Rock County Public Schools

Due to possible winter weather tonight, we will be serving today's lunch and tomorrow's breakfast and lunch today. All three meals will be handed out today, Thursday April 2, with nothing available tomorrow. Normal serving times will resume on Monday, April 6.

Rock County Public Schools would like to thank all of the students, staff, parents, and community members who have helped get us up and running with remote learning. This has been a stressful time for everyone, not just due to school buildings being closed, but also due to personal lives being affected one way or another. We have posted our Continuity of Learning Plan on the website and app for all public to see. This is the plan we are following but the plan will change over time as we figure out what will and will not work for our students, parents, and staff. During this time, our district has applied for and been accepted into a federal lunch program which allows us to serve grab and go meals to all kids ages 1 to 18 within our district free of charge to the families. These kids do not have to be students of the Rock County School District to take advantage of these free meals. This program is provided free to the people of Rock County as it is a federally funded program. If you would like to sign up, please contact Brandi at the school, 402-684-3411. Thanks again for everyone’s support as we try to keep our families and community safe through remote learning.

Schoology is having issues again today. Please be patient, and I will notify students when it is up and running again.

Attention students and parents, we have worked through some of the kinks in remote learning, but not all. We have a Continuity of Learning Plan which details some of the process while we are utilizing remote learning. It is located on our website and app for your viewing.

Free Meals for all children ages 1-18 Starting April 1-May 19, 2020 Monday-Friday Optional, but FREE to all kids ages 1-18. Breakfast and Lunch provided every day Monday-Friday, pick up times are 7:00-8:00 for breakfast and 11:30-12:30 for lunch (on days where the lunch isn’t a “warm” meal, you can grab lunch when you grab breakfast). Meals will be distributed from the multi-purpose room doors at the Rock County High School on the west side. Call Rock County High School at 402-684-3411 or email Brandi at [email protected] to sign up. Sign up time is 7:00-9:00 a.m. each day. We encourage signing up for a week at a time or longer. This makes it easier for the cooks. This is a Federally funded program. All meals served are fully reimbursed by the Federal Government so it is not a burden on our local taxpayers.

Attention Parents: We are aware that SeeSaw and Schoology are both having intermittent issues right now. Please be patient as this is out of our control, check back periodically throughout the day. With everyone moving to online learning this could be an issue.

Sophomore and Juniors check this out from NECC!!

Don't forget about breakfast and lunch available for pick up Monday, March 30 and Tuesday, March 31! Please call the school if you have any questions, or to sign up. Also, stay tuned on Monday for some exciting news!!

The Bassett Arts Council is now accepting applications for Junior and Senior Interns for this coming year, June 2020-July 2021. Students currently in grades 6th-11th grades that are interested should take the time to fill out the appropriate app from the links below if interested! A reference letter is required. Any questions, please call/text Amber Blessin at 402-730-0654 or email her at [email protected]. APPLICATIONS ARE DUE APRIL 10, 2020. Intern apps will be reviewed and selections made at the April 14 monthly BAC Board meeting. JUNIOR INTERN APP LINK: https://forms.gle/eJiMVS6SXUCttPvi8 SENIOR INTERN APP LINK: https://forms.gle/ao2tYaRKtotpw5su5

The is Mr. Becker. After consultation with the North Central District Health Department and the Nebraska Department of Education, it has been determined that Rock County Public Schools will be closed for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. I repeat Rock County Public Schools will be closed for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. Parents, families, and staff will be notified accordingly if things change that would affect this decision to close. This is a precautionary public health measure; at this time there are NO confirmed cases in the ESU 17 region; however, local health and school officials are monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely. It is of the upmost importance that we ask for your assistance in supporting and encouraging strict social distancing during this time of closure. This would include encouraging students to stay home and limit their time with people from outside of their household. Keeping interactions to a bare minimum will help in disrupting the exposure period and periods of contagiousness. What this really means is our buildings are closed but education will still take place for our students. Our school will stay in communication with you as remote learning plans for educational opportunities take place to serve the students from Rock County Public Schools. Thank you.

Grab and Go Breakfast & Lunch Menu 3/23/20-3/30/20: Monday: Hot Dog/Bun, Vegetable, Fruit, Milk. Tuesday: Ind. Sausage Breakfast Pizza, Fruit, Milk, Turkey Bacon Ranch Wrap, Vegetable, Fruit, Milk. Wednesday: Cereal, Bread for Toast, Fruit, Milk, BBQ Pork/Bun, Vegetable, Fruit, Milk. Thursday: Yogurt Parfaits, Bread for Toast, Fruit, Milk, Ham & Cheese Lunchables, Vegetable, Fruit, Milk. Friday: Breakfast Burrito, Fruit, Milk, Bologna, Turkey, Cheese Hoagie, Vegetable, Fruit, Milk. Monday: Long John, Fruit, Milk, Beef & Cheese Burrito, Vegetable, Fruit, Milk. Call the school at 402-684-3411 to get signed up or email Brandi at [email protected] Pick up times are 7:00-8:00 or 12:00-1:00.

For a list of days and times that teachers are available please go to the school website www.rockcountyschools.org and go to the Menu (top right of website), School Closure Information and Teacher Availability. A google doc will open and at the bottom of the google doc is a tab for each teacher. This is not available on the school app.

Parents/Guardians of Rock County Public School students Rock County Public Schools will all be closed from March 16-30 as per recommendation from the North Central District Health Department, Governor Rickett’s office, and the commissioner of education. During this time, our staff will be working to provide the best education we can provide for your students in an online or remote learning scenario. Some of the work may begin this week but a majority of the work will be starting Monday. We ask that you work with us and monitor your child’s learning from home and communicate any issues you are having to their teachers or administration via email. Teachers will be sending schedules to students and parents so they know what times of day they are available for classes and to answer questions. If you have multiple children in the district, understand it will not look the same for all grade levels and all classes. The teachers are instructed to prioritize reading and math instruction while also providing instruction in other areas but not focusing on the other areas. We feel that we need to provide this education based on the uncertainty of timing for the resumption of classes as normal. This will provide us an avenue to educate over the course of 6-8 weeks if needed, which is the time frame the governor’s office has mentioned several times in the case of a school shut-down. We will continue to work with the NCDHD, governor’s office, and department of education to make decisions based on what we feel is best for our students, staff, and community. If your child didn’t bring materials home from school yesterday or your child was not in school yesterday, please contact your child(ren)’s teacher to set up a time to come get their materials they will need over the next couple weeks.

Due to recent closures at Rock County Public Schools due to COVID-19, the school will be providing breakfast and lunch to RCPS students starting tomorrow through March 30th. If you wish stop and grab meals for your children, please contact the school so that the kitchen staff will have an accurate count. This will be offered as “grab and go” on the west side of the building at the multi-purpose room doors. We will charge for meals the same way that we currently do during school hours. Pickup will be from 7:00-8:00 a.m. and 12:00-1:00 p.m. Please contact RCHS at 402-684-3411, or email Brandi at [email protected] to let us know if you would like to receive these meals or if you have any questions. We need to have an accurate count by 4:00 today to ensure that we have enough supplies on hand to accommodate everyone.

This is Mr. Becker. Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, March 17 Rock County Public Schools will be closed until March 30. At this time we are planning to reassess this as we get closer to this date. All activities are cancelled. Prom is postponed with the possibility of being cancelled in the future. The code club is also cancelled. The weight room is also closed during this time. All staff are to report during their normal work time. For your information we do not know of any active COVID-19 cases in our area. This closure is a safety response that is supported by the health department.

From the NSAA: All, Effective Monday, March 16 all NSAA activity practices are suspended until Monday, March 30 and all NSAA activity competitions are suspended until Thursday, April 2. These suspensions may be extended should the conditions warrant. Member schools and student-participants are expected to adhere to the NSAA Constitution & Bylaws and activity manuals during this time. As more information becomes available, official updates will be posted on the NSAA website and the NSAA social media platforms.

Code club this afternoon! 3:30-4:30

Due to our inability to guarantee that we will be able to hold Prom on Saturday, we have spoken with the Whistle Stop and have decided to cancel all flower orders.

This is Mr. Becker. Tomorrow, Monday, March 16 we will have a ten o'clock late start for a required staff meeting. There will not be morning preschool. I repeat, tomorrow, Monday, March 16 we will have a ten o'clock late start. There will not be morning preschool.

The public speech performance at the Old Feed Store Art Center Sunday, March 15 has been cancelled due to concerns with the health and safety of the students, staff, and public at this time.