In accordance with Federal guidelines, the Highland Local School District will make application materials for funds under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for the 2020-2021 school year available for review and public comment from July 20, 2020 through July 31, 2020.  Interested parties should contact Neil Barnes, Treasurer, at nbarnes@highlandschools.org.

2020 Highland Athletic Summer Camps have finally been announced!  We are excited to welcome you back to our facilities and look forward to providing a safe and fun camp experience for your child! All dates and times are listed in the attached flyer, as well as instructions on how to register.

Please be aware that dates and times are subject to change and camps are only accepting a limited number of registrants due to social distancing guidelines. The district will be following strict cleaning and disinfecting protocols, as well as social distancing guidelines. The wearing of facemasks is recommended when not actively taking part in one of the camps. We ask that if participants are not feeling well, please stay home. 

Coaches of each camp will communicate additional specific information for both students and parents upon registration. Questions about one of the camps? Please contact the coach listed.

DOWNLOAD FLYER AND REGISTRATION HERE

Dear Highland Parents,

I hope that you continue to enjoy your summer break. 

As communicated last week, I promised to keep you updated on any news as it relates to school reopening plans for next year. We expected guidance from the Ohio Department of Health and the Governor’s Office by the end of this week. Unfortunately, we have just been advised that the health-related guidance is yet again, delayed. We are hearing that information may now be released next week. 

I want to assure you that the Highland administrative team has been working on a number of possible options for the 2020-21 school year. There are so many considerations involving health and safety practices, academic needs, transportation, food service, athletics, extracurricular programming and legal requirements. We have been researching and studying all of these topics since early March. We are in direct, and sometimes daily, contact with local and state health officials on how to reopen schools safely. In addition, we have been analyzing the data and feedback received from our online parent and teacher surveys. All have provided good and actionable information that we can use moving forward.    

In an effort to keep parents informed, we offer the following current considerations:

• Our goal is to offer in-person school, five days per week, if we can do that safely and responsibly.

On Monday, July 6 and Tuesday, July 7, our PowerSchool server will be unavailable as we begin to rollover information for the 2020-21 school year. Please note: Information that may be visible to parents and students once PowerSchool is back online, including class schedules, bus numbers and homeroom teacher, has not been finalized.

Dear Highland Parents,

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in the recent distance learning parent survey.  We have just received the final summary report, ahead of schedule, so we wanted to release that information to you today (6/18/20). 

You may download the Survey Report HERE.

We are in the process of reviewing these results, in addition to teacher feedback from focus groups and an online survey. We will use the results to improve the district’s distance learning programs should we need them, in any capacity, in the future. 

I am aware that parents and students alike are eager to know the plan for the 2020-21 school year. We continue to wait on orders from the Ohio Department of Health regarding any/all restrictions that must be in place when students return. Without that information, we cannot move forward with any definitive plans for what education may look like in the fall. The state and local health department parameters are most important to us in our planning efforts. We are being told that information may be released within the next 10 days.

Due to COVID-19 and based on guidance offered from the Ohio Department of Education, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Job and Family Services and Governor DeWine, the Highland Schools will be unable to serve any typical peers in our Little Hornets Preschool Program for the upcoming 2020-21 academic year.  

New requirements allow for no more than nine students in a preschool classroom due to social distancing guidelines. Unfortunately, these new requirements will completely alter the way in which we operate our preschool program. Currently, our program has 16 students in each classroom -- eight typical peers, eight with special needs. Moving forward, this will no longer be the case.

Public schools are not required to provide preschool for typical students. However, they are required to provide preschool for students with special needs. Our program will need to keep space available to serve our students with special needs. 

We understand that this information is disappointing for some families, but we wanted to offer ample notice so that parents can make other arrangements for their student(s).