Dayton School District

Because of rising COVID 19 cases in our community, Dayton Schools will need to stay with remote learning for the week of December 7th. We sincerely hope the cases will go down and allow us to return to in-person learning for the following week. Breakfasts and lunches will continue to be available each day. The multi-purpose room will again be utilized by teachers to distribute needed materials. It will be open from 10 AM until 7 PM on Monday and then regular school hours for the rest of the week. Please call the school office with any questions or issues.

The Dayton School District will continue remote learning for the week of Monday, November 30th through Friday, December 4th. Meals (breakfast & lunch) can be picked up in the multipurpose room from 11:00-12:30. Details for picking up Chromebooks will be sent out tomorrow or Monday morning. 6-12 reminder that Monday is a Red Day

Dayton School District will be going to remote learning for Tuesday, November 24, 2020. If you have questions please contact the elementary office tomorrow at 509-382-2507 or MS/HS office at 509-382-4775. We will be updating all parents around 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 28th in regards to going back to in-person learning on Monday, November 30th. At this time we will not be offering meals for Tuesday, November 24th.

There will be an emergency Board meeting tonight at 5:00 p.m. via Zoom to discuss the COVID situation in the school and community and the possibility of moving to remote learning. The following is the link to the Board meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87020285301

Mr. Strot and the school board, after consulting with public health, have decided to not have school tomorrow, Monday. We have one "snow day" built into our calendar on March 5th so tomorrow will not need to be made up. We realize this is an inconvenience for many families but we needed a day to look carefully at the data. As of today, we have 16 active COVID 19 cases in our community with two related to the school. We will send another message out Monday at 6 PM on whether we will be back in school on Tuesday or switch to remote learning. As a reminder, we do not have school on Wednesday through Friday for Thanksgiving. Please continue to wear a mask and keep socially distant to help keep our schools open and community safe. Public health will contact you directly if you are in direct contact with a positive Covid 19 case. Contact public health at 509-382-2181 with any questions.

Over the weekend, we had some additional activity I wanted to share. On Saturday, a staff member tested positive for COVID, and three staff members were put in quarantine for 14 days. We also have a few students in quarantine. This has impacted the high school / middle school office. Our community had 6 positive cases in the last week and zero cases the week before, so we continue to attend in-person school as defined by the State of Washington. Columbia County Public Health Department staff worked hard all weekend, conducting contact tracing of all positive cases and communicating with those impacted. We are continuing with the in-person school, as I believe our students are safe here at school. Students need to be in school. Face to face instruction and interacting with their friends is so important to our kids' teaching and learning! I continue to work closely with the Columbia County Public Health Department. Up to this point, since the start of school in August, we have not had any students test positive for COVID. In the future, if Columbia County Public Health believes we should switch to remote learning, we will. In closing, I ask parents to continue to keep their students at home if they are not feeling well. As always, you can call me on my cell at 509-530-9373 or email me with any questions or concerns at guys@daytonsd.org. Go Bulldogs!

On November 4-6, Dayton Secondary will be hosting parent teacher conferences. If you have not heard from your child's teacher, please reach out to them to set up a conference. Conferences may be done via phone, zoom or in person socially distancing. Please remember that masks are required when you enter the building. Due to COVID, we will not be able to accommodate for drop in appointments. Additionally, November 4 and 5 are Early Release days, students are dismissed at 12:30 both days and will not need to check in for their afternoon attendance either day.

October 30, 2020 To: Parents and Guardians of Dayton School District From Guy Strot, Superintendent Subject: Update on COVID Another week is almost in the books. It is fun to see all the students in their costumes, smiling through their masks. I wish all of you a safe and happy Halloween and again want to thank you for helping keep COVID out of our schools and community. Please continue to wear your mask so we can continue to have school. This week both Columbia County as well as our surrounding communities have seen an upswing in positive COVID cases. We have not had a single student test positive yet, but this may change at anytime. I want to assure you we have a plan in place to continue with remote learning if we need to shut down. At this point, I believe all students have access to the internet. If this is not the case, please call either Angie or Shannon at the MS / HS (509)-382-4775; Zarabeth or Tracie at the elementary school (509) 382-2507. Have a great weekend and we will see your students again on Monday

Just a reminder that the School Board meeting will be held in the high school auditorium at 6:00 p.m. For more information please contact the District Office at 509-382-2543. The agenda for tonight's meeting can be found on our School Board page https://www.daytonsd.org/page/school-board.

Dayton and Waitsburg will begin conditioning and drills with our athletes starting Monday, October 19th. Normally during the summer, teams have the opportunity to practice but that was taken away this year. This time is to replace that. Basketball is set to begin on December 1st with games beginning December 28th. Angie will have the forms that need to be signed in the high school office Monday. All athletes must have a current physical to participate. Here are the guidelines we will be following. These have been discussed and approved by Martha Lanman with Columbia County Public Health. ● Volleyball, Football, Girls Basketball, and Boys Basketball will have practices and conditioning from October 19th through November 27th. They will use the gym, weight room and outside. A schedule will be available in the main office and emailed out this week. ● We will not have games. ● Only athletes in Waitsburg will practice in Waitsburg. – No going to Dayton to practice. ● Only athletes in Dayton will practice in Dayton. – No going to Waitsburg to practice. ● Only 10 people will be allowed at any practice – that does include the coaches. – Total of 10 only at any practice. No spectators at any practice. ● Each parent and athlete will be provided a list of protocols that must be followed to help with safety. ● Social Distancing will be maintained at all times. ● Student athletes must have a sports physical and sports paperwork (packet) completed prior to attending any practices. ● No middle school sports at this time. We hope to have these in the future. Please email myself or Angie with any questions or call the high school office at 509-382-4775.

The School Board meeting scheduled for October 7th will be via Zoom. The Governor has extended the ban on Open Public Meetings until November 9th. The following is the link to the Board meeting that will be held at 6:00 p.m. October 7, 2020 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/97445448041

The Dayton School District will have meals available to any child 18 and under at no charge through the end of December. Meals can be picked up between 11:00 and 11:20 a.m. on regular school days at the elementary bus drop off area. For more information please contact Jana Eaton at 509-382-2543 or email janae@daytonsd.org.