What a week! It has been a great start to the year for our staff and students. I could not be more proud of the way our students have started off new the school year. Students are engaged, having fun, ready to learn, showing that they know what it means to respect others, themselves, school, and learning.

While our Personal Communication Devices expectations have been a topic of conversation for our students, we as a staff are very impressed with how our students have responded. We want to thank our families for your part in helping us enforce the expectations. Students have been great about keeping their phones off and out of sight, which has been having a positive impact in the classroom as well.

Starting next week, we will be focusing on our fall iReady diagnostics for the next few weeks. We really encourage students to get their rest the night before, make sure their Chromebook is fully charged, and show up ready to perform their best. Both the reading and math diagnostics give us great information about students' current knowledge and how best to proceed with instruction for individual students. After the diagnostics are complete, staff will be having data chats with each student to review their score, what it means, and to set a goal for the year.

Ben Baptist

Principal

Important Dates

Monday, August 26: Start of iReady Reading Diagnostic

Monday, September 2nd: No School - Labor Day

Tuesday, September 3rd: Start of iReady Math Diagnostic

Check out photos from Mrs. Chaffin's Science 8 class as they worked through a teamwork activity.

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 ot 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.

If you missed our first school picture day on August 7th, don't miss our next one! Next Friday, August 30th, students will have another chance to get their picture taken for this school year. Students will be given the opportunity to get their picture taken during their Study Hall. For our students who do not have a Study Hall, they will be called down toward the end of the school day.

If you are interested in helping to raise money for our PTO, please consider signing up for a time to volunteer at the Oktoberfest 2024, coming to Columbus the weekend of September 6-8.

Please read the information on the attached link and make sure you enter Lakeview PTO with your name when signing up.

Being stuck in traffic is not an excused tardy, so please plan accordingly. You can start dropping off students as early as 6:45 am; they will wait by the main office until 7:00 am to be let into the rest of the building.

• There is a split lane in front of the school.
• The lane next to the curb is for drop-off only.
• The lane to the left is for parking only.
• Once all buses clear and a staff member directs cars, the left lane can be used for drop-off.
• Do NOT use the left lane for drop-off until a staff member is directing cars into that lane.
• You may NOT park and drop off your student. If you are parking and coming into the building, please walk with your child to cross the flow of traffic.
• Your child should be prepared to exit the car when stopped anywhere along the white dividing line.
• If traffic does not stop, you should pull all the way up to the yellow sign that says “Stop Buses Only.”
• Students can enter through the main doors near the office or through Door Y (to the right of the main office).

This plan is designed to make drop-off safe for our students and more efficient for our parents. We appreciate your cooperation and help in keeping our students safe.

As many of you already know, Ohio recently passed a state law requiring school districts across the state to develop a policy that limits students' use of cell phones during the school day. While the requirement does not take effect until the beginning of next school year, as a building, we have seen the negative effects that cell phones have on our students for the past several years.

In addition to lowered engagement in class, cell phones also are the number-one contributor to student-to-student issues in our building. We believe that when cell phones are no longer a temptation and no longer a distraction, students are better served in the classroom and with their social interactions as well.

At Lakeview, our expectation for our students is that their Personal Communication Devices (PCDs) -- including AirPods and smart watches -- are powered off and stored out of sight from when they enter the building until the end of the school day (exceptions include IEP/504 accommodations and medical necessity). We know this is going to be a major change for some of our students, and we want to work with our families to make sure that we can support our students as they adjust to this change. We will work with grace early on as we help students understand the reasoning behind our expectation.

To enforce our expectation, we will progress through consequences if students repeatedly break our expectation. The first time, the student will be issued a warning. The second time, the student will be issued a lunch detention. Starting with the third time, the student will be referred to the office for additional consequences. Each time a student has their phone/device out during the school day, administration will take the phone/device for the day and store it in a locked container. On the first instance, the student can pick up their device at the end of the day. Starting with the second instance, we ask that a parent/guardian pick up the device after the day has ended.

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.

Please note the building-wide approach to late/missing work for students. All students have up to two 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.

If you missed the deadline to order your PTO-sponsored spirit wear, don't worry! Starstrukt Apparel is still accepting orders, though they will be delivered after the original Open House date. Orders already placed by the August 5th deadline will be able to be picked up during Open House. Click here to visit the website and begin your order.

If you are interested in supporting our Lakeview staff and students by joining our PTO, we would love to have you! Please reach out to Tiffany Appollonio, PTO President, at lakeviewpickpto@gmail.com to learn more.

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 through September 10th. This is a great way to represent Lakeview and support us at the same time!

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.

One family sent in feedback, pleased with our Personal Communication Device expectations for our students. The opinion is that it will help students focus on school work and enhance social learning and connections.

We agree, and that is the main reason why we are optimistic about our expectations. We have already seen a positive impact from our students keeping their phones off and away during the day.

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