Superintendent’s Message

2-22-2021

What a year it has been! As I write this latest newsletter article, I cannot help but be amazed that we are to this point in the school year. When the school year started in August, few thought we would make it to mid-February and still be attending school five days a week.

As we look at the number of schools around the nation who still have not returned to five days a week of in-school education, I cannot help myself for being extremely proud and thankful to the TV Staff, our students, and the entire TV Community. We have not had a day of school with less than 2500 students physically attending. For the majority of the year, the school district has been trending closer to 90% of our students attending in-person school on a daily basis. This would not have been possible without the complete cooperation and support of our staff members, parents and students. At one point during the school year, 70% of schools in Ohio were not hosting in-person learning.  While we have had 71 staff members test positive for COVID since the school year started in August, we currently only have one positive case under quarantine.

Many of our extra-curricular activities have been curtailed dramatically, and these are opportunities that many of our students have simply missed. Commencement, Prom, the 8^th Grade Washington DC Trip, and several other annual traditions have been suspended as a result of the pandemic.  It is our goal to pick up where we left off as soon as possible. Over 200 of our employees have received the vaccination and the number of positive cases is dropping rapidly in Muskingum County. Every day seems to bring us a bit closer to normalcy at Tri-Valley.

It has been very sad to attend athletic events and not see the entire community there cheering for our student athletes. The outstanding support of school activities by our community is one of the greatest attributes of the school district! We are hopeful and optimistic that everyone will be back next year.

In addition to the pandemic, it has been one heck of a winter! We have missed school several times due to inclement weather and currently have one make-up day scheduled on March 19^th. As we enter the end of February, spring is right around the corner. Let’s hope and pray that it brings an end to both bad weather and the Coronavirus.