
SVCS News
October 1, 2021
SUPERINTENDENT'S MESSAGE
Thank you to all parents, students, and staff for a successful first grading period! It is hard to believe that we are a fourth of the way through the 2021-22 school year! Elementary school report cards will be sent home with students on Thursday, October 7, and then discussed during Parent-Teacher conferences. High school grades will be posted on Skyward by Friday, October 8. Parent-Teacher conferences are scheduled for Thursday, October 7 from 3:30-6:30 PM and Friday, October 8 from 8-11:45 AM. Contact the appropriate office to schedule an appointment if you still need to do so.
Every school year presents challenges at the beginning, but overall things have gone well. From our preschool students to our kindergarten class (Go Class of 2034!) to the seniors and everyone in between, we are proud of our students and excited to see how they learn and grow throughout the year. The school year will go by quickly. Be sure to enjoy it.
- Celebrate successes with your children
- Read with them
- Encourage them often
- Ask them what they are learning
- Communicate with teachers
- Attend some extra-curricular events
- Support Springs Valley Community Schools
General Information
* Like many area schools, we started the school year with expectations that COVID-19 would not be much of an issue. That changed quickly, as our numbers began increasing shortly after school started in August. Since that time, the number of positive cases and students in quarantine have dropped considerably. As of today, we have no positive student cases in the corporation. We will continue to be vigilant, and we ask you to do the same. If your child displays symptoms, please keep her or him home from school until the symptoms resolve. We do post updated statistics daily on our school website. Just click on COVID-19 Info on the main page. Here is the link to view updated statistics, as well as a document explaining how to self-screen your students at home.
* You may have read about food shortages that are affecting many Indiana schools. Springs Valley partners with Aramark to provide food service to our students and staff. The following statements from Aramark Regional Vice-President Travis Young explain the issue and how Aramark is addressing it:
Labor shortages are impacting suppliers and delivery services alike. Suppliers are rebalancing distribution to food-service providers that are reopening and supermarket retailers. Inflation and cost of goods are also becoming more challenging as the economy heats up and there’s a sharp rise in demand.
Aramark is being very proactive to identify these supply-chain challenges and lessen impact to our menus, operations, and customers.
Actions include:
communicating closely with our buyers and supply partners, sharing updates internally with our experts and frontline operators, and working quickly with our purchasing, culinary, nutrition, and hospitality teams to adjust our K12 menus, adapt recipes, and modify product inventory and ordering as necessary.
If ingredients are temporarily unavailable, we will make appropriate substitutions that comply with nutrition and other guidelines. In some cases, manufacturers may be discontinuing products. We will source similar products to replace discontinued products if possible. We will update our menu databases in real time to reflect supply.
We will navigate these challenges proactively, as well as look for opportunities to innovate. Like we have for the past 16 months, we will remain agile, adapt, and continue to serve meals and provide a dining experience with a student-first approach. We will ensure students are well fed and have a variety of on-trend, tasty, and healthy foods to choose from each day.
In addition, despite these challenges, we are also looking forward to sharing exciting, new flavor-forward menu items and service-solution options with you and your students in the coming months.
* We are in the process of completing some much-needed infrastructure improvements. So far we have replaced a significant amount of water pipes in our buildings. Soon we will have the high school boilers and water pumps replaced with new high-efficiency units. We also have plans to replace several outdated HVAC units in the elementary school. These are improvements not seen but that help to provide a comfortable learning environment year-round. Other upcoming improvements include replacing an aging segment of the high school roof.
* Today is the last day of the first nine-week grading period.
* Reminder that our monthly board meetings are streamed live on our Springs Valley Media YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP4LYRNW9L125xomVq1V_xw/featured
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REACHING HIGHER
* Several staff members have taken advantage of various professional development opportunities in the past couple of months. Springs Valley fully supports teachers in their efforts at gaining professional knowledge.
*Our elementary staff members have participated in some in-house PD. One of these involved standards-based report cards, an initiative started a few years ago and which is still ongoing. Also, some grade levels are piloting I-Ready, a comprehensive assessment and instruction program that provides "user-friendly dashboards and clear reports with actionable data that give teachers a foundational understanding of students’ strengths and areas of need, and enables educators to confidently determine each student’s on-grade level proficiency based on state and national standards." Recently, teachers learned about this promising program during an onsite training session.
* Our high school staff is continuing their work with their student cohorts. Groups of teachers are assigned a class of students (Class of 2022, etc.). These teachers meet regularly to review student progress and discuss ways to hold students accountable. This focused attention to student performance, behavior, etc. has a tremendous impact on student achievement by ensuring that students have the extra supports needed to help increase their chance of success.
School Board Meeting
Monday, Oct 4, 2021, 06:00 PM
Springs Valley High School, South Larry Bird Boulevard, French Lick, IN, USA
Dr. Trevor Apple
Please contact me if you have questions or concerns!
Email: apple@svalley.k12.in.us
Website: www.svalley.k12.in.us
Phone: 812-936-4474