Oneida City School District

The Oneida City School District is proud to celebrate and share the news of student achievement, innovative programs, and unique enrichment opportunities in our monthly newsletter. We hope you enjoy the May 2021 Budget edition of our district newsletter.

Please see the Updated Interim Guidance for End of Academic Year Celebrations During the COVID-19 State of Emergency. This updated guidance from the New York State Department of Health (DOH) supersedes the June 14, 2020 guidance for “Graduation Celebrations during the COVID-19 State of Emergency” and is informed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “Guidance for Organizing Large Events and Gatherings,” updated March 8, 2021.

As we prepare for your child’s return on Monday, April 19th to in-person learning four days week, we are providing you with a video to share with your child to ease their transition. The Amended Reopening plan will be posted on the website Friday, April 16th for your review.

On behalf of the Oneida City School District, we hope you and your families are remaining safe and doing your best to follow guidance regarding measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 within our community. Events have continued to unfold, and we recognize that this raises questions about potential impacts on students, families and our full community.

OCSD K-12 will be changing to “four” days a week in-person learning. Wednesday will remain as a virtual learning day for all students to provide time for teachers to meet virtually with learners, have office hours, and allow us to deep clean classrooms. Students that are currently virtual and have confirmed they are staying virtual for the remainder of the school year, will continue to receive instruction.

The NAMM Foundation recognized Oneida City School District for its commitment to music education with the Best Communities for Music Education Award again this year!! Congratulations to all of our students and teachers on this honor and thank you to the community for your support!!

2021-2022 Registration for Pre-K and Kindergarten is now OPEN! For children residing in the Oneida City School District who have turned 4-years old on or before December 1, 2021 for Pre-K or 5-years-old on or before December 1, 2021 for Kindergarten.

I’d like to give you an update on the status of the Superintendent search. As many of you know we conducted a survey on the Thought Exchange which resulted in numerous responses. In addition to that Mr. Scott Budelmann, our search consultant, met with Five focus groups - Leadership, Instructional, Non-instructional, Parents, and Students. With both the Thought Exchange and focus groups we asked for and received information on the strengths of the District, opportunities for growth, and qualities and characteristics desired in a Superintendent. Many thoughtful responses were offered and we are using these responses to craft our questions for the interviews. You are part of the process. Many thanks to all who participated in any fashion. Please know the Board is taking your thoughts and beliefs to heart.

Every year Madison-Oneida BOCES art teachers have an art show showcasing their work alongside one of their student's work that has a common theme/tie. This year, Oneida has 5 art teachers and their students that are participating! Check out the virtual gallery!

The Oneida City School District is proud to celebrate and share the news of student achievement, innovative programs, and unique enrichment opportunities in our monthly newsletter. We hope you enjoy the March 2021 edition of our district newsletter.

Linked below you will find two documents from NYS with updated information on travel and quarantine guidelines. For more information about COVID19 or travel guidelines please visit https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-travel-advisory

The Board of Education of the Oneida City School District is seeking a new Superintendent of Schools and we need your input! We greatly appreciate your participation with the first ThoughtExchange question. All of our voices matter and your continued participation in this process is crucial and valued. Click here to participate in the second and final question ​ https://my.thoughtexchange.com/177834104 . You'll be asked to respond to one open-ended question, consider and assign stars to some of the ideas shared by others (20 to 30 is ideal), and learn what's important to the group. You can rate as many thoughts as you’d like before moving on to Discover where you can see all the thoughts sorted by the average star rating

We are pleased to announce that Kindergarten will be full day, four days a week, effective March 8, 2021. The schedule will run as follows:

The Oneida City School District is proud to celebrate and share the news of student achievement, innovative programs, and unique enrichment opportunities in our monthly newsletter. We hope you enjoy the February 2021 edition of our district newsletter.

The Board of Education of the Oneida City School District is accepting applications for the position of Superintendent of Schools. The search process will be conducted over the next several months. The Board will be assisted in the selection process by Mr. Scott A. Budelmann, District Superintendent of the Madison-Oneida BOCES. All application materials should be sent to Mr. Budelmann for initial review. Candidates are prohibited from contacting the Board and individual Board members. The Board will make all decisions concerning the selection process, the evaluation of candidates and the initial appointment.

This is a friendly reminder that the Oneida City School District is operating under the national summer food service waiver program until June 30, 2021. Any resident of the district 18 years old or younger is eligible for free breakfast and lunch. Please contact your child’s building principal for more information!

On Tuesday, January 19, 2021, students will resume their typical learning schedule. The building principals will communicate specific information regarding the hybrid schedule. We ask that our community members, students and staff remain vigilant with CDC recommendations of masking, socially distancing and washing hands frequently. We also want to urge all families to keep your children home from school if they are ill or answer yes to any question on the health screener.

As the Oneida Reopening Advisory Committee considers options for reopening our buildings in the future, one model the committee is collecting data on is synchronous instruction. The Committee is asking that you take a few minutes to consider and record your thoughts on this model of instruction and complete the following ThoughtExchange.

The Oneida Board of Education has appointed Dr. Kathy Davis as Interim Superintendent to lead the district while it searches for a permanent successor to Mary-Margaret Zehr. Davis will join the district in February. ​Board President Robert Group said Davis is already familiar with the district, having served as Interim K-12 Executive Principal last year, which will allow for a smoother transition period.

A BIG Oneida Thank You to the members of the community who came out and voted for the facilities improvement project! In Favor- 221 Against-64 The $21.6 million facilities improvement project that was passed (with no additional tax impact) will: Replace outdated syste

District staff spent Monday deep cleaning Otto Shortell Middle School and Oneida High School and prepared documentation for the Department of Health to begin contact tracing. Custodial/ maintenance staff and administrative/office staff went above and beyond for the district.

Today, the District was notified that a student at Oneida High School has tested positive for COVID-19. Additionally, the student who tested positive has a sibling in the home who attends Otto Shortell Middle School. District officials in conjunction with the County Health Departments immediately began their investigation, which is ongoing. The District is not permitted due to privacy laws to identify the student involved and we have provided as much information as possible.

This week, Superintendent Mary-Margaret Zehr accepted a position in another school district and will be leaving Oneida in a few months. In the four years she has led this district, Mrs. Zehr has made a tremendous impact on students, staff and our educational programs. We would like to thank her for all of her hard work, dedication and expertise during her time here. We wish her well in her future endeavors.

Please click on the link below to view the results of the ThoughtExchange " What is working well will remote learning and hybrid learning and what are the biggest challenges you are seeing or experiencing with remote and hybrid learning?"

Updates on elementary report cards for the 2020-2021 school year.

The attached document from Superintendent Zehr provides additional guidance about COVID protocols, ThoughtExchange, and staying home when sick.

The attached document from Superintendent Zehr provides additional guidance about COVID protocols, next steps, and staying home when sick.

In the past six months, we have worked tirelessly to follow the NYSDOH and NYSED guidelines to open our buildings to staff and students. We are thrilled to have students return to our schools. School districts are now being asked to make a local decision of determining if and how to begin athletics given the current guidelines and requirements. ​ The District has over 20% of our students learning virtually due to concerns with health, safety, and COVID-19. Additionally, we are still unable to have 100% of our high school students in attendance each day, and it is considered unsafe to have a bus operate at full capacity. The District is approaching the decision regarding the start of athletics with the same health and safety concerns we applied in determining our modes of instruction.

The attached document from the Superintendent provides additional guidance about the first day of school, athletics, staying home when sick and communication.

Please fill out the School Meal Google Survey linked HERE. IMPORTANT: All deliveries will take place between 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. One breakfast meal and one lunch meal will be delivered per day if requested. Due to limited resources, the District can only provide a “drop-off” service. Per NYS regulations, meals can only be delivered to a parent, guardian or the student. We cannot deliver to day care providers. If you are requesting meal(s) to be delivered, you must have a cooler or other container that can be placed either at the end of the drive or near the front entrance as all meals contain milk and may contain other perishable items such as yogurt. Meals requiring payment must be prepaid on MySchoolBucks. To set up an account please contact Hollie Ackerman, Food Service Director, 315-363-6901 x-2581.

There will be three virtual events for parents and staff to get additional information and ask questions about the start of school. Wednesday, August 19 at 10:00 AM Join Zoom Meeting https://moric-org.zoom.us/j/92440094066 Meeting ID: 924 4009 4066 One tap mobile +19292056099,,92440094066# US (New York)

We launched an exchange to discover different perspectives to help inform our decisions on the reopening plan. The specific question posted was "What are your thoughts and questions regarding our reopening plan?" You can explore the results of this exchange with the interactive tools in the link below.

Today, Governor Cuomo provided school districts with approval to open school buildings this fall. Oneida City School District will start the 2020-2021school year with a hybrid model. The attached document from the Superintendent provides additional guidance about informational meetings, instructional schedules parent requests for remote instruction, and parent requests for changes to group assignments.

Oneida City School District has received several guidance documents from the NYS Department of Education, NYS Department of Health and the NYS Governor's office. All of the documents can be found here.

As we plan for instruction in the fall, we do so with parents as partners in mind. Through the recent Thoughtexchange survey parents requested for more ways to help their child. That’s why, for the first time, we are inviting parents to participate in our online Google trainings! You can learn how to better help your child work in Google Classroom, how to create slides, docs, or access their school email. Materials can be found on the district website under Parent Resources > iLearning Parent Resources > Google Support. ​https://sites.google.com/ocsdny.org/ocsdilearning/home . A list of the Google 101 training sessions can also be found in the PDF below.

Thank you to NBT Bank for the school supplies and $75 donation for additional supplies! Every bit helps and we are so grateful!

We have just completed over two weeks of instruction and we are looking for feedback about what we are doing well and what we need to adjust with our remote learning. Your input is valued and appreciated.