Divide County School District

DCSD Families, We are continuing to email letters to notify families when your student has been a close contact to another student or staff member who has tested positive for COVID. An email was sent yesterday to several DCHS families and today several families from DCE will receive an emailed letter. These letters will either be from tanja.brown@k12.nd.us or desiree.wishart@k12.nd.us. Families/students who received letters yesterday or today are not required to quarantine due to the Mask Exemption allowance and instead are asked to SELF-MONITOR. If symptoms develop, stay home and contact your healthcare provider. DCSD follows the mask exemption guidance which allows students and staff to stay in school if all parties were masked (with approved mask types) during the close contact with the positive case. We thank our students and staff for taking extra precautions to help keep us in school! Notifying close contacts takes time. In order to speed up the process we often bcc the emails so we can send them in bulk. We are not able to identify your child individually in that type of mailing. Therefore, we will list the classes/courses in which the close contact occurred. You will only receive the letter if your child is enrolled in one of the listed classes. After receiving the email, please contact the sender if any further clarification is needed. Please continue to do your part to slow the spread of COVID in our community. We must all work together to keep our families healthy, our businesses and schools open, and our healthcare facilities able to serve the needs of all those who are ill.

Each year the 3rd graders use a program called “Kicking It Multiplication” to learn their multiplication facts. Each day they have 60 seconds to complete 60 multiplication facts They earn belts along the way after mastering 4 sets of 60 facts. Aliza Pulvermacher earned her yellow belt today after mastering sets A-D. Congratulations

Divide County Angel Tree information. If you have any questions please contact North Star Human Services in Crosby at 701-965-6521.

Girl Scouts! Free virtual events for girls in grades K - 5. Girls that are interested can stop by the DCE office for a flyer to bring home.

Junior High girl’s basketball practice will begin Monday, November 9th at 3:45 PM. Practice will be held at Divide County Elementary School. Athletes must have a physical before they can begin practice.

District 16 Volleyball Tournament Friday, Oct. 30, 2020 DC v. Kenmare 7:00 PM Game @ Kenmare Live on the Kenmare Honker YouTube Channel Also, a reminder fans can not livestream these matches. This is an NDHSAA sponsored match, please use the available livestreams.

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.