General Information
In partnership with Chartwells and our food service staff, the district is preparing to start a new opportunity to deliver meals to meet the needs of some of our families who are not available to visit either EHS, or one of the drop sites during the school day. This opportunity will occur every Monday evening, from 5-6 PM in the North (back) lot at Elmira High School.
Come to the High School at this time, and you can/will receive a breakfast and a lunch for the entire week, for each child/student 0-18. We will still use the drive through model, and you still just need to give your last name. The students do not need to be present.
All of the meal “kits” will be made fresh that morning, and include the following three bags:
- One containing milk for breakfast and lunch for five days
- One containing a selection of fruits and vegetables for both lunch and breakfast
- One containing five sandwiches and five breakfast items (such as muffins, breakfast bars, etc..)
Something that would be tremendously helpful with planning and preparing the meals would be to get an idea of how many folks will be accessing this resource. You can do that by one of two ways. Either emailing the food service director Alan Fullerton at afullerton@fernridge.k12.or.us with the subject of “Monday Night Meals” and include the number of students/children in the line as well. For example: Monday Night Meals – 3. Or you may call your school secretary and give them the information and they will pass it on. The sooner you “sign up” the better. You won’t need to do this each week, just the first week to give us an idea of how much product to order, and how many meals to prep.
Please help spread the word!
The five sites are continuing Monday through Friday around the community.
11:00-12:30 at the EHS North Lot (119 lunches served today)
12-12:30 at the DS Mart (9 lunches)
12-12:30 at 5th and Woodland (8 lunches)
12-12:30 in Noti (7 lunches)
12-12:30 at the Fern Ridge CDC on Jeans Rd. (7 lunches)
Today at our 4 stops around the community, we served 31 lunches, up from 17 the day before. In order to continue with these stops, we need to have community members/youth access them. Please help spread the word!
On another note, we would like to hear from you if a 5-6 PM meal pick up in the EHS back (North) lot would be helpful for some families that cannot access the meals mid-day due to work or other commitments. It would be a cold lunch and breakfast in one larger bag for the next day. If this is something a good number of folks tell us they would access, we will work on a plan to get started next week. Please email Michelle Cook @ mcook@fernridge.k12.or.us with this in the subject line “PM HS MEAL SITE”…and the number that you would pick up in the message (or leave a comment below). Thanks so much!
Small groups of students are getting the opportunity to practice safety and hands-on technical skills in the Elmira High School shop with their instructor, Mr. Johnson.
This limited in person instruction time supplements the online classwork these students are doing this semester.
Welding & Carpentry in the EHS shop
We are excited to announce that we now have a school nurse on staff!
Teresa Parsons, MSN, RN will be working in our district to support our students, families, and staff by providing health assessments, health education/care, and helping us navigate the many health requirements we have during this pandemic.
Nurse Teresa comes to us after serving as a public health nurse, nurse educator, and 11 years of experience as a public school nurse. She will be working out of the health rooms in all four of our buildings as she supports our students and families.
Welcome Nurse Teresa, we are so excited to have you join our Fern Ridge community!
Dear Staff and Families of Fern Ridge School District
This morning we were notified that an Elmira High School student has been diagnosed with COVID-19. As members of the school community, we understand that this might raise concerns alongside a caring response. We are working closely with Lane County Public Health to respond to this news and protect the health of our community.
Each situation calls for different protocols. In this case, at this time of the year before students have been on campus, and the fact that this student was not on campus at any time during their illness, we are taking the following steps:
- Informing families via this letter that will posted to the website of the District and the school, as well as a phone dialer going home this evening.
- We are required to delay the start of LIPI (Limited In-Person Instruction) that was to begin on Tuesday, September 22nd. This ONLY affects EHS, and only the few students that were to come on campus for a few hours each day. Regular Comprehensive Distance Learning classes will continue as scheduled on 9-22 for all EHS students, as well as LIPI that is set to begin for grades 4th-8th on 9-22.
- If there are no additional cases between now and September 29th, we can begin LIPI for EHS students.
The best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is through staying home when ill, wearing face coverings, physical distancing, and practicing good health hygiene habits. Be sure to wash your hands frequently with soap and water, cover your coughs and sneezes, and avoid contact with people who have signs of illness.
We will keep you updated with any new information as it comes out, while meeting the requirements to honor everyone’s right to privacy. More information can be found on the Oregon Department of Education’s Ready Schools, Safe Learners page and the Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 page.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the District office, or your school administrator.
Professionally,
Gary E. Carpenter, Jr.
Superintendent, FRSD 28J
Welcome back to all of the FRSD staff. Today as the first day back for our staff, and they have a TON to do over the next two weeks to get ready for students.
To our parents that have questions about school operations that are not answered on our website, the details of our school operations will begin to be developed over the course of the next two weeks. I realize the school year is rapidly approaching and everything is not in place yet. However, those details are best worked out with the input of all our staff, the experts that will be executing them. With everyone being back today, those conversations are starting immediately. A lot of work was put in over the summer to develop our blueprints and frameworks. We have purchased technology, curriculum, and personal protective equipment. We have developed food service and transportation protocols, health protocols and building logistics. This has us in a place where we can now fine tune the logistics of our operations and begin to get information out. To help with this over the course of the next two weeks, each building will hold a Q and A session (including the online OPTIONS program). The administrator/director will give a short presentation on the happenings at their building and then take questions that can be typed in the chat. Once I get the specific links for these meetings I will share them, they will also be on the individual building web pages. The regular community Q and A that I hold on Wednesday’s at 3:30 will continue. That link is: https://meet.google.com/wro-ifnp-ans. The days and times for the other Q and A sessions are as follows: (I will add the google links for these meetings as they get created)
Veneta Elementary: Wednesday the 2nd and 9th at 5:30 meet.google.com/pfg-eeod-bjp
Elmira Elementary: Thursday the 3rd and 10th at 4:30 meet.google.com/wjo-nhnw-exu
Fern Ridge Middle School: Wednesday the 2nd and 9th a 4:30 meet.google.com/cji-rjwn-tjf
Elmira High School: Thursday the 3rd and 10th at 5:30 meet.google.com/kea-jkwo-amo
FRSD OPTIONS program: Wednesday the 2nd at 6:30, On Wednesday the 9th at 6:30 they will hold a “Virtual Parent Night” meet.google.com/bjs-svca-hsb
Thank you for your patience, stay tuned for the links to these particular meetings.
At the link below, you can find our flyer describing registration options that will be available, starting next week. Those registering for the OPTIONS program should still register through their resident/home school. There are 3 choices in regards to how to register (in-person by appointment, pick up and drop off, or a fully online registration option). All of these options will be available starting at the identified times in the flyer. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact your school.
Check out the new 2020-2021 School Year Information Page on the Fern Ridge Website (located at the far right of the navigation tabs in red). It is a work in progress, but in the coming weeks lots of information will be located in this one location for families.
Here you will find the weekly recordings of the community Q and A sessions with Superintendent Carpenter along with information on the paths available to FRSD families and many other links to resources and information.
Click here for a printable PDF version of this chartGood morning FRSD Families.
I know many of you are anxious about what school will look like in the fall, and understandably have many questions. On June 10th, the Oregon Department of Education released its “READY SCHOOLS, SAFE LEARNERS GUIDANCE FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2020-21” document. If you are interested in reading it, it can be found by clicking here.
Since it was released, our staff has been reading and re-reading the information, as well as attending many trainings and virtual meetings to hear what others around the state are considering. Over the next two weeks, we will continue to brainstorm ideas that comply with this guidance, leading up to a team of staff, students, and parents that will begin to meet on Tuesday, July 7th, to begin to plan what school will look like in our District.
We have developed a survey with the help of Lane ESD that will compile some data for this team to review as we begin the planning process. You can access the survey by clicking here, and we ask all of our parents to fill it out. The survey will remain open through Friday, July 3rd. Thank you in advance for your participation.
Gary Carpenter, Superintendent, FRSD 28J