Mr. Monegan for all of their work in creating this, as well as Mr. Bill Linn for the use of his drone. Great job!
FRSD is on a 2 hour delay for today, Monday, March 6th.
Buses on snow routes, AM and PM.
All VES parents are invited to a parent forum TONIGHT, Thursday, February 16th from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM in the school gym.
A similar presentation will occur next Thursday, February 23rd for EES families, also at 6:30 (AT EES).
On the agenda will be a presentation from the Elementary Enrollment Balancing committee. This group, composed of staff from both elementary schools, has been looking into ongoing enrollment concerns; chief among them how to balance class size between the two buildings. With enrollment at Veneta projected to grow, keeping class sizes equitable between the two schools is a concern. Gary Carpenter, Fern Ridge School District superintendent, along with members of the Elementary Enrollment Equalization committee will outline what the enrollment problems are and some possible solutions the committee has been exploring. This is a great opportunity for parents to get information directly from the source and provide feedback that will help the district in finding an answer to this ongoing problem.
At the FRSD School Board meeting last night, the Board authorized the addition of 5 days to our calendar this school year. This addition, combined with a 14 hour “weather waiver” we are requesting from ODE, will allow the FRSD to continue to meet state instructional hour requirements for the 16-17 school year. These changes will be updated to the website district calendar later today. The additional school days are: February 20th, and June 16,19,20 and 21.
Great job by all the students that performed at the FRMS Talent Show, and a big thanks to the staff and parents that supported them. There was lots of great singers, musicians, dancers and artists. Way to go!
The following proposal for making up snow days will be presented to the School Board for approval at their February 6, 2017 meeting:
- Attend school on President’s Day – February 20th.
- Add 4 student days at the end of the school year – Friday, June 16th and Monday-Wednesday, June 19th-June 21st. The teacher workday will occur on Thursday, June 22nd. This will have us making up 5 of the 7 school days we lost. If we lose additional days, more adjustments will need to be made. While this proposal will not become official until the Board acts on the 6th, we wanted staff, students and parents to have the information as soon as possible for planning purposes.
The loss of seven school days over the last month has necessitated some changes in our calendar. The first issue that needed to be addressed was pushing back the end of the first semester. At the School Board meeting last night it was recommended, and subsequently approved, to change January 27th from a non-school day to a school day, and to change February 3rd from a school day to a non-school day. This effectively moves the end of our semester to Thursday, February 2nd. Please note this change on your calendars.
The second issue the board addressed was the potential of adding back days. While many options were discussed, including attending school on holidays, eliminating early release Wednesdays, attending during Spring Break, extending the school year, etc….two options were recommended for consideration. The first option simply has the school year being extended by 5 days, with the last school day occurring on Thursday, June 22nd. The second option has the end of the school year being extended by 3 days (ending on June 20th), with the other two days being identified and made up between now and the end of the school year (attending on Presidents Day, the Friday before Memorial weekend, another non-school day, etc)…..The board plans on making a decision at their next meeting on February 6th. Both options considered have us adding back 5 of the 7 days we have missed, and assume no more snow days. If we have more snow days, other adjustments will need to be made.