Tioga School District

ELMER NESS SCHOLARSHIP EXTENDED DEADLINE The deadline for the Elmer Ness Scholarship has been extended to May 31st, 2020. If you missed the initial application deadline, now is the time to get your application in!!!

The Absentee Ballot Application Form is available at the following link: https://5il.co/fyne It can also be accessed on our school website. Select Documents on the menu. Then, select the Forms folder.

The Governor's Executive Order has been amended to allow graduation ceremony to be held using school facilities with proper social distancing, cleaning, and other safety precautions. Tioga Public Schools is moving forward with plans to hold graduation at Tioga High School on Sunday, May 24th at 2:30 pm as originally scheduled. Please note though, that in order to follow guidelines, graduation will be very different this year. Initial plans are to limit attendance to graduates and their immediate household family members only. Exceptions will be made to parents and direct siblings only who do not reside in the same household. Unfortunately, graduation will not be open to extended family members or the general public and those with underlying health conditions or over the age of 65 are strongly encouraged not to attend. Graduation will be live streamed for public viewing with further details to come. All ceremony details will be shared with seniors and their families as plans get finalized. The guidelines specifically address the fact that "if an outbreak of COVID-19 occurs in your area prior to your scheduled graduation event, the State Health Officer may suspend any in-person portion of the event to protect public health and safety". This appears, at this time, to be the only possibility to any change in our date. We are happy that we can move forward with a plan. We feel like we can offer the graduates an in-person graduation experience and have a traditional graduation ceremony. It will require cooperation in a lot of ways, but appears a much better option than other virtual or distant graduation plans. It will not be a perfect plan to meet the expectations of all, but we will be able to recognize the Class of 2020 and celebrate their achievements together! Keep Sailing! Land is in sight! Mr. Odegaard

Reading access all summer with online books. Central has two options for your son/daughter to be able to get books into their hands now and during the summer months. We have tumblebooks and also MyOn. These two resources will be open all summer and free access to Central students. You can find the links with url, username and password on this link(just scroll down): http://tiogand.apptegy.us/o/tioga/page/elementary-principal--3 If you have any questions contact your students teachers or email Mr. Schaffer: tim.schaffer@k12.nd.us Thanks

Tioga High School students and parents! Are you looking for help with high school course planning, college planning, or ACT preparation? Go to: RUReady.ND.gov Please contact me for questions or assistance with mapping out a good direction for your future! 701-641-3255 tlarson@piratek12.org http://doxy.me/mrlarsonsoffice Click the link below to get to RUReady.ND.gov https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ruready.nd.gov%2F&data=01%7C01%7Ctom.larson%40K12.ND.US%7C12c9b21425554fa1722808d7f1eff41a%7Cdbbf782acef14af186c81f9201061db6%7C0&sdata=Rk8uR8vYuhARcEkmemWywRgEX7O3xvsFE2PGHWeaQc8%3D&reserved=0

Usually we have conversations about tornadoes at school in the spring and send things home with students. Here is just something to think about as we prepare for the summer storms and sometimes don't think about until it's too late. Tornado safety preparation tips Designate a safe room. This area can either be a storm cellar, a basement or a room on the lowest level of your home or building without any windows, like a closet. ... Put essentials in your safe room. ... Remove outdoor items. ... Reinforce your home. ... Contact your insurance agent.

Time to be careful while driving around town with a lot of students and adults riding bike. There are so many great reasons to ride your bike: It offers fun, freedom and exercise, and it's good for the environment. We want kids and families to ride their bikes as much as possible. Here are a few tips so that you'll be safe while you do so. The Hard Facts Properly-fitted helmets can reduce the risk of head injuries by at least 45 percent – yet less than half of children 14 and under usually wear a bike helmet. Top Tips Wear a properly-fitted helmet. It is the best way to prevent head injuries and death. Ride on the sidewalk when you can. If not, ride in the same direction as traffic as far on the right-hand side as possible. Use hand signals and follow the rules of the road. Be predictable by making sure you ride in a straight line and don’t swerve between cars. Wear bright colors and use lights, especially when riding at night and in the morning. Reflectors on your clothes and bike will help you be seen. Ride with your children. Stick together until you are comfortable that your kids are ready to ride on their own.

Any Tioga High School students interested in a Dental Assistant career! NDSCS Dental Assisting Program Online Info Session. On May 14th at 2:00 PM CST we're offering FREE Discover Dental Assisting online info session with Chanel Malone, Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of Allied Dental Education at the North Dakota State College of Science, to help students learn about a bright future in the career of dental assisting. We will be recording this and sending it out to High Schools as well. Our ask of you is to please share (via social media, email, text, yell down the hall, etc..) the following FREE zoom link sign-up with any high school students you know who may be interested in learning more about dental assisting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpd-2trDotE9amAfEZ1uCESjGOa6Si6G6-

Attention Seniors! Please return your student information forms to The Tribune ASAP!

THS sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Here is the latest update from ACT. ACT Test Online at Home Coming Fall/Winter In response to uncertainty and school cancellations due to COVID-19, ACT announced it will offer a flexible schedule for summer 2020 test dates and test-at-home options for fall/winter 2020. As CDC and local guidelines for safety allow, ACT will offer its June and July national test dates as scheduled and will additionally provide makeup test dates for June and July. The makeup test date for the June 13 national test date will be June 20, and the makeup test date for the July 18 test date will be July 25. ACT will work with individual national test centers should they need to reschedule to the makeup test date and students will be notified in advance. Students may also make free test date changes from the June to the July national test date. In addition to the three previously planned fall test dates on September 12, October 24 and December 12, ACT will also offer a remote proctoring option for the ACT® test in late fall/early winter 2020, allowing students to take the test at their home on a computer. ACT will launch the test-at-home option as part of its national testing program. The fee waivers ACT provides to students from low-income homes will apply to the at-home testing option, and ACT is considering other ways to address access and equity issues

The NDHSAA Board of Directors voted to cancel the remaining 2020 NDHSAA Winter Postseason Basketball Tournaments, Spring Sports and Spring Fine Arts Contests. The cancellation applies to all remaining Association sponsored athletic and arts contests and postseason events. If you have any questions in regards to this please contact Tioga Public Schools or Ryan Albrecht.

Huge Thank You to Tioga Public School Cooks.....

Governor Burgum just announced schools will continue distance learning until the end of the school year. 15 more days in Tioga! Thank you, everyone, for your help and support! Keep sailing!

Hello THS students, parents, teachers, and families! Can you believe it is Friday, May 1st? TGIF, but May already? Wow!  It has been 48 days since we have been in the building together for a day of school.  For many of you, this has been great! For others, like me, this has been very difficult. My main hope is that everyone is staying healthy and the way the numbers look, Tioga has been very good. Hopeful it continues and thoughtful of those that have been directly impacted by COVID 19. I feel like I need to share some thoughts on distance education with you all. I have looked at it from the viewpoint of administration, a parent, and more closely this week as a teacher. As a building principal, my role has greatly changed, yet stayed the same. I have tried to continue to be here to support our students in learning and our teachers in teaching. I have tried to give reminders and suggestions for students of what they could and should be doing to continue their learning. I have tried to help with logistical issues as much as possible. For our teachers, I have stressed "relentless communication" and "flexibility". Some feel like there has been too much communication, specifically emails. Many others feel like there has not been enough communication, to which I agree. This separation has me recognizing exactly how much communication, both verbal and non-verbal, there is on a daily basis when school is in session, in a physical building. I believe that is the part that most of us are missing out on most right now. Being a principal of a distant school with no one there is HARD. Being a parent in a distance education setting for many is HARD. Not all are facing the same challenges with trying to help their child(ren) at home. Having two children schooling at my own home is challenging. We are fortunate that we have a strong connection with the school and some experience with it. Many parents do not have that. This is all new, and wasn't a request. For parents who are able to be still working (or now maybe returning to work), this is an extra challenge of trying to oversee education after returning home from work. For some parents, this has been a great experience. Lots of extra, special, time spent with children. For many teachers who didn't "sign up" for distance education, this is HARD. Sure, some have really embraced this opportunity and are doing well with it. Many have children of their own, same as other parents, but they present many different challenges too. For most teachers, the amount of time taken to prepare lessons, correct assignments, contact students and parents, and other tasks has greatly increased. There are some benefits as well but I think overall the challenges these teachers have worked hard to overcome has been stressful. Google classroom has been a great tool to use, but not our normal lifeline like it has quickly become. The one viewpoint I have not had, is as a student. In talking with students though, it appears we have students all over the map. Some are thriving while others are struggling to keep their head above water. This is HARD. Grades still matter. Hard work still pays off. Many things have been unfortunately missing this spring, but having the availability of earning an essential education is still present. I am going to challenge you all as high school students to have a laser focus for these next couple weeks of May. Many of you have gotten quite behind with your work. It is very important that we finish this experience strong. People care about you! We want you to be successful, short term and long term. As we prepare to hear the governor speak this afternoon, we anticipate he will be addressing K-12 education today. Not knowing what will come of that, we must be prepared to continue to work. Continue to seek help and guidance. Continue to embrace change and challenge. For some, it may be a fresh start. For others it may be a new challenge. Seek an opportunity to improve yourselves for you! Even though for many this is HARD, if we keep working together, we can make this work. Keep Sailing! Mr. Odegaard

The THS Elective Geography Class recently did a Google Earth project. They created a virtual trip to Europe, where they make stops at three countries of their choice. They all did great. But these four deserve a shout out for going the extra mile, and adding extra fun.

SENIORS - this a reminder to turn in your questionnaire for the Senior Radio Spot Light. Please get it done ASAP and sent off.

Starting on Friday, we will provide meals for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Our federal government has allowed us to provide weekend meals! That is great news! Walkers and bike riders are going to have quite a bit to haul home. Another big THANKS to our cooks! You make a difference in our lives!

Attention K-12 Tioga Pirates, we are feeling lonely not being able to see your faces. So, we are going to have a Pirate Pride Parade on Thursday, April 30th starting at 1pm so we can see your smiles. We cannot throw candy, like a normal parade, but the smiles we will share and see on your face will be fantastic. We will make signs up and I'm sure some will decorate their vehicles. If you want to make a poster, we would love to see it. Also, dress up in your Tioga Pirate clothes. The Tioga Police department has created a Map that we will follow to go around town (map attached). TPD will also be in the Pirate Pride Parade along with the Tioga Fire Department. We do need you to practice social distancing. Do not congregate and have a big group, keep it to your immediate family and keep at least 6 feet apart. Please look at map and see what the nearest street to your house is. We are starting at the old car dealership by Kum N Go. We look forward to seeing your smiling faces. #weallrow #piratestrong #keepsailing

Another reminder about free breakfast and lunch that our fabulous cooks are preparing at the elementary! These are free for all children from age 1 to 18 and can be picked up from Central from 11:30-12:30. It doesn't matter what your income is--they are free to everyone in that that age group in the district-even kids that don't go to school in Tioga. Just call 701 664 2333 and we'll let Tonya know. All we ask is that you come everyday, or if you can't, please call. If you decide you don't want to participate after signing up, just let us know. Please participate!

Scholarship Opportunity: Bank of North Dakota announced that its College SAVE 529 plan is sponsoring the EVERFI National Financial Bee, taking place April 20-30, 2020. Students in grades 7th-12th may participate. Check out more information here: https://bit.ly/2KFvqts