The Cardinal Letter

I’m overjoyed to be able to start our school year with in-person learning for all 5 days at Chippewa Falls Senior High School. We have opened up, asked students to follow social distancing guidelines and mask wearing requirements, and they are doing an outstanding job of adjusting to the new normal. We have adjusted many of our daily routines, and the students have stepped up to the challenge by being compliant, cooperative, and empathetic toward others to make the beginning of this school year a success.

Our new freshmen came together to participate in our LINK program to start off the school year. This program pairs our senior and junior students with our incoming freshmen to provide guidance and support as they transition to high school. Our goal is to create a school where students feel a sense of belonging in our school community and empowerment to contribute to our school culture.

This school year, we are continuing to find ways to support our students. We are providing a Virtual Learning experience for those students who need that option to eliminate unnecessary risks for those fragile family members who live with them. At times when students need to quarantine, our staff is providing curriculum and assessment on the Learning Management System - Canvas. The staff engages students learning remotely by providing Google Hangout Meets during the scheduled class period to make learning at home synchronous and keep connected with our students. We are encouraging students to check their emails daily for information and communications from their instructors.

We are continuing to use the BARR (Building Assets and Reducing Risks) Program, which is similar to the team concept used at the middle school, and HOPE, an alternative learning environment that provides students support to be successful. We will also utilize the Aspire Interim Assessment as a benchmark assessment to help find the gaps in skills and standards that may have occurred over the school closure this past spring and also help prepare students for the Aspire test.

Students are fortunate to be participating in activities, clubs, and an athletic season this fall. Parents are able to cheer on their children at home events. The Big Rivers Conference Athletic Directors and Superintendents worked collectively to come to an agreement on how to minimize the spread of COVID across districts. We appreciate your support of the new guidelines as we continue throughout the season.

Even though this year will be unlike no other, we will get through this together. We look forward to continuing to serve our families and our students this school year to the best of our ability.

Respectfully yours,

Donna Goodman

Chippewa Falls Senior High School Principal

Our district is working each day to continually improve settings for students to learn, teachers to teach, employees to work, and parents to send their children to school in order to obtain the District’s Mega-Result. During our return to learning this fall, we are committed to listening and responding to your experiences as a parent or guardian to student(s) in our school system. Our partners at Huron (Studer) Education are providing an opportunity for you to share feedback anonymously, at the link below.

Please take a few minutes to complete the 30-Day Parent/Caregiver Survey at this link: Parent Survey Link.

The survey is scheduled to open on September 25 and remain open through October 2, 2020.

The survey takes approximately 5 minutes to complete. Your feedback will be used to celebrate our successes and to enhance action plans for improvement associated with our return to school and into the future. Your input is valuable; please take a few minutes to complete the survey.

Thank you for your interest in and support of your child’s education with us. Please contact my office at 715-738-2660 ext. 1803 if you have any questions concerning the survey.

Sincerely,

Jeff Holmes

Superintendent

Progress (Parent/Teacher) Conferences are going to look different this year as compared to what you may have experienced in the past.

Progress Conferences will be held virtually on October 13 and October 15. Your son or daughter’s period 1-4 teachers will be sending a link to the conference sessions available on those evenings. If you've checked your child’s progress in Infinite Campus and feel a need to meet with their teacher, please sign-up for a time slot. You will be sent a google hangout meet’s link for the corresponding conference on one of those evenings. Thanks for partnering with us!

On Tuesday, September 1, we held LINK Day, our transition program, at Chi-Hi. LINK Crew is a program that welcomes the freshman class on the first day of school as well as continues to support them throughout their first year of high school. Junior and Senior students led groups of freshmen in team building activities, campus tours and walked through their schedule. These leaders help freshmen navigate the start of their high school experience on a positive note. More and more studies show that if students have a positive experience their first year in high school, their chance for success increases dramatically. Link Crew provides the structure for freshmen to receive support and guidance from juniors and seniors who have been through the challenges that high school poses, and understand that the transition to a larger school can sometimes be overwhelming.

All students had a great time on LINK Day!

A new class is being offered, Remote Pilot Training! This semester, students are learning the ins and outs of flying drones or small unmanned aerial vehicles, sUAV’s. Each student is given a small micro-drone to learn how to operate and fly in all sorts of conditions. Chippewa Falls Senior High School has partnered with dronepilotgroundschool.com which has awarded each student a scholarship worth $460! Through this partnership, students have full access to the Drone Pilot Ground School curriculum which will help prepare them to take the commercial remote pilot license exam under FAA-107.

The curriculum is rigorous and covers many aeronautical topics like airport operations, sectional chart reading, shortwave radio communications, weather and federal, state, and local regulations. In addition, Drone Pilot Ground School will reimburse the $160 FAA exam fee for students who successfully complete the exam with a score of 70% or higher.

As part of this course, students will also need to demonstrate flight proficiency by conducting simulated inspections, search and rescue operations, and video production assignments using a variety of DJI sUAV’s (Tello, Mavic, and Phantom). We will virtually connect with the Airport Tower, Airforce fighter pilots, and even a NASA intern to see how sUAV’s are becoming more and more relevant in society.

Dorais Field Fly Over (DJI Mavic Air 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrmzLo81CRA

Attention Parents/Guardians:

SENIOR PICTURES - Due October 1 to Mr. Sikkink via email or on a disc. Discs can be dropped off to Mr. Sikkink in room 139.

Please help your student keep their memory sharp about their high school experience by ordering a 2020-21 Chi-Hi Monocle!

Order today for the Early Bird price of $59.00! The deadline for ordering the yearbook at this price is December 6. This book will retail at $75.00 on distribution day, so don’t delay and reserve your student’s copy today!

Orders can be made on-line at this link: http://www.yearbookforever.com. Or if you are not comfortable ordering on-line there are order forms available in the main office that can be used to place an order.

Thanks,

Scott Sikkink

sikkinsr@chipfalls.org

Yearbook Advisor

735 Terrill St.

Chippewa Falls, WI 54729

715-726-2406 ext. 1327

We have a limited supply of internet hotspots available for students to check-out in the high school library. Many have not been returned from use in the spring and we have been working on contacting those families to get them back so that our HS and MS take-home program has access to the internet to complete homework.

National Voter Education Week is October 5-9, 2020. All senior homerooms will view a presentation created by Chippewa Valley Votes, a nonpartisan, community volunteer group, to assist all seniors at the Chippewa Falls Senior High School with voter registration. This collaborative activity allows teachers and trained community members to work side-by-side (virtually) to assist students in demonstrating the skills to participate in the electoral process. Seniors are reminded to bring their driver’s license or state ID to class so they can utilize the official voter registration process. Providing this important civic lesson is just another way that the Chippewa Falls School District is preparing students for life-long success.

Check out the latest issue of the Guidelines Newsletter!

"Guidelines" is published by the high school Student Services department. They will be sending this newsletter to you several times throughout the school year. You will find information pertaining to post-secondary planning information, testing dates and preparation tips, course scheduling, and much more.

Five unexcused absences equal habitual truant status - Further action must be taken per statute. There is no actual number of maximum excused absences per statute or policy

The only way absence can be excused per policy and statute:

• Illness or Injury (medical note may be required for frequent or extended *no day limit required*) Also, per student handbook, students can be placed “on medical” for excessive absences due to illness, which would require a medical excuse for all future “illness absences”

• Dental, Medical, Optometry, Psychological, Social Services, Military Personnel appointments. (Should be scheduled outside of school hours if possible)

• Death, Funeral, Wedding (immediate family)

• Family Emergency

• Court Appearance

• Appointment with Post-Secondary schools

• Family Vacations (must notify in advance AND is limited to 10 excused days under this category)

Questionable requests can be denied based on students' academic performance, as well as the nature of the request, and other reasons. In other words, we have the right to refuse an excused absence.

Stop by the Heyde Center (3 S. High Street) parking lot on Wednesday, October 7 between 9:00am and 3:00pm to participate in this giveaway.

Rain date is Wednesday, October 14 from 9:00am to 3:00pm.

1. Who is the child that tested positive?

Chippewa County Department of Public Health cannot release any further information on the identity of the child. Please refrain from speculating about the identity of the child or the family.

2. I was not contacted about my child being a close contact. What should I do now?

If you did not receive a communication from Public Health, your child was not identified as a close contact during a joint investigation by the school district and CCDPH. You should continue monitoring your child for symptoms. If your child does not develop symptoms, they are able to continue attending school, unless your family would prefer to use virtual learning opportunities.

3. My child is a close contact of a positive case. What should I do now?

Follow the guidance given by Public Health. Keep the child home for 14 days from the last contact with the positive case. If your child develops symptoms, get him or her tested. However, a negative test does not exclude a child from the 14 day quarantine.

4. My child is a close contact of one of the students that was a close contact to a positive. What do I do now? There are no restrictions to contacts of a contact, as long as both children remain well. If any child develops symptoms, keep your child home from school. If symptoms develop, we also recommend testing.

5. My child is sick. What should I do?

You should remove your child from school and schedule a test with your provider.

• Dorais Field Livestream
  
• Chi-Hi Main Gym Livestream
  
• Save money with the All Season Sports Pass
  
• Chi-Hi Athletics & Activities Website
• Photos of Events happening at Chi-Hi taken by Dan Loomis