Thank you to those of you who were able to attend last night's PTO meeting. We were able to cover a lot of topics and plan some events for our students and staff throughout the year, like an upcoming Teen Night and student recognition. More information will come as we get closer to specific events.

One addition to this newsletter and all future newsletters is the "New Updates" and "Previous Information" section headers. This will hopefully allow families to more easily distinguish between new information and information that has been in previous newsletters but is still relevant.

A reminder for our students who are planning to attend tonight's football game between Pickerington North and Pickerington Central: All K-8 students must be accompanied by an adult to enter the game. That adult also assumes responsibility for the student(s) for the duration of the event. Any K-8 student without an adult will not be admitted into the game.

Go Panthers!

Ben Baptist

Principal

Important Dates

Thursday, September 26th: Parent-Teacher Conferences, evening

Tuesday, October 1st: Parent-Teacher Conferences, evening

Thursday, October 10th & Friday, October 11th: No School -- Staff Professional Development

Monday, October 14th: Parent-Teacher Conferences, all day (no school for students)

Mr. George's Social Studies 8 classes visited Mrs. Smith in our Media Center to engage in a breakout room-style lesson about starving time in the Jamestown colony.

Thank you to our families who were able to join us for Thursday night's PTO meeting.

Please see the PayPal link below for a quick way to support our students and staff through the PTO. They are currently raising funds to help support dinners for staff during parent-teacher conferences, an upcoming Teen Night, and other events during the year that recognize student achievement.

Our school spirit wear shop is currently running their Back-to-School sale, offering 30% off all items and free shipping on orders over $75. The sale runs for one more week, through September 10th! This is a great way to represent Lakeview and support us at the same time! Click the hyperlink above or click on the picture below to access our store.

Overall, we have been very impressed with how our students have adhered to our new PCD expectations. Currently, we have collected only 43 phones this year, which is a very low number considering out student population of over 930 students.

One concern that has come up recently is students texting families during the day when they don't feel well. While that is still a cell phone violation, it's a larger concern for us because it could be a safety issue when a student is sick and no one in the building is aware. Please encourage your student(s) that whenever they feel ill to visit the Clinic. We don't want to be in a situation when a student is sick in the bathroom and we are unaware.

If our families need to get in contact with their student(s) during the school day, we encourage them to send an email to the student's school Gmail account or call the Main Office (614-830-2200) and we will have the student come to the office.

Please understand that our intent for this expectation is to help to teach students better, more responsible use with their cell phone while in school. We appreciate your support and your willingness to work alongside us.

If any of our families have driven by Lakeview in the past week, you probably noticed a new yellow donation bin by the road. We are partnering with Planet Aid, a non-profit organization that collects used clothing and shoes. All you have to do is stop by the bin, drop in your used items, and you're not only supporting those in need around the world, but you are also supporting our students through this fundraiser.

PLSD and Petermann sent out the following information last weekend:

We want to let you know about a small adjustment to the bus pick-up times for our junior high students attending Lakeview and Ridgeview Junior High Schools.

Starting September 3, 2024, students will need to be at their bus stop five minutes earlier than usual. This change ensures they have enough time to get to school, eat breakfast, and be ready for class by 7:15 a.m.

As part of our commitment to supporting student success, the District provides free breakfast and lunch to all students, and we want to make sure everyone starts their day with a healthy nutritious meal.

As a reminder, you can always check your student's bus information on E-Link on the transportation website. If you have any additional questions, please contact Petermann Transportation at 614-837-8525.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

A big THANK YOU to our 63 families who have already filled out our volunteer form. We are going to start reaching out to a few families over the next few weeks to see who might be interested in helping with our POPPs (Parents on Positivity Patrol) program at Lakeview. This is a great way to help us out in the building, interact with students, and help us foster our welcoming climate. POPPs volunteers would need to be approved as Level 2 volunteers through the district, so we will share additional information with families who are interested in the POPPs program.

One of our building goals this year is to increase the number of opportunities our families have to engage with our school. If you are interested in helping Lakeview in any way this year -- e.g., Parents on Positivity Patrol, overseeing study sessions, volunteering to help run family events, etc. -- please fill out the form below indicating your interest!

We will periodically reach out throughout the year whenever we could use volunteers.

We want to share a reminder of the district's expectations for students attending varsity football games.

• All K-8 students must be accompanied by an adult to enter the football game. Students must be seated with or supervised by that adult during the game.
• All JH students attending the game need to sit in the designated JH student section, which is the small set of bleachers next to the HS student section. If the JH students are not sitting in the JH student section, they must be sitting with the parent/adult in the main bleachers.
• Backpacks are not permitted in the stadium.
• Students should make transportation plans before attending a high school sporting event.

During junior high athletic events, any student attending the game as a fan must have transportation set up and must be picked up within 20 minutes of the game ending. If students are repeatedly not picked up within 20 minutes, those students may lose the privilege of attending future athletic events.

Above all, we expect our students to represent their families, Lakeview, and the Pickerington community in a positive manner.

For those families who drop off students in the morning, please note that due to the construction at North, the back parking lot (by the softball fields and past Panther Stadium) is closed. Please do not use that parking lot to cut through.

Please note the building-wide approach to late/missing work for students. All students have up to two school days after the original assignment deadline to turn in work for full credit (no points deducted). After the two days, the student will no longer earn credit for the work; however, we still encourage the student to complete the assignment in order to receive feedback, and to prepare for the unit assessment. As an example, if a student does not turn in assignment that was due on a Thursday, the student has until the following Monday (two school days) to turn in the work for full credit.

The absence/missing work policy has not changed. Students still receive the number of days they were absent to turn in any work that was assigned while they were out, in addition to the two-day grace period.

The athletic website for both PHSN & LJH is now live. Use the https://pickeringtonpanthers.org/ to watch for announcements! All coaches will be using this website for updates and announcements, so please check here if you have any questions. When you go to https://pickeringtonpanthers.org/ you will need to click on "more" and then Final Forms is under "Athletic Registration".

This form will be linked in each Community Corner update, allowing families to offer feedback to the counseling and administrative team regarding social justice, mental health, academic support, friendships/relationships, etc. Counselors and administrators will review the feedback on a weekly basis and send out any updates to concerns/questions in the next Community Corner update.

We had two families reach out with feedback this past week. One family shared a concern with the building-wide late work policy, asking that it be more defined and forgiving. More clarifying information has been added to the late work information section above.

In conversations with staff last year and over the summer, our focus in developing the late work policy for the building was two-fold: 1) consistency across all classes, and 2) more timely feedback for students. In the past, not having a consistent policy has been tough for students who may be on different teams, having to understanding different teachers' expectations and deadlines. Additionally, with more time given to students to complete assignments after a deadline, the academic benefit decreases as students get farther away from the lesson(s) that accompanied the assigned work.

With respect to the two-day deadline, this applies to school days. For example, if a student does not turn in an assignment that was due on a Thursday, they have until the following Monday to turn it in for full credit. The absence policy is unchanged. If a student misses a number of days of school, they get that many days to turn in any work that was assigned while they were out, and then an additional two days per the late work policy.

We are continually reviewing the impact this late work policy is having, so we can adjust the timeline if needed.

Our second piece of feedback was regarding the PCD policy. The family shared that they are pleased with how well the "no phone" expectation has gone in the building, though they are concerned that students are just using Chromebooks at lunch and still not engaging with other students. From what we have seen, while there are students who use their Chromebooks during lunch for a variety of reasons (e.g., classwork, games, etc.), students are more actively engaged in conversation with their peers and our staff than they have been in the past.

Has your child done something awesome recently and you want to give them a shout out? Make sure you use the Lakeview Family Feedback Form (linked below) to fill out information in the Student Spotlight section. You can also send a picture to ben_baptist@plsd.us if you would like a picture to accompany the shout out.

Office Hours 6:45 am - 3:15 pm

Email: ben_baptist@plsd.us
Website: https://www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/Domain/19
Location: 12445 Ault Road, Pickerington, OH, USA
Phone: (614) 830-2200
Facebook: Lakeview_JH_PLSD
Twitter: @lakeview_jh