May 22, 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians:

I hope this message finds you and your families well.

We are in the home stretch of the 2019-2020 school year. I want to reiterate how proud I am of the work teachers, staff, students, parents/guardians, and the community have done during this period of online learning. It has not always been easy and has come with much sacrifice, but I truly appreciate the patience and collaboration that has been demonstrated over the last two months.

Please continue to stay safe and healthy and enjoy the long weekend.

Here are today’s updates.

Online Learning

• Online learning will resume on Tuesday, May 26. There will be no online learning or assignments on Monday, May 25, in observance of the Memorial Day holiday.
• Next week will be the final week of new instruction. The last week of school (June 1-4) will be used for the completion of instruction, online meetings with students to provide additional academic support, completion of assignments, and to allow teachers a chance to plan fun virtual activities for their classes.
• For grades K-5, assignments will continue to be posted to each teacher’s Google Classroom. This is noted on the Goldwood Primary School and Kensington Intermediate School websites.
• For grades 6-12, each teacher’s assignments will continue to appear in the location where they normally post. A master list of these locations can be found on the Rocky River Middle School and Rocky River High School websites.
• Please make sure students are checking each teacher’s locations daily for assignments.
•  If you have questions regarding assignments, please reach out to your child’s teacher.

Lunches for the Week of May 26-29

• The Nutrition Services team will offer boxed lunches for students in grades K-12 next week (May 26-29). If you are interested in ordering lunches for your child(ren), please fill out this form. The form will need to be filled out more than once if you are requesting lunches for more than one child.
• All orders must be submitted by 6:00pm on Sunday, May 24.
• Drive through pick-up will be on Tuesday, May 26, between 11:30am-12:30pm at Rocky River Middle School. Please note the pick-up date for next week has been moved to Tuesday due to the Memorial Day holiday on Monday.
• As a reminder, parents/guardians may fill out an application for free or reduced lunch (RRHS/RRMS) and free milk (GPS/KIS) at any time. For immediate processing, please use the secure lunchapp.com web site. Applications will be processed during the extended school closure and the benefits will carry through the end of the year. These benefits will also cover meals we are serving during the extended school closure. If you have any questions about this, please email Nutrition Services Supervisor Tina Wasserbauer ([email protected]).

Materials Drop-off and Pick-Up Schedule

• We will be providing students and families an opportunity to pick up items from their respective schools and also drop off any district-owned materials at the conclusion of the 2019-2020 school year.
• The district administrative team has worked closely with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health on these plans to implement measures and make this process safe and efficient for students, staff, and families.
• To view the complete schedule for drop-off and pick-up at each school, please click here.
• If you have any questions regarding this process, please contact the building principal

Special Education Services

• Special education services for students will continue through the last day of school.
• Online service delivery aligned with each students' identified needs continues and will continue through the last day of school.
• Related services and therapies are also being provided via distance learning.
• If you have questions regarding assignments or workload please contact your child's case manager.

RRHS Spring Recognition and Scholarship Program

• The RRHS Spring Recognition and Scholarship Program is now available online.
• Please click here to view a PDF of the program and the video announcing this year’s award recipients.
• Congratulations to all of this year’s award recipients and thank you to all of this year’s generous scholarship donors.

RRHS Students Receive Recognition at Board Meeting

• Congratulations to the following RRHS students who received Special Recognition with Resolutions at Thursday night’s online Board of Education Meeting for their accomplishments.
• Resolution to Recognize Perfect ACT Score: Joey Weixel
• Resolution to Recognize National Merit Commended Scholars: Melanie Ahmetspahic, Andrea Lasher, Grace Suhadolnik
• Resolution to Recognize National Merit Finalists: Kira Katterle, Kaitlyn Nock, Joshua O’Halla, Morgan Schuld, Jack Sierputowski
• Resolution to Recognize Girl Scout Gold Award Recipient: Samantha Lorenc

Congratulations to Retiring Staff and Teachers

• At Thursday’s online Board of Education Meeting, three support staff employees and seven teachers received Resolutions to recognize their retirements at the end of the 2019-2020 school year.
• Congratulations to support staff employees Mark Barrow, Joan Ellis, and Cheryl Hackenberg, and to teachers Catherine Bitounis, Anne Davis, Susan Forbes, Mark Hogya, Kim Kelly, Christine Schauer, and Susan Weber on your retirements. Thank you for your dedication and service to the Rocky River City School District and best wishes in the next chapter of your lives.

Supervisor of Transportation Services Erin Peacock Receives Award

• Congratulations to Supervisor of Transportation Services Erin Peacock who was named the West Shore Career Tech 2020 Honorary Member of the National Technical Honor Society.

PTA Fundraiser - Performance Activity Masks

• The Rocky River City School District PTA has put together a fundraiser and will be selling Rocky River branded Performance Activity Masks through District Won. The fundraiser will be live through June 7 and benefits each PTA unit as well as the Athletics Department.
• When ordering, a drop-down menu will appear when quantities are ordered, allowing patrons to select which PTA unit they would like to support.
• The PTA unit will receive $2.00, athletics will receive $1.00, and an additional portion of the proceeds will benefit first responders.
• Please click here to visit the site to order online.

District COVID-19 Website

• The district is maintaining a COVID-19 webpage that includes recent communications, information, and resources for parents and families.
• Resources that have been added recently include:
• Tolerating Worry (Presentation by Kayla Salomone, McKeon Education Group)
• Helping Children Cope with Changes from COVID-19 (National Association of School Psychologists)

FAQ’s

• Please click here to visit our FAQ website. If you have a question regarding the extended school closure and COVID-19, please click here to submit it. Here are recent questions we have received.

Is there a possibility of a "private" graduation experience for RRHS seniors?

There are tentative plans to host a “private” graduation ceremony individually for seniors and their immediate families in the RRHS auditorium on June 10, 11, 12. More information on this will be forthcoming soon.

This is in addition to the activities on June 5 to honor and recognize the Class of 2020 with multiple events. From 9:00am until 3:00pm, district administrators will deliver diplomas to homes of families who sign-up for the service. At 5:00pm, the virtual Commencement video will be posted on the district website, and at 7:00pm, the Class of 2020 will take part in a parade around the community. The parade route can be found here.

An in-person Commencement ceremony is scheduled for July 24 at 7:00pm at RRHS Stadium. This event will only take place if the current restrictions regarding large group gatherings and social distancing are removed by Governor DeWine’s office and the Ohio Department of Health.

As always, thank you for your continued support of the Rocky River City School District.

Sincerely,

Dr. Michael G. Shoaf
Superintendent