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  • From the Desk of the Superintendent- VV Reopening Plan

    Hello fellow Spartans, As the days approach toward September 8th, I wanted you to see our plan on how we anticipate re-opening school this fall. While I fully appreciate the recommendation of the Montgomery County Health Department on their recommendation for all schools in the county to go online for the beginning of the year, Governor Dewine also shared that schools should look at their local data to make the best decision for their students. As of this moment, we do not have the best data in the county, but we most certainly are not near being one of the most hard hit areas. To be fair, we would like to keep it that way. To that end, in getting feedback from the community, teachers, and health experts, I am recommending to the Valley View Board of Education to approve the following hybrid plan:   http://valleyview.k12.oh.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VV-Reopening-Plan-3.0-for-Board-Approval.pdf This involves a phased re-opening of our schools. This is being done to ensure that as we re-open that we do not cause of rash of cases within our community. We want ALL of our kids to be safe. The best analogy I have for this is that we are going to crawl first, then walk, then jog, and then run. We just want to do each phase safely and to do it well. I understand that some will not like this plan. I fully understand it. We have looked at this issue for months and are focused on two themes 1) Keeping students and staff safe from COVID-19 and, 2) Getting kids back to the school for the learning and social/emotional needs. If all goes well, we will have students attending more frequently in a matter of weeks. If it doesn't go well, we will move to remote before our district would cause a mass outbreak in the area. The data will drive our decision-making process. I know I speak for many staff members that we are anxious to see our students again. We want to finish the year with them and ensure that all of us stay healthy during that time. I am going to do a Facebook live event tonight at 8:00 P.M. if you would like to log-on and ask questions or hear responses. It is difficult to convey every question in a single document, and I will do my best to answer your questions this evening. I would like to personally thank everyone who reached out to me, took the time to fill out a survey, emailed thoughts and ideas, or shared an idea with an administrator. Many of you will see some of your ideas in this plan. It is not possible to make everyone happy, but we are trying to make everyone safe while still providing a high quality education and meeting the social and emotional needs of our students. Proud to be your Superintendent, Ben Richards

    Tuesday, Aug 11 2020

  • From the Desk of the Superintendent- July 31st

    Valley View community, Valley View Local Schools is currently reviewing the recommendations from Dayton & Montgomery County Public Health. Our goal has always been to rely on the expertise of public health experts as we make the final determinations for a safe start to school in the Fall. The recommendation from Dayton & Montgomery County Public Health can be found here:   https://www.phdmc.org/coronavirus-updates/387-recommendations-on-montgomery-county-k-12-schools-reopening One of the important steps we took to ensure the health and safety of students and staff was to delay the start of classes until September 8. The Valley View Reopening Task Force and our community has provided feedback that will shape version 3.0 of our plan. We will refer to this public health recommendation and subsequent updates as we create the next version. We know our data has shown a relatively low incidence of COVID-19 in our district, and we know the importance of having students in the classroom. As such, we are looking to determine how best to move forward. We are going to postpone our release of Version 3.0 until such time as we can better determine how we can proceed. Our efforts to have sports and school are directly tied to our our ability to have low/no outbreaks of COVID-19. I ask our entire community to take appropriate precautions in order to give our students the best chances possible. Proud to be your Superintendent, Ben Richards

    Friday, Jul 31 2020

  • From the Desk of the Superintendent- July 27th- Scho...

    As promised, you will find links to the Valley View School Reopening Guide Version 2.0.  As a reminder, there will still be additional changes to this document moving forward as we receive more feedback, data, etc. While we have tried to put a number of details into the document, let me attempt to give you a "Reader's Digest" version: Online Only - Under no circumstance will your student be in the building for the first semester. Vendor based curriculum with VV support. In Perso n - Students will physically attend Valley View in different formats depending on what level we are under.  It is possible for us to go between these levels as our situation changes. Cautious Foundation - Enhanced cleaning and protective measures.  This would feel somewhat like "normal school" Concern - Face coverings now required of everyone.  Certain aspects of our school will start to feel more different. Elevated Concern - Based upon data, we would need a more restrictive approach while still giving students the ability to come to school, receive help, etc. while preserving significant safety factors. Remote Learning - Teacher directed instruction via a computer. You can see a copy of Version 2.0 by going here:  http://valleyview.k12.oh.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/VV-Reopening-Plan-DRAFT-2.0-7.25.20.pdf Additionally, we would ask that a parent complete the following survey for each student in your family to better help us create our future drafts by giving us more accurate data:   https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1VgsUrtv73ev6Cw1X5dUe9VIcWfNw-41ptfq8AlBDeswbaA/viewform Please do your best to complete the survey by Tuesday afternoon so we can share it with the Reopening Task Force on Wednesday. So much is changing by the day that I sincerely appreciate the patience and flexibility of all involved. Proud to be your Superintendent, Ben Richards

    Monday, Jul 27 2020

  • From the Desk of the Superintendent- July 24th

    Happy Friday to everyone!   Obviously, school reopening plans are a major topic for everyone (students, parents, and students) right now.  On Monday, I will be sending out Version 2.0 of the school reopening plan.  Note: There will absolutely be a Version 3.0.  In addition to publicizing 2.0, we will also provide a survey for people to share their opinions and to let us know, as of your thoughts next week , what you are planning to do.  We would kindly ask that people complete the survey by Tuesday afternoon so that our task force can examine the data.  The official selection of options will not occur until the week of August 10th.  The survey next week will be anonymous.  The official selection the week of August 10th will obviously be tied to your student through Registration Gateway.   Once again, thank you to everyone who has submitted your thoughts and questions. Hopefully the document next week will answer many of the questions I have received so far. Most of the reopening plan is taking its cue from the Health Department levels. As you know, Montgomery County is currently in a Level 3 situation. I am attaching a document from the Montgomery County Health Department that breaks down the data by zip code. You will note that we have fewer cases than most parts of the county. However, you will also see that Germantown has seen a 43% increase in the past 10 days. Yet, that is because the increase went from 21 total cases to 30. If you are worried about COVID, you can point to the 43% increase as your reason for concern. If you are not concerned, you can point to our small number of total cases. My stats professor said, "Data rarely answers questions, but it always gives you more questions to ask." I think this data is helpful to show why people can have different perceptions. While the county level system will most certainly be a part of what we are doing, I think our local data will play a role in what we are doing as well. I think it is safe to say that the coming weeks will continue to change what we do. We are committed to doing our best to provide a quality education for all students, whether that is online, in person, or virtual, if we have to go that direction. To be fair, the best education we can provide would be in person. There is simply no substitute for the work our staff does in the physical classroom. We are doing our best to provide a quality online education, and our teachers are preparing to switch to remote if necessary, but the in-person option is "what makes school, school". I am not putting down the work of our teachers or the online learning, but merely affirming what many of you already know. I know our entire staff misses our students, but we also want our students and staff to be safe. A few general notes: -Our new calendar can be found by going here: http://valleyview.k12.oh.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-2021-Revised-School-Calendar.pdf -As a result of our later start date, CTC students needing transportation to and from CTC at the beginning of the year can get on a bus at 7:20 a.m. each day. -Our tentative graduation date is Friday, May 28th at the Princeton Pike Church. I hope everyone has a great weekend! Proud to be your Superintendent, Ben Richards

    Friday, Jul 24 2020

  • From the Desk of the Superintendent- July 23rd

    Hello Valley View! Yesterday at a special meeting of the Valley View Board of Education, a calendar pushing our start date back to September 8th was approved. This will make the last day for students June 3rd. All other breaks remain the same. Our website will be updated with the new calendar by the end of the day tomorrow. Thank you to all 1,500+ individuals who provided feedback! Additionally, our Valley View Reopening Task Force met on Tuesday to examine Version 1.0 of the reopening plan. We are taking the feedback and working on Version 2.0! Some people have taken the time to email me expressing their thoughts/concerns/hopes for the beginning of the school year. We welcome the feedback. As many who have emailed me have noted, it is not going to be possible to create a plan that makes everyone happy. We understand that. Our commitment is to create a plan that emphasizes student and staff safety while keeping a sharp eye on student instruction. To that end, there will be two options presented for parents/students.  Option 1 will be an online only system.  This will self-driven, web based instruction with some involvement from VV staff.  Option 2 will be an in-person option.   As of this moment , this will be a blended learning approach that will be dictated by the health level our county is in.  Health level definitions can be found by going to this link: https://www.phdmc.org/program-documents/healthy-lifestyles/gumc/emergency/covid-19/1879-covid-19-risk-level-guidelines/file   As of now, Levels 1-3 will provide a 5 day a week experience for students at school.  A Level 4 would mean we would go to a remote education.  The remote education would be conducted by Valley View staff. While everyone (staff, students, and parents) did their best this past spring to move to remote learning with no preparation, we have been working hard to ensure that we can dramatically improve our remote/blended learning education potential. A significant amount of work has been done by our teachers this summer to improve in this new area, and more time will be spent prior to the start of school opening as well. The goal is to have a special board meeting prior to August 7th to approve our reopening plan. The week of August 10th will be the time for each family to select which option (online or in-person) they want for the first semester. Parents will use Registration Gateway to complete all back to school information along with selecting their option for each student. More instructions on how to complete this process will be forthcoming in the coming weeks. Finally, on a completely different topic, thanks to the support of our community in April, we have been continuing our work towards a building project. Since the legislature and governor recently signed SB 4 which provided $300 million for new school construction to the OFCC, we are hopeful that in the near future this process will begin to speed up for us. But work is still being done. A Facility and Visioning Committee has been touring a few buildings and will meet again next week to look at wants/needs at a broad level. Our History and Preservation Committee is going to begin exploring how best to tie our storied histories of Germantown and Farmersville into a new complex. I am excited for this process to continue and will share out our updates. We promise to keep people updated and informed. Of course, the only thing that has been constant lately is that items and events can and do change. Thank you for your support and patience as we work together to find solutions. Proud to be your Superintendent, Ben Richards

    Thursday, Jul 23 2020

  • From the Desk of the Superintendent- July 10th

    Thank you to everyone who completed a survey.  This was by far and away the most "popular" survey I have sent out. Since over 80% of the people favored a post-Labor Day start, I will be proposing a calendar change to the Valley View Board of Education to alter our calendar for the 2020-2021 school year. I hope to have that finalized in the coming days/weeks. The proposed calendar is attached to this email. I think this calendar will be more beneficial by allowing for fewer "hot" days for students while providing our staff with more time to prepare for what will most likely be a very different year. Below is a link to provide feedback on this calendar: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdLTw-yrHVZloqEvx2VYwl7QAqGyxXnOa2lIJDBX2IsLxoMlA/viewform At this time, the intent would be for 50% of students to attend on September 8th, the other 50% to attend September 9th, everyone on the 10th, and go to a one-day remote learning day on September 11th so that our staff can make alterations to procedures and routines based upon seeing how everything works with students in the buildings. The 50% days will be done by family so that everyone from the same house will attend on the same day. Other dates indicating end of the nine weeks, parent/teacher conferences, etc. will be added later. Most likely we will NOT have exams for JH and HS students since the semester will fall after Winter Break. Additionally, we will have our next Reopening Valley View Task Force meeting the week of July 20th for those committee members. During this time, we will review Version 1.0 of our reopening plan. I am sure that shortly after that meeting there will be a version 2.0. The goal as of now is to have a final version to share with people no later than August 7th so that people can decide whether they want to select the Valley View online program or the In-Person option. Both will be available. Finally, I am excited to release our Spartan One-to-World program. The flyer is attached to this message as well. This will allow us a more financially responsible way to update technology while still providing access that is needed in our current environment. In the coming weeks we will be providing an FAQ document and a Rules and Procedures, but I wanted you to get an idea of the program. Special thanks to Andy Berry and all of the teachers and staff who have worked so hard on researching this program to benefit our students and school. Thank you to everyone for your support and feedback during this time. I continue to be impressed with how our community can come together during these challenging times. Although I cannot guarantee what the future has in store for all of us, I am confident in our ability to persevere together. Proud to be your Superintendent, Ben Richards

    Friday, Jul 10 2020

  • From the Desk of the Superintendent- July 8th

    Happy July to everyone!  With the recent announcement from the governor discussing guidelines for the upcoming school year, coupled with anticipated new guidance from the CDC and the recent mandate for face coverings in our county, we wanted to get your thoughts about our school calendar.  We would appreciate it if you could take two minutes to complete the following survey. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5K05ESKm5f-AXA9cy2Jqi2_vS7a2yxu44Yxo_Ongef2VX0Q/viewform We are leaving this survey anonymous so that we can better capture the true feelings of everyone involved. We will have more updates for everyone on Friday! Proud to be your Superintendent, Ben Richards

    Thursday, Jul 09 2020

  • From the Desk of the Superintendent- July 2nd

    Happy July to everyone!  As we have finally flipped the calendar another month, August is now on the horizon, and there is a focus on what schools will look like when they reopen.  Previous communications have stated that we are moving back the first day of school to August 17th to allow staff the opportunity to better prepare for whatever changes are made in the coming weeks.  Our intent is to have a virtual option and an in-person option for students.   I appreciate the many people who have reached out to me to offer their thoughts/feelings/suggestions.  Governor DeWine recently released his guidelines for the reopening of schools in Ohio.  The link to those guidelines are below: http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Reset-and-Restart We will look at these guidelines and work with staff, parents, health experts, our county health department, and other stakeholders to finalize exactly what our plan will look like. However, know that we have already taken a few steps to be prepared for this fall, such as: - Purchasing hand sanitizers and contactless thermometers - Converting all drinking fountains to allow for filling water fountains (water bottles will probably be required) - Plexiglass dividers at secretary's desks for increased safety. - Purchased portable disinfecting machines to use in each classroom at the conclusion of every day. - Having our teachers engage in professional development to improve blended learning in case we have to transition between in person and distance learning. - Contracted with South Community to provide additional mental health counseling for next year. - By reorganizing our existing staff, we have created a position of Blended Learning/Social and Emotional Learning Coordinator to help us improve our supports for students and staff and to work with parents on various issues. - A fantastic team of teachers has been working to create a Spartan One-to-World technology program. This will start this coming school year for grades 7-12 by ensuring all students have a computer every day at school and at home. Our students will become more prepared for life after high school, we can increase the rigor and relevance of the education we provide, and we reduce an additional contact point to keep students safe. We will share information about this program next week. Our board meeting this Monday, July 6th, will now be a virtual board meeting due to local health concerns. Anyone wishing to participate in the public participation section should contact our treasurer, Laura Sauber, at laura.sauber@valleyview.k12.oh.us no later than Monday at 3:00 P.M. Please include your name, address, and topic. The Zoom link for the board meeting is provided below: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82032325507 I appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to navigate these uncharted waters. Proud to be your Superintendent, Ben Richards

    Friday, Jul 03 2020