Harrisburg,
During these days when NOTHING seems normal anymore.....I wanted to show you something that has always been constant in the HARRISBURG community!
HARRISBURG UNIT # 3 LOVES AND CARES FOR ALL OF OUR STUDENTS AND FAMILIES.
I am unsure what many of you will see when you look at this video.....Let me tell you what I see.....I see COMPASSION, EMPATHY, VOLUNTEERISM, KINDNESS, TENDER, CONCERNED, THOUGHTFUL AND LOVING INDIVIDUALS. These individuals that come together every week and spend hours preparing, bagging and delivering a LITTLE bag of food overflowing with a LOT OF LOVE! The team all agree we have FUN doing it, it brings us closer together and provides essential nutrition for our kids.
During these times, we worry about our kids LOSING or REGRESSING WITH THEIR LEARNING........... I think if our students and community watch my team and what they are doing during this time, any small regression pales in comparison to the MONUMENTAL LIFE LESSON that is an unintentional consequence of my team being what they are .......GREAT PEOPLE!
#THEYTHINKWE'REJUSTTEACHING
#PROUDSUPERINTENDENT #LOVEMYUNIT3FAMILY #DOINGWHATISRIGHTFORKIDS
Mike Gauch
https://youtu.be/qEtGj4Ij24M
HARRISBURG UNIT # 3 FAMILY - We wanted to make you aware of a TIME CHANGE !!!!!!!
Starting Monday April 13th -
FOOD SITES WILL BEGIN PASSING OUT MEALS AT 10:30 a.m. AND STAY UNTIL 12:30 OR UNTIL THEY RUN OUT OF FOOD.
TIME NOTED ABOVE IS THE ONLY CHANGE, EVERYTHING ELSE WILL CONTINUE AS IN PRIOR WEEKS.
Thanks
Mike Gauch
Unit 3 Family,
We would like to take a moment to clarify some information with the packets and the calendar. The packets that were handed out yesterday and the e-learning will start today, this will take us through spring break and convene the week after spring break. As recommended to HCUSD #3, we are still following our school calendar through the remaining year. Students will not be expected to complete remote learning over spring break. Therefore, this packet or e-learning will extend past spring break and get us to the next packet which will be distributed the week of April 27th.
With regard to the April 27 packet, we were advised to plan for remote learning through the rest of the school calendar in case we are not able to get back into school or have in person instruction. This is why as a district we have set April 27th for remote learning to continue. If we receive further communication contradicting this and expect in person instruction to begin on May 1, we will adjust our plans. This is strictly for planning purposes at this time. As always, we will communicate information as soon as we receive it.
Harrisburg Unit 3 Family,
This situation that feels more and more like the Twilight Zone continues. I have never been involved in something like this and while we try NOT to seem surprised and to deliver messages in a "matter of fact" kind of manner....this situation is just as much a shock to myself and Unit 3 as it is to all of you. With that said, we are here for you and your children and will continue to try and serve your children as the state directs during this closure.
Most of you by now have heard that Governor Pritzker extended school closures through April 30th. This means the earliest we could come back to school is May 1. He also has conveyed to schools that he wants us to continue our attempt to keep children engaged in skill retention activities, review activities and routines so to not regress and lose skills they have developed so far this year. He and the State Board asked us to create a plan for this and it be called a REMOTE LEARNING PLAN. I have attached Harrisburg Unit 3's plan. You will see it is VERY similar to what we already have in place. That is a testament to your child's teachers, administrators and Board who decided to be proactive and try to get out in front of this horrible situation. This plan just formalizes and codified in writing the plan that we have been executing. Please do not get worried that things are changing again, we are aware of the stress this has put on all of you and made the changes here as minimal as possible so you all can keep doing what you are doing with your kiddos.
There are really only 3 major changes in the plan from what you are currently doing;
First, the Governor has now said moving forward, that any packets or e-learning that a student is provided after March 30 (which includes the packet we passed out yesterday 3-31) should be turned in to be assessed for credit. These packets will be graded on a pass/incomplete scale and NO GRADE WILL BE NEGATIVELY IMPACTED BY THIS WORK.
The second change is more for safety purposes and is a change Harrisburg Unit 3 has decided to make for your benefit and the benefit of staff. There will be no more face to face meetings to receive or to turn in packets. We have at some buildings the on-line component, which we recommend for ALL who can access. We also have now downloaded each packet on our website, so you can go on and download and print your packet if you wish and have that capability. Finally if you cannot do either of those we ask that you call us on Monday, April 27th and provide your child's school office your name and address and request it be mailed. We ask you to only call on the 27th as the office will be working that day.
The final change is on submitting packets. Over the next few days your child's building will be placing a box,tub or some other kind of drop-box outside the front doors of their building. Once you have this packet complete we would ask that you drop it off there and that box will be emptied daily. We also request that you contact your child's teacher so they know to look for the packet and to note that it was submitted for credit.
I have attached the plan, I know there will be MANY questions....please do not hesitate to call my office and I will try and answer any concerns you have. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND UNDERSTANDING IN THIS MATTER. Like I have said before we will get through this TOGETHER.
Thanks
Mike
Unit 3 Remote Learning Plan: https://5il.co/ehgl
Unit # 3,
We continue to get more information regarding this health pandemic. Governor Pritzker announced today that schools will remain closed through April 30. I will put an official statement out in the morning to let you know what that means for all of us.
Thank you for your cooperation,
Mike Gauch
UNIT 3 Families: Please check out this offer from Mediacom.
Our program: Mediacom Connect-2-Compete
Web site: https://mediacomc2c.com/
Cost to eligible families:
60 days complementary to new subscribers (if signed up by May 15, 2020)
$9.95 + tax as the flat monthly fee – this is what current subscribers pay, and what new families would pay after 60 days.
We consider this a ‘flat-fee’ / all-inclusive. We remove the barriers and costs that are typically an obstacle for lower-income families:
Mediacom waives installation fee
Mediacom sets up home WiFi / with free-lease on the modem (i.e. no monthly equipment lease)
No contract required
No deposit required
Our customer reps are using a wider, more generous policy to write-off bad debt of former customers – so that this won’t preclude getting connected now
WHO is eligible:
Families with at least one K-12 student living at home; AND
at least one of those students is eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches (NSLP) – a lot of families meet this criterion
KEY – must live in a Mediacom service area -- Mediacom’s broadband network is available in Harrisburg; also in nearby El Dorado (also Marion, Carbondale, et al) – but our network infrastructure extends to neighborhoods within the municipality – typically not far beyond. For families that live in rural areas between communities, the ISP option is generally the telephone company.
ATTENTION UNIT 3 PARENTS AND GUARDIANS:
PLEASE CLICK LINK FOR NEW E-LEARNING INFO:
https://5il.co/eaz4
UNIT # 3 UPDATE
Harrisburg Unit # 3 continues to make every attempt to provide our students with materials on - line and through our Learning packets to maintain skills and knowledge through this closure.
Our e-learning program continues on-line with the materials that were sent out two weeks ago, please look for announcements from your teachers about possible videos, links, U-tube suggestions or new items that they put out for you work on until our new target date to possibly return to school provided by the Governor of April 8th.
Those of you without Internet Access will be able to pick up new packets at your child's school on Tuesday March 31st from 9-12 and/or 3-6 p.m.. Staff will be at the school during these times to pass out packets of learning for you to pick up.
We as a district remain dedicated to our students and doing the best we can to make this closure a productive time educationally for our students. Thank you again for your cooperation through this time and as we have further information we will pass it along to all of you.
Thank You
Mike Gauch
UNIT # 3 UPDATE
Harrisburg Unit # 3 continues to make every attempt to provide our students with materials on - line and through our Learning packets to maintain skills and knowledge through this closure.
Our e-learning program continues on-line with the materials that were sent out two weeks ago, please look for announcements from your teachers about possible videos, links, U-tube suggestions or new items that they put out for you work on until our new target date to possibly return to school provided by the Governor of April 8th.
Those of you without Internet Access will be able to pick up new packets at your child's school on Tuesday March 31st from 9-12 and/or 3-6 p.m.. Staff will be at the school during these times to pass out packets of learning for you to pick up.
We as a district remain dedicated to our students and doing the best we can to make this closure a productive time educationally for our students. Thank you again for your cooperation through this time and as we have further information we will pass it along to all of you.
Thank You
Mike Gauch
UNIT # 3 UPDATE
Harrisburg Unit # 3 continues to make every attempt to provide our students with materials on - line and through our Learning packets to maintain skills and knowledge through this closure.
Our e-learning program continues on-line with the materials that were sent out two weeks ago, please look for announcements from your teachers about possible videos, links, U-tube suggestions or new items that they put out for you work on until our new target date to possibly return to school provided by the Governor of April 8th.
Those of you without Internet Access will be able to pick up new packets at your child's school on Tuesday March 31st from 9-12 and/or 3-6 p.m.. Staff will be at the school during these times to pass out packets of learning for you to pick up.
We as a district remain dedicated to our students and doing the best we can to make this closure a productive time educationally for our students. Thank you again for your cooperation through this time and as we have further information we will pass it along to all of you.
Thank You
Mike Gauch
UNIT # 3 UPDATE
Harrisburg Unit # 3 continues to make every attempt to provide our students with materials on - line and through our Learning packets to maintain skills and knowledge through this closure.
Our e-learning program continues on-line with the materials that were sent out two weeks ago, please look for announcements from your teachers about possible videos, links, U-tube suggestions or new items that they put out for you work on until our new target date to possibly return to school provided by the Governor of April 8th.
Those of you without Internet Access will be able to pick up new packets at your child's school on Tuesday March 31st from 9-12 and/or 3-6 p.m.. Staff will be at the school during these times to pass out packets of learning for you to pick up.
We as a district remain dedicated to our students and doing the best we can to make this closure a productive time educationally for our students. Thank you again for your cooperation through this time and as we have further information we will pass it along to all of you.
Thank You
Mike Gauch
HARRISBURG COMMUNITY -
UPDATE ON FACILITIES - I received a phone call from a citizen this morning who told me that he lives by Taylor Field and was very angry that there were people still walking on the track and using the facility. The Governor did ask that all school run facilities shut down, but the district did not feel the need to stop people from walking on the track as long as the people were practicing social distancing.
With that said, I regret to inform you that we will not allow any admittance to any of our facilities until further notice. I know many of you walk on the track daily , as have I. I also know that as adults you would adhere to the social distancing aspect as requested. However, when people decide that it is their job to police our property and make those calls and allegations against the district, we feel it is prudent for us to go ahead and just lock the facility and comply with the directive from Springfield.
I apologize that this has forced the district to close all of those gates and areas that we know the community use for daily exercise and activities that the Governor has encouraged people to do as long as they practice the Social Distancing request, but districts across the state were indeed asked to lock their facilities, so that is what we will do.
I promise you all that the minute the Governor allows us to open our doors, we will make these facilities available for all of you again. The district, Board, Administration and staff believe that the school district should be a community facility used by all members of our community. Sadly, not all people feel that way, as evident by the phone call I had today.
On behalf of the district, I want to apologize for the inconvenience and hopefully it will not last much longer.
Thank you and please stay safe.
Mike Gauch
UNIT # 3 UPDATE
Harrisburg Unit # 3 continues to make every attempt to provide our students with materials on - line and through our Learning packets to maintain skills and knowledge through this closure.
Our e-learning program continues on-line with the materials that were sent out two weeks ago, please look for announcements from your teachers about possible videos, links, U-tube suggestions or new items that they put out for you work on until our new target date to possibly return to school provided by the Governor of April 8th.
Those of you without Internet Access will be able to pick up new packets at your child's school on Tuesday March 31st from 9-12 and/or 3-6 p.m.. Staff will be at the school during these times to pass out packets of learning for you to pick up.
We as a district remain dedicated to our students and doing the best we can to make this closure a productive time educationally for our students. Thank you again for your cooperation through this time and as we have further information we will pass it along to all of you.
Thank You
Mike Gauch
UNIT # 3 UPDATE
Harrisburg Unit # 3 continues to make every attempt to provide our students with materials on - line and through our Learning packets to maintain skills and knowledge through this closure.
Our e-learning program continues on-line with the materials that were sent out two weeks ago, please look for announcements from your teachers about possible videos, links, U-tube suggestions or new items that they put out for you work on until our new target date to possibly return to school provided by the Governor of April 8th.
Those of you without Internet Access will be able to pick up new packets at your child's school on Tuesday March 31st from 9-12 and/or 3-6 p.m.. Staff will be at the school during these times to pass out packets of learning for you to pick up.
We as a district remain dedicated to our students and doing the best we can to make this closure a productive time educationally for our students. Thank you again for your cooperation through this time and as we have further information we will pass it along to all of you.
Thank You
Mike Gauch
Harrisburg Unit 3 .... I have attached a u-tube link that gives you a glimpse into our Meal Service Program that we are running for our students during this closure. My staff has forced me to limit volunteers....because too many of them WANT to help. Their passion for the children of this community is a great thing. I am so proud of them! I hope this paints just a small picture of the magnitude of this program....... The time and effort that this takes each week to put together THIRTEEN THOUSAND meals! We are so happy to do this for our district, our children and our community. GOD BLESS AND STAY SAFE! Mike Gauch
https://youtu.be/pAVlL2uucqc
UNIT # 3 UPDATE
Harrisburg Unit # 3 continues to make every attempt to provide our students with materials on - line and through our Learning packets to maintain skills and knowledge through this closure.
Our e-learning program continues on-line with the materials that were sent out two weeks ago, please look for announcements from your teachers about possible videos, links, U-tube suggestions or new items that they put out for you work on until our new target date to possibly return to school provided by the Governor of April 8th.
Those of you without Internet Access will be able to pick up new packets at your child's school on Tuesday March 31st from 9-12 and/or 3-6 p.m.. Staff will be at the school during these times to pass out packets of learning for you to pick up.
We as a district remain dedicated to our students and doing the best we can to make this closure a productive time educationally for our students. Thank you again for your cooperation through this time and as we have further information we will pass it along to all of you.
Thank You
Mike Gauch
Harrisburg Community,
I am very happy we were able to pass out 8,000 meals today for our students to have food for the week. Each bag contained 5 breakfasts and 5 lunches of the week. We are hopeful that this service is reaching as many of our children as possible.
I regret to say that we did however, run out of meals very quickly today and we realize some people were not able to get the meals. That was not our intention and we hate that we have to turn people away, however, we can only do so much to keep this service going for all of our community.
We would like to make the following pleas to all of you moving forward to help us maximize the amount of children and community members we can serve with this program.
1. Please only take or go get meals from one of the many sites we have available for pick up. We are doing all of this program on the honor system. We give anyone that walks up a meal if we have it, we do not ask, nor will we, but please allow everyone to get an opportunity to get some meals.
2. Please only request the amount of bags that will help you supplement what you need to make it through the week for your children.
3. We are trying to feed as many of our students as possible. Please help us by only taking what you absolutely need.
4. We apologize in advance....when we run out of meals....we are OUT. We are being limited in our ordering currently and will do as many meals or bags as we can, but when they are gone there is nothing we can do. The district is doing the very best they can in a very difficult situation and when that limit is reached we will be unable to accommodate anything until the next round of service.
We THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND COOPERATION THROUGH THIS DIFFICULT TIME. Harrisburg Unit # 3 will continue to do everything we can to assist our students and families through this situation.
Thank You,
Mike Gauch
REMINDER........
Harrisburg Unit #3's Meal Plan will be at mobile sites tomorrow Monday, March 23rd to get meals out to our students. PLEASE REMEMBER that we are delivering a weeks worth of meals to you tomorrow and will not have another delivery until Monday, March 30th.
Thank you,
Mike Gauch
Harrisburg,
I just want to let all of you know something about what I saw today. I saw a team.....I saw a team of people that would not be denied their goal. I saw a group of people that wanted NO credit but wanted to work together for a common purpose. People that may not always see eye to eye, but when the chips are down come together to MAKE SURE WE GET IT DONE.
That team was my staff and other volunteers from our community. Our cooks and several volunteers were there when I arrived at 7:30 this morning at the High School. We told them the goal.....get 1600 meals out to our students today and bag 8000 more so we can get those out Monday for the week. The ONLY THING WE HEARD WAS ....OK WHAT DO YOU NEED ME TO DO.
We had a group of people helping cooks prep, a group of people getting the 1600 meals ready to go out today. We had two "ASSEMBLY LINES" putting together 8,000 bags and meals for next week. We had a team that then loaded the meals and went out to our sites and greeted our students, gave them food, smiles, and hugs....AND I SAW NO ONE LEAVE UNTIL EVERYTHING WAS DONE!!!!!!! This has been going on in your community for this entire week and will continue for several weeks to come.
This teams goal.......TAKE CARE OF OUR KIDS, OUR STUDENTS, OUR FUTURE.........
PEOPLE I SAW A DREAM TEAM TODAY....... AND THEY WORK WITH YOUR KIDS EVERY DAY!!!!! WE ALL SHOULD BE PROUD!!!!!! That is why Harrisburg is HOME!
Mike Gauch
Message regarding food service.
Harrisburg Community,
We are very happy that the Governor is going to allow Harrisburg Unit # 3 to continue to provide our Meal Plan for the community. The district WILL continue this vital service for our students and our community. While this service will continue, we will be making some changes to the program and wanted to update you all on what those changes will be and how they will impact you. All pick up sites for meals will not change, the sites that we currently are operating as mobile sites will be the same.
There are 3 changes for the program, those changes will start Monday, March 23rd.
1. We have decided to have pick up of meals only on Monday. When you come to the site, you will be provided a bag that contains 5 breakfast meals and 5 lunch meals for the week. It is essential that you show up on Monday as that will be the ONLY day we have these deliveries each week.
2. Robinson Transport (our district transportation provider) has graciously offered to assist by bringing the meals to each of our sites in one of their big yellow busses. We appreciate them and their willingness to assist us in this service.
3. Finally, with the amount of items, bags and meals that we are putting together we are going to be unable to honor allergy requests. PLEASE make sure you check your child's bag for any product that may be an allergy concern and either give it away or discard the item. BUT PLEASE CHECK YOUR CHILD'S ITEMS!!!!
I have attached a copy of the delivery sites as a reminder.
We look forward to getting these meals out to you Monday and every Monday as long as this closure is in place. Thank you and stay safe!
Link for updated meal plan: https://5il.co/e03p
Mike Gauch
Superintendent
Harrisburg Unit # 3