Akron School District No. R-1

Virtual Spirit Week

Akron Ram Students and Families, This is a friendly reminder that tomorrow, Thursday, March 26, we have scheduled a school curb-side pick-up for student materials. Please find the schedule is at the bottom of this message. We ask that you REMAIN IN YOUR VEHICLE for the pick-up. If you are unable to pick items up tomorrow, feel free to call the school to schedule a time to have materials delivered to the curbside at a different time. As the Akron teachers send materials home tomorrow, we want to be clear about our intentions during this time. Please know that our primary concern during this time, is the wellbeing of every one of our students. We are educators and of course we want to support our students academically as well. First, though, we are focusing on connecting with our students and supporting their ability to connect with us virtually. Our relationships with our kids is priority right now. We want you to know that: • We understand that there are families who wish for lots of support and school work for their students, while others are not able to help their students with academic work at this time. We are trying to be both ends of this spectrum for you. • We understand that every family has its own situation and that not everyone is easily able to access the internet or have devices for their children to utilize. • We are simply sending home SUGGESTED schedules and GUIDELINES for homework. No one, here at school, is expecting all of the work to be completed by a certain deadline and we are not asking for completed assignments to be turned in right now. • It is not our intention to add stress to any household. The level of work we provide you is designed to MAINTAIN skills, not learn new concepts. Please do not feel obligated to be a home-school parent. • We are here for you all and doing our best to help your family during this time. • We want to support every student with whatever their needs are and know that virtual connections are a tremendous challenge for our teachers. Many teachers also have their own children at home while they are trying to work. Please be patient, every teacher is working hard to balance all their professional and personal tasks. • We are sending home textbooks, Chromebooks and other materials that are property of the school. Please take care of these materials and know that we will expect them to be returned to the school. • We STRONGLY URGE our students to follow the social distancing guidelines. We want the health threat to end and believe that in following the CDC and medical professional’s guidelines, we can slow down the spread. We are moving forward in the following phases through April 17, 2020: Phase 1 (Week of March 23) - Staff connecting/planning/training, materials sent home to students and connecting virtually with our students. Meals provided. Communication from school to home daily. Phase 2 (Week of March 30) – Goal: Connect with 100% of our students virtually. This is our “Virtual Spirit Week” as well. Some suggested learning can be discussed/shared and additional meals and materials provided to students. 6-12 grade teachers attempt to hold “Virtual Office Hours” as a support to students. (Given connections are functional.) Frequent communication from school to home. *CURB-SIDE MEAL PICK-UP WILL CHANGE TIME TO 11 A.M. – 12 P.M.(NOON) Phase 3 (Week of April 6) – Goal: Continued meals support. Continued connections to students. Elementary and Secondary hold “Virtual Office Hours” to provide online support to students. (Given connections are functional.) We want our students to know that we are missing them and working hard this week to support them during their time away from school. Love, Your School Family

Reminder: If you signed up for breakfast and lunch for your student, meal distribution will take place today and Thursday from 3:30 - 4:30 PM. If your student is not signed up but they want the meals please stop by during that time, we made some additional just in case.

Akron parents and families the technology survey is back up. Please fill the survey out and submit. The survey has questions that will help us an get an idea for implementation of our online platforms. https://forms.gle/VJ3v8ZguQ5ighXLJA

Akron Parents and Families the technology survey crashed. Sorry about the inconvenience. The technology department is quickly fixing the problem and you should be able to resend your information when the problem is corrected. There will be a new link. Thanks for your patience.

Parents and Families we have a survey about technology needs for implementation of some of our online platforms. Could you please fill it and send it back as we can get a count of needs. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xJ4lA6yGPI0wig6tPcnPjnxmz0bxnNGIihLrxP8CUYY/edit?usp=sharing

Parents and Families, We have had some requests on getting athletic locker items, band instrument, etc. Staff is meeting today to get a schedule set for next week to pick these items up. Items that can't wait until next week, please contact individual staff and Mr Randel.

Student and Parent Information

Message to Students and Families

Student In-Person Learning Suspended

As we go into Spring Break the Akron School will continue to monitor the Coronavirus. We are following preventative guidelines and our custodial staff is taking extra measures to sanitize. Please see further communication through an email message that was sent to parents.

Our 2nd graders read weekly to the preschoolers. (We are proud of them modeling fluency and voice fluctuations to our youngest students.)

The senior class attended a Mock Interview at NJC Wednesday. Thanks to Mrs. Houston and Lauren Montoya from the COSI grant for preparing these students to shine!!

Kindergarten readers!!

Our second graders can identify parallel lines, angles, sides and are working to be able to define right angles!

The Akron HS boys and girls basketball teams both fell short of gaining wins in the first round of their league tournaments. Congratulations to players and coaches for their efforts this season.

The Akron Junior High Wrestlers were in action on Monday at the LPAA Tournament in Holyoke. The wrestlers did a great job representing the Rams! Finishing Third: Caleb Poss Tucker Stahn Finishing Second: Xandor Bethel Merek Charney Finishing First: Brandon Lambert

The Akron Ram wrestlers performed well today. Xavier Livesay won all three matches today and his final match by pin to place 3rd. Gavin Brown started with a loss then won by fall to place 5th. Great job wrestlers and coaches!

The Akron School Library is hosting an online book fair with titles for all ages. You are able to order February 19th to March 4th. Visit https://efairs.follettbookfairs.com/guest/home?classCode=ZL42W to browse the selection.

Outstanding Teacher Award Congratulations to Mrs. Heather Weis for being selected as the 2020 Akron Outstanding Teacher. Each year a donation is given from an anonymous donor to recognize a teacher in the Akron School. The hope is to recognize the great work of teachers and the impact they make in students lives on a daily basis. The Akron School District is blessed to have a wonderful team of teachers and staff members who are deserving of recognition. Thank you to the anonymous donors and our parents and community for your wonderful support of our school. We are better together!