Covid Update

Our current Covid situation is extremely fluid, and our nurses / administration are doing everything possible to keep students in school and face to face. Thank you again for your trust and support as we make it through another evolving chapter of living and managing our daily school operations during this challenging time.

If your child is quarantined, please have them contact their teachers through Microsoft Teams to gain classroom and assignment information. Teachers will also be made aware of their absence.

If your child is a close contact with someone at school, they will be asked to mask up for ten days but can remain at school. Your child will be notified by us and given a letter from the Hamilton County Health Department.

If you have any additional questions, please contact us or refer to our website at Southwestschools.org/wellness

FOUR IMPORTANT THINGS WE HAVE TO FOCUS ON THIS MONTH:

1. Monitor your student for signs and symptoms of illness or COVID-19. Family health checks are essential and should be done each day BEFORE  attending school. Please do not send a sick child to school.

2. Continue to let the school know if your child is showing symptoms, is awaiting a COVID-19 test result, or has a positive COVID-19 test.

3. Wash your hands frequently.

4. Be kind to others. Nobody wants to still be dealing with this virus.  We fully understand the weight of this issue. We are doing our absolute best to keep kids in school, face to face, and living our mission.

ACT Testing

On Tuesday, March 1st, all of our 11th grade students will report to the high school at the regular start time to take the ACT. They will be able to leave early once their test are complete.

Ohio offers the ACT (American College Test) one time for free. The ACT score is used by colleges as a part of their acceptance process. Students can take the test before and after this, but at a cost to them. This is a great opportunity for all our juniors, even if they are not planning to go to college after high school. This ACT score will be placed on our students’ transcript and can be used at a later date if they choose to apply for college admittance in the future.

If you are an Oaks student, you will need to report to the high school on March 1st by 7:45 a.m. to take the ACT.

If you have any questions about the ACT, feel free to contact Mrs. Connie Acra at 513-367-4169, extension 8432.

9^th ,10^th and 12^th graders will be remote on March 1st. Those students who are remote will have assignments on Microsoft Teams and will not have to check in on Teams Video on March 1st. Teachers will give them instructions for their remote day before March 1^st.

Scheduling for next year

The process for scheduling for next year’s classes will begin this month. On January 28^th we will hold class meetings to go over the scheduling process for all students.  Counselors will then go into English classes starting on February 2^nd to start the scheduling process for next year. If you have any questions please contact your child’s counselor or refer to our website at Southwestschools.org and click on Harrison High School, then Guidance Department, then Class Scheduling. Here you will find the registration handbook and graduation requirements for your child.

Conferences

High School Parent Teacher Conferences will be February 24th, from 3:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Conferences will be virtual using Microsoft Teams video meetings. We will be sending the link for the website to schedule conferences on February 16^th.

On the date of the conference, February 24th, parents will need to have their child log on to Teams, using their child’s school computer, at the designated conference time. 

• Open Teams on your child’s computer. On the left side bar go to the Teams calendar and look for your child’s name and assigned time slot and press join. Teachers will log in and meet you at this time as well.  Please understand that there may be a 1-2 minute lag in connection as the teachers are finishing up their previous conference.  On this note, please be courteous of other parents’ time – please be on time for your scheduled conference and try to keep your conferences within the allotted 15 minutes.  

• We understand that some of you may have a child that has practice or an activity after school, and may not be around to help you log in at this time.  To accommodate that, we will be holding conferences until 8:30 in the evening.  Please do your best to schedule your conference when your child is at home. If this is not conducive, and your child is unable to be with you when you are available to conference, please have them show you how to log on to Teams prior to February 24th.

• If you have additional questions for your child’s teacher, feel free to email them or check your child’s grades via Progress Book.

Attendance

We can all agree that good attendance is extremely important for success in school and life. As a building we are working on incentives for good student attendance. We are also setting attendance guidelines for end of year events such as Junior and Senior Prom or Morp, which is a dance for all grades. These dances will take place at the end of the year. Prom on May 13^th and the Morp date has not yet been announced. To attend and purchase tickets for these two events students must not have more that 10 days unexcused absences starting at the beginning of 2^nd semester January 5^th. These 10 days do not include documented Covid absences or legal, dental, or doctor notes. On January 5^th we met with all classes and went over the attendance guidelines for these events and for the school year. Thank you for your support as we work to improve attendance for second semester. If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 513-367-4169.