Linton-Stockton School Corporation

Daily Served Meals MEALS FOR KIDS Age 18 and Under ONLY Linton Beginning Tuesday, May 31-Aug 2 Daily served Meals East Shelter House Monday-Friday Noon-1:00 pm

Due to current road conditions and the unpredictability of the forecast at dismissal time all Linton-Stockton Schools will be closed for eLearning today, Thursday, February 24th. Assignments will be posted no later than 9:00am this morning.

All LInton Stockton Schools including grades Pre K-12 will begin on a one (1) hour delay tomorrow Tuesday, February 8th.

All Linton Stockton Schools will be on a two hour day tomorrow January 7th. Because it is a Friday we will still have early release.

Dr. Goad will be offering monthly Open Office Hours for parents, students, patrons, or staff to stop in for a conversation. The December Open Office Hours are scheduled for Monday, December 6th in the LSSC Corp Office from 5:00pm-7:00pm. No appointment is need.

The LSSC staff enjoyed a friendly competition in the form of a TEAM WARS Food Drive. Teams had two chances to win with the first being the number of items collected. The second was making a design out of the donated items. All totaled, the staff collected 2,535 items of food for our local community.

Linton-Stockton Schools has an opening for the Director of Food Service. Apply online at www.lssc.k12.in.us or contact Dr. Kathy Goad at kgoad@lssc.k12.in.us for details.

As our school team evaluated our current mask requirement, we reviewed school and local data. Over the past month Greene County has experience a slight decrease in the number of cases of COVID, however, the pandemic is still very much affecting the lives of our area residents. When we analyzed school data, we were pleased with the improvements made on our quarantine and positive case numbers in the past two weeks. ELEMENTARY Total student/staff Isolations or Quarantines since September 14th = 45 Current isolated or quarantined students/staff = 18 Positive student/staff cases since September 14th = 4 MS/HS Total student/staff Isolations or Quarantines since September 14th = 25 Current isolated or quarantined students/staff = 13 Positive Student/Staff cases since September 14th = 4 Begin fully masked has made a difference. Our students have been compliant, and like all of us, not wanting to wear masks but willing. In many of our classrooms, students have been able to remove their masks because our teachers have made it possible for social distancing. Our goal continues to be to keep our students/staff healthy and in school. Considering this, along with our data, the following decision has been made moving forward: • We will continue to require masks on buses and indoors through Friday, October 8th. On Monday, October 12th and Tuesday October 13th we are scheduled for eLearning Days for the purpose of Student Led Parent/Teacher conferences and the remainder of that week is Fall Break. • On Monday, October 19th we will return to school with masks being optional, based on the following: o We will revert to a mask requirement if at any one time the number of students quarantined exceeds:  100 in the elementary, and/or  75 in the middle/senior high school o Masks will still be required on buses due to the federal mandate on public transportation o Classrooms where students choose not to wear masks will be subject to quarantine  Quarantined students are expected to login to the classes in real time in order to keep up with their school work and be counted present o We will open up the 8-day return option IF students test negative, do not experience any symptoms, and wear a mask while in school through day 14 of their exposure. We will continue to monitor and evaluate our cases, isolations, and quarantines. At any time a change is warranted in our procedures, the change will be communicated with you.

The LSSC Afterschool Program has been a wonderful addition to the programming we offer students. On any given evening there are currently more than 125 students on campus after school hours for this new initiative. The program includes a snack, homework help/tutoring, fitness, Choice Experiences and SEL Moments. Taking a program conceived on paper to live implementation takes some time for adjustment as well as time for procedures and processes to be refined. We have learned that the student participants are ready for the snack and appreciate the opportunity to get their homework started and many times completed before they get home for the evening. The students enjoy the fitness time and getting to take a physical break from activities. The most popular activities have been during Choice Experiences. We are fortunate that our community has embraced the afterschool program and provide some wonderful activities for our students to take part in. The elementary schedule below shows the times for these activities. The middle/senior high schedule is similar with school dismissal starting at 3:10pm M-Th and 2:10 F. The Monday through Thursday elementary schedule is below. School Dismissal 2:55pm Attendance/Snack 3:00-3:15 Homework/Tutoring 3:15-4:15 Fitness Break 4:14-4:30 SEL Moments (M/W) 4:30-5:30 Choice Experience (T/TH) 4:30-5:30 Friday Schedule School Dismissal 1:55 Attendance/Snack 2:00-2:20 Free Time/Fitness 2:20-3:15 Homework/Tutoring 3:15-4:15 SEL Moment 4:15-5:00 In a recent evaluation meeting, it was determined that pick-up scattered at any time throughout the program day was cumbersome, disruptive, and difficult to manage. For this purpose, we have defined pick-up times to be between 4:15pm after homework/tutoring is complete and the end of the program day. This new pick-up schedule will begin after Fall Break on Monday, October 18th. We will continue to evaluate the afterschool program and will be looking for parent feedback in a survey at the end of the semester. New student participants are always welcome! To get signed-up, just contact Program Director, Jared Sanders, at 812 -847-6039.

LSSC is in the need for Substitute Teachers in all grade levels. We recently increased the compensation as follows with the hope of increasing our candidate pool. Indiana Substitute Teacher License $75 per Day Indiana Teacher License $85 per Day Retired Linton Teacher $100 per Day If you are interested in becoming a substitute teacher, please apply online at www.lssc.k12.in.us or contact Lisa Andis at 812-847-6020.

LSSC is applying for a connectivity grant which, if awarded, will offset the cost of purchasing new Chromebooks for our students. A part of the grant application is a short parent survey. Please consider answering this two question survey to help us be successful in this grant progress. The grant can be found at this link. https://forms.gle/MrsokeFBUxtj1H3f7

The USDA has announced that as an outreach due to COVID, free school lunches will be available to all students through the 2021-2022 school year. We are pleased to be able to pass this along to our families. The free lunches will include a tray meal. Additional items will still be available for purchase.

Today is a very special day. Not only is the sun shining bright, also today is our annual Community Appreciation Day! The purpose of this annual day, established by the Linton-Stockton School Board, is two-fold. First, we want to show our gratitude and appreciation to the entire Linton area community for the support shown to our schools, students, and staff throughout the 2020-2021 school year. You have supported us with you time, talents, prayers, presence, and donations. The community is always there when our many athletic teams, clubs and organizations ask for help. The community always answers the call when volunteers are needed. The community, in normal times, comes out to our over 340 events through a given year. The community supports fundraisers and gives generously. We appreciate you! Our second purpose of the Community Appreciation Day provides an opportunity to share with our students the importance of giving back. All students, K-12 will be participating in some fashion today. While they will be out of the classroom for a portion of the day, the lessons they learn will be invaluable. Our students will be making thank you cards, delivering baked goods, drawing inspirational messages for Glenburn residents to see, sprucing up the city park and planting flowers, hosting a car wash for city workers, washing police and fire trucks, preparing meals for community employees, volunteering at the clothing barn at LFCC, walking through the streets of Linton picking up litter, cleaning out the city flower beds, cleaning up the fairgrounds, helping out the humane shelter and Saran Church and participating in the spring clean up of Goosepond. Follow the action on Facebook as we will be taking snapshots of our students in action and posting all day. Linton-Stockton Schools loves the Linton area community!!!!

LSSC held an Open House and Ribbon Cutting for THE CONNECTION CENTER this morning. This is the first phase of the Ready Schools Grant with more more to come. Tune in to WTHI and WTWO this evening for more!

Pace Community Action Agency, Inc, is expanding our STEM Camp scholarship program to include girls and boys from Daviess, Greene, Knox and Sullivan Counties. In the past we hosted a boys’ program, Boys and Beyond, but due to COVID-19 we are postponing that with the option for boys to receive the STEM Camp scholarships. There are a variety of camps in our area that provide hands-on technology activities for youth. Camp options vary from day to overnight, and the camps do not have to be located in our service delivery. Scholarships are Pace’s way of making sure that financial issues do not stop individuals from attending STEM camps. Interested individuals should identify a camp of interest and complete the STEM Camp application on our website at https://www.pacecaa.org/stem-camps. Financial reimbursement may include the cost of the camp and mileage to and from the camp. Apply as soon as possible as there are a limited number of scholarship payments available. After applications are received, individuals will be notified if they are accepted as a scholarship recipient. Consistent with our mission of improving the community and encouraging self-reliance, these scholarships help children and teens learn skills in STEM related fields. STEM related careers are one of the fastest-growing fields in the job industry with above average pay. According to STEM Occupations: Past, Present, and Future by the US Bureaus of Labor Statistics, the average wage for STEM occupations is $87,570, nearly double the national average wage for non-STEM occupations. Dr. Bertha Proctor, Pace CEO, comments on this program, “These scholarships are a valuable way we can help ensure that all kids have access to a variety of educational experiences. We are excited to be able to offer this program to the community.”

Linton-Stockton in in need of substitutes in the following areas: Substitute Teachers Substitute Custodians Substitute Food Service Call 812-847-6020 or apply online at www.lssc.k12.in.us

Linton-Stockton Schools is planning on offering an After School Program beginning in August. Our vision is a program open to students in grades K-12. Students would be separated into age appropriate locations. The program would be an extension of the day and be open until 6:00pm. The program would include snacks, home work assistance, an evening meal for those who request, field trips, fitness, arts, STEM and social activities. This program will be funded through CARES Act dollars. In addition, we have the opportunity to enhance and sustain the program through the 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant. This competitive grant requires us to provide evidence for the needs for such a program. We would appreciate parents completing the survey found at the link below so that we can gather your responses and provide the data in our application. Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete the short survey and help LSSC continue to improve and increase the services we offer to our families. Survey Link: https://forms.gle/rrewHkKpfXuRCZ5H7

Over break LSSC changed the vendor of our call alert system. when you receive a call from the school it will originate in Arkansas. We are sharing this information with you so that you do not disregard our important calls as spam when you do not recognize the number. You can expect the first call on our new system this evening when Dr. Goad confirms our return to school plans for second semester.

In September we announce that LSSC had been approved for the USDA Free & Reduced Meal Program waiver to offer all students free meals through December 31st. We are now happy to announce that the waiver has been extended through June of 2021. This will allow all students at LSSC to eat both breakfast and lunch free for the remainder of the school year!

Download our new app to have everything you need to know about Linton Stockton Schools at your fingertips. Go to the App Store on your phone and search for Linton Stockton Schools for this free app. While it is still under construction, we are sure you will enjoy the convenience.