Miami Trace prepares to go back to school

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Miami Trace Local Schools will reopen on Aug. 15 and the administration is nearly prepared for students to resume classes.

Miami Trace has started its final days of preparation as the 2018-19 school year approaches. The first big day for the district is the staff opening day and open house for all buildings on Aug. 13. The open house will begin at 5 p.m. The high school will also conduct one to one Device Distribution (laptops) before the first day of school. Currently students can collect a laptop on Aug. 6 and 8 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Aug. 7 and 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. or at the open house for the high school.

“We look forward to having our open houses for our parents and students to come back and walk through the buildings and meet the staff,” Miami Trace Local Schools Superintendent David Lewis said. “We encourage everybody to take advantage of that. It is a great way to kick off the school year, and get kids back into the swing of things and back in the buildings. They get to see their friends and teachers they maybe haven’t seen all summer. We encourage everybody to take advantage of it. The one to one initiative last year was a success. It was the first year at the high school where the students took the devices home with them. It really went very smoothly.”

Lewis said the technology department at the schools works really hard on any issues the students have. The department works closely with these students to get their problems fixed, he said. This year during the first day of school at the Miami Trace Middle School, students in the sixth through eighth grade will also be included in the one to one initiative and will be assigned a laptop, but the devices will remain at the school after hours.

“In all of our classrooms we have a device for everyone, they may not leave the classroom, but we are very fortunate to have a lot of technology within our district for the students to use,” Lewis said. “A lot of curriculum now is online. It makes it easy. The kids are using the devices they will be using for testing and they use them on a daily basis, so they are comfortable with them. We think that will show in their progress.”

Re-registration for current students is open. This is the fourth year the schools have used the online platform InfoSnap from PowerSchool. If parents need assistance with this online process, they are welcome to come into their child’s building or visit the central office from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. to complete the registration.

Registration for new students is also completed online. Once submitted, the parent or guardian of the new student is asked to call into the school and confirm a student schedule. Again, if assistance is needed for uploading documents or completing the process, the administration encourages individuals to come in and see them.

“We are coming down the home stretch,” Lewis said. “Staff members have been in and out throughout the summer. They take advantage of getting some time away, but you know people have been in and out all summer long. We have our opening day with everybody on August 13th, but it takes a lot of work. Whether that be the technology department, custodial staff or maintenance staff, we all work hard to prepare for the upcoming year. Over the summer we crunch a lot of data from the test scores and work on plans to address areas that need it. We are getting excited. It is like this each year, once we get past the fair we know we are getting close. I imagine the parents are just as excited as us about getting into our annual routine.”

Access to InfoSnap Powerschool is on the district website under the parent tab at http://www.miamitrace.k12.oh.us/.

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By Martin Graham

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Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy

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