SIDNEY — The class bells will be ringing Friday, Aug. 19, as Sidney City Schools students begin a new school year.
All students in first through 12th grade will be in class Friday. There’s a staggered start for kindergarten students with group A attending their first day of school on Friday, Aug. 19. Group B’s first day will be Monday, Aug. 22. Group C will be going to school for the first time on Tuesday, Aug. 23. All kindergarten students will be in class on Wednesday, Aug. 24.
Staff Sidney City Schools is welcoming 32 new staff members to SCS, including 21 teachers, three administrators and eight classified staff.
New administrators
John Willoughby is joining the staff at Sidney High School as assistant principal. Willoughby replaces Jason McLain who moved to the Board of Education Office to replace Hugh Aukerman as food services director. Aukerman retired after the 2015-16 school year.
Sidney Middle School is welcoming Assistant Principal Chris Barr. Barr replaces Michael Moore who is now principal at Emerson Elementary.
New teachers
New SHS teachers/certified staff include Kevin Veroneau, social studies; Sharon Maurice, Workforce Academy; Courtney Simpkins, Spanish; Janet Fu, orchestra director; Stephanie Davis, Workforce Academy; Allison Brousseau, social studies; Josh Billing, intervention specialist; Donovan Gregory, Social Studies; Nicole Colarusso, English; Katherine Bourelle, guidance; Erin Montgomery, guidance; and Josh Montgomery, intervention specialist.
New SMS teachers/certified staff includes Heather Trapp, Multiple Disabilities; Megan Hayzlett, seventh-grade math; and Joanne Mathews, intervention specialist;
Teachers who have transferred to SMS from within district include Jamie Barnes, fifth-grade Intervention Specialist; and Brenda Spangler, fifth-grade ELA.
Emerson Elementary School will be welcoming Shelley Angell as the building’s intervention specialist.
Kristin Gehret, speech pathologist, and Leah Fullenkamp, intervention specialist, are joining the staff at Longfellow Elementary School.
New Northwood teachers/certified staff members are Courtney Davidson, speech pathologist, and Raquel Martin, intervention specialist.
Teachers who have transferred to Whittier Elementary School from within district are Brandi Clune, fourth-grade, and Leah Finke, fourth-grade.
Lesley Beigel is the new school psychologist.
New classified staff for the district includes Julie Slaybaugh, SHS MD aide; Gena Dillman, SMS MD aide; Bill Shoffner, SAS aide; Nathan Christian, SAS aide; Tabatha Hughes, SAS aide; Melissa Kinnison, bus driver; Pam Brunswick, bus driver; and Jeff Bohling, maintenance.
InfoSnap
The Sidney City School District has announced an online student registration/data validation system for the upcoming school year, powered by InfoSnap. The system is a secure process, which allows the district to verify all student demographic, emergency, and medical information for your child prior to the start of the new school year. The system will also allow parents to electronically sign the annual permission forms for school district policies. In short, this online process replaces all the hard copy student registration and permission forms that your child brings home on the first day of school, saving parents time and saving the district paper and printing resources.
New equipment/technology
SHS, SMS, and Sidney Alternative School now have more than 1,150 Chromebooks, with 250 being added to the SHS math department this year to accommodate new curriculum. Each elementary school added 60 Chromebooks this year, for a total of 240 among all elementary schools; all elementary schools are now equipped with at least four mobile carts of iPads and/or Chromebooks. Much of the addition and upgrades of technology will help us meet the demands of the transition to online testing, as well as the change in instruction methods.
With the new online registration (InfoSnap) this year, each building received two additional Chromebooks to be used by parents when enrolling or updating student registration information. A computer lab of thin client workstations at SMS were converted to become Google machines.
Emerson elementary PTO donated six new iPads to be used with small groups. In order to protect the district’s computer network infrastructure against power supply interruptions the district needs a battery backup, Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS); E-Rate funds were approved to upgrade the network UPS’s.
New programs/courses
Sidney High School will be introducing a handful of new courses including:
• Web Design – Students will learn the dynamics of the web environment while pursuing an in-depth study of both Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Web based protocols such as FTP, TCP/IP, and HTTP will be addressed.
• Video & Sound – Through this course, students will create professional video and audio productions for distribution in traditional and new media channels. Through this course, students will plan, produce, edit, and launch media products, as well as develop scripts and storyboards, compose shots and operate cameras, capture sounds using microphone hardware, apply special effect techniques, and edit to achieve the final product.
• Consumer Math – Consumer Math is meant to prepare students for the real-life mathematics that they will encounter as a consumer in their everyday lives.
• Cryptography – Cryptography is the art of coding messages and decoding messages. The messages in this course will be encoded and decoded using mathematics that ranges from basic math to matrices, series, and sequences (Algebra 2 Standards).
• Math Lab – Math Lab is a semester class that explores mathematics in computer applications and applies it to real life scenarios. The course will focus on math and formulas to drive Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Visual Studio Express.
• RCI Academy II – An addition to the Workforce Academy at Sidney High School, RCI Academy will offer practical application of the (five) modules introduced in RCI Academy I: safety, quality control, statistics, blueprint reading, and maintenance. The course is planned as a work release/job shadow format. Students will learn the safe operation of two automated machine tools, high-speed balance auditing equipment, and sophisticated optical measuring equipment.
Lunch prices
Lunch and breakfast prices remain the same this year and are as follows:
• Grades K-5, breakfast, $1; lunch, $2.35; additional milk, 50 cents.
• Grades 6-12, breakfast – $1.50; lunch, $2.60, additional milk, 50 cents
• Free or Reduced meals, breakfast, free; lunch, 40 cents; additional milk, 50 cents
Over-the-summer building/grounds updates
Summer was busy for the Sidney City Schools Maintenance Department, as a number smaller projects took place including: Replacement of doors, resealing and repainting of parking lots, adding mulch and pea gravel to playgrounds, replacing flooring, resurfacing gym floorings at SMS and SHS, inspection and servicing of fire extinguishers and alarms, air filter replacement, the completion of the latest SHS roof replacement project, installation of LED lighting at SHS and all elementary buildings, replacing air filters at all buildings, and training for all maintenance and custodians on asbestos, as well as general building maintenance and cleaning.
Class fees/due dates
School fees for students in grades K-8 are $35, while fees vary for students in grades 9-12 based on the classes in which they are enrolled.
All sports have a fee of $35.
Class schedule pick-up dates
Sidney High School schedules and other pertinent information have been mailed to students. Sidney Middle School schedules and other pertinent information will be available for pickup at open house on Aug. 18 from 4 to 6 p.m.
