The first day is almost here and our staff is extremely excited to get our students back in the building. I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy the fair this week and support the students participating, and we will see you next week. As always if you ever have any questions or just want to talk about something please, reach out to me.

Remember to check the website often for updates, and download the Eastern App.

Nick Dettwiller

Superintendent

Eastern Local School District

740-667-6079

ndettwiller@easternlocal.net

Stronger Together

OPEN HOUSE

Thursday, AUGUST 24, 2023

5:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Come join us August 24th for our annual open house. Meet your teachers, explore the building, hear from building leaders, play some games, win some prizes, and get some free food!

• K-6 students can participate in an new student orientation with the first session starting at 5:00 and the second session starting at 6:00 in the Elementary Cafeteria.

• The Jr./Sr. High School doors will open at 5pm, and schedules will be available in the cafeteria for all students grades 9-12. Junior-High students and their parents will be directed to their first period class and will receive their schedule from their first period teacher.

  A freshmen/new student orientation will begin at 6pm beginning in the high school gymnasium, We will discuss basics of the credit system, and crucial information for first year high school students along with giving a tour of the building.

We are very happy to let the families of Eastern know that the District will be providing classroom school supply kits for students K-12 for the 23-24 school year. The kits will include all essential items from each grade’s school supply list.

Families will need to supply backpacks, a personal refillable water bottle (if wanted) and gym shoes for each elementary child. There may be a few additional items that teachers request throughout the school year specific to their individual classroom needs. The school supply kits are scheduled to be available at Open House, August 24. The kits will be in the students homerooms.

Please note there will be a flyer in the school supply kits with information about how families can help with learning loss. We hope these school supply kits will help ease the back to school financial burden for all families.

The Free Lunch program has run out so school lunches will not be free this year at school. Prices will be 2.90 per lunch.

Breakfast will still be free though for all students.

One big key for us as a district is everyone filling out the free and reduced lunch forms. These are critical for our funding mechanisms through the state. Even if you don't think you will qualify it is critical we get one these filled out for every student. Having these forms can have a huge impact on our State funding, and making sure every student who qualifies will receive a free lunch.

We will have district wide fees for damaged or lost Chromebooks and chargers. These are a valuable tool for students and prices for repairs and replacements continue to go up. Please take care of these learning tools.

Students first day of school is the 25th of August. The Open House will be August 24th from 5:00-7:00. The calendar is below if you have any questions.

23-24 School Calendar

The Eastern High School Student Driver Parking Permit Application is posted on the school website and can be accessed through the link below. The permit is required for CCP students who still take at least one class on campus and vocational students as well. Full-time CCP students are not required to have a parking permit. Please stop in the high school office and pick one up or print them and bring the completed form to school on the first day. Mr. Thompson will process the required $10 payment for permits that day, and coordinate the issuing of permits and spots for students who have completed the form at this time. For this reason students may park in any spot on the first day of school. Please note, parent/guardian signatures are required for the completion of this form before a permit may be given.

Looking Forward to a Wonderful Year Together,

Garret Hall,

Principal Eastern Jr./Sr. High School

23-24 Parking Permit Form

Mr. Garret Hall is the 7-12 Principal, and Dr. Tara Bell is the K-6 Principal. You can learn more about them and their schools in the videos in this newsletter.

Ally Pullins an Alumni was hired as the new Intervention Specialist for 7th and 8th. Ally comes to us from Federal Hocking where she taught for 5 years.

Lauren Rose was hired as the new K-3 Intervention specialist. She comes to us from Unioto where she was a teacher for 4 years.

We also have several Ohio University fellows helping us this year.

At the Elementary we have:

Annalese Marrison - K through 4th intervention

Olivia Zuzek and Emily Adamson-5th & 6th grade intervention

Also we have 16 teacher candidates that will be working with Eastern teachers in different grade levels.

At the High School we have:

Zachary Graham: 7-12 Intervention

Abby Bailey: 8th Grade English Language Arts

Carley Mills: Spanish

We are excited to add these strong people to our team.

The doors will open at 7:30 and all K-12 students must be in the building by 7:45. There will be plenty of grace given those first few weeks as everyone adjusts. Details on preschool start times to come soon.

After much discussion and strategies over the last couple years, our 7th and 8th grade students will be housed in the High School this year. This allows much more flexibility in scheduling and more opportunities for our students long term. We are excited about the opportunities it gives us as a district and for our students.

The Eastern Early Learning Center will now be housed on the Eastern Local Campus in the Elementary. We believe this will help our little Eagles transition to the building and allow our teams to better share resources and get our students what they need. The Eastern Early Learning Center will still be run separately from Eastern Local, but this move will help us collaborate more effectively. The preschool students do not start until September 5th, with an Open House on September 1st. Watch the website and social media for more updates coming soon.

The Weight Room Renovation is complete and looks great.

The High School Roof replacement is almost complete. They will still be working on some HVAC ductwork and some trim after school has started, but it will not effect classes.

The HVAC Replacements in the High School, Library, Kitchen, and Elementary gym are almost all complete.

Door replacements around campus are going much slower than expected. The lead time on equipment is very long, and finding companies available to do the work is tough, but we have some estimates and it will begin this fall.

The Track was resurfaced this summer, along with new play clocks installed on the football field.

The new playground equipment is installed and ready to go.

There was tile work painting was completed in several rooms, and new blinds installed in several rooms as well.

Our custodial and matinance teams have done an amazing job this summer getting everything ready with the classroom moves and several large projects going on. We really appreciate their hard work

We have an incredible student body and our students accomplish so many amazing things every day, but as with any school we do have discipline issues and we do our very best to address them and keep our students safe and give them as many opportunities as possible. Many times because of student privacy issues our district can not give specific details about situations or investigations. Our team works daily with families and outside agencies including job and family service, children’s protective service, health care and mental health agencies, the court systems and local law enforcement just to name a few to help serve and protect our students and families. We as a district are very limited in how much of this work that involves students or student discipline that we can explain or give details about.
I know for families this can be frustrating because you don't know what is happening, or what is being addressed when in fact many times there is a lot going on that we can not share because of protecting the privacy of our students.
We encourage everyone to reach out to us with concerns or information.
I am proud to be part of a team at Eastern including our school board and staff that I know without a doubt care deeply for all of our students and the community and their work to help and serve is incredible. The personal stories I see daily from them advocating for, protecting, supporting, and empowering our students is something I’m incredibly proud of. We all care deeply for students and go above and beyond to keep them safe and help them learn and become better people everyday.
I would encourage anyone with questions or concerns to please reach out to us, and collaborate with us on making our school district the best it can possibly be.

The Eastern Local Athletic Department has had a contract with Memorial Health Systems the last 2 years for an athletic trainer, and they have been unable to find someone qualified to fill the position full time.

We have tried to work with all the local healthcare providers to get an athletic trainer and they either don’t have one available or are unwilling to contract with us. There are several other local schools in the same situation, and we want to do everything we can for our student athletes, including athletic training services.

In our rural community I feel like we are always reaching out for help from neighbors and we are doing just that.

If anyone knows someone interested in applying for the position through Memorial Health Systems, or anyone who would be willing to just put time in for specific sports or games, please reach out to us. At this point we are thinking we will have to think outside the box to provide some type of training services for our student athletes. If you have an idea, or a connection, or would be willing to do something part time, please reach out to us.

Below is the posting for Memorial Health Systems

https://us231.dayforcehcm.com/.../CAND.../Posting/View/10469

Thank you,

Nick Dettwiller

As we gear up for a new year, take some time to download the Eastern Local app. It is free wherever you download your mobile apps. You can set it to get alerts, check menus and events coming up, get updates, and read up on all the great things happening at Eastern Local.