Snow

Hello OCRS families,

Tomorrow is the start of February and it certainly feels like the middle of winter right now, both because of the very cold temperatures and the impending snow! Please keep an eye out for possible school cancellations on Monday and/or Tuesday due to the forecasted winter storm.

"Back to School" Report from Dr. Paolucci

If you have not already read the latest "Back to School" report shared by Dr. Paolucci, please take a few moments to review it at https://www.smithfield-ps.org/article/389863. As usual, there is quite a bit of important information for all Smithfield families.

Plan for Potential Snow Days this Week

If we have any school cancellations on Monday and/or Tuesday due to the forecasted winter storm, all students (both in-person and virtual) will be participating in Distance Learning. All students will follow the Distance Learning schedule of their classroom teacher, even virtual learning students. The virtual tutors will be joining the classroom teachers across all of the elementary schools to help out.

Valentine's Day Cards Guidelines

If your child would like to bring Valentine's Day cards into school this year for their classmates, here are the guidelines that we will need to follow in order to ensure everyone's safety. Also, we do not want families to feel any pressure to need to provide Valentine's Day cards this year. These guidelines are only if your family wants to distribute cards and some families have asked.

  • All Valentine's Day cards MUST be brought into school NO LATER than Tuesday, 2/9. This will allow us to let the cards sit in quarantine before any student is allowed to take them home on Friday, 2/12. This is a safety precaution for the health of all students.
  • Please make sure that there is a card for EVERY child in the classroom. Feel free to send in cards with blank envelopes if your child can't share everyone's name with you. The envelopes will be addressed in school.
  • For the safety of our students and staff with food allergies, no food or candy can be included with the Valentine's Day cards. Thank you for your understanding.

Regular Student BinaxNOW COVID Testing

Like all six Smithfield schools, OCRS will be continuing approximately every two weeks with regular student BinaxNOW COVID testing during the school day. The next testing day at OCRS is scheduled for Monday, February 8th. During our first testing day we tested almost 70 students and the process went very smoothly. Baby Yoda hung out in the background to keep an eye on things and to help the students feel comfortable.

If families have already returned the signed BinaxNOW testing consent form, there isn't any additional paperwork for your child to be continued to be tested at school. If a family did not return the signed consent form and you would like your child to participate, please find a parental consent form available for download at https://5il.co/of5n. If you need a paper copy, please email Mrs. Deus at school and she will make sure that one is sent home with your child.

PTA Meeting, Wednesday 2/3 @7:00

The next PTA meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 3rd at 7:00 p.m. As most meetings this school year, the PTA meeting will be virtual and families can join via any internet connected device using this link, https://meet.google.com/zjv-yyax-jui. Families can also join by phone by calling ‪1-402-433-0145‬  PIN: ‪118 769 507‬#.

We encourage all OCRS families to join us!

Free Lunch and Breakfast for Students

I keep including this information in the Weekly Update because it is such an amazing opportunity for students and families!

School meals (breakfast AND lunch) are free for all children (in-person and virtual learners) for the entire 2020-2021 school year! In-person learning students simply need to order lunch in the classroom each morning. Pick up of meals for virtual learning families takes place Monday through Friday at Smithfield High School, Door #2 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Weekend meals are available for pick-up on Friday.

A family with two children will save $66.50 per week on breakfast and lunch and we encourage OCRS families to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity!
https://5il.co/nqh4

Upcoming Dates and Events

PTA General Membership Meeting, Wednesday February 3rd at 7:00 p.m.

Student BinaxNOW COVID Testing at School, Monday February 8th during the school day

Winter Break, Monday February 15th through Friday February 19th

 

Ongoing thanks to OCRS families for your Patience, Flexibility, and Empathy. Those three words are guiding us throughout this school year and we will all need to continue to make adjustments as the year progresses (as we did these past few weeks). As long as we approach those adjustments with the best interests of our students as our priority, I am confident that this will continue to be a safe and successful year.

Sincerely,
Mr. Barrette