Divide County School District

Flu Vaccination Clinic Rescheduled at School DCE - Tues., Nov. 3 beginning at 9 a.m. DCHS - Fri., Nov. 6 beginning at 9:30 a.m. Consent Forms: https://5il.co/lqzy DCE - Students do not need to resubmit consent form. DCHS - Students will need to RESUBMIT a consent form. Students will not be vaccinated without a completed consent form.

2020 District 16 VB Tournament Information: All matches will be played at various locations on October 29th, 30th, and November 2nd. Tournament matches will be played at the higher seed location. 1st Round match for DC will be at 7:00pm on Thursday, Oct. 29th. We are the #4 seed and will host the #5 seed, Stanley here at DC. Unfortunately, attendance at all tournament locations will be limited. All players, coaches, and stats will be given 2 tickets per participant. Masks are required at all matches. Concessions will also be limited to pop, popcorn, and candy. Admission will be $5 for adults and students. The match will be streamed on the NFHS network through our Pixellot system. To subscribe to this service please visit https://nfhsnetwork.com. Once you have created an account, search for Divide County High School in the search bar. The fee is 10.99/month or 64.99/year. Any event that takes place at the football field or the high school gymnasium can be streamed using this service.

Early Dismissal/Inservice Wednesday, October 28 is a planned early dismissal day for teacher in-service at DCE & DCHS. Dismissal is at 1:00. Kindergarten students will be dismissed at 12:45.

HS Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, Oct. 26th & Tuesday, October 27th from 4:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. each day. Masks are required.

K-6 Winter Gear Time is Here! The snowy, cold weather is here! All K-6 students will need to have a winter coat, snow pants, winter boots, winter gloves/mittens and a winter hat for recess. These will also be needed to ride the bus. If you need assistance gathering these items, please let the school office know.

ATTENTION: 7-12 Parents DCHS will be holding Parent/Teacher Conferences in the high school gymnasium. Monday, Oct. 26 & Tuesday, Oct. 27 4:00-7:30PM Masks will be required!

For those planning to subscribe and use the pixellot system today thru NFHS, we discovered some condensation in the left (north) lens due to the recent moisture. The company is aware of this issue and working to resolve it. You may notice a blurry picture when the camera pans in that direction. We apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. Just a reminder that the game can also be viewed on facebook live through the DCSD Facebook page.

DCSD will be following the recommended face covering guidelines put out by the NDDOH. This will allow us to keep more students and staff IN SCHOOL and exempting them from at-home quarantine and allowing them to SELF-MONITOR while attending school. PLEASE NOTE: ONLY the approved masks may be used at school and school events by all staff and students. If you do not have a qualifying mask, DCSD has the approved surgical mask for student and staff use. ALSO, we recently received white, cotton washable masks from the state for both students and staff. If your child needs a washable, re-usable mask, please contact your school office and we will send one home with them. Thank you for helping us keep our students in school!

DCE and DCHS staff and students will return to on-campus learning beginning Monday, October 26. We understand this may seem contrary as we continue to have COVID-19 cases within our community. While no one can predict the future, it is likely that COVID-19 will be amongst our community off and on throughout the school year. The recent COVID effect on our staff has diminished and we are able to resume normal, in-class instruction on Monday, October 26. It is our belief that most students learn best on-campus and in-person. We must also consider the whole child and their social and emotional well-being. We will continue to make concerted efforts and take precautions to help slow the spread of COVID-19 within our schools. We understand that every school closure not only affects our students but their families, our local businesses, and our community as a whole. With this in mind, we ask all families and members of our community to help us with these efforts outside of the school buildings by staying home when sick, social distancing, wearing a mask in public, and practicing good hand-hygiene. We are a small community and interactions outside of the school building also affect what happens inside our school buildings. We understand that COVID-19 affects everyone differently. We are not asking you to fear the virus, but rather, to help us take precautions to limit the spread, especially for those who are most vulnerable in our schools and community. Schools are the heart of most small communities. We are so proud to be serving ours – please help us stay strong!

There are 13 tickets still available for tomorrows FB playoff game. Mr. Harding will be at the high school from 1:00-2:00pm. You have to come to the High School parking lot and physically pick up the tickets. There will be no reservations through comments made on this post. Thank You.

The upcoming Football game between the DC Maroons and the Beach Buccaneers will be available to stream through our new Pixellot system. This is an approved streaming service through NDHSAA. To sign up for an account, please go to: https://nfhsnetwork.com/ Once you have created an account, search for Divide County High School in the search bar. The cost is 10.99/month or 64.99/year. These systems are installed in both our HS gymnasium and out at the FB field. We have the ability to stream any event that takes place in these venues. Please note that Saturday is the first time this system will be used. We appreciate your patience. You may also view the game on the Divide County School District Facebook page or listen to it live on 105.7 FM radio.

Close Contact Notifications: The NDDOH is experiencing a backlog and requesting all COVID positive individuals to notify their own close contacts. With this change in protocol, schools are not receiving the "return to school" dates for students identified as close contacts during this time. Families of DCE & DCHS students are asked to report if your child is required to quarantine along with start and end dates to Mrs. Brown, DCSD COVID Coordinator. If you are unsure of the dates, she will help you work through this process. This information can be emailed to tanja.brown@k12.nd.us or call the District Office at 701-965-6313. Upon receiving this information, DCSD will work with you to make instructional plans during your child's quarantine. Thank you for your assistance!

Divide County Football Fans: After our initial distribution of football playoff tickets, there are 50 tickets available for the playoff game Saturday. Parents/guardians of players will be given preference to obtain two additional tickets for each player’s family. These tickets will be available at the high school main entrance Wednesday (Oct. 21) morning at 8:30 until 9:30. Any tickets left after that will be available to the general public at 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. When arriving at the high school, please remain in your vehicle lined up along the curb, facing north and someone will come to your vehicle to deliver tickets. We have been fortunate to receive donations from local banks to enable us to stream the football playoff game on the Divide County School District Facebook page using Facebook LIVE, which is free to all viewers. There may also be an option for a Pixellot video stream connection, which we are still working on to make sure we have a good connection. There is a charge of $10.99 if this connection becomes available. Further details about these two options will be provided by Thursday night. The game is also being broadcast on FM 105.7.

FBLA is kicking off the year with fundraising for the American Heart Association. Please help us show our support for this great cause! Online donations will run to October 31st. You can donate by visiting https://app.mobilecause.com/vf/NDFBLA or texting NDFBLA to 71777.

Divide County Patrons, Following is information regarding the upcoming football playoff game to be at Divide County this coming Saturday, October 24, 2020. DC Maroons will host the Beach Buccaneers at 2:30 p.m. (CT) at the DCHS Football Field. Because this is a post-season playoff game, local board and/or administration regulations for these games are not optional. According to recent action of the NDHSAA, all regulations and protocols of the North Dakota High School Activities Association must be followed. NDHSAA has established the following Protocols for this playoff game: Attendance Restrictions – Only two (2) tickets are allotted per football team participant and coaches. Those tickets will be distributed by coaches to their players Wednesday at practice. The cost of all tickets is $8.00 per ticket. Fans will be requested to show their numbered ticket at the south main entrance to the football field at which time they will pay the admission price of $8.00. Only the south main entrance to the field will be used and will open at 1:00 p.m. Masks are required for all fans and sideline personnel. Game broadcast – The game will be broadcast on FM 105.7 (The Mix). By NDHSAA regulations, the playoff game cannot be livestreamed without the permission of the NDHSAA and will cost $500 to do so. We are currently soliciting donations to make this possible in case our NFHS Network Pixellot system is not activated by Saturday. We are anticipating a few tickets to be available to the general public by Wednesday, October 21, but don’t have a final number at this time. More information concerning availability of those tickets, where and when to purchase one, etc. will be available Tuesday night.

K-1 Lockers are Installed! Excited to announce that the K & 1 hallway is now sporting lockers for our kindergarten and first grade classes! No more overcrowded coat closets and trips down to the other end of the school to get coats. Just in time for winter gear season!

Learning Disabilities Awareness Month: Part 2- Dyslexia What is dyslexia? Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects how a person see’s letters. Some letters might appear backwards or upside down, text might appear to jump around on a page, or a person may not be able to tell the difference between letters that look similar such as o, e, and c. Here is a great video that explains dyslexia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65psPXWzNic Can you imagine trying to read passages that look like the page below? 1 in 5 students have a learning disability called dyslexia. With that being said, please know that some of the reversals are common among children to age 7 and are part of the developmental process, but please discuss with your child’s teacher if you are concerned. What is something that you can do to help support a child with dyslexia? 1) Allow them extra time to think and process. 2) Focus on their strengths and abilities. 3) Accept, encourage, and support the child. 4) Empower self-advocacy Remember, “My ABILITY is stronger than my disability.”

Hello everyone!! Ms. Wheeling and Mrs. Ratcliffe here- ready to spread some awareness about learning disabilities! October is National Learning Disabilities Awareness Month, so twice a week for the rest of the month, we will be posting a small lesson about learning disabilities that our families can participate in, as we are hoping that it will promote discussions with your child and help raise awareness about this topic that we are so passionate about! What are learning disabilities? Are there different types of learning disabilities? Did you know that 4 out of every 20 children in the U.S. have a learning disability? Did you know that adults can have learning disabilities too? Here is a short video to watch with your child about learning disabilities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCqeFxDgacQ After watching the video, please respond to this post or message us any questions that your child may have had or 1 thing that they found to be interesting.

Dear DCSD Patrons, The following information may be helpful in planning for upcoming activities. At this time, it is not certain whether Divide County will or will not host a play-off football game on October 24. That decision will be made Saturday, October 17 after all regular season region games are finished. Likewise, it is uncertain whether Divide County will be a host site for part of the district volleyball tournament. That decision will be made available after October 21. For preliminary planning purposes, it has been established that there will be limited attendance at a hosted football playoff game and at any hosted district volleyball games. The fan attendance for the football play-off game will be limited to 5 tickets per DCHS football player/coach and 100 tickets for the visiting team fans. The District #16 Volleyball Committee is limiting seating to 100 seats for both teams for any district volleyball games during the tournament. Details regarding admission prices and ticket distribution will be made available once the game site locations are finalized.

Update on Close Contact Notifications: