 The Amity Weekly Minute:
October 10, 2021
What's New?
From the Desk of Mr. Drouhard
Dear Amity Families,
As part of the district’s ongoing focus on school safety, we continue to review, update, and practice our school building crisis plans and procedures. Meant to help guide staff and students in the event of an emergency, these plans and procedures offer instructions on a multitude of safety issues, natural disasters, inclement weather, and building security.
In an effort to improve the safety of students and staff at Amity Elementary, our teachers will be training our students on procedures to use in the event of school lockdown. A school lockdown can be used for a variety of situations. An active intruder inside or outside the building is the most intense and will be the focus of the training.
To train our students, our teachers will be using a script that is designed for grades K-6 to introduce and discuss what the class would do in an intruder lockdown situation. I want to assure you that this script does not go into specific detail regarding the violence that has occurred in schools from intruders, but rather enforces the lesson of listening to the teacher in the event of an emergency. Listening to the teacher is the same practice used in fire drills and tornado drills.
The script will introduce students to the terminology recommended by the Department of Homeland Security of “Run, Hide, Fight” and can be used in community situations as well. Following “Run, Hide, Fight” in that order helps students to keep themselves safe. The last measure—“fight”—describes barricading doors or throwing items to disorient the intruder as a last case measure. We are not teaching students to seek out or take down an intruder within the building. Students will be taught they should always look to run and hide with the help of their teachers in this situation.
I know that these are heavy teaching lessons for our students to start learning at a young age. Our teachers know our students best, and will go through this script in a way that is tactful and informative. I wish we didn’t have to teach our students these things. The reality though is that as a school, we need to prepare our students to react and follow teacher directions in the event of any emergency.
Our students will be trained this week by their homeroom teachers. We will practice this drill at a later date.
Please feel free to reach out to our teachers or members of the administrative team should you have any questions before or after the training has occurred.
Thanks,
Josh
Weekly Photo Gallery
Click the link below to access photos from all around Amity Elementary during the week!
Student Half Day and Teacher Record Day- Friday, October 15th
Students will be in school from 8:00-11:05 a.m. on Friday, October 15th. The second half of a day is for teacher records, during which teachers will be finalizing grades for report cards. Report cards will be coming home in backpacks on Friday, October 22nd.
Conference Sign Up
Parent Teacher Conferences are Thursday, October 28th from 1:00-8:00 PM and Friday, October 29th from 8:00 AM-3:00 PM. These conferences are offered in person, by phone, or virtually. If attending in person, please remember that masks are required while in the building. We look forward to meeting with you to share your child’s personal and academic growth! Click the link below to find a time to sign up.
Kindergarten-3rd Grade After School Enrichment
Be on the lookout for an orange paper in your student's backpack that came home on Friday if they are in K-3. These are registration forms for Amity After School Enrichment. The programs offered this session are coding and imaginative play. These programs fill quickly and are on a first come first serve basis so be sure to send these in as soon as you can! There will be other sessions offered so if your student cannot attend this session, look for signups for the next session that will start in the new year. Reach out to Katie Estep at estep.k@dpccsd.org with any questions.
October Lunch Menu
Looking Ahead
Please mark these important dates on your calendar:
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Girls Varsity Soccer vs. Cincinnati Christian HS: Monday, October 11 | 5 p.m.
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Boys Varsity Soccer vs. Cincinnati Christian HS: Monday, October 11 | 7 p.m.
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Varsity Boys Soccer vs. Finneytown HS (Senior Day): Tuesday, October 12 | 7 p.m.
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End of First Quarter (Student Half Day): Friday, October 15
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Varsity Football vs. Indian Hill HS (Band Night): Friday, October 15 | 7 p.m.
In Case You Missed It
Bus Safety Month
October is bus safety month. Our Kindergarten-3rd grade students will be conducting bus safety drills this Thursday, October 7th. This training is being led by the Deer Park Transportation Department and will give insight to students on how to properly ride the bus along with what to do in an emergency.
Mask Reminder
Just a reminder to check with your child about having a mask before coming to school in the morning. We need to recommit to this routine to help limit how many masks we are handing out each morning. We realize there's going to be that rushed morning which one is forgotten, and we have you covered. We just need your help in cutting down on the number of students coming everyday without a mask. Thank you!
Deer Park Youth Basketball Registration
If you're interested in playing Deer Park Youth Basketball this year, you have until Oct. 21 to sign up! Visit http://www.dpbasketball.org for more information or to sign up today!
Socktober
Amity Youth Service Club is organizing our annual Socktober sock drive. We will be collecting new socks for our clothing room beginning October 1st and ending with a Crazy Sock Day on October 26th. There will be donation boxes in the ELCs for students to place their donations. Thank you for your support!
Amity Breakfast
Please remember that the Amity breakfast is for students that need to eat breakfast in the morning. Students cannot just come to the cafeteria and sit prior to going to class. They MUST take a breakfast to come in the doors between 7:30-7:45 a.m. Thank you!
Attendance
Please remember to call our attendance line (513-891-2414) or email Betty Jung (jung.b@dpccsd.org), our attendance secretary, by 9AM if your student is going to be out.
This is especially important with the number of people that are either required to quarantine by the health department, or quarantining on their own accord. We need to be aware of these situations outside of school so that we can appropriately mark the attendance and provide guidance from the district if necessary.
Thanks for all your help!
School Nurse
Moving forward, all student COVID-19 cases occurring outside of school hours (evenings/weekends) should be submitted in one of the following ways:
- Call the Deer Park COVID Hotline at (513) 936-7843
- Fill our the Deer Park COVID Reporting Form linked below:
A district nurse or administrator will reach out within 24 hours of the reported case to collect further details.
Deer Park PTO
Become a PTO Member! The PTO needs you to share your ideas, volunteer at events, plan fundraisers, and so much more! Use the link to become a member and stay up to date on all the PTO information.
Each year the PTO and Athletic Boosters share the fundraising from the Football Concession Stand, and this fall there's room for you to HELP! Sign up for one game, 3 hours of your time, to serve.
Staying Connected
There are multiple ways to stay connected to Amity Elementary School.
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Newsletter: All parents who have completed FinalForms should receive Amity Weekly Newsletters. If you are not currently receiving them, please register for the e-mail communication. To register, simply go to https://www.deerparkcityschools.org/ and click on the button on the bottom of the page that says “Subscribe to District News”.
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Twitter: Follow Deer Park Schools for the most up-to-date news and happenings at @DeerParkSchools or @DeerParkAmity
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Facebook: Follow us at Deer Park Community City Schools.
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Inspiring & Empowering Lifelong Success
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