News Details
Principal's Message: 11/07/22
Dear OHS Families,
This week is a short one with no school on Tuesday, 11/8, for Election Day followed by Friday, 11/11, for Veterans Day. After a busy week starting with Halloween, hopefully this coming week will allow all of us to catch our breath.
Kindness Ninja Follow Up and Challenge
We had Brian Williams in for a Kindness Ninja presentation to all students this past Wednesday, thanks to the PTA. Special thanks to Dana Figa and Kate Fierman for organizing the presentation. Brian left us with a challenge for our school: to reach 5000 acts of kindness within the next 15 school days. The students started right up with the acts of kindness and I received several kind notes from students on the day of the presentation itself. I look forward to following up with updates for you as the month proceeds. CLICK HERE to see the video from our students to all of you sparking the challenge.
New Superintendent Meet and Greet – 11/17
Our new superintendent, Mike Testani, is able to come to our next PTA meeting on Thursday, November 17th at 9:15 am. He would like a chance to introduce himself to our community and all of you. The Meet and Greet will be followed by our regularly scheduled PTA meeting.
Gr 3-5 Reminder to Charge Chromebooks at Home
We are having a number of third, fourth, and fifth grade students forgetting to charge their Chromebooks at night and then not being ready to participate in using them at school. This is especially challenging when the Chromebooks are needed for testing. If families of grade 3, 4, and 5 students could please help remind students to charge at night, it would help cause less issues and hang ups during the day.
Chronic Absenteeism
One of the goals of the district this year is to lower the absenteeism of students in the district. Chronic Absenteeism is defined as missing more than 10% of the total number of days of school to date. Last Wednesday, we pulled the names of students currently with a number of absences to constitute chronic absenteeism. This was the 43rd day of school, so students with 5 or more absences would fit the definition of 10% or more of the year. As of last Wednesday, we had 44 students reach this definition, about exactly 10% of our students. Our goal is to have 5% or less of students be chronically absent by the end of the year.
Of course it is important to keep students home when sick but please do your best to limit the number of days students are kept home for avoidable reasons. If you are having trouble with your child not wanting to come to school, please let me know so we can support you.
For those currently at the chronically absent level, families will be receiving letters. Please know that this is a changing list. As we move through more days of the school year, many of the students currently on the list will go below the 10% threshold and no longer meet the definition. Please reach out with any questions or needs.
Veterans Day
I want to extend a warm thank you to veterans in our community and in your families. This is a special week to appreciate those who bravely risked their lives and gave of their precious time in support of protecting our country. How fitting that election day should be the same week, as it is one of our country’s rights that is so important to defend.
Please be sure to vote on Tuesday!
David