Bowling Green R-1 School District

BGR-1 Families: School is canceled for tomorrow, Friday, February 4 due to inclement weather. Please stay safe and warm and we hope to see you on Monday morning!

BGR-1 Families, I'm writing to let you know that school is closed tomorrow, Thursday, February 3rd, due to inclement weather. All activities are also canceled. Stay safe and warm! Matt Frederickson Superintendent

BGR-1 Families, School will be closed tomorrow, Wednesday, February 2nd due to the threat of inclement weather. Please stay safe and warm out there! Matt Frederickson, PhD Superintendent

The Bowling Green FFA officers met at Hardee's at 5:20am this morning to eat breakfast and were at the AG building before 6am to start unloading our fruit delivery truck. Officers and members in class that paid their dues are busy getting ready for delivery! #bgbobcatpride

NOTICE OF FILING FOR TWO BOARD OF EDUCATION DIRECTORSHIPS The Bowling Green R-I School District encourages qualified persons interested in running for a position on the School Board to file to be a candidate in the April 5, 2022 election. There are two positions available with three-year terms. Interested persons may file at the superintendent's office located at 700 W. Adams St., Bowling Green, MO 63334. For more information, contact the superintendent's office at 573-324-5441. Filing will begin on December 7, 2021, at 8:00 a.m. Filing will end on December 28, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. and will continue during the district's regular business hours, which are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Candidates may obtain the official candidate filing packet of forms and instructions in advance from the superintendent's office. Except for the first and last day of filing, filing will not occur on days that the school district's central office is closed due to inclement weather or health-related reasons. Filing will also not occur on the following holidays and breaks when the school district is not in session: December 24 and December 27. The names of the qualified candidates will be placed on the ballot in order of filing.

BGR-1 Families, As a follow-up to my communication yesterday, I find that a need for an additional update is needed in light of continued anxiety and rumors. To reiterate, there has been no threat uncovered of any sort or type of shooting and no list with any names on it and no date identified for anything like this to take place. What has been fabricated from a simple “hitting” type of communication between two students has been augmented and changed and passed around creating anxiety. We have gotten permission from the family to share this information (since we typically do not share information related to student discipline). But we need our families to help stop the spread of these rumors and refrain for posting them on social media. This continued focus causes anxiety in our students and staff and disrupts the educational process. People speculating at every little item they notice and turning these into something they are not is not helpful for any of us. Safety has and continues to be one of our district’s top priorities. Over the last five years, we have taken many important steps to help further safeguard our school community and ensure a safe learning environment for our students, staff, and visitors. Some of these improvements have been the addition of card readers and airphone/buzzing in system at school entrances, safety film added to exterior glass, a School Resource Officer, and two new guidance positions (and we are planning to add another counseling position for next year paid for by a grant we recently were awarded). We have also increased the availability of counseling services through partnering agencies. The BGR-1 Schools regularly participates in drill exercises and advanced training to ensure everyone is able to respond swiftly and appropriately if an incident occurs. Table-top simulations with local first responders, reunification plans, unified threat-response plans, and ALICE (Active Shooter Civilian Response) trained expert led training have been a very important part of our prevention plan. While we hope we will never need to deal with the worst imaginable situation, we train in hopes of minimizing or even preventing incidents. One of the common threads of recent national and state safety audit reports for schools points out that “A risk assessment can identify vulnerabilities and enable the development of a strategy to address any security gaps,” and that “effective security plans use a layered approach across all three areas of a school: entry points, the building envelope, and the classroom.” Both reports go on to emphasize the need for school resource officers, additional counseling resources, and training. Many have noticed new entrances we built with Prop S funding and buzzing in capability at every entrance. These entrances are monitored by staff to ensure only those who are supposed to be in the building enter. We have enclosed our courtyards, so students have places to experience them without exposure outside. Additionally, our classroom doors that were still hollow core type doors were replaced with intruder prevention approved solid doors and locking systems. These and other improvements mentioned before, and most importantly, training have been instrumental in our prevention. We do and have shared real threats when we unconsider them to be viable with our community. We do not, however, share every little discipline event where there might be a physical altercation event or suspision of one with our public. After hearing that this had grown into something unrecognizable from its orgin by Tuesday night, we had messages to our community the next morning. This update is another attempt to ask for help in squelching the misinformation. Being vigilant, while very important, is very different from expanding and sharing ideas that are not founded in truth. We teach students to think critically about every claim or counter claim, and we ask for your help to make sure this is an area of focus. Matthew L. Frederickson, PhD Superintendent Bowling Green R-1 School District 700 West Adams Street Bowling Green, MO 63334 Phone: 573-324-5441 Fax: 573-324-2439 http://www.bgschools.k12.mo.us/ Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/BGSUPT or @BGSUPT For our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bowlingreenbobcats/

BGR-1 Families and Community, As we wind down the last few days of 2021, I wanted to send a message to our families thanking you for your support of a very successful first months of school. We have been able to keep our students learning throughout the pandemic and our doors open. As a result, we have gotten some very positive news from our state education department regarding our district report card released late last week. While many districts across our state have noted substantial learning loss measured on state assessments last Spring, we have had many gains locally. Just last year, we have had the highest placement rates for our Career-Technical Education Students, the highest percentage of students entering a 2 year college, and the highest percentage of students entering the military in at least the last five years. I am particularly proud of this last number, which is more than double the state average. This was the second year in a row our ACT composite was equal to or higher than the state average, and our MAP growth levels for ELA and Math districtwide was almost exactly the same as it was pre pandemic in 2019. And this is since a publication by the PRIME Center of St. Louis University who ranked BGE 3rd in NE Missouri for growth in ELA and Frankford 8th in Math for the three years leading to 2019. Also, just last month, US News and World Report ranked Frankford Elementary in the top 89 elementary schools in Missouri (of a bit over 1000 elementary schools.) Frankford was last a focus school in 2018 and the gains have been remarkable! Lastly, unlike several area schools, this is the third year in a row that none of our schools are on the state focus/targeted/comprehensive lists because of any gap in performance between students at risk compared to those not at risk. In fact, this gap has been shrinking. We are thankful for the support of our families and our stable and resourceful staff for helping to ensure this growth, even though challenging times. Just this past year, we have had zero turnover of teachers in both elementary schools, and we can also point to this stability as a great point of success. Even through this time, we have found leading schools to be challenging with changing guidance and opinions about responses to new situations that seem like a moving target. Our focus has always been on what is best for kids first and keeping student safety on the forefront. As you may have already heard, the Missouri Attorney General, Eric Schmitt, has sent a letter to all Missouri public school districts advising that they do not have the authority to issue mask mandates, quarantine orders or other public health orders and that they should stop enforcement immediately as a result of the Cole County court ruling issued Nov. 22. However, Section 167.191, RSMo. sets forth a standard regarding communicable disease and school attendance, saying: “It is unlawful for any child to attend any of the public schools of this state while afflicted with any contagious or infectious disease, or while liable to transmit such disease after having been exposed to it.” This statute was neither challenged nor addressed in the Cole County lawsuit or in Judge Green’s decision. Our attorneys continue to advise us that we have legal authority to establish rules and regulations regarding the safety of our students and staff. Inasmuch, I have already been consulting with health advisors, legal advisors, other area school leaders and the Board of Education over the past several weeks to consider possible adjustments to our mitigation strategies for the second semester. While we have been mask optional since May in the classroom, I intend to recommend to our board that we additionally not exclude students from school except those that are positive or symptomatic. I hope that this will alleviate the pressures of contact tracing in our school while our numbers of positive cases remain very low. Lastly, in light of the shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, schools across the nation have renewed anxiety and find that the rumor mill is also feeding this anxiety of a disastrous violent event. Specifically in our own community, we have had situations where students have made threats of violence. And, while the way in which the case in Oxford was handled is very different than how we handle these sorts of threats, please know that every situation is investigated thoroughly, and we would let our community know if a threat was credible based on that investigation. Mr. Mullins will share more this morning about the most recent rumor to our families. We have a very strong relationship with our city and county law enforcement and wrap around support and counseling providers and feel we have a very good handle on what is or is not a credible threat. However, as rumors abound, know that spreading false information about threats only causes disruption to the learning of our students. Please help us with not posting rumors on social media or sharing in other ways. We have a comprehensive safety plan including a very vigilant staff and community, a well-trained School Resource Officer, and ALICE (https://www.alicetraining.com/) training and drills that protect our students and we benefit from working together as a community. However, we are planning for increased security and visibility of law enforcement and always welcome their presence in our schools. If you have questions and would like to set up an in person meeting, I always welcome the opportunity. Take good care and have a great rest of the week! Matthew L. Frederickson, PhD Superintendent Bowling Green R-1 School District 700 West Adams Street Bowling Green, MO 63334 Phone: 573-324-5441 Fax: 573-324-2439 http://www.bgschools.k12.mo.us/ Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/BGSUPT or @BGSUPT For our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bowlingreenbobcats/

Bowling Green Families, Opaa! Food Management is in search of a qualified candidate to Manage the Middle School Kitchen in the new year! If you are interested or have questions regarding the position please contact the food service director Whitney Keith 573-639-2338 or Email @ wkeith@opaafood.com. Apply to the Link Below: https://jobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/home/HomeWithPreLoad?PageType=JobDetails&partnerid=26579&siteid=7047&Areq=9465BR

We are so excited to share that Kailey Flowers Luebrecht, a junior at Bowling Green High School, will perform with Saint Louis Ballet in the Nutcracker at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri - St. Louis Campus, December 17-23. During the Nutcracker, Kailey will be seen as a Lady Mouse during the Battle Scene between the Mouse King and the Nutcracker. Kailey also has a special role as a Flower where she dances on pointe with the Dew Drop Fairy during the Waltz of Flowers. Tickets for the performances are available at https://www.stlouisballet.org/nutcracker. Saint Louis Ballet is the only professional, resident ballet company of metropolitan St. Louis. The Ballet’s Executive and Artistic Director is Gen Horiuchi, who performed as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. Kailey has been training at the Saint Louis Ballet School for the past nine years and has performed in such Nutcracker roles as grey mouse, lead white mouse, red soldier, blue soldier, and party girl. In each of her roles, she has had the opportunity to rehearse with the Saint Louis Ballet professional Company dancers and has been directed by Mr. Horiuchi. Kailey takes classes six days a week at Saint Louis Ballet and trains during the summer at intensive ballet programs. This past summer, Kailey attended the Ballet Arizona Summer Intensive in Phoenix for six weeks. Kailey is the daughter of Daryl and Krista Flowers Luebrecht and the granddaughter of Judy Flowers. Photograph: Kailey Flowers Luebrecht, Photograph by Pratt + Kreidich #BGBOBCATPRIDE

There will be a public school board meeting Tuesday December 14th @1:30 p.m. in the Frankford Elementary gym.

As we head into December and winter approaches, we want to remind parents how they can stay informed when inclement weather affects school. The decision to delay the opening of school, dismiss early, or close school for the day due to weather conditions is never an easy one. Our priority is always the safety of the children. School closings, or early school dismissal, will be announced on the district website and sign as soon as the decision is made. In addition, we will send emails and autodial phone calls and text messages to BGR-1 families. Our community will also find accurate information about school closings on the following television stations: WGEM, KTVI (Ch.2), and KSDK (Ch. 5), both TV and online, on the Townsquare Media Quincy/Hannibal KHMO‐AM/KICK‐FM/KRRY‐FM/WLIQ‐AM and KJFM (Eagle 102) radio stations and websites, The Bowling Green Times and Peoples' Tribune online broadcasts, and on our District Facebook page. When we experience inclement weather conditions, safety is the most important consideration. Parents can help their students and the district prepare. Make plans ahead of time and communicate them with your children so they understand what to expect during an early school dismissal due to inclement weather. Understand that school closings are for the safety of children throughout the district. While the condition of your neighborhood streets may be fine, other areas of the district may be experiencing harsher weather. Please review the information you have listed as emergency contacts and make sure that the numbers are updated in our Student Information System by contacting your building office. Lastly, I am thankful we have not had any snow days within the first semester of this year so far. You may know that schools can attend remotely this year on days where schools are closed due to inclement weather and can count these for attendance and not be made up. This was new last year. We still plan to use the first five of our built-in snow days as regular nonattendance days if we have to close for inclement weather before using this remote option, otherwise known as AMI (alternative methods of instruction days). If we have more than five snow days, our plan is to use our Alternative Methods of Instruction plan approved by our state education department. Look for more information about this after the first of the year.

Today, on the 11th hour on the 11th day, of the 11th month, we honor several Americans who have heeded the call to serve others in our community, our state, and our nation and abroad. We celebrate Veterans Day, and honor the more than 25 million Americans, living Americans, who have served in our Armed Forces. We are so proud of our Bowling Green R-1 School District Veterans!!! Please make time to thank them for their sacrifice: Craig Smith-USAR, Tiffany Koester-USN, Gene Zbleski-USAR, Dan Grimes-USMC, Bill Holford-USAF, Don Farris-USAF, and Matt Frederickson-USAR (ret). Also Bob Kirkpatrick, Board Member-USAR and Vietnam Veteran As a reminder, Bowling Green Middle School is proud to serve free meals for veterans today at 11 a.m. for coffee and tea and lunch at 11:15 a.m. and the Veterans Program at 12:15 p.m. with guest speaker Major General (ret) Michael Zerbonia . Thank you all for helping to remember our veterans and making sure our students learn the importance of service to others before self. #VeteransDay #BGBobcatPride

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Bobcat Football team will be on the road tonight at South Callaway. Good Luck!!

National School Lunch Week is just around the corner, and we are wild about this year’s theme.

We are excited about our upcoming Military Apprectiation Night at our last regular season home football game on Friday, Oct. 22nd. More information will be coming out soon. Make plans to attend and honor our great Veterans. Game time is set for 7:00 pm vs. Cardinal Ritter.

Good Luck

Lady Cats Volleyball will be at the Olympia Athletic Center for a match with Intensity HS tonight at 5:00 pm.

The volleyball team will be playing Intensity High School tomorrow starting at 5:00 pm. The game will be at the following address: Olympia Athletic Center 49 Lawrence St. St. Charles, MO 63303

Lady Cats Softball back at home tonight for a varsity game vs. Elsberry. First pitch is 4:30 pm.