Elmira High School

EHS will be participating in “Be The Light” along with other schools around the state of Oregon. At 20:20 military time, each Friday night, the football field lights will be on for 20 minutes in honor of our 2020 seniors. As students, families, and community members drive by and see these lights, we hope that our students will know that we are thinking of them and miss seeing them each day!

If parents and students feel that they would like to drive on campus to see the lights, you must maintain social distancing to stay safe, please stay in your cars, park in designated parking spots, and be respectful to our campus and neighbors.

The last thing we want is to have to end this special gesture to our seniors because these guidelines are not being followed.

SCHOOLS CLOSED: At a 1:00 PM news conference, the Governor of Oregon closed our “physical schools” for the remainder of the school year.  Schools are now fully charged to provide “Distance Learning” through the rest of the 2020 school  year.

PATHWAY TO GRADUATION FOR OUR SENIORS: The state just released this 25-page document, that outlines the pathway to a diploma for our senior students.  If you would like to review the document, I have attached it here (click here).  Over the next 24 hours, I will be working on a 1-page summary of this document, along with EHS staff.  I will post that summary tomorrow and will share our plan here in Fern Ridge, which is aligned with the requirements of this document.

9TH-11TH GRADE GUIDANCE:  ODE has not released this specific guidance yet.  As soon as they do, we will share this information.

DISTANCE LEARNING: This will begin next week, Monday the 13th.  Teachers and administrators are working hard to roll this out.  Having said that, now that we know we will be using this model through the end of the school  year, we will be starting slow.  It will look different at the various grade levels. We will get better at this with each passing day.  Our staff is committed to serving our families and students for the next eight weeks or so with this model.  We also understand that not only is this a challenge and heavy lift for our staff, but it is a heavy lift for our parents and families as well.  We will work alongside our students and families in the days and weeks to come to meet your needs.

Gary E. Carpenter, Jr. Superintendent, FRSD 28J

As we begin to get our Distance Learning for All plan off the ground we understand that you may need access to books, supplies and other learning materials.  Elmira High School will be allowing access to the building by student last names beginning tomorrow and Thursday using the following schedule:

A-C   9:00-9:20

D-F   9:20-9:40

G-K   9:40-10:00

L-M   10:00-10:20

N-P   10:20-10:40

Q-S   10:40-11:00

T-V   11:00-11:20

W-Z   11:20-11:40

Please do your best to abide by the last names listed as we are charged with maintaining social distancing guidelines when students are present and we may have to limit access during these windows if we have a large  number of students come to get books and supplies.

If for some reason you cannot make it during these times on Wednesday and Thursday please call the school and we can work to arrange another time.

Beginning last evening EHS staff members are calling for an assessment of your home technology access and needs.  We will use this information to determine how best to serve our students during this challenging time.  We are still looking for more detailed guidance from the Oregon Department of Education around how to award credit, assess work, and award grades.  As soon as we know those plans we will be communicating that to families.  We will be sending more detailed information about our distance learning plan, access to the building to get books and supplies, and the plan for 12th grade later this week.  Thank you to everyone for your patience as we navigate this challenging situation.

Rick Gardner – EHS Principal

DISTANCE LEARNING: FRSD Students and Families,  in accordance with the Governor’s order on Monday night, the district is diving deep into looking at moving from supplemental learning opportunities, to distance learning.  Our goal is to have the framework of this in place and ready to go by Monday, April 13th.  Until then, please continue to utilize the supplemental resources.  For the families of our Seniors, I continue to wait on guidance from ODE on this.  They continue to say it is on the way, and it continues to get delayed.  As soon as this information is released, we will pass along to our families, along with what the recommendations will look like in Fern Ridge.

MEAL SERVICE:  Today was our first attempt at expanding meal service with 13 different bus routes (2-3 stops per route).  Despite some minor logistical issues we will refine tomorrow, it was a tremendous success.  We were able to serve 886 meals.  Last week in Fern Ridge, we served just under 3000 breakfasts and lunches combined. Thank you to our staff that handed out meals at the service locations, as well as all of the drivers.  For more details on this service, where the buses will stop (and times), please visit the meal section of the  COVID-19 CLOSURE PAGE at this link: (click here).

We have had to make adjustments to our new meal delivery plan, set to begin tomorrow, Wednesday April 1st.  As we began to problem solve the issue of having buses stop and hold up traffic at different locations, combined with maintaining social distancing with staff on the bus, and folks coming to pick up meals, there have been several challenges.

Here is our current plan, I probably sound like a broken record, but this plan will undoubtedly change and evolve in the days to come:

1.  The VES “drive-through” location will continue to operate.
2. We have 13 routes occurring, however there are only a couple stops on each route.  They are at locations where the bus can stop safely, and turn the engine off.
   1. At these sites the meals will be served out of the back of the bus.
   2. The drivers will place cones on the ground at the back of the bus to maintain social distancing when we have large groups at a stop.
   3. We hope that the vast majority of folks will be able to either make it to VES, or one of these stops.
   4. The stops/routes are listed here.
3. If you CANNOT make it to one of these locations, and would like meals delivered to your house, and left on the front porch, we will do our best to accommodate this.  We will be using our activity bus to deliver to individual locations.  To get us this information, to request a drop off at a house, please leave a message on the school phone of one of your students front offices.
   1. Phone numbers are:
      1. VES:  541-935-8225
      2. EES:  541-935-8214
      3. EHS:  541-935-8200
      4. FRMS:  541-935-8230
   2. The information you need to leave in the message includes:  Number of kids that need a meal, the address, and a phone number to call you in case there is a problem or we need more information.
   3. To have meals delivered that day, we need these messages left by 8:00 AM.
   4. You only have to leave the message once, and you will be added to the delivery list for every day going forward.  To cancel delivery, call and leave a message with your address and let us know you are cancelling.

Again, the more folks that can make it to one of the MANY stops we have, the better.  However, we understand not everyone has this ability. Thank you for your patience as we make this transition.

I hope everyone is doing well thus far. I know this is a chaotic and stressful time, and hopefully many positives will come from this experience.  I know there are many questions about the fate of the spring athletic season, but as of March 31^st, OSAA has only suspended practices and contests for all spring sports and activities through April 28^th.  I have had word that they will be meeting multiple times prior to April 28^th and will continue to follow guidelines set by the state government and the Oregon Department of Education.  OSAA does provide a link that answers a few common questions and has resources around this at: http://www.osaa.org/coronavirus.  Once we know more, we will reach out to you and your coaches as soon and as effectively as we can.  If the spring season is canceled, we will inform families and enact some form of refund.  If you have more questions, please feel free to contact me at swartenbee@fernridge.k12.or.us and I will answer what I can.  I hope you all stay safe and healthy!

Sarah Wartenbee

EHS Athletic Director

Many of you  received a phone call yesterday to check in.  We are aware that some of you may have been told that seniors have completed their requirements and will not be returning this year.  We want to inform you that nothing has been decided by ODE for seniors at this time.  As soon as we have that information we will be sharing it with you.  We are hopeful to have that guidance by early next week.  We apologize for any confusion and please do not hesitate to contact us here at the high school if you have any questions.

Rick Gardner-Principal, Elmira High School