Stratford students will need to wear masks on campus
The Stratford Board of Education voted on an addendum on COVID rules to the 2020-21 middle/high school student handbook at a special meeting on Monday in the Stratford High School band room.
All students are required to wear masks to cover their nose and mouth. Middle school students won’t be assigned lockers and will instead keep their school materials in their assigned classroom.
High school students will be assigned lockers that are more spaced out than in previous years. High school students should only use their lockers before school, before and after lunch and after school to allow for more physical distancing in the narrow hallways.
Middle school students will be allowed to carry backpacks to their classrooms because they won’t have lockers. High school students, meanwhile, won’t be allowed to have backpacks in school. Students won’t be allowed to bring cell phones into the classrooms.
There will be a four-period school day that includes two middle school and high school lunch shifts each. Inperson high school students are encouraged to eat breakfast during their 9:30 a.m. advisory period, because some of them won’t be eating lunch until after 1 p.m.
Open campus will be available to juniors and seniors during their lunch and study halls, but school administration will continuously re-evaluate it for individual students based on their discipline and how well they are doing academically in school. Juniors and seniors who choose to leave school for home during their lunch and study halls must sign out in the high school office. Any parent not wanting to give their children permission to leave school during lunch and study halls needs to contact Janeen LaBorde, Stratford middle and high school principal.
Student excused absences will be relaxed during the coronavirus pandemic. Students will be asked and are encouraged to stay home when they aren’t feeling well, but students whose absences become habitual will still be asked to provide the school with notes from doctors. Unexcused absences and excessive, unjustified excused absences will continue to be subjected to state truancy laws. Students attending school virtually from home will be marked absent if they don’t make adequate daily progress. Midterm and quarter grades will be mailed home to parents each quarter. Parents should closely monitor Skyward throughout the term because with block scheduling, it can be very easy for a student to quickly fall behind on learning material.
COVID-19 requires Stratford middle and high school students to follow certain health guidelines to lower the risk of infection and spread of illness among students and staff. Students who refuse to abide by these measures and increase the risk of others during the coronavirus pandemic by their behavior will be subject to disciplinary measures or asked to attend the virtual school option rather than in person learning.
In other news:
_ The school board approved the resignation of Chris Fischer, middle and high school math teacher, after he took a new job in Marshfield. School board members chose to have Katie Wojcik teach high school math and it hired Olivia Hintze of Stratford to teach middle school math.
_ Blake Lehman is replacing Fischer as a Stratford varsity football assistant coach. Jenny Wussow was added two weeks ago as a new Stratford varsity volleyball assistant coach.
