Thursday, November 20, 2014

SCHOOL ZONE 11-20-14



AMERICAN EDUCATION WEEK
This week the Vermilion Board of Education recognized American Education Week.  Throughout the week millions of educators, parents, students and community leaders joined the National Education Association in raising awareness about the critical need to provide every child with a quality public education.  This year’s theme is “Great Public Schools:  A Basic Right and Our Responsibility”.  In the past few years we have seen an assault on funding for public schools, as federal and state legislators seek to move more and more tax dollars to privately owned charter schools.  These schools are not always held to the same academic or fiscal standard as public schools.  The Ohio Education Association supports a new website, http://knowyourcharter.com/  to help residents of Ohio better understand how publicly-funded charter schools are faring and how they compare to traditional public schools.  I encourage you to review these statistics. 

EMERGENCY CLOSING PROCEDURES
Our official first snowfall of the season came much sooner than expected this year, but our crews are prepared and working hard to make sure driveways, parking lots and sidewalks are safe for students and visitors.  I frequently get questioned about how we make the decision whether to close our schools during a weather event or other emergency.   In general, parents should know that closing school is a serious matter.  As you might expect, each situation is different, and usually involves a team of trained individuals who work together to determine the best course of action on that specific day.  School will not always be closed due to low temperatures, or a light snowfall.   During weather events we look at weather forecasts, travel the streets to evaluate road conditions and communicate with City officials and the police department in an effort to determine whether school should remain open.  We do our best to make the decision as early as possible so that staff and students can be notified before they begin traveling.   

COMMUNICATION FOR SCHOOL CLOSING
If a decision is made to close school for weather related or other emergencies, we have many ways to notify our staff, parents and students.  The announcement feature in Power School will be activated so that our parents and staff receive a phone call, email and/or text announcement with closing information.  Parents should take a few minutes to review the settings in your PowerSchool account to make sure you will receive these messages.  Please check your phone number and email address to be sure the information is correct. 

There are many other ways that we communicate with parents and the community about school closings:

Use of social media outlets by our parents and community has grown tremendously over the past few years, and we find these are some of the best ways we can get information out quickly.

WINTER SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT SEASON BEGINS
We invite you to join us for the many athletic and musical events that are scheduled for the winter season.  Basketball, wrestling and bowling seasons will all begin within a few weeks, and we hope that you get the opportunity to see our athletes in action.  December is also a great time to see some wonderful holiday concerts without having to leave Vermilion.  Our students are always grateful to see a large crowd, as it helps them know that their community supports what they are doing.  We are proud to invite you into our schools to see what our students are achieving.  Visit our district website for a complete list of school events.