Rick Gardner
Classified Employee Appreciation Week is celebrated every year during the first full week of March.
Our classified employees are the backbone of our public education system and here in Fern Ridge we have countless examples of excellent Classified Staff members. Our classified staff work directly with students, educators, parents, volunteers, business partners, and community members. They support the smooth day to day operation of offices, the safety and maintenance of buildings and property, and direct instruction of students.
Our community depends upon and trusts classified employees to serve the diverse talents and needs of our students.
On behalf of the Fern Ridge School District School Board and all staff in the district, I want to thank our classified staff for their dedication and the work they do each and every day. You are appreciated. Please join me in observing and recognizing the hard work of these individuals!
Spring sports begins on Monday, February 28th. Registration for spring sports will run from February 12th until February 25th at 8:00 PM in Family ID. Please contact the front office if you have any questions.
February 7-11 is National School Counselors’ Week. At EHS we are fortunate to have two amazing counselors, Brittany McMillan and Court Wirth. Our counseling team works hard throughout the year to actively engage students, helping them to focus on positive ways to enhance their social/emotional development, and plan for a future after high school. Thank you to Mr. Wirth and Ms. Brittany for all that you do for our students!
It appears that the repair to our boiler system was successful. It will take our maintenance team some time to refill the boilers and to fire them up. After that is complete it will take time for the water to heat up and begin circulating, once that happens they will turn the fans back on to begin pushing heat back into the classrooms. We expect the classrooms to be significantly warmer tomorrow morning than they have been earlier this week, but it will be a few days before they are completely back to normal. We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding this week and we look forward to warmer day ahead.
The contractor will be here tomorrow at 7 AM to install the parts necessary to get the heat turned back on in our building. Once those parts are installed the boilers will need some time to heat up and the pumps will need to be turned back on. We anticipate that the rooms should start warming up around noon tomorrow. We are confident that this repair will work until the permanent part that we need arrives, but if this fix is not successful we will work on an alternative plan to keep students warm going forward. We will do a new post as soon as the system is up and running.
We have found a solution to our heating issues that should resolve the problem by early afternoon tomorrow. In the meantime we are allowing students to bring blankets to school and have distributed hand warmers to any student that would like them. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we worked through this issue and we look forward to heat returning to classrooms sometime tomorrow.
For the foreseeable future, we will be addressing a heating issue at EHS. This morning we found that the primary mixing valve had failed in the boiler system. Earlier this year, our maintenance staff identified this valve as needing to be replaced and we ordered one. It was scheduled to be here in late December to change out, however, the part has not yet arrived due to supply/factory issues and today it failed.
We will be monitoring the heat in the school closely and be doing several things to help keep the rooms to temperature until this problem can be fixed. We had multiple experts on site today and we will continue to problem solve along side them in the days to come.
In the meantime, students should dress for cooler temperatures on campus, especially first thing in the morning, before strategies we will be implementing have time to take effect each day. We will continue to monitor and adjust. We will send you any updates as soon as we have them.
The Elmira High School Wrestling Team has been selected by the OSAA as the Les Schwab Tires Team of the Month. This award is based on citizenship, service and academics. The team will receive a trophy and a $100 donation to the program. Congratulations to Coach Peeler and all of our wrestlers on this great accomplishment!
Today we have been able to resolve the circumstances from the January 3rd incident where it was reported to school administrators that someone had seen a “threat” on social media. Thank you to local law enforcement (LCSO), and their numerous other partners, for working with the district diligently to resolve this. As you may recall, due to receiving this information in the early evening hours of January 3rd, and an inability to gather enough information to solve the issue that night, the decision was made to cancel school for EHS and FRMS on January 4th. By the end of the day on the 4th we determined this was not a credible threat and were confident enough in the circumstances surrounding this issue to return to school the following day. Since that time, I, along with other District staff and law enforcement, have spent time on this issue each and every day. It is one we take seriously.
Earlier this afternoon a student and her family met with law enforcement. She was cooperative and honest about these circumstances and admitted to making up the fact that a threat had been seen on social media. She was cited in lieu of custody due to her honesty and cooperation and released to her parents. Subsequently, I also met with the family. Law enforcement will be pursuing appropriate charges based on these specific circumstances, and the school district will be doing the same through our discipline/due-process guidelines and policies. The family has been very cooperative and in addition to appropriate consequences, we will be looking for ways to support this student and her family in the days and weeks to come.
A reminder to our students that threats made or reported for ANY reason will be taken seriously and they have significant ramifications and consequences to not only the perpetrator, but our entire community. Thank you to our staff, students and parents for your patience as we worked through this. The safety and security of all students is our first priority. As always, if you hear or see anything that may indicate a safety issue, please report it right away.
Gary E. Carpenter, Jr., Superintendent, FRSD 28J
In an effort to help more students attend homeroom we will be adjusting the Thursday bell schedule and moving homeroom to the morning after fourth period. Please refer to the attached bell schedule to see the change.
