Buhler USD 313

Good Afternoon, Using the National Weather Service forecast of snow and wind chill for Wednesday combined with the very high confidence level of the event occurring, Buhler Schools USD #313 will NOT be in session on Wednesday, February 2nd. Additionally, there will be no activities including practices. It is unusual for us to make this determination this early; however, all weather models are showing significant weather and travel impact. We hope this allows time for families to make arrangements for children tomorrow. Cindy Couchman, Superintendent Buhler USD #313

In honor of Kansas Day tomorrow, students in Mrs. Lohrentz's class at Buhler Grade School are coding robot ornate box turtles through a maze. We love combining math, problem solving, art, computer science, and Kansas history. #Bexceptional

This video lays out the options families have when presented with common Covid-19 scenarios. https://youtu.be/HsEfe0KmtSE More details can be seen on our website under Covid-19 Navigating Next and the longer post below dated January 19th.

Buhler Families and Staff, As our number of positive cases rise, our continued goal is to keep students in school safely. Effective today, January 19, 2022, we will be following KDHE’s guidelines to suspend COVID contact tracing for 30 days. Per the KDHE guidance, with cases at such a high level, anyone that has been in public spaces should consider themselves a close contact. We are shifting our focus to monitoring positive cases, household contacts, and symptomatic individuals. Families will take responsibility for monitoring symptoms at home and taking appropriate action. The school district will do the following: *Notify parents of positive cases in the building each day. *Parents of elementary students will still be notified of classroom exposure. *Track absences and positive cases. *Monitor and daily test household contacts and symptomatic staff and students. *Update the website with daily numbers and absences. Expectations of parents and staff: *Monitor daily for symptoms. *If symptomatic, stay home or test (see below for testing times). *Do not come to school if sick. *If positive, stay home for at least 5 days. If fever free for 24 hours and symptoms are markedly improved, return to school/work wearing a mask for an additional 5 days. *Household contacts now have the option of attending school with masking and testing options available to them. TESTING Buhler Schools will continue to provide free rapid and PCR tests to symptomatic or asymptomatic staff and students at any of our attendance centers from 7:45-8:15 AM or by calling the district office for an appointment. Locations of testing in each building will remain the same. Liz Schmidt, school nurse, and I have created a video with situational questions that may arise. To access it, click here: https://bit.ly/3rxdyGb Students and staff who present with symptoms will be asked to test or will be sent home until symptom free for 24 hours. For more detailed information on options, please see our Stay to Learn, Play, and Work Plan at: https://sites.google.com/usd313.org/buhlernavigatingnext/covid-surveillance-reports Thank you for your continued support as we navigate this challenging time for our schools and communities. Our goal is to keep students in school daily. To achieve this, we need our parents’ help in monitoring symptoms to mitigate the spread of the virus in our buildings. Cindy Couchman, Superintendent Buhler USD #313

January is School Board Appreciation Month. We are so thankful our board members have chosen to serve our staff and students. They take the time to celebrate our accomplishments and carefully consider each item before them. Our current board members are: Todd Carr, Greg Lackey, Laura Meyer Dick, Miranda Engelken, Matt McCabe, Tim Lackey, and Robin Swanson. (Robin Swanson is not pictured as she was newly seated earlier this month) Thank you to our board members for their time and dedication to our schools!

Dawn Sanford, Special Education Teacher at Union Valley, was honored with Ad Astra Radio's Classroom Hero Award last week. Twice a month a teacher is selected to receive a gift basket and gift card from area businesses. Thank you to Ad Astra Radio for honoring Mrs. Sanford with this award, and for lifting up our profession through it! You can nominate a teacher at the following link: https://www.adastraradio.com/classroom-hero

Buhler Family~ Thank you for your continued support of our students, staff, and school community. We wanted to take a moment to provide an update regarding some ongoing challenges and their impacts due to COVID-19 and its variants. Buhler is currently experiencing a high rate of positive COVID-19 cases in our schools. Our goal is to keep schools open safely. When our staff gets sick and is unable to continue working, the strain on the system can quickly reach a breaking point. Our current numbers can be found on our COVID Dashboard. We have included a new chart showing the daily numbers and absences by building this week. https://sites.google.com/usd313.org/buhlernavigatingnext/covid-surveillance-reports Our substitute teachers/staff do an incredible job of working with our students to ensure that learning continues and that our classrooms are positive, productive, and safe. Likewise, our entire staff works together to ensure that we provide classroom coverage when our demand for substitute teachers exceeds the available supply. Today alone we had 14 uncovered classrooms in our district. Please afford us grace as we work to problem-solve this challenge and know that student safety and student learning are at the forefront of our decision-making in these instances. Often, this results in cancelled bus routes, after school activities, and field trips. We continue to emphasize and practice transmission mitigation strategies throughout the day, which include, but are not limited to, continuous and frequent hand washing, making hand sanitizer available for students and staff, and social distancing as much as possible. Please encourage your student to wear a facemask to help slow the spread of the virus. We anticipate a peak of positive cases coming in the next couple of weeks and are hopeful that it will then begin to decline. There will be additional guidance coming soon for managing the pandemic in public schools. If the new guidance changes our Stay to Learn, Work and Play policy, I will share that information next Friday. We continue to need your help, partnership, and support as we work together during this challenging time: *If your child is not feeling well, is ill, or has symptoms of an illness, please keep him or her at home and let us know of his or her absence. *The symptoms of COVID-19 and its variants are similar to a cold and influenza and can include fever, coughing, and shortness of breath, among others. *Some have reported additional symptoms, such as a runny nose, sore throat, nausea, lethargy, lack of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, and loss of taste and smell. *Individuals who need medical care or who have questions about symptoms should call their medical provider. Cindy Couchman, Buhler Superintendent

Special thanks to the City of Buhler for working through the night to get the break fixed. School will be in session at Buhler High School starting at 10:10 am.

Two Buhler teachers have been recognized as Kansas Horizon Award recipients. This award is given to teachers in their second year in the profession and recognizes an outstanding first year of teaching. Ms. Katelyn Stoss, K-5 music teacher at Plum Creek Elementary, and Mrs. Nicole Menard, English/Language Arts teacher at Buhler High School both received the news on Monday afternoon. ​Both teachers completed their first year of teaching in 2021 and were nominated to apply for the award last fall. We are proud of Ms. Stoss and Mrs. Menard, their exceptional first years of teaching, and their continued excellence each day in their classrooms. Please join us in congratulating them if you see them around!

Buhler High School is in need of food service help on the Ala Carte line. View the job description here: https://5il.co/uefa Apply here: https://tinyurl.com/3btmxc6t

The location of tonight's USD 313 Board of Education Meeting has been moved to the Buhler High School Media Center. This is a change of location only.

Good Morning, Due to dangerous traveling conditions, Buhler Schools USD #313 will NOT be in session on Thursday, January 6th. With the amount of snow we received combined with low wind chills, please be cautious if you do get out. Cindy Couchman, Superintendent

There will be a vaccine clinic on January 21st at PHMS. See image for details

See the image for a message regarding the decision making process for severe weather cancellations or delays.

Parents, please check your email for updated COVID protocols. Cindy Couchman, Superintendent, Buhler Schools

Happy New Year! With flu season in full swing please review and practice the following guidelines to help stop the spread of influenza. • Try to avoid close contact with sick people. • Persons confirmed to have influenza should stay home for five days following onset of symptoms or until fever free for 24 hours (without use of fever-reducing medications), whichever is longer, per Kansas requirement . According to CDC, persons with influenza are considered infectious for 5-7 days after becoming sick. • If sick with other febrile respiratory illnesses, stay home for at least 24 hours after fever is gone without using fever-reducing medicine. • Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it. • Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective when soap and water is unavailable. • Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way. •Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with germs like the flu. Visit the CDC influenza website for more information about the flu. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Buhler USD 313 would like to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year! Enjoy the extra time together and find joy in something special to you. We can't wait to see you in 2022!

Buhler High School is looking for a new attendance secretary. Please share with anyone you know who might be interested. Apply here: https://www.applitrack.com/buhlerschools/OnlineApp/JobPostings/View.asp?AppliTrackJobId=969

One of the most wonderful things about our Buhler school community is the support and partnership we have with our families. Buhler Schools has become aware of a troubling post that has been shared widely this week on the social media platform TikTok. The post refers to a threat to school safety “for every school in the USA, even elementary,” on Friday, December 17. Currently, we are unaware of any threats about USD #313 schools or students. The post appears to be part of a national TikTok trend and did not originate in our school district. We have heard reports from other districts that the same post is circulating in their schools. While we do not believe the threat to be credible, we are closely monitoring the situation and taking it seriously. Additionally, the district has been in contact with our local law enforcement agencies regarding the post. We may have an increased police presence in our buildings on Friday as an added precaution. This situation serves as a good example of why it is important to avoid sharing posts online that refer to school safety threats. Even if they are not credible threats, they can cause a great deal of stress and anxiety for our students, families, and staff. We ask our families to monitor their children’s social media activity and speak with them about proper behavior online. If you become aware of any potential threat posted to social media or anywhere else, please notify your building administrator, law enforcement, or make a Suspicious Activity Report with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at http://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar. You may also anonymously report threats of school violence to the Kansas School Safety Hotline. The number is 877-626-8203. As always, thank you for your partnership as we work to ensure a safe, secure, and exceptional learning environment for our students. Sincerely, Cindy Couchman Superintendent, Buhler Schools

Today was SO MUCH FUN! Every hour on the hour between 9am and 2pm we hosted a call in to win contest. It was so great to hear cheering students in the background as their class won, even though the hosts left a little bit to be desired! Here are our winners, what they won, and the sponsor. We are SO thankful to our sponsors! 9:00 - Mrs. Klassen's 1st hour at PHMS: Breakfast from Chick-Fil-A Hutch 10:00 - Ms. Sides' 3rd hour at PHMS: Breakfast from Chick-Fil-A Hutch 11:00 - Mrs. Holmes' 4th hour at PHMS: Pizza from Papa John's 12:00 - Mrs. Vernon's 4th hour at PHMS: Pizza from Pizza Ranch 1:00 - Mr. Biggs' 5th hour at PHMS: Treats from Holly's Sweet Treats 2:00 - Mrs. Gould's class at BGS: Treats from The Mustard Seed PHMS teachers had the luck in their favor today! Stay tuned to see some classroom doors decked out for the holidays. Local businesses have sponsored a contest for that activity as well. Our community is really amazing!