Lisa Leatham, Principal
Lisa Leatham
FRSD schools will remain open on Wednesday, May 8th.
Dear Fern Ridge families,
Many of you may have heard reports regarding some Lane County School Districts being closed on May 8th. In Fern Ridge, schools will remain open.
The Oregon Education Association has called upon its members to make May 8th a “Day of Action” to advocate for legislative action to significantly invest in K-12 education so that Oregon schools have adequate resources to serve all students. Union’s planned activities include many districts participating in one-day teacher strikes (“walkouts”). In Fern Ridge our teachers and union leadership have elected to participate in this Day of Action in a way that is least disruptive to families and student learning time.
Our teacher union leadership has been transparent and communicating with me the last few weeks regarding their planning, and I recently have been informed that teachers that participate will be “walking out” after students are released on Wednesday, May 8th. This type of action shows their support for the larger “Day of Action”, while being least disruptive to our students and families.
The missed hours of work/professional development time will be unpaid strike time for teachers, or they must take a ½ day of their personal leave. The Fern Ridge School District and I share our teacher’s goal of convincing the Oregon Legislature to make a significant investment in education to provide smaller class sizes, more learning time, increased health and safety services and a well-rounded education. However, the district does not endorse or condone walkouts that disrupt the work day.
I have been informed that during this walkout many of our licensed staff will be at the corner of Territorial Highway and 126 sharing positive signs regarding supporting students and increased K-12 funding to serve all students.
If additional information becomes available, or something changes, we will communicate immediately with our families.
A huge thank you to our wonderful community for helping us celebrate Earth Day at VES! Our own Jessica Alansky coordinated the event, and the Veneta Parks Board went above and beyond this year by bringing in Brad’s World Reptiles with all sorts of reptiles (even an alligator!) for our students to interact with. A special thanks goes out to these organizations for partnering with us to make Earth Day a fun learning experience for our kids:
Veneta Park Board
Veneta Downtown Farmer’s Market
Veneta Garden Club
EPUD
Sanipac
Seneca
UofO Geology Club
Army Corps of Engineers
Brad’s World Reptiles
Amy Humphrey
Javier Gonzalez
VES Kindergarten Information Night for 2019-2020
Thursday, March 14th, from 6:00-7:30 pm
Please join us at Veneta Elementary School on Thursday, March 14th, from 6:00-7:30 pm for our kindergarten information night. We will be discussing how to get your child ready for kindergarten, what to expect once school starts, and what we teach in kindergarten. It will be a fun, fast paced evening of information. Please bring your incoming kindergarten students. We’re excited to partner with you in the bright future of your children! See you on the 14th!
Schedule for the night:
6:00-6:15 Welcome presentation in the VES cafeteria
6:15-6:30 Break into groups for a school tour
6:30-7:15 Experience reading, math, and PE/social skills lessons in the classrooms with our kindergarten teachers (and leave each class with a small gift!)
7:15-7:30 Time for follow up questions in the cafeteria if desired
Feel free to contact Veneta Elementary School at 541-935-8225 for more information.
We can’t wait to meet you!
Veneta Elementary has had an influx of influenza like illnesses this week. An informational letter and flu background sheet went home in backpacks today- please read the information and keep a close watch on your kiddos. If you see any of the listed symptoms, please keep your child home. VES is doing our part to keep our students healthy by doing extra cleaning and sanitizing, and will continue to do so until the outbreak is over. Thanks and stay healthy!
Out of an abundance of caution, we are cancelling the Golden Ticket Dance that is scheduled for this Friday, February 22nd. We have had many students reporting symptoms of an influenza like illness and we’d like to make sure we don’t do anything to further the spread in our school population. PALS will discuss the possible rescheduling of the dance at their next board meeting.
PALS would like to invite you to Wonka’s Golden Ticket Dance on February 22, from 6:00-8:00pm.
There will be family fun for all ages, with a DJ, pizza for sale, and a selfie station.
Tickets will be sold at the door. $2 per person or $5 for a family of four.
Parents and/or Guardians must accompany students.
Over the next month or so, FRSD is collecting data from a wide variety of groups. This is for the “Continuing Improvement Plan” required every three years by Oregon Department of Education. Input from multiple sources and stakeholders is required by the state for the final plan. Emails are going out to Teachers, Instructional Assistants, Administrators, etc…
For the two groups mentioned in the title above, Community Partners, (e.g. Businesses/Elected Officials/Non-Profits, Early Childhood Education/After School Programs, TSP) and Parents, we have links to the surveys here in this post. The “indicators” on your particular survey were chosen from 18 different indicators the state wants Fern Ridge School District to address in our improvement plan and are verbatim from the master list. If you fall into either of these groups, please take a few minutes and answer the questions in these surveys. The direct links are below. Thanks in advance for your participation.
For more information on this project you can view this frequently asked questions page from the Oregon Department of Education: Link to PDF Document
SURVEY FOR PARENTS: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FRSDPARENTSANDFAMILIES
SURVEY FOR COMMUNITY PARTNERS: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FRSDCOMMUNITYPARTNERS