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HJS Summer Update #3

Posted on: July 24, 2020
Update

Many moving pieces remain as we continue working to open up the school building for the 2020-2021 school year.  We want to share some updates that are important for our students and our families.

Our buildings remain open to assist and help any of our families.  Based on the information from Governor DeWine’s office, anyone over the age of 10 entering Harrison Junior School will be required to wear a mask.  We are happy to work with our families, but this is an important public safety measure for our front office staff, our community, and our students!  Thank you for working with us on this process.  We want our kids back in school, and wearing a mask in public will help us get them in school as soon as possible.  Remember, if you need any information regarding our re-entry plan it is available at www.southwestschools.org.  Please know that we are working on specific day-to-day protocols for the start of our school year, and note that changes may happen as we are directed from local and state agencies. 

Thank you to all of our families who completed their Final Forms.  Over the course of this week, we are contacting families directly who have not yet responded to get our final numbers of students choosing to go online or face-to-face.  Once we have completed this task, our leadership teams, guidance office and teachers will be working to modify and update our Master Schedule to reallocate our resources to support the needs of our community.  Currently, roughly 20% of our students have chosen the online option, while 80% plan to continue face-to-face.  As a result, we will be making schedule modifications to support the needs of our students.  What this means for our students is that many of the schedules they received in the Spring will change.  Our goal is to have students still take the same classes, however it may be with a different teacher or in a different order.  This is a major undertaking.  We will update families as soon as we complete this process.

For our families in need, our Food Pantry remains open.  It is located within Harrison Junior School.  If you have this need, please stop into our front office and we will walk our families back and help.

For our student-athletes, we continue to follow the guidelines provide by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.  They have presented a sport-by-sport plan for athletics to occur.  The official start date for practices remains August 1st.  Please email your child’s coaches or athletic director with specific questions you may have.

Many are beginning to ask about computer distribution.  Our tech team and District leadership are working to set up a plan for both our students going online as well as face-to-face.  We will share this plan in the coming weeks.

Even with all the changes caused by COVID-19, there are still amazing things happening on campus.  This summer, we had four students complete their high school coursework and will be graduating.  The new school facilities remain on time and on budget, and the new athletic fields remain scheduled to be completed by the start of the school year.  Remember, our athletic upgrades were completed by our Athletic Boosters and NO TAX DOLLARS were used. 

Many of our students have shared incredible stories from their summer and reconnecting with their families.  We can’t wait to see them in September.

In Education,
Christian Tracy
Principal HJS