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:
- The VES “drive-through” location will continue to operate.
- 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.
- At these sites the meals will be served out of the back of the bus.
- 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.
- We hope that the vast majority of folks will be able to either make it to VES, or one of these stops.
- The stops/routes are listed here.
- 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.
- Phone numbers are:
- VES: 541-935-8225
- EES: 541-935-8214
- EHS: 541-935-8200
- FRMS: 541-935-8230
- 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.
- To have meals delivered that day, we need these messages left by 8:00 AM.
- 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.
- Phone numbers are:
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.
Late last night school districts received notification from ODE, directing us to shift from delivering supplemental materials, to one of distance learning for all. This is going to take some time for our team to unwrap all of the challenges around this and get a plan in place.
For now, our supplemental materials will stay up on the COVID-19 CLOSURE page. In the coming days I would anticipate families will receive another phone call/survey so we can assess the technology resources our families have available to them, including devices, internet connectivity, and cell service. Plans will be made for families that have none of these things, to ensure all students have an opportunity to continue their education.
We will continue to work through this ever evolving landscape. We ask for your patience and flexibility during this transition.
Gary E. Carpenter, Jr. Superintendent, FRSD 28J
Families and Students:
Over the past few days the district staff have made significant progress. In the main menu above, you should now see a tab that says “COVID-19 CLOSURE.” This page will contain information and links on most topics around school closures going forward, including all supplemental learning resources. We will update these supplemental learning resources each Wednesday. The first update from the initial information available now, will be April 8th. The only thing not currently included in these links are “printable packets.” We hope to have those available by Wednesday, April 1st.
As I mentioned in the last update, all families should expect a call tomorrow or Tuesday. If you do not receive a call by the end of the day Tuesday, please contact your respective school between the hours of 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM beginning Wednesday, April 1st. If you have multiple students in the District, you will probably receive multiple calls.
Thanks for your continued patience as we navigate this new way of doing things.
THERE WILL BE A CHANGE IN MEAL SERVICE BEGINNING WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1ST.
Beginning April 1st, below describes what the breakfast and lunch meal service will look like throughout our District.
- The site at VES will continue to operate, drive through only, 11:00-12:30. Students do NOT need to be present, you receive a sack lunch and breakfast for each students/child ages 0-18.
- The other 3 drop sites that have been operating will cease.
- 13 Different bus routes will continue around our community. The times for each stop location are our best guesses at this point, so be flexible. As we get a sense of the usage of each route, we will refine our times and continue to update them. The 13 routes can be found by clicking here. The first stops begin at 11:00 AM.
We encourage everyone to use this resource. The buses will have a driver, and a District staff member on each bus. Please assist them when receiving your meals in regards to maintaining social distancing practices. Thank you!
Families, please share the information below regarding information that will be coming out over the next few days on a wide range of topics related to our closure. Thanks for your patience as we navigate these challenges.
- MEAL SERVICE: Meal service continues tomorrow and Monday at our 4 locations that we have previously shared. We are looking into possibly increasing this late next week and could implement bringing lunches around on school bus routes, stopping at respective bus stops. We will keep you posted if we get this place, and share the information immediately. The only change in regards to serving meals that we have recently received from ODE and our Federal Partners is that we no longer have to physically see the children. Parents can pick up meals for their children without them being physically present.
- SUPPLEMENTAL LEARNING: This weekend, I will be publishing a new page on our website that will share a wide range of topics related to school closure issues. One of them will be supplemental learning resources for all grades K-12 in most subject areas.
- PHONE CALL: Expect a phone call from your child’s homeroom teacher (or some other staff member) on Monday. In this call, we will be touching base, answering any questions that we can, and most importantly, asking if you can access the online resources we have posted. If not, would you like resources mailed home once a week. Please understand these are simply resources to keep your student(s) engaged and make things easier for parents. They are not required, they will not be graded, and they will not be turned in (although students can certainly share with their teachers some of the things they did during this closure when they return).
- 12TH GRADERS: State leaders are prioritizing creating a pathway to graduation for High School seniors. As soon as that information is released from ODE, we will share it and begin to have one on one phone calls with our senior students and families to discuss their path.
Finally, in speaking with several teachers today, they are eager to find new ways to support and engage with their students in the days and weeks to come. We will be publishing an updated list of contact information for all our staff. All teachers will begin maintaining virtual/remote “office hours” from 10 AM – 2 PM daily where they will be available to communicate via email or phone with students and parents.
Gary Carpenter, Superintendent, FRSD 28J
Families, I wanted to share a quick post to folks regarding a few topics. Please don’t take the lack of recent updates to mean not much is happening in the district. Key staff are working long hours to prepare to roll out information to our seniors (within the next 24-48 hours) and supplemental learning (over the weekend).
On Monday, every student/family should get a phone call from a staff member. In addition, there will be new info regarding possibly expanding meal service.
All of the district partners, and there are many, have been problem solving and working on plans that we will be able to share in the coming days. Thank you for your patience, we will meet these challenges together!
New for next week, the district will have FOUR sites where meals can be picked up. To be able to do this, we had to work to get ODE approval, and jump through a few hoops. A big thanks to our Chartwells staff for their assistance, as well as First Student who will be helping with bus drivers. All sites will continue to operate from 11:00-12:30 M-F.
The four sites are.
- Veneta Elementary: Site will continue to operate as it has been.
- The Noti store parking lot: A school bus will be at this location with meals from 11:00-12:30
- The church parking lot at 25391 Jeans Road: A school bus will be at this location with meals from 11:00-12:30
- The Farm Store Parking lot at 87774 Territorial Hwy. A School bus will be at this location with meals from 11:00-12:30
School offices will be open this afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00 today for parents or students who need to come pick up a personal item from a classroom or locker.
Feel free to email your building administrator if you need to make other arrangements to pick up an item. Please do not come to the school if you are not feeling well or have any symptoms of an illness.
Lisa Leatham – Veneta Elementary – lleatham@fernridge.k12.or.us
Michelle Marshall – Elmira Elementary – mmarshall@fernridge.k12.or.us
Olivia Johnson – Fern Ridge Middle School – ojohnson@fernridge.k12.or.us
Rick Gardner – Elmira High School – rgardner@fernridge.k12.or.us
As many of you are aware, the Governor gave an executive order on March 16th, closing schools through April 28th. One of the elements of that order charges schools to deliver “supplemental education and learning supports to students to the extent practical through independent study and other appropriate options.”
Over the next week I will be problem solving what that looks like for Fern Ridge, along with other district leaders. Many of our staff will be coming back to work on Monday, March 30th to finalize what these plans look like and have them ready to execute by April 1st. I expect they will look very different from K-8 vs. High School. Districts are currently waiting on ODE guidance, we expect early next week, around high school students– especially 12th graders.
In the mean time, for those of you that are interested, in the coming days a page on our website will go live that addresses other “on-line resources” for families for whom this is an option. When it is ready, we will announce that through the website, social media and phone dialer. We understand that this isn’t an option for every family/home based on internet connectivity and/or actual devices. Our plan that will come out prior to April 1st will address various options.
Earlier we had a site posted here for parents to try. Upon further inspection it wanted to charge families after a 30 day trial period.
Gary E. Carpenter, Jr. Superintendent, FRSD 28J