Bowling Green R-1 School District

BOWLING GREEN NIGHT AT THE CARDINALS! The choir students from our Bowling Green R-1 District schools will be performing at the Cardinals game the evening of August 26th. Tickets are available for purchase to sit with the BG Family until August 11 for $20. Please make plans to get yours and support our Bobcat Singers! #BGBOBCATPRIDE

Our BGR-1 teachers are selfless, dedicated, and caring individuals who devote themselves to the well-being and progress of our students. During this Tuesday, May 3 on National Teacher Appreciation Day, and throughout National Teacher Appreciation Week, we honor educators who touch the lives of students across America and who are essential to building the future of our community. Thank you, teachers!

"The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) announced today the school districts and individual school buildings that earned the 2022 Missouri Purple Star designation — the first ever for the State of Missouri. This designation is awarded to military-friendly schools that have demonstrated a major commitment to students and families connected to our nation’s military." As a person who grew up in a military home and who raised children in a military home, this is of particular importance to me. Within the Bowling Green R-1 School District, we have students whose parents serve in the active duty military and the National Guard and reserves. 2022 Purple Star School Districts: • Bowling Green R-I School District • Miller R-II Schools • Plato R-V • Waynesville R-VI School District #BGBOBCATPRIDE https://www.facebook.com/MOEducation/posts/299062929080011

Administrative Professionals Week (APW) is celebrated annually during the last full week in April and the Wednesday is designated “Administrative Professionals Day”. Jayne, Connie, Kelly, Ann, Tina, Melissa, Ellen, Jill, Sasha, and Peggy, we are thankful for you! #bgbobcatpride

BGR-1 Families: As a reminder, five Bowling Green R-1 citizens have filed their candidacy for two positions on the BGR-1 Board of Education. The positions are for three-year terms, and Election Day is April 5, 2022 (tomorrow). As part of their filing process, the candidates were asked to provide their own biographical information so that voters in the district may learn more about them. This information about each of the five candidates has been published for the last several weeks on our district webpages, in order of filing as their names will appear on the ballot: https://www.bgschools.k12.mo.us/page/school-board-election-candidates Also, our Community Teachers Association facilitated a Meet the Candidate Night last month, where candidates were able to respond to questions and share about their vision for the BGR-1 School District. To access a recorded version of this event, navigate to: https://fb.watch/cb6WZDbM3n/ We hope that our community members come out and vote tomorrow, and we thank you for our support of our school district and our students! #BGBOBCATPRIDE

The Kitchen is Hiring! Do you want to see your kids everyday at Lunch? Be off in the summer, evening and weekends? This is the Job for you! If you are interested please apply at the link below. https://jobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/home/HomeWithPreLoad?PageType=JobDetails&partnerid=26579&siteid=7047&Areq=10489BR

BGR-1 Families, Starting March 1, masking on our buses will be optional due to updates in the CDC policy posted on February 25th. Effective February 25th, the CDC does not require wearing of masks on buses or vans operated by public or private school systems, including early care and education/child care programs. We appreciate the support and cooperation of our families as we have navigated the pandemic the last two years with a focus on keeping students safe and in school. We appreciate your continued support as we monitor and make adjustments to our mitigation strategies now that cases are much lower in our community. Have a great week! Matt Frederickson, PhD Superintendent

BGR-1 Families, School will be held remotely, tomorrow, Friday, February 25 following our Alternative Methods of Instruction Plan (AMI) due to refreeze and slick road conditions. Students will need to make sure to turn in any assignments based on teacher directions to be counted as present for the AMI day. Be safe, and we hope to see you back on Tuesday, since Monday is a staff development day. Matt Frederickson, PhD Superintendent

BGR-1 Families and Staff Students will be dismissed early today, Thursday, February 24th at 1:11 p.m. due to inclement weather. This will give road departments time to complete their work treating roads and for students to have lunch. After school activities are also cancelled. The Board meeting will go on as planned. Stay safe, and we hope to see you tomorrow! Matt Frederickson, PhD Superintendent

There will be a public School Board meeting Thursday February 24th @6:30 p.m. In the central office building. Follow the link below to view the meeting agenda. https://go.boarddocs.com/mo/bgr1sd/Board.nsf/Public

BGR-1: School will be cancelled again tomorrow, Friday, February 18th, due to unfavorable road conditions. This is the last built in snow day, so any future days cancelled due to inclement weather will be facilitated through our Alternative Methods of Instruction Plan.

BGR-1 Families, School is cancelled tomorrow, Thursday, February 17 due to the threat of inclement weather. Please look for updated communication regarding after school activities tomorrow. Please stay safe and warm and we will see you soon! Matt Frederickson, PhD

Would you like to work while your kids are at school? We currently have multiple positions open in the BGR1 Kitchens. Please Click and apply below if interested. https://jobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/home/HomeWithPreLoad?PageType=JobDetails&partnerid=26579&siteid=7047&Areq=10217BR

This is a week for us to show appreciation to our counselors and social worker. Please help us in thanking them for all they do for our students every day, especially through this time of unique needs our students have. We have a tremendous student services team! #bgbobcatpride

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/