Important bus information from Mercer County Schools. Bus 625 will not run tomorrow, Thursday, March 10th. This affects Athens, Pikeview Middle, and Pikeview High. The bus also will not pick up at Melrose tomorrow afternoon. Thank you.
Athens School is dismissing at 11:45 today, Wednesday March 9th due to a power outage.
Mrs. Brown’s Kindergarten is learning about dinosaurs this week. Today, we pretended to be paleontologists searching for dinosaurs. We even hatched “Dino eggs” 🦕 🦖
Mrs. Hale’s class has been studying about owls. Students are working on dissecting their owl pellets to see what prey their raptors have eaten. 🦉
Please join us every evening for the reading of Peter Pan! We are excited to read with all of you! 💫
The first grade classes were thrilled to get to meet a real live author via Zoom today! Stacy C Bauer is an author that writes children’s books such as Cami Kangaroo Has Too Many Sweets and The ABCs of Friendship and Kindness. She shared some of her books with us. We were able to learn all about the process of writing and publishing a book from beginning to end. We also got a behind the scenes look at the process that an illustrator goes through when creating artwork for books. We believe first grade may have some future authors and illustrators!
Mercer County BOE Votes to Make Mask Wearing Optional
At the February 22nd meeting, the Mercer County Board of Education voted to move its mask guidance from mandatory to optional. This means that mask usage in buildings and on school buses will be optional for both students and staff.
This decision is being made as Mercer County and Mercer County Schools positive case numbers are going down after the increase during the winter holidays. Masks may also be required at individual school sites if Covid-19 transmission rates warrant a mask requirement.
Mercer County Schools will still have masks available to anyone wanting one. We will also continue communicating with the Mercer County Health Department about special cases and any concerning trends in classrooms or schools. The superintendent may institute practices if determined necessary in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ultimate goal is to protect our students and prioritize learning. Given the quick spread of the Omicron variant and its rapid clinical course, it has made contact tracing in schools impractical when combined with the newly reduced timelines for quarantine and isolation set by the CDC. With that being said, Mercer County Schools will not perform contact tracing on behalf of the Mercer County Health Department.
All Mercer County schools are now reporting positive cases to a new WV DHHR tracking survey, which appears on Fridays at https://wvde.us/covid19/school-covid-dashboard/
The Keep Mercer Clean Campaign!
Pre-K Registration for Athens School is on March 11th and 14th. Please make sure you have turned in a Pre-K Enrollment Application to the school by February 25th. You will be contacted to set up a registration appointment.
2-hour early dismissal on Monday, February 21, 2022.