It was tough to pick a winner for Ms. Snow's St. Patrick's Day in-house Scavenger Hunt, but Rianna's Lego alligator narrowly beat Mia Taylor's mini food collection and Ty Otto"s Boy Scout Badge. $5 Amazon Card will be in your email!
Look what I found on my walk across WIU campus today! Thank you Luke Wickman for the shout out to both of your Alma Maters! #proudtobeaduck
Tomorrow, March 18, we will be adding 3 stops to our meal delivery routes. From 8:00-8:30 meals will be distributed at Blue Sky and Mason County Housing. At 10:15 a stop will be made in Matanzas Beach. Look for the yellow buses!
New Central office will be open again tomorrow, 3/18, for students to pick up computers and packets. We will be here from 8:00-12:00. Absolute last chance to order yearbooks will be tomorrow. We do have extra forms.
We are ready for you! All students may receive breakfast and lunch every day at 3 locations. Pull behind the school at New Central, Fire Station in Kilbourne and the bus stop in Bath. Distribution from 9:00-10:00.
Additional information for District #126 Athletes, Coaches and Parents:
- All athletes are encouraged to try and stay in shape, by running, exercising, lifting weights, etc...on their own when possible.
- The HS weight room as well as all school facilities are closed during the shutdown, per the release sent out by Governor Pritzker, the State and the IHSA.
- Coaches can still have contact with their athletes through technology, but cannot meet with groups of athletes.
- Athletes should not practice or play with current school teams, or club/travel teams during the suspension or they will be ruled ineligible by the IHSA when the Spring season resumes.
- There will be no non-school activities (outside entities), school activities, or sports allowed on the school premises during the shutdown.
- When more information becomes available, we will share that with you. Any cancelled contests during the shutdown will only be rescheduled if they are conference contests and we can do so. We will also take into consideration the amount of practices a team has had, before we look at competing, to reduce injuries.
- Once the ban is lifted, we will try and resume regularly scheduled events, as directed by the IHSA and our District.
Havana CUSD #126 thanks you for your understanding and patience during this difficult time and encourage everyone to do their part to help contain this issue. Stay home and stay healthy! Go Ducks!
STATEWIDE MANDATORY SCHOOL CLOSURES MARCH 17-30
March 16th, 2020
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Our Administrative Team began working on plans for a possible shutdown early last week before anything was announced. We are working with state and community partners to protect our community during the growing coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. To further safeguard Illinois from the spread of the virus, Governor JB Pritzker declared mandatory school closures for all buildings, both public and private, serving pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students.
This mandatory closure takes effect Tuesday, March 17. Currently, we anticipate reopening on March 31. During this time there are to be no school sponsored functions including practices or any extra-curricular activities. We have also been told that it is very possible this forced closure could be extended into April.
Free lunch and breakfast will be available to all students starting on Tuesday, March 17th. All meals will be bagged for pick up daily between the hours of (9:00am - 10:00am). People can pick up a free breakfast and lunch sack for every child regardless of their designation of free, reduced or paid. All meals will be free to all students during this forced closure. There will be 3 meal pickup locations: New Central Elementary (back door drive through by the gym/cafeteria door), the Kilbourne (Fire Station), and the Bath bus stop (one block east of the square by city hall).
We are committed to keeping students engaged in their learning during this statewide school closure. Last week our administrators were developing e-learning plans for educating students at home. The governor declared these days "Act of God" days which is an official school calendar designation. These days don't have to be made up and our remaining emergency days don't have be used during this period. Education is not required during Act of God days, so no grades should be given and no student should be punished for not doing work on these days. It is required that we provide learning opportunities for students during this time and we have.
To supplement these services, the Illinois State Board of Education encourages you to engage your children in other free, online educational activities. The Illinois State Board of Education has compiled a library of resources at www.isbe.net/keeplearning. We are sending students home with devices and books so they can keep learning during these days off.
Concern over this new virus can make children anxious. It is very important to remember that children look to adults for guidance on how to react to stressful events. If adults seem overly worried, children's anxiety may rise. Adults should reassure children that health and school officials are working hard to ensure that people throughout the country stay healthy.
Children also need factual, age-appropriate information about the potential seriousness of disease risk, so the focus of conversation should be concrete instructions about how to avoid infections and the spread of disease. Teaching children positive measures, talking with them about their fears, and giving them a sense of some control over their risk of infections can help reduce anxiety.
Please talk with your children about precautions they can take to stay healthy, including:
● Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is best, especially if they are visibly dirty. An alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol is a suitable alternative. Consider showing your children one of these videos about proper hand washing technique: www.cdc.gov/handwashing.
● Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
● Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
● Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash and wash your hands.
● Stay home if you are able to stay home. Avoid travel if you can.
The National Association of School Psychologists has additional guidelines about talking to children about COVID-19 at https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-climate-safety-and-crisis/health-crisis-resources/talking-to-children-about-covid-19-(coronavirus)-a-parent-resource.
This is a very fluid and ever changing situation and there is no precedent to be followed. The governor, the state of Illinois, ISBE, communities and schools are all doing the best they can to limit the spread of this virus. Sometimes we get information and direction from one of these agencies only to have it changed just hours later with new information. You need to be patient and wait for information to be shared. Sharing information only to have it changed hours later can become very confusing to people. When we feel we have finalized accurate information to share, we will use the district web page and our social media platforms to do so. Please do not hesitate to email your building administrator or Superintendent Plater if you have specific questions. This action is being done to limit the spread of the virus, so please keep your children home and out of the public as much as possible.
Sincerely,
R. Mathew Plater
Superintendent Plater
All District #126 Extra-curricular activities, practices, meetings, workouts are cancelled until further notice. When we have more information about when we can resume, we will notify. If you are on a club/travel team and practice or participate with that group, the athlete would then be ineligible for IHSA competition in that sport. Thank you for understanding and doing your part to help with this current situation. Stay home and stay healthy.
We will have school as usual on Monday and be closed March 17th - 30th as ordered by the Governor. Our administrative team started preparing for a possible shutdown early last week. Our team will finalize our plans and instructions after we meet on Monday. These are unprecedented times for IL Schools. We don't have all the answers to all the questions at this time, but information will be shared once final decisions are made. The principals have prepared plans to provide instruction through e-learning for the 2 week shutdown. We are working with Aramark to continue to provide breakfast and lunch to all students on a pick up basis with more details to follow. We will pass on information about spring sports and other extra-curricular events when we have more guidance from the state of IL. You need to be prepared for this closure to possibly be extended in to April if things have not calmed down as expected. Please follow all the recommended practices of hand washing, stay in if you are sick and avoid large public gatherings. We will continue to communicate any and all changes with you when we have more information to share. Supt. Plater
Congratulations to Caleb Layton on signing with Greenville University, in Greenville, IL to play Football next Fall! Go Ducks!
The IESA State Wrestling Finals scheduled for this weekend in DeKalb, have been cancelled due to NIU not being allowed to host. We know this is tough for all the athletes and families involved, but at this time, health of everyone is the top priority. We want to congratulate Cash Wellbourne and Brayden Barner once again on advancing to State, we are proud of you and your accomplishment! Go Ducks!
First grade celebrated Read Across America last week by doing fun Dr Seuss activities.
Congratulations to Ryne Lorek, Savannah Hausman, and Emmie Taylor on winning the 3rd quarter agenda challenge in Mrs. Pratt's classroom!
8th Volleyball falls in 2 tough sets to DeeMack tonight at IESA Regionals. Ducks finish the season at 14-11.
8th Volleyball is back in action at the IESA Regional tonight, 6pm start vs DeeMack, at Illini Bluffs MS. 4:30pm bus. Go Ducks!
Congratulations to Jaden Schultz on signing with Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee to run Cross Country and Track next year! Go Ducks!
Eligible students voted for their favorite Blue Stem books today at New Central.
There will be no player/parent meeting for HHS baseball tomorrow evening. It will be postponed to a later date next week.
The Havana HS Band & Chorus students had a very successful day at IHSA Solo & Ensemble Contest on Saturday in Rushville. McKenna Bleem, Kellie Boyce, and Justyne Lane-Mitchell received Best of Day for their trio vocal performance. Great job, everyone!
Great showing tonight fromTaylor Sarnes and Justyne Lane-Mitchell at the senior All-Star game in Jacksonvil.Both girls played well and demonstrated great teamwork with many talented players in the area. Special Congrats to Justyne for receiving the MVP award for the Lincoln team
