August 13, 2021

Dear Parents & Guardians,

We hope that you and your whole family have been having a safe and restful summer.  Time has certainly flown by quickly as we are quickly approaching September.  This is South Harrison Elementary School's 2021/2022 reopening webpage.  On this page, and its corresponding sections you will find the important information your family needs to start off the 2021/2022 school year successfully.  Our school team is excited to be preparing for another school year, and there is much information to share. We will be adding information about our curricular and instructional updates, clubs and activities, and tentative plans for trips and assemblies scheduled for this coming year as they are finalized. More information will be added regularly so be sure to check back for updates and additions to this site leading to September 2nd.  We have tried to include key updates in the welcome back message to answer more pressing questions you may have.  Please see below and feel free to reach out to me directly, or call the main office at 856-769-0855 with any questions you may have.


Be sure to see the link to the left side of this page with links to many useful parts of our website to start the year!


General Information:

• Start of the year information that has been mailed out in the past will be posted on this web page over the next two weeks.  This will include information from food services, transportation, our school nurse, and more.
  
  
• Student schedules will be available in our new student information system, Alma, starting on Monday 8/23/2021.  You will receive an email from the Alma system with your web login prior to that date.  If you need assistance with Alma, please contact Mrs. Brittney Wagner in the main office at 856-769-0855.
  
  
• Please use the following link to access student supply lists for the coming school year:  Link to 2021/2022 Supply Lists
  
  
• Information from our school nurse, Nurse Beth Bakley, can be found at this link.  Please feel free to reach out to Nurse Bakley with specific questions you may have at 856-769-0855 x 1171

Transition from Kingsway to South Harrison:

We are in the process of undertaking an extensive transition from Kingsway Regional School District's shared services that had been in place here at South Harrison for quite some time.  Logan Township School District's team will now provide shared services as of 7/1/2021.  In addition, I took on the role of Chief School Administrator as of 7/1/2021.  The Chief School Administrator role is the Superintendent role and Building Principal role combined into one job.  All South Harrison operations are now overseen by me and I report to the South Harrison Board of Education.  All shared services staff report to the Chief School Administrator, and South Harrison is now operating as an independent school district. As such, there are many updates for the community in terms of who to contact for various services.  We are actively working to update all areas of our website, phone routing, contact information, etc.   If you have any questions in the meantime, you can always contact our main office at 856-769-0855.


What's new for the 2021/2022 School Year:

We are excited to welcome a new lunch room staff as well as a new Supervisor of Elementary Education, Mrs. Allison Thompson.  Mrs. Thompson comes to us with many years’ experience teaching both general and special education.  Mrs. Thompson has served as a lead teacher, and led many of the same programs and initiatives we are currently utilizing.  Mrs. Thompson will serve as second in command of the building, and will assist in oversight of many of the day-to-day building activities. Please be sure to provide her a warm South Harrison welcome when you meet her!  

In addition to new staff, we also have a wealth of new programs and resources that will be in place in the fall.  As a result of enhanced federal funding through the COVID relief grants passed under both the prior and current presidents, we are able to provide a one-to-one Chromebook program for all students in grades K-6.  We were also able to update all smart projectors in all classrooms.  In addition to technology enhancements, we will also be providing enhanced 1:1 and small group counseling opportunities for students in need of support.  We have partnered with Little Hands Family Services, LLC to provide support for our counseling program, as well as to begin training our administration and support services staff on approaches to support students stuggling with behaviors related to a variety of trauma.  The program is called "Collaborative Proactive Solutions" or CPS.  This is a research-based program, and we will start with utilzing this program in the spring at the Administrative level, with plans to expand to school-wide use in September of 2022.

Our student awards program is also being rebranded.  Our monthly awards (formerly "students of the month" and "spotlight students" will now be combined into one award called "Roadrunner's of the Month."  Each grade level will have the opportunity to nominate students based on the criteria that will be set forth by our PBSIS Committee (Positive Behavior Supports in Schools).  The PBSIS criteria is being developed through a grant partnership we have with Rutger's University and an internal district committee.  Each month one nominee per grade level and one for each special area will be named in grades K-6 (previously, Kindergarten was not included).  These students will be recognized at the monthly board meetings starting in October, and will take part in a school improvement themed activity the month following their award.  We are excited about the enhanced student recognition program, and appreciate staff and parent input that led to this shift in the program.


COVID-19 Update:

As many of you have heard, COVID-19 infection rates are once again on the rise.  As per Governor Murphy's executive order, as of Monday August 9th, all students and staff must adhere to wearing a face mask inside the building and on all school buses.  This order is in place until further notice.  Masking is optional for all students and staff outside the building.  This is regardless of vaccination status.  Parents requesting an exemption from the masking order must obtain a doctor's note from your family doctor specifying that your child is unable to wear a mask during the school day due to a documented medical condition.  Exemptions outside these parameters cannot be provided.  Virtual instruction will not be offered, with the exception of students that must quarantine or isolate due to a positive case of COVID-19 or close contact exposure as ordered by the school.  We will continue to adhere to many of the practices we had in place for 2020/2021.  We will continue to provide at least 3 feet of distancing wherever possible.  We will encourage regular handwashing and ongoing access to sanitizer.  Students will sit in homeroom cohorts at lunch, and will have assigned seating to allow for greater ease of contact tracing.  Lockers will not be used at the start of the year in grades 5-6, but we will continue to evaluate the use of lockers as the year unfolds and may reitroduce locker use later in the school year in some capacity.  While we know this news is not what anyone hoped for, our goal is to adhere to state directives and keep staff and students safe while working to establish as much normalcy and sense of routine as we can within those safety parameters.  As such, we will return to full day, 5 day a week instruction with after school clubs and activities slated to start in October.  As long as our local health conditions permit, we will continue to hold to these parameters.  Please note our first day, Thursday September 2nd is a half-day format with our first full day being Friday September 3rd.  


Transportation:

Parent drop off and pick-up procedures will continue as we did in 2020/2021.  Parent drop off will occur in front of the school from 8:20am-8:35am.  Parent pick-up will commence at 3:22pm on the side of the school.  We ask you to communicate any changes to student’s transportation (picking up early, getting picked-up instead of riding the bus, etc.) to the office as soon as you are aware of the change so we can inform your child's teacher.  Our transportation office is now housed at Logan Township's board office.  Mrs. Leah Haven is our new transportation coordinator.  Mrs. Haven can be reached at 856-467-5133 or at lhaven@logantownshipschools.org.


Food Services:

We will be offering lunch to all students free of charge as part of our federal COVID relief package for the 2021/2022 school year.  By October, we plan to offer all students free breakfast as part of the COVID-19 relief as well.  More information will be found regarding lunch on the Food Service section of this site as it is updated in the coming week.  All balances from your Kingsway food service account will be rolled over for your child for the 21/22 school year. They will not need to access these funds right away as snacks will not be sold at the start of the year by the Cafeteria and lunch will be free of charge to everyone.  Students are welcome to pack a snack for lunch, and the Food Service team will continue to assess the volume of students being served daily with the hope of re-introducing snack sales at some point later this year. Further, all grades K-6 will be permitted to have a mid-morning snack this year.  Your child's homeroom teacher will communicate what snacks are permissible via a pre-approved snack list.  Please contact your child's homeroom teacher directly or call the main office with any specific questions about the lunch program.


Multi-Purpose Room Floor:

Over the past 6 months, South Harrison Board of Education formed a community task force and contracted with an Environmental Specialist to evaluate the circumstances surrounding the floor in our Multi-Purpose Room and what trace levels of mercury exist. We contracted with Dr. Richard M. Lynch with Environmental Safety Management Corporation who has extensive expertise in this area.  A letter was mailed out to all members of the South Harrison community that on Monday August 16th we will have our regular August board meeting.  The meeting will be at 7pm in the South Harrison Elementary School Cafeteria.  All are invited to attend to hear the Dr. Lynch's final findings, and recommended action steps moving forward.  The board is expected to act following Dr. Lynch’s presentation.  Dr. Lynch has already shared these findings with the school's MPR Taskforce earlier this month, and preparations have been made to move forward with a vote on possible re-opening of the Multi-Purpose Room this fall based on the information he has provided us.  He will be sharing much more detail surrounding his findings at the 8/16 board meeting.  



While I wanted to get this information out to families as soon as possible, there are still many final preparations ongoing.  This website will continue to be updated over the coming two weeks, and we ask you to continue to check back regularly for further updates, links, documents, and more.  You will notice a link to important dates on the site.  Dates are being updated regularly and some events are as soon as a few weeks from now, so I encourage everyone to go on and check those out!  If you have any pressing questions while waiting for the site to be updated, please feel free to ask.  We will not be sending home the traditional summer mailing this year, and all documents will be online for your review.  A form will be sent home with your child you can send back acknowledging you've received all of this year's information virtually.  We appreciate your understanding as we try to streamline our communications.  

Dr. Scott J. Hogan
Chief School Administrator
South Harrison Township School District
hogans@shsd.us
Use this link to schedule a meeting with me virtually