Rivalry Week Info and More Updates

October 23, 2024

Dear Avon Lake City Schools Community,

On behalf of everyone among our school leadership team, we hope that you are enjoying the seasonal fall temperatures, colors, and experiences that make autumn wonderful. Congratulations to all students and staff for successfully completing the 1st quarter, to our student-athletes for the fine representation of our school district in closing their competition season, and our extra-curricular participants in all activities and organizations for recognizing the value of learning experiences outside the classroom.

This Friday, Avon Lake will host the Avon varsity football team during a highly anticipated final week of the regular season, and the district asks you to consider the following key reminders in order to ensure a safe, successful, and respectable contest with our neighboring rivals. We expect and are planning for a capacity crowd, and several points of information are noted on the nearby map. Please look closely, and read below:

Motorists are encouraged to park in the areas shaded blue in the map, including the noted campus lots, Bleser Park, Avon Lake United Church of Christ, the Public Library, and Erieview Elementary. The Avon Lake City Schools will also be offering a shuttle service, so that you can park at the Towne Center parking lot with buses running to and from this lot and the North Lot of the High School from 6:00 p.m. until 45 minutes after the completion of the game. As parking will be at a premium on campus, and particularly on its south side, we ask you to consider the following:

• Carpooling, walking, bike riding, (weather permitting) or using the shuttle service are strongly encouraged.
• If your travels take you through any residential neighborhoods, we ask that you please drive courteously and obey any and all signage and speed limits.
• The south lots may close as we approach game time as they tend to fill up first.

Thank you for your consideration of the anticipated traffic patterns in and around the High School campus. Furthermore, to help minimize long lines, Avon Lake City Schools asks you to purchase your tickets ahead of time, through our online ticketing app, with a nearby QR code posted here.

Moreover, while our yearly contest versus Avon High School is always highly anticipated and spirited, we expect all members of the Avon Lake City Schools family to conduct themselves with the utmost respect, courtesy, and high standards of friendly competition. Thank you for your consideration of these reminders, and let’s cheer our varsity football team onto victory!

ALHS student Nathan Owens was recently named as a National Hispanic & Indigenous Recognition Award winner and becomes one of 72,000 students from across the country to earn academic honors from College Board’s National Recognition Programs, which seeks to affirm the strong academic achievements of underrepresented students. The programs not only benefit students, but also the colleges looking to recruit diverse, talented students. Recipients are strong academic performers, meet the Board’s high scoring metrics, and identify as African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous/Native American, first-generation, and/or attend high school in a rural area or small town. Congratulations Nathan! Way to go!

While temperatures have remained seasonal and pleasant, in order to prepare for potentially extreme winter weather, I wanted to share with our school family some reminders about the protocols our leadership team follows when making the decision to close school. As we have communicated in the past, the district references www.weather.gov to help make its decision to close school. When this decision is made, a phone call will go to all families, an alert will be posted online, and I will share school cancellations on my personal social media. Our local broadcast media will be given updates as well. Whenever possible, the decision to close school will be made the previous evening, but may be announced as late as 6 a.m., depending on a variety of factors.

Though there is not a specific temperature policy for the schools, we do use the National Weather Service Wind Chill Chart as a guide, based on their methodology found at the National Weather Service. Road conditions are another important factor, since this impacts the ability of our buses to run on time. We will most likely have school if the temperatures remain in the lightest blue color on the chart and the buses are running on time. It is not uncommon for us to close when the wind chill is -15°F or colder for a sustained period-of-time, particularly during key times when students may be outside going to and from school. We make decisions with staff and student safety as our number one priority.

Keep in mind that when Avon Lake City Schools are closed for weather, all evening activities in the elementary and middle school buildings are canceled. High school activities may take place depending on the weather throughout the day. While I appreciate good-natured messages from students pleading me for a day off, they play absolutely no factor in my decision-making process. Also, online posts from local meteorologists making predictions about the chances of having a snow day are made to increase their social media traffic and have no credibility. That said, the ALCSD will closely monitor conditions throughout the rest of the winter, and share updates as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Thank you for your continued support of the Avon Lake City Schools.

Sincerely,

Joelle Magyar
Superintendent

Oct. 25 - End of First Quarter

Nov. 1 - Professional Development Day - Teachers/Tutors - No School for Students

Nov. 27-29 - Thanksgiving Break

Dec. 23 - Jan. 3 - Winter Break

To view the complete district calendar, click here.

Just in case you missed a newsletter from your child's school, or have multiple children in our district at different buildings, we have links below from each building principal for your convenience with the most recent information sent to families. A link to our quarterly District Facility Focus newsletter is also below.

Avon Lake High School

Learwood Middle School

Troy Intermediate School

Eastview Elementary School

Erieview Elementary School

Redwood Elementary School

Westview Elementary School

LEAPS Preschool

Facility Focus