Flu Letter to Parents

As you may know, flu related illnesses are spreading easily from person to person, and school-age children are one of the groups most affected. We are working closely with our school physician, Cambria County EMS and the Pennsylvania Department of Health to monitor flu conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take. Currently, we are seeing a slightly higher occurrence of respiratory related flu conditions in the school. We are taking steps to prevent the spread of flu in the Central Cambria School District. Strategies consist of basic every day approaches to limit the spread of germs. We want to keep the school open and functioning as normal for as long as possible.

Please click on the link below to read the rest of this letter about the flu.

DOWNLOAD PARENT FLU LETTER

Gateway Clipper Trip

On Tuesday, October 6th, the eighth grade students boarded the Gateway Clipper Ship “Princess” for an educational program entitled “Lord of the Mons: Steel, Coke, and Coal and the Men Who Moved Them”. The students learned about river life and the industrialists and immigrants who created the steel industry along the Monongahela River. Students were captivated by the interesting stories and numerous props that the speakers used to tell the story of the River City during the early 1900’s. They learned how their nationality played an important part in the type of jobs they may have held in the steel industry. Students dressed in fire-resistant clothing, examines how slag was produced, and had the opportunity to throw tow ropes to see how the boat was anchored.

After the presentation, students had an opportunity to visit the three decks on board the “Princess” while talking with friends, eating their lunches, and enjoying the beauty of the river. All seemed to enjoy the educational adventure. The Gateway Clipper staff made a special point to comment on the exceptional behavior of the students and their rapt attention during the presentation.

Attention Parents/Guardians: Swine Flu

The school is taking an aggressive step towards the attack of the swine flu. Mrs. Aurandt(High School Nurse)has been educating all of the High School boys and girls Physical Education Classes. Mrs. Aurandt has been very busy handing out tissues and hand sanitizers, and discussing many important strategies for the students to take to avoid contracting the Swine Flu.

Swine Flu

To Parents and Guardians of Pennsylvania’s Students:

In the spring of 2009, a new flu strain (known as pandemic influenza A/H1N1 or swine flu) appeared and quickly spread throughout the United States. Schools in Pennsylvania were impacted and a number had to close briefly due to the virus spreading so quickly. With the cooperation of our parents, we were able to minimize the overall impact of the flu virus.

Over the course of the summer, this new flu strain continued to produce illness in Pennsylvania, although not at the levels witnessed in May and June.

To combat this new flu strain, we plan to continue many of the measures previously put in place to protect your children. Additionally, new guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now stipulates that a student with the flu will need to stay home until they are fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications (Tylenol, Motrin, etc.). In most cases, this would be anywhere from three to five days where your child would be kept home from school.

Your school will be taking steps to reduce the spread of infections like the flu. Frequent hand washing will be encouraged, and surfaces that are frequently touched or handled will be regularly cleaned and disinfected. If a child is sick, he or she will be moved to a sick room designated by the school, and you will be contacted to take your child home.

While school closure will remain an option, our current recommendations are to take such an action only if there is evidence that other measures are not working. School districts will work closely with their local and state health departments in making decisions. Each situation will be individually evaluated to assure the best course of action is taken to protect the children and school staff as well as minimize the burden and impact on affected families.

Many of you have questions about the availability and use of vaccines. Recently, persons between ages five and 24 were identified as a priority group to receive the vaccine against the new flu strain. The Department of Health estimates the first doses of the new vaccine will be available in October and details of distribution of the vaccine will be forthcoming.

We also expect to see illness due to the seasonal (or regular) flu in the coming fall and winter. The seasonal flu vaccine has been recommended for all school-aged children and is especially important for children with underlying health problems (like asthma and diabetes), since these conditions increase the risk for flu complications. Therefore, we encourage all parents to have their children annually vaccinated against seasonal flu. This vaccine will be available in the early fall, but it will not protect against the swine flu strain.

Information on the flu, and how you can protect your family, is available at www.health.state.pa.us, www.cdc.gov and www.flu.gov. For further information, contact your child’s school, your local health department, the Pennsylvania Department of Health at 1-877-PA-HEALTH.

Your child’s health and education are very important, and we hope to partner with you during the school year to assure that both are achieved at the highest levels. Thank you for your assistance.

Beneficial Student Programs

This year, Jackson and Cambria Elementary Schools are starting two new programs through the Pennsylvania State University that will be very beneficial to our students. They are the Intelligent Tutoring System for the Structure and the Siblings are Special Programs. If you are interested in learning more about each program, please contact your child's school.

The Pennsylvania State University
Intelligent Tutoring System for the Structure - (ITSS)

What is Intelligent Tutoring System for the Structure – ITSS?

• ITSS is a web based tutoring system that teaches students the structure strategy.
  

How does it work?

• ITSS is interactive:
  
  • The online tutor, I.T., models the use of the structure strategy for students.
    
  • Students respond to questions posed by I.T.
    
  • I.T. gives students immediate feedback on their answers. Students are then given more directions and multiple attempts to answer the questions.
    
• ITSS lessons are based on science, social studies, sports and current events.
  
• Students are given immediate feedback so they know exactly how they are doing.
  
• Teachers are provided with reports that show student progress along with an administrative tool to view the student's answers to questions, scores on activities and daily progress.
  
• Each student works at his/her own pace.
  
• Teacher support will be provided by a teacher aide assigned to each classroom using ITSS. This aide will be provided to the district FREE
  of cost, and paid for by the Pennsylvania State University grant. The aides will have the necessary clearances to work in the classrooms. The aides will ensure that the computers are accessible for ITSS and monitor the students during their ITSS use.
  

How will this benefit PSSA scores?

• ITSS provides 95 lessons throughout the year and concludes with PSSA practice tests that will help the students apply the structure strategy in the PSSA tests.
  
• Teachers and aides will be trained on the use of the structure strategy and how ITSS lessons work. They will also receive a teacher guide to the lessons and customized lessons to apply the students' skills in their classroom activities.
  

The Pennsylvania State University would like to request the participation of Central Cambria School District in this exciting project that can improve reading comprehension among our students and help the Pennsylvania State University evaluate the efficacy of the software in a rigorous randomized control study. The following are a list of eligibility criteria to participate in the study:

1. Students will need to have one-to-one access to a computer and earphones. The computer lab network connections must support all the students using the system concurrently. Each student workstation will need to have an internet connection with Internet Fox, Firefox, or Netscape installed as an available browser and the latest version of Java and Flash plug-ins.
   
2. The students will need to use the ITSS for approximately 60 minutes a week (this can be in one 1 hour session or two 30 minute sessions). Ideally, the students will use ITSS during the Language Arts or Social Studies periods.
   
3. The study will run as follows:
   
   1. Grades 4 & 5 – 2009 - 2010 academic year
      
   2. Grades 7 & 8 – 2010 – 2011 academic year
      
4. The school must be willing to allow a random assignment of two classrooms to the ITSS group and one to a control group. (If there are more than three classrooms, they can work with us in the groupings).
   
5. Both ITSS and control group students will receive a pre-test and post-test that lasts approximately 2 hours. The pre-tests will be conducted in September and the post-tests will be conducted in March.
   
6. All students, both the control and intervention groups, will be able to use the ITSS as soon as post-test data collection is completed, during the summer, and/or the following year.
   
7. There is NO cost to using the system.
   
8. They are also requesting a data file of student ID's (no identifying information) and the PSSA test scores for students be provided to the ITSS team, so that they may perform detailed analysis that can be useful to all stakeholders.
   

The Pennsylvania State University
The "Siblings are Special" Program

What is the "Siblings are Special" Program?

The Pennsylvania State University has just been awarded federal stimulus funds through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to implement and evaluate the "Siblings are Special" Program. In addition, to improve child and family well-being, this stimulus-funded project will result in financial benefits for participating families and schools. The effectiveness of "Siblings are Special" Program will take the form of a randomized controlled study. That means half of volunteering families will be randomly chosen to be in the program and half will receive a book on siblings written for parents. All families will participate in data collection and the Penn State University will compensate all families up to $500 for participation. (Families receive $150 for each wave of data collection, and up to $25 for each child participating in this program. Families who receive the book will also be paid $25).

The program is to help siblings learn to cooperate, problem solve, and support each other. The goal is to help siblings develop these skills with each other, and then to carry these positive behaviors over to their relations with peers and general behavior at school and home.

How long is it?

The program consists of a series of 12 weekly after school sessions for groups of sibling pairs, and 3 monthly Family Fun Nights for these families.

Who is eligible?

Eligibility Requirements – The older siblings must be in the 5^th grade. The younger siblings can be in 2^nd through 4^th grades. Adoptive siblings are eligible. Single and two parent families are eligible.

The Pennsylvania State University will take all responsibility for hiring/training/supervising program staff. They will provide all materials. They will also conduct all data collection with families in parents' homes (with confidential procedures that have been approved by Penn State's Human Subjects Institutional Review Board). For teacher questionnaires, they will approach teachers directly, with parents' permission, and compensate $25 to the teachers who complete each questionnaire.

The Jackson Elementary School and Cambria Elementary School will also be compensated $500. These funds will be put into the Student Activities Funds so that every student benefits.