Pre-K-8th grade yearbook order forms are due on Thursday, February 6! The cost is $22. Order forms were sent home to students in January. If you need another form, please contact the office at Schneider or BRIJHS.
Quick reminder to BR parents: Please go to https://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/ and fill out the survey for your child's school. We need at least 20% of our parents to respond to get results. Currently 12% have responded. Deadline is Feb. 14. Thank you for your time!
Kindergarten and first grade students are celebrating 100 days of school with stations and a Kindergarten parade.
The most recent update regarding BRIJHS HVAC and radon is now posted at https://5il.co/cobh.
"The Shirt Shack is open for business!
The High School Life Skills and Young Adult classes have opened a custom shirt making business. Students help design, make, and sell custom shirts and hoodies. All profits benefit these wonderful special ed. programs.
They are currently selling Knight-wear in the two designs featured below. Hoodies cost $22. T-shirts cost $12. They carry sizes ranging from Youth XS to Adult 2X.
If you are interested in ordering a shirt made by our lovely class, please email Sarah Ringel at sringel@blueridge18.org with your size, color, and design preferences.
Jan. 24, 2020 Update on BRIJHS HVAC and Radon is now posted at https://5il.co/cjdj. Have a good weekend.
Attention parents of 4th-6th graders! Learn more about Healthy Living! Join us for our next after school 4H program, beginning on Feb. 4 at BRIJHS. Follow the link to register now! https://web.extension.illinois.edu/registration/default.cfm?RegistrationID=21508&preview=yes
The Central Illinois CEO program is hosting the Furry Scurry 5K this weekend! CICEO teaches our HS students skills for entrepreneurship. Form more info: https://signup.itsracetime.com/Race/IL/Forsyth/CEOFurryScurry. Should be a fun way to keep those New Years Resolutions!
School is in session this morning. Roads have some slick spots this morning, particularly in the north and west of the district, so buses may need to go slower at times.
BRIJHS Heat and Radon update is posted at https://5il.co/cfz2. This went out an hour or so ago on Facebook, but may not have gone through on other mediums, so resending in this format.
Thank you to all who have called or written with your concerns regarding radon and heat issues at BRIJHS. Following is an update on both items:
JH Heat:
Evidently we had a power surge over the long weekend which tripped a 220 volt breaker and created numerous problems with the HVAC units that serve the building, with primary issues on the JH side. Our maintenance team has been working diligently with the professionals that service our systems to identify all of the issues and make repairs. As of this afternoon, we have heat in the following parts of the school: the entire Intermediate side, the JH gym, and office areas. Jr. High classes were relocated to the Intermediate side of the school today and we plan to continue to house the classes on the Intermediate side for the remainder of this week. This will give staff and students some stability for the next couple of days.
Radon Mitigation for the Jr. High side of BRIJHS:
The engineer and architect for the school district are working with the radon mitigation consultant to develop a temporary mitigation solution that can be put in place until the permanent mitigation system can be implemented. As you know, the JH students were relocated to the Intermediate side today because of the ongoing HVAC issues. We will continue to house the JH students and their classes on the intermediate side until the temporary radon mitigation solution can be put in place. We will let you know when the temporary solution has been implemented and JH classes return to the JH side of BRIJHS.
Special appreciation goes out to Mrs. Nichols and the staff of BRIJHS for their flexibility with classrooms, and to our O & M director Greg Builta and his team for all their work to address these issues. As always, if you have additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let us know.
About a half hour ago it came to my attention that a post did not go out to the public as planned last night (see below for content). The post was sent to district personnel, but was not put out through all of our other systems. I apologize for the unnecessary confusion this caused. Susan Wilson.
Post from yesterday: BR plans to be in session tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan. 22. The heat on the JH side is not yet working, but we have made alternative plans to relocate JH classes to spaces on the Intermediate side of the building. Thanks to Greg and his team for all their work to address the HVAC issues. Thanks to Katie and her team for rearranging their classrooms as we work on the HVAC. I sincerely appreciate everyone's efforts.
Grades 4-6 4H STEAM Club is cancelled today, 1/21/20
Status of district events this PM: HS Drama auditions will be Wednesday, not tonight. BRHS boys basketball at Argenta-Oreana, home scholastic bowl match, and girls basketball practice at HS are on. For BRIJHS: no JH Volleyball practice tonight; JH Boys Basketball at Corpus Christie 5:30 pm is on. Lil Knights volleyball will in in HS Old Gym at 6 p.m.
A letter regarding radon testing in the district is now posted at https://5il.co/cegz. Links to the test results are included in the letter.
Blue Ridge High School alumni Ryan Roe (2004), Malachi Johnson (2005) and Wesley Chrisman (2010) are headed to Afghanistan to defend our country. They will be headed out with Effingham Bravo Company 130th Unit. Please keep them and their families in your thoughts and prayers.
This is a district-wide closure.
Good morning. The heat for the entire Jr. High side of BRIJHS is down this morning. We had heat issues over the weekend but believed they were repaired yesterday evening. School is cancelled for today. A decision about any evening events will be made by noon today.
The Board reviewed draft versions of the school calendars for 2019-20 and 2020-21. BR is considering a 2:20 dismissal during the 1st week of school to ease students back into the school schedule and allow for the many additional committee and planning meetings that need to take place at the start of school. We are also considering earlier than normal start date for 2021-22; this would allow for more even numbers of days in semesters, and a guarantee that school would be out for the summer prior to Memorial Day. Check out the proposed calendars at https://5il.co/cc7f. The calendars
will be presented to the board for final approval at the February 2020 board meeting. The Board welcomes any comments or input on the calendars.
Schneider, Kiwanis , and Key Club celebrated students who improved their grades or maintained good grades at the “Bringing Up Grades” BUG Assembly! Way to go!
