Congratulations to Cherri Creach, the Fern Ridge School District Employee of the Month for October 2020! She has worked in our district helping students since 1995 and just received her 25 year service pin!
Cherri is an incredible asset to Veneta Elementary and the Fern Ridge School District. She serves as the building union representative for VES and serves on the VES scheduling committee. This summer, Cherri was part of the district re-entry committee that met during July and August to make decisions regarding the best course of action for re-opening schools to our students. She is often sought after to be a part of interview panels, as her expertise and judgement are highly valued.
Cherri has four adult children that she’s immensely proud of: Clay, Jessa, Jeannie, and Drew. All four of the Core siblings went through FRSD schools. Cherri and her husband, Brian, also have many grandkids. Cherri loves being their cherished “Gigi” and spending as much time with them as possible. She also likes to garden and will do just about anything for you if you offer to buy her a coffee!
Cherri tells us that she loves working with students in small groups. Her co-workers describe her as caring, firm, and animated with kids. She is everyone’s “Gigi” here at school! Congratulations Cherri!
For the remainder of this week, the EHS pick-up site in the North (back) lot continues to be available from 11:00-12:30.
Beginning Monday, the district will be adding four additional pick-up sites throughout the community, in addition to the 11:00-12:30 EHS site. Also, the EHS site will begin to serve HOT meals as well (cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, etc..).
The additional community sites will be serving cold sack lunches for 30 minutes each day, from 12:00-12:30. The meals will be picked up and delivered to these locations by our bus/transportation staff. The four sites are:
- Noti Market Parking Lot
- DS Mart/Farm Store Parking Lot
- Fern Ridge Child Development Center parking lot, located at 25391 Jeans Rd.
- 5th & Woodland Ave. in Veneta (UPDATED)
All you need to do is show up at one of these locations between 12:00 and 12:30 beginning Monday, give a last name, and you will receive both a breakfast and lunch sack lunch for any child 0-18. A REMINDER THAT ALL MEALS ARE FREE.
This Thursday at 5:30, the District will hold a zoom meeting for our K-3 parents to share where we plan to go from here and how we plan to expand. In addition, it will an opportunity for parents to ask questions and provide feedback.
To attend the meeting, please use the information below:
Gary Carpenter is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: K-3 Instruction
Time: Oct 1, 2020 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://fernridge-k12-or-us.zoom.us/j/86919668977?pwd=SGxwQ2habS9oc3FvdnBKTHFOSndBUT09
Meeting ID: 869 1966 8977
Passcode: 520552
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Meeting ID: 869 1966 8977
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Another small group of students were able to come to school today at Veneta and Elmira Elementary! Teachers welcomed this group of K – 3rd Grade students from 8:00 – 10:00 this morning.
We are excited to have some of our youngest students back in class. Looking forward to seeing these students again next week!
When we get questions during our weekly Q and A that I do not have the answer to, I get the answer, and post it here. In yesterday’s Q and A, a question was posed that was something to the effect of “How does the County calculate the case rate/100,000 metric that is used to guide schools, currently at 30.6”. I asked that question to Lane County Public Health, and below is their response. I hope it is helpful.
"You're correct - it's the number of new cases per day for the week, divided by the population (~378k I believe), and then multiplied by 100k. It's important to note that the numbers are based on the date of symptom onset, not when LCPH receives the test result, which is why the numbers can sometimes shift throughout the week. The metric is based on all new cases/positive tests, so the "infectious" or contagious number you might hear about is calculated differently and doesn't impact OHA/LCPH's school metrics."
Today, half of our Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students were finally able to come to school. Students had two hours of instruction at Veneta and Elmira Elementary. Our second group of K-3 students will be in for two hours tomorrow morning. Our teachers loved having some of their students back in the classroom and had a few fun projects planned:
Kindergarten students started practicing names. 
Rylin is in 2nd Grade, she wrote a recipe and made Jitter Juice.
Blake, a 3rd Grader, got to start his meal worm project.
He named his worm Flash!
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!
Bus routes and times are currently being updated and will be linked on THIS post, at the bottom, as soon as they are ready! In addition, classroom teachers will be calling “bus-riders” to confirm their pick-up time later today. If you have any questions, once the routes are posted, please call the school.
Speaking of buses being on the road. Tomorrow is the first school day in quite awhile that our youngest students will be moving around the community, early in the morning, coming to school. All of our buses will be out as well.
Tonight at 5:30 we held a virtual meeting for our K-3 Parents to inform them of our work today, and our plans going forward. Thank you to the families that were able to participate in this informational opportunity. We can feel the frustration that families students and staff are experiencing. Our goal is to move towards a model that allows our youngest students to have in-person instruction as much as possible given the new county metrics and ODE guidelines.
You may be aware that the exception we were hoping to open under is no longer an option due to the 30.6 per 100,000 case rate in Lane County. However, we ARE able to reopen for Limited in Person Instruction (LIPI) if we can meet very specific guidelines. This includes no more than 10 students per cohort and students can be in no more than 2 cohorts including transportation. The transportation piece is one of the most complex issues of our plan moving forward. For any family that can transport their student, or carpool with another, please know THIS IS A TREMENDOUS HELP!
While the parameters are restrictive, we feel that it is critical to offer in person instruction for our youngest learners. Our teachers, instructional assistants and administrators are committed to this. We are working with parents, teachers and transportation to ensure that this is possible. Below is our plan:
- Beginning Thursday, September 24th, and continuing through Friday, October 9th:
- Students will start on their A / B Day.
- A Days = Tues/Thur & B Days = Wed/Fri
- Students will be on site from 8:00-10:00 AM
- 2 hours for LIPI
- The 2 hours will focus primarily on Math and Reading
- On days that students are in school:
- Teachers will spend some time introducing instructing on other subjects (Social Studies, Science, Art, PE, etc.) that students will work on when they go home in the afternoon.
- On days that students are NOT in school:
- Students will bring home Applied Learning Packets for their off-days (will not exceed 2 hours, and be appropriate to each grade level-will focus on Math and Reading)
- Teachers will have a system for daily communication
- On days that students are in school:
- The 2 hours will focus primarily on Math and Reading
- 2 hours for LIPI
- Students will start on their A / B Day.
- TRANSPORTATION: New pickup and drop off times will be communicated with families by tomorrow afternoon.
Over the next 2 1/2 weeks we will be looking into 3 different options of expansion, they are:
- Continuing with how we are going.
- Adding CDL in the afternoons and checking out chromebooks to our K-3 students for PM instruction with their teachers
- Going to an AM/PM model that would have A day kids attending EVERY day from 8-10, and B Day kids attending every day from 12:30-2:30
Where we fall will depend on the following factors:
- How well our model is working
- County health/metric data
- Information and availability of another 200-300 chromebooks
- Family feedback and input!
All the staff are excited to see our K-3 students beginning this Thursday.
Meals are still available, and students will have an opportunity to eat breakfast when they arrive, and be sent home with a lunch if they would like one!
We will have another K-3 check-in virtual meeting, next Thursday at 5:30.
Thank you so much for your continued flexibility as we all navigate these challenges! It is appreciated very much.
- Chromebook checkout for students continues today. We will be set up at the District office, and operating 1-4. If those times do not work for your family, please contact your building principal to help coordinate.
- Meals DO START TODAY. Meals are served out of the High School Cafeteria (North lot). You do not need to get out of your car, just circle the parking lot loop in a counterclockwise direction, stop at the cafeteria, and you will be helped. Meals are free for all students 0-18. All you have to do is provide your last name.
- Limited In-Person Instruction students (grades 4-8) that were scheduled to attend today from 9 AM-11AM IS CONTINUING! The OPTIONS program activities still begin today, and 4th-12th grade students that were to begin CDL today are STILL doing so!
- The rise in COVID cases in Lane County (released late yesterday), combined with the fact that we had not yet started in-person instruction, prevented us from starting school today and the staff is crushed at these turn of events! We are already working on a plan to get our K-3 students in school this week! We will share information during a 5:30 ZOOM parent meeting tonight. We need some time to confirm our plan follows ODE guidelines, and can work with our facilities, food service and transportation If you cannot make that meeting, we will post all of the information immediately following. Stay Tuned! The login information for the meeting is below.
Gary Carpenter is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Parent Meeting for K-3 In-person instruction Options
Time: Sep 22, 2020 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://fernridge-k12-or-us.zoom.us/j/95408108332?pwd=WXgvTHVGb0NvTms4MUh5ZnA4V2Zadz09
Meeting ID: 954 0810 8332
Passcode: 587979
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+16699009128,,95408108332# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,95408108332# US (Tacoma)
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
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+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
Meeting ID: 954 0810 8332
Find your local number: https://fernridge-k12-or-us.zoom.us/u/aEJTsBtr6