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Belpre BOE approves calendar

Belpre City School Superintendent Jeff Greenley speaks during a Board of Education meeting on Monday evening. (Photo by Tyler Bennett)

BELPRE — The Belpre City Schools Board of Education unanimously approved a new calendar for the 2021-2022 school year and new science curriculum for students during a board meeting on Monday evening.

The calendar will look similar to the calendar that the district is using for the current year, by starting the new year around the middle of August, Aug. 23 (Monday), and will end before Memorial Day (May. 24) with high school graduation on Sunday, May 22, 2022.

The calendar will also have a full Christmas and spring break, as well as a three-day break for Thanksgiving.

Staggered starts will also be making a return to the calendar. The staggered starts were used last fall as COVID-19 protocols and allowed only half the students one day and the other half on another day. Superintendent Jeff Greenley said continuing to use staggered starts before the official first day of school helps a small group of students get acclimated to building routines for the school year.

New Google Chromebooks will also be passed out as well.

“One thing that we are going to continue into this new calendar is a staggered start. We’ll give more details as we get closer, but not all grade levels will return on the first day,” Greenley said. “That was something we never would have done except for COVID but once we did, it was actually just really nice to get small groups of students and get them acclimated to building routines.”

The board also unanimously approved adopting the “Amplify Science” curriculum for grades 3-8. “Amplify Science” is a science curriculum that blends hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities and interactive digital tools to empower students to think, read and write like real scientists and engineers, he said.

Greenley said one of the aspects he likes about “Amplify” is the questions revolved around solving a problem.

“So every unit there’s a problem statement. One of them is a town having an increased ratio of rust in its water supply,” he said. “Then the students work throughout the unit using science reading materials and sometimes even engaging in other types of performance tests. They learn how to answer that question and also develop the academic content. So when we reviewed it, we felt like it was a real win for us because it’s more mission-aligned and the teachers also thought it was higher quality.”

As part of his superintendent update, Greenley said the district has met with representatives from Ohio University to discuss an after-school grant about forming a partnership that will provide additional help with after-school programming for the elementary and high school.

Called “Kids on Campus,” the application for the partnership will be sent to the Ohio Department of Education and the district will find out if they are approved during June or July, Greenley said.

Tyler Bennett can be reached at tbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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