Central District 51 Newsletter

Central 51 Families,

We are ending our second full week with our students returning to five days a week in-person learning. Wednesday, February 17, 2021 was like the very first day of school all over again. The students brought our school to life more than it has been since March 13, 2020. There were glitches here and there but it has been impressive how our teachers, students and parents have adjusted in such a short time. We are grateful that we were able to get to this point and look forward to many productive days ahead. Our community's patience and flexibility throughout this school year has been remarkable and greatly appreciated.

We ask parents and those picking up and dropping off students to follow the guidelines that each principal has released. You can find the most up to date guidelines here. It is imperative that these are followed in order to reduce the number of cars backed up each day.

We want to continue to remind our parents that we do need your help. On many school days, we continue to have students arrive at school with known symptoms and unfortunately they have to be sent home. It is critical for the safety of our students and staff that students do not come to school with any symptoms that are COVID-19 related. Our administrators and staff can control the environment at school but only parents can help control this issue by keeping ill students home.

Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with any of these symptoms may have COVID-19 and should not attend school:

• Headache

• Abdominal pain

• Congestion or runny nose

• Sore throat

• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

• Fatigue

• Muscle or body aches

• New loss of taste or smell

• Cough

• Nausea or vomiting

• Diarrhea

• Fever or chills

Please contact your school’s nurse to notify them of your reason for the absence and if you have any questions about quarantine procedures. You can call the numbers below during school hours or use the Family COVID-19 Reporting Form after school hours.

CPS

Carrie Bright

444-3580 ext. 3303

cbright@central51.net

CIS

Kim Martin

444-3943 ext. 2404

kmartin@central51.net

Again, we cannot thank our parents and students enough for your continued support and flexibility as our district navigates the pandemic. Updates will continue to be provided each Friday which summarize the number of students and staff who are in quarantine, isolation and those that have tested positive with COVID-19 in our district.

If you have questions regarding Central School District 51 please don’t hesitate to contact me at (309) 444-3943 or at dheidbreder@central51.net.

Many of our staff have had at least their first vaccination shot and in the near future will be receiving their second shot to be fully vaccinated. The Tazewell County Health Department reported on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 that they had given 30,324 doses and that currently there are 7,432 that are fully vaccinated. We are appreciative of the work our local health departments have been doing in our area. Their partnership during these times has been vital to helping us keep in-person learning in our schools.

Online Registration for Kindergarten 2021-2022 is now open! Please visit the Registration Information tab on our website between March 1st and March 15th to register your new kindergarten student for the 2021-2022 School Year.

• Kindergarten students must be 5 years old by September 1, 2021 to be eligible for the 2021-2022 school year.

• Kindergarten screenings will be conducted two days in June. More information will be available at a later date.

We have updated our website! Most information is organized under the MENU button. Please check out our new website design at www.central51.net

Reading Curriculum Update- Reading Wonders K-5 is designed to meet the needs of today’s classroom. This ELA curriculum, adopted in the summer of 2020 for six years, contains research-based print and digital resources to support a solid literacy foundation, writing to a variety of sources, accessing fiction and nonfiction texts, along with building social emotional learning skills for students. Below are links to the scope and sequence for grades K-5. Additionally, you will find the link to the ratings from EdReports.

Scope and sequence links

EdReports Ratings

Study Sync (grades 6-8) is the ELA curriculum focused on strong skills and standards-based instruction to provide a solid foundation for success in high school. Teachers have flexibility to customize these tools to meet the needs of students. The library of classic and contemporary texts continues to expand well beyond 2000.

Key standards supported

EdReports Ratings

The Central Gala Committee supported purchasing 62 Elmo document cameras totaling $24,366.00 for K-8 teachers beginning with the 2018 school year. This is one of the steps taken to ensure that each classroom is outfitted with the same technology tools.

This is a mounted camera attached to a digital projector that allows students and staff to project documents and other objects onto the board for the class to see. Teachers working with students who are attending class remotely are able to view items within the classroom as if they are in person with their classmates.

IAR testing for grades 3-8 (ELA and math) will begin on April 12th, 2021.

Students will complete testing during the week of April 12-16th and begin any makeup testing as soon as possible. Updates will be passed along accordingly.

The Illinois Science Assessment for students in grades 5th and 8th is currently scheduled to begin the week of April 26th, 2021. More information will be shared after spring break.

Now that the construction projects are complete, Central 51 is circling back around on the rest of our campus and in the beginning stages of the creation of a 3-year facilities plan. While there are parts of our district that are new, we have other areas that are over 60 years old. There has been a long tradition of taking care of what we have to the best of our abilities to make it last. We are committed to continuing that legacy.

Brandon Dash, Central 51 Facilities Director, has been working to develop a 3-5 year facilities plan for the district in coordination with our administrative team and BLDD Architects, Inc. Because of the age of certain areas of the roof at Central Intermediate School, we need to prepare for some repairs that will need to be completed during the next 4-5 years in phases. A roof is something that is usually not seen by the public but if not kept up is very noticeable and costly. By completing these roof repairs now, it will will increase the life of our current roof system at CIS. The anticipated total cost of CIS roof repairs over the next 4-5 years is around $1.4 million.

The first phase (sections 1-4) will be completed this summer which consists of Holford Gym, locker rooms, new CIS and District Offices. The district will utilize around $203,294.71 of Health Life Safety Funds to offset the total cost of $406,000 for this summer. The rest of the repairs for this summer will be paid for out of the Operations and Maintenance Fund.

Encourage Excellence Every Day with Compassion, Commitment and Community

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