3-12-2020
Notice to our Parents, Students, and the Continental Community:
The Continental Local School District is closely monitoring the situation and is making the necessary preparations in case the COVID-19 becomes more prevalent in our community. As always, the safety of our students, staff, and families remains our top priority. This morning the Putnam County school superintendents, nurses, and principals met with the Putnam County Health Department to gather the latest information on this ongoing crisis and to attempt to establish procedures moving forward regarding school activities. We have acted and will continue to act in an abundance of caution to protect everyone’s health and wellbeing.
As you are probably aware, late this afternoon the Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine ORDERED the closing of all public, private, and charter schools for 3 weeks. As a result, Continental will be closed starting Monday, March 16th and remain closed for the next three weeks. We anticipate returning to school on Monday, April 6th, however, that is subject to change, depending on guidance from the Governor’s Office and the Health Department.
As a district, we are currently working through the best lesson delivery models based on the age/grade level of your child. That may involve online learning, homework packets, etc. We will continue instruction in this fashion until it is deemed safe to return to school. We will work with our teachers over the next couple of days to prepare these lessons and information on how it will be distributed will be passed along in the near future.
Upcoming student field trips, school activities, and extracurricular events have been postponed or canceled for at least the next three weeks. We are making decisions on these events through the guidance of the Governor and our Health Department. This includes all practices and rehearsals for the upcoming spring sports season and the school musical. We will continue to keep our students, families, and the public posted of other cancellations and changes in the schedule through our text alert system. If you are not already utilizing our text alert system, you can subscribe here: http://ohioalerts.org/Continental/Subscribe
The Continental Local School District has approached this situation with an abundance of caution. To that end, we will be closing the campus to all non-educational activities immediately, including public use of the weight room and buildings.
This is an unprecedented challenge for everyone in our community and around the state. While you will undoubtedly have many questions about all of this, we ask for your patience as we work through the many directives and recommendations from our public officials and public health leaders. In the weeks ahead, there will be challenges that will come up that we will work through together. Your patience and understanding as we work through these issues will help us come through this challenge and grow as a community.
Other updates and information will be available via our website. WWW.CONTINENTALPIRATES.ORG
Respectfully,
Danny F. Kissell
Superintendent
Continental Local School District
