|
It never ceases to amaze me how dedicated the staff is at Fort Osage. Thank you for being such a valuable member of the team and making this a special school district. You are directly impacting the lives of our students and making a life-long impression on them. Enjoy spring break and I look forward to seeing you upon your return.
 Providing quality health insurance for employees continues to be important to Fort Osage. With the cost of health insurance continuing to rise it is important to be familiar with the factors that impact costs. It is important to be engaged in the Go365 program so we have the opportunity to buy down our insurance premiums.
Below is a link to a video that provides a summary of the factors that impact Fort Osage’s health insurance premiums. https://www.brainshark.com/cbizillinois/vu?pi=zGgz5wH6DzNoBiz0 Congratulations to the CEA teachers of the year who were selected from their building. A reception will be held in their honor on Thursday, April 11 from 3:00-5:00 pm at central office.
Blue Hills-Melissa Hall Buckner-Margie Anderson Cler-Mont-Alyx Fenton Elm Grove- Lori Huber Indian Trails- Michelle Brooker Fire Prairie-Paul Dial-Scruggs Osage Trail-Stephanie Nichols High School-Kim Meneses CTC-Ginger McCabe Since we have had 11 snow days, the last day of school will be Thursday, May 30. The change in the last day of school caused summer school dates to change as well. With input from the summer school staff, the district decided to reduce the number of attendance days for summer school from 23 to 21 rather than extending into July. As a result, the times at the High School and Osage Trail have been extended to meet the state requirement that students attend at least 120 clock hours to award credit.
The Board of Education will be asked to approve the summer school dates and times at the April board meeting.
I am pleased to report that the agreement between the Fort Osage School District, Mid- Continent Public Library and Community Services League to provide library services and a food pantry to area families at the old Early Childhood Center on 24 highway is progressing. A remodel of the interior of the building (at no cost to the district) will begin in the next few weeks. The goal is to open the building for services this summer.
 With spring in the air it's time to buy some Royals gear. A $25.00 gift card to Rally House will be given away to one lucky winner utilizing the RNG. For those of you interested, please send an email to jsnodgrass@fortosage.net with ‘Go Royals' in the subject line. Entries will be accepted until 8:00 am on Monday, April 1.
Give Away prizes are not purchased with District funds. Only Fort Osage employees are eligible to enter the drawing. Team Fort Osage met for the first time on February 14. It was a productive meeting with exceptional feedback provided by the committee. After hearing the committee's feedback I will be taking recommendations to the board for the calendar changes and adoption seen in the articles below. In addition to the school calendar, we discussed Fort's health insurance plan and the current budget . The next Team Fort meeting is scheduled for April 11 where we will continue conversations about the January 2020 health insurance renewal, as well as gather feedback regarding possible salary enhancements for next year.
It's been a rough winter. So far we have missed 10 days which has posed a few challenges in the calendar to fit everything in and still be done with school and summer school by late June. Here is the plan:
Make Up Days INCLEMENT WEATHER DAY MAKE-UP DAY Day #1 November 26, 2018 May 20, 2019 Day #2 November 27, 2018 May 21, 2019 Day #3 January 14, 2019 May 22, 2019 Day #4 January 23, 2019 May 23, 2019 Day #5 January 30,2019 May 24, 2019 Day #6 February 7, 2019 May 28, 2019 Day #7 February 8, 2019 April 19, 2019 (early release day) Day #8 February 15, 2019 No makeup required Day # 9 February 20, 2019 May 29, 2019 (early release day) Day #10 February 27, 2019 No make up required According to Department of Elementary and Secondary Education regulations, we are required to make up the first 7 days missed for inclement weather. After the seventh day is missed and beyond (up to the fourteenth day), every other day is forgiven. After fourteen days have been missed, no makeup days are required. Here is the district plan should additional days of school be missed. Snow day #11 would be made up on May 30, 2019 Snow day #12 No makeup required Snow day #13 would be made up on May 31, 2019 Snow day #14 No makeup required Pending board approval, Summer School will be held from Thursday, May 30 through Friday, June 28th. If we miss any more days of school that will change to be Monday, June 3 through Tuesday, July 2. 2019-20 Calendar: The Board adopted this calendar in the spring of 2018. We have since learned that Tuesday, February 4, 2020 is the presidential primary date and polls at three of our schools are expected to be busy that day. As a result we are asking the Board to make February 4, 2020 a full PD day and to transition the previous PD day on Jan. 6 to a teacher work day. This change will reduce the number of student attendance days from 173 to 172. This change is possible because the statute around required attendance days changes for the 2019-2020 school year to require districts to have 1,044 hours instead of a minimum number of days.
2020-21 Calendar: At their March meeting, the Board will review and vote on a calendar for the 2020-21 school year which includes 170 student attendance days and the same number of teacher work days as in previous years. This calendar ‘exchanges’ the four early release PD days in the current calendar for two additional full PD days. We believe this will lead to more productive PD time and also eliminate the challenges that accompany early release days, including issues with student attendance, parents finding childcare, and a shortened instructional day. The only remaining early release days with this calendar are the last day before Winter Break and the last day of school. Again, while there will be fewer student attendance days, we will meet state requirements by having at least 1,044 student attendance hours. Health screenings will begin in the buildings on March 11th. By participating you not only receive valuable information about your own health you also earn points toward your Go365 goals.
March 11th - Indian Trails - 8:00 AM-1:30 PM March 12th - Elm Grove/Woodland - 8:00 AM -12:00 PM March 13th - Buckner - 8:00 AM-1:00 PM March 14th - Blue Hills - 8:00 AM- 1:00 PM March 15th - Cler-Mont - 8:00 AM -1:00 PM March 18th - CTC - 7:00 AM- 11:30 AM March 19th - OTMS - 7:00 AM - 11:30 AM March 20th - Fire Prairie - 8:00 AM-12:30 PM March 21st - FOHS - 7:00 AM - 12:00 PM Instructions for Signing Up 1. Go to https://www.ehealthscreenings.com/signup 2. Within the red "Not yet registered?" box in the middle of the screen, click the Register now link. 3. Enter the Screening Key: HMV1456 and click on Register. 4. Verify your account with the username & password below: USERNAME:First Initial + Last Initial + DOB (MMDDYYYY) (example: John Smith born 4/23/1975 is JS04231975) PASSWORD:Last Name + last 4 SSN (example: John Smith social 123456789 is Smith6789) 5. In the Update Account section, enter a new Username and Password, verify your account information and click Register. 6. Use the drop-down list next to your screening event to choose your desired time and click Register. 7. Accept the Health Screening Consent and HIPAA Authorization forms by checking the “I agree” box located at the bottom of each consent. In the Signature section below the consents,enter our first & last name and date, then click Proceed to Confirmation. |
RSS Feed
