Glendive Public Schools

Please check out the GPS Active COVID Cases sheet (link below) to see all updates on active cases and quarantines in the schools. Things have been changing quickly and this is the best way to see our current numbers. If you have any questions, please contact us at gps@glendiveschools.org. GPS Active COVID Cases: https://rb.gy/50iklu Current New Active Cases added: DCHS - 0 WMS - 1 (Staff) LES - 1 (Staff) JES - 2 (Staff) Also, if you haven't downloaded our app, please download it from your phone's app store. The app is the best way to see all updated information from GPS. Thank you!

GPS is dedicated to promoting behaviors that reduce COVID-19’s spread in order to maintain healthy operations of our schools. Social distancing requirements and protecting our staff against becoming ill as well as being named as a close contact are making traditional in-person meetings challenging to nearly impossible. In order to maintain in-person schooling at GPS, we must be able to staff all positions. Not having enough subs has made it very difficult to fill positions when staff gets sick or are named as close contacts. We are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that we are able to continue to have in-person learning and not be forced online. In order to maintain educational continuity and a safe school environment, GPS will adhere to the following protocols when holding meetings: 1). Meetings in the schools will be held virtually whenever possible. If a meeting needs to take place in person, the room needs to be big enough so there is at least 6-feet between each person. In addition, the meeting must last less than one hour. If the meeting is going to last more than one hour, it must be moved online. 2). The following will pertain to school-related weekday meetings held off school grounds: First, staff members should determine if they can join the meeting virtually. If they must attend in person, there must be at least 6-feet between participants. If the meeting organizer is unable to accommodate either an online option or maintain adequate social distancing, the district employee is not allowed to attend the meeting. Our goal is to reduce the risk of GPS staff becoming quarantined as a result of attending a meeting with a potentially infected attendee. Following these procedures will help GPS protect staff and keep them healthy so we can continue to have students on-site. As you can see, we are implementing procedures to help mitigate the spread of the virus and reduce the risk of staff being named as a close contact. If we are unable to staff our buildings, we will be forced to go online. These procedures will be followed if we are in the Hybrid or Restricted model. This is especially important given the District’s small pool of available substitutes. We appreciate the community’s patience, understanding, and GRACE during these challenging times. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of our administrators or you can reach out to us at gps@glendiveschools.org.

​Please check out the GPS Active COVID Cases sheet (link below) to see all updates on active cases and quarantines in the schools. Things have been changing quickly and this is the best way to see our current numbers. If you have any questions, please contact us at gps@glendiveschools.org. GPS Active COVID Cases​: https://rb.gy/50iklu Current New Active Cases added: DCHS - 2 (Students) WMS - 0 LES - 1 (Student) JES - 0 Also, if you haven't downloaded our app, please download it from your phone's app store. The app is the best way to see all updated information from GPS. Thank you!

Please check out the GPS Active COVID Cases sheet (link below) to see all updates on active cases and quarantines in the schools. Things have been changing quickly and this is the best way to see our current numbers. If you have any questions, please contact us at gps@glendiveschools.org. GPS Active COVID Cases​: https://rb.gy/50iklu Current New Active Cases added: DCHS - 0 WMS - 0 LES - 2 (staff) JES - 0 Also, if you haven't downloaded our app, please download it from your phone's app store. The app is the best way to see all updated information from GPS. Thank you!

Congratulations to our very own Mary Svenvold on being awarded the 2020 Leadership award from the MMEA!  We appreciate all you do for GPS and our community.

To clarify, there has been no date set to move to the Restricted Model. On October 12, 2020, the board tasked the administration to prepare to move to the Restricted Model. A checklist of the items needed for the District to move was created. GPS Restricted Checklist: https://rb.gy/w256qs On November 9th, the administration will be presenting this checklist to the GUSB. Currently, one of the major obstacles for moving to the Restricted Model is staffing. We are in dire need of substitutes. In order for GPS to move to the Restricted Model, the District must have sufficient substitutes to cover the open paraprofessional and custodial openings as well as subs for staff that have to be absent for a variety of reasons. Please, consider applying and encouraging others in our community to apply. Process for Applying for Sub: https://rb.gy/aytl1l The GPS Administration and Glendive Unified School Board (GUSB)

Please check out the GPS Active COVID Cases sheet (link below) to see all updates on active cases and quarantines in the schools. Things have been changing quickly and this is the best way to see our active numbers. If you have any questions, please contact us at gps@glendiveschools.org. GPS Active COVID Cases: https://rb.gy/50iklu

Thank you to those of you who have already reached out to your respective principals if you would like to change your child's current learning model (online to in-person or in-person to online). If you are planning to make a change, please contact your student’s principal as soon as possible. As a reminder, the change will take place at quarter for K-8 and at semester for 9-12. For Clarification: --If your child is currently online only, and you would like to switch to in person learning, we need notification (K-8). --If your child is currently in-person, and you want to switch to online only, we need notification (K-8). --If your student is currently in-person and you want to stay in-person, no action is necessary. --If your student is currently online only and you want to stay online, no action is necessary. Please note: A date to return to the restricted model has not yet been determined. We are continuing to work on completing the items on the checklist that was shared last week. We will announce a date as soon as it is determined so that everyone has time to prepare and plan for the change. Thank you!

Please check out the GPS Active COVID Cases sheet (link below) to see all updates on active cases and quarantines in the schools. Things have been changing quickly and this is the best way to see our active numbers. If you have any questions, please contact us at gps@glendiveschools.org. GPS Active COVID Cases: https://rb.gy/50iklu

Glendive Public Schools wants to be sure that the public stays informed on important issues pertaining to our school districts. Please refer to the Timeline Reports regarding the Washington Middle School and Lincoln Elementary School boiler issues that resulted in moving to online instruction on October 19th and 20th, 2020. Please click on the link below for each report: Lincoln Boiler Issue Report - 10/23/20 - https://rb.gy/rhmvsh Washington Boiler Issue Report - 10/23/20 - https://rb.gy/blt9wa Also, please check back to our new Facilities Page on the Glendive Public Schools website for important facilities information in the future! GPS Facilities Page - https://rb.gy/jrsyld Thank you!

The GUSB has tasked the GPS administrators to actively pursue moving to the Restricted Model. As a reminder, the Restricted model is all students onsite M-Th. Since social distancing will not be able to be maintained, face coverings will be mandatory and need to be worn all day. GPS admin have been working diligently for weeks to make the necessary changes and arrangements to make the switch from the Hybrid model to the Restricted model. The following link is a checklist which summarizes the items that will help GPS make this shift successful. You will notice that some of these items are still in progress. We understand that there are a lot of people that want this shift to happen; please look at each section to see what you can do to help. One example is to help GPS by becoming a substitute. Another example would be letting your respective principal know if your student will be changing from online to in-person or vice versa as soon as possible as explained in the previously released message (K-8 can make a switch at quarter, 9-12 can make the switch at semester) to allow us to finalize certain plans. Please note that more information will come out about this in the coming weeks. GPS Restricted Checklist https://rb.gy/w256qs

Parent/Guardians, At the last school board meeting, the board directed the GPS administration to move to the restricted model where students will attend 4 days a week M-Th onsite wearing masks all day (once everything is able to be put into place). In preparation for this move, we felt it appropriate to allow elementary-age students (K-8th) to shift back onsite or move online at the start of the 2nd quarter if it was agreed that it is in the student's best interest. This request is only for students K-8. High School students would be allowed to make the switch to or from online at the end of the semester. We are asking that you notify the building principal of the school your child attends if you would like us to consider moving your student from online learning back onsite or vice versa. We are asking for this contact to be made by Wednesday, October 28th so we have accurate numbers to plan for. The first day of the 2nd quarter is November 2nd. Please contact the individual school principals if you have any further questions. Please note that a date to move back to the Restricted model has not been finalized, but more information about that will be coming out soon. John Larsen (interim principal) Jefferson Elementary School 406-377-4155 Cindie Togni Lincoln Elementary School 406-377-2308 Mark Goyette Washington Middle School 406-377-2356

We made a change to the calendar as we noticed that Parent-Teacher Conferences fell on election day. Parent-Teacher conferences will now be on November 5th. We will also be moving the early out from the 3rd to the 5th along with the conferences. We are sorry for the inconvenience. This year we will be having the conferences virtually and more information will be coming out later on that once we get closer. To view the updated calendar, please click on the following link (https://5il.co/mf47) or go to our website at www.glendiveschools.org.

It was just brought to our attention that there are many people who took the last email to say that we were going online. Glendive Public Schools is not going online. The last email was referencing the emails and messages from the district that notified everyone that we were going to go online because of the two boiler situations at LES and WMS. The purpose of this last email was to have everyone make sure they are getting the messages that we are sending out by updating their information. We are sorry for any confusion that this caused.

Recently, we had to notify everyone that school was going online for WMS and LES. When we send messages out to the community, we send the message out in a variety of ways (Website, App, Facebook, Email, Text, Voice, etc.). This school year we have been shifting away from Facebook as it is not a great way to get all parents information. Currently, the Glendive Public Schools App is the best way to receive information about what is happening in each school. In the last month, we have decided that we are going to utilize Infinite Campus (our School Information System) to deliver messages by email, text, and voice. In order for this to be effective, we need everyone to make sure they have an account set up and that their information is correct in the system. If you are seeing this message on Facebook, our website, or app, but did not get an email, you will need to check with your student’s school to make sure you are set up. Below you will find the Parent Portal Link. Please click on it and login. If you do not have a login, please call your child's school and they can help you set one up. Moving forward, this is how we are going to send most of our information out to parents. This will also be the way for all emergencies that we will get the information out. You need to have a phone number and email address as a minimum. Please note that in order to have a text sent to you, you have to have a cell phone entered and opt in to get that (information on how to do that below). Please log into your Parent Portal: https://mtdecloud3.infinitecampus.org/campus/portal/glendive.jsp Navigate to Settings (in the top right corner) and Select Contact Preferences. Once there, scroll to the bottom of the page to update your Contact Preferences to receive Text Messages from the District. Thank you for your help with ensuring that we are able to reach you with our important information.

ALL LES classes will be online again tomorrow. Please have your students check in with their teachers tomorrow morning. Update on the boiler: We had our annual boiler inspection this summer. Due to the age of the boiler, there was an immediate repair needed. Unfortunately, there are only a couple of repair technicians in a four state region that are certified to do this type of repair on this age of boiler. We immediately scheduled with a repair technician to get it fixed. Because of the demand of these technicians, we were put on a waiting list. We have continually communicated with the repair technician throughout the summer and into the fall. And with the latest updated schedule, he was to be here on the 19th of October. Unfortunately, we got hit with unusually cold weather sooner than we expected. Currently, the repair technician is in route and once the repairs have been done and it is properly inspected, we will have heat again at LES. We do not know yet how long these repairs will take as this is an old boiler and the area of concern might spread to other areas. The best case scenario is that we have students back in the building on Wednesday. The worst case scenario is the boiler could be out of service for an extended period of time. We will update everyone tomorrow once we know more.

ALL WMS classes will be online again tomorrow. Please have your students check in with their teachers tomorrow morning. Update on the boiler: We had our annual boiler inspection this summer. There were no immediate repairs recommended from the inspectors. Boilers were reassembled and ready to be fired up when temperatures forecasted to drop below 40 degrees for extended periods. Once we fired the boilers, it was determined that the primary gas valves (installed almost 30 years ago) had a leak in them. This was an unforeseen failure as they had just passed inspection. Due to the nature of the gas valves failing, they were leaking natural gas into the boiler room. For the safety of everyone, it was determined that school needed to be moved online until the valves could be replaced. Currently, the closest valves of this type are in Chicago. The valves have been ordered and overnighted. Once here, the repairs will be able to be done so that we will have heat again at WMS. If everything goes well, we should be able to have everyone back in the building on Wednesday. We will update everyone tomorrow once we know more. FYI: LES is a different issue and we will know more later this afternoon about that.

On October 18, 2020, Glendive Public Schools was notified that a student at Dawson County High School tested positive for COVID-19. According to the Dawson County Health Department, some of the DCHS staff and students were in contact with the student during the period of possible exposure. However, because of how we have structured the classes/schedules to mitigate possible exposure, only a small amount of the students and staff came in contact with the student. Contact tracing is ongoing and those individuals who are identified as close contacts will be notified. Glendive Public Schools will continue to take safety precautions to make sure all students and staff are as safe as possible. If any staff or students are at risk of exposure, the Dawson County Health Department will be in contact with that person to determine a safe and appropriate course of action. It is still recommended that any person who feels sick or ill, seek out their medical provider for specific instructions. Glendive Public Schools is following the Dawson County Health Department and CDC guidelines to clean and disinfect our schools every day. School administrators will continue to monitor the situation and will provide further information if and when it becomes available.

WMS classes will be online tomorrow: We have been unable to fire the boiler at WMS because of a found gas leak. With this cold spell that we have, it is too cold to have students in the building all day. Currently the school is between 40-50 degrees and we do not have a way to warm up the building. For the health and safety of our students and staff, all WMS classes tomorrow will be online. Please have your students check in with their teachers tomorrow. Please be on the look out for more information being sent out tomorrow once we know more about the boiler situation.

LES will be online tomorrow: We have been unable to fire the boiler at LES and with this cold spell that we have, it is too cold to have students in the building all day. Currently the school is between 40-50 degrees and we do not have a way to warm up the building. For the health and safety of our students and staff, all LES classes tomorrow will be online. Please have your students check in with their teachers tomorrow. Please be on the look out for more information being sent out tomorrow once we know more about the boiler.