Enhanced Communication at Tippecanoe Valley Schools

There are new and exciting changes coming to the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation for the upcoming 2019-2020 school year. TVSC has three new programs that will enhance the communication between its district schools, the community, and for everyone who uses them. The three new programs are FinalForms, Eventlink, and Skyward.The Tippecanoe Valley Middle School and High School athletic departments have partnered with FinalForms, an online forms and data management service. FinalForms allows you to complete and sign athletic participation forms for your students. The most exciting news is that FinalForms saves data from season-to-season and year-to-year, meaning that you will never need to enter the same information twice! FinalForms also pre-populates information wherever possible, for each of your students, saving you time. For a student to participate in middle or high school athletics this upcoming school year, you must create an account on the https://tippecanoevalley-in.finalforms.com site and turn in a copy of the student’s physical. Valid physicals must have been completed on or after April 1, 2019.  The parent and student will sign off on required documents and their coaches and administrators will be notified of their eligibility.

The second program also supports communication about athletics and school events. Starting this fall, grades 6-12 athletic events will be accessible through the EVENTLINK app or website. Parents can now stay up-to-date with their student’s schedule with the ability to see every event with details, as well as practice schedules.  Parents will get daily reminders about the calendars they subscribe to, straight to their phone or email, and they will have the ability to print the calendar. Be the first to know about any changes through the app, by syncing and exporting calendars!

Our latest major improvement consists of upgrading the corporation’s K-12 student information system to Skyward. Skyward is a very powerful program with many new features that will streamline the corporation’s educational and management processes as well as allow for greater parent and student collaboration. TVSC expects this increased collaboration to result in closer partnerships between school and home, a key factor in improving student achievement. With anytime, any-device access to upcoming assignments, guardians can provide additional support and intervention from home.

Some new features that parents will notice:

• The ability for parents to use the Family Access app to see all information pertaining to any child in their household on one screen.
• Parents will be able to review grades, view messages and notifications, keep tabs on attendance, monitor behavior, see upcoming events with the built-in calendar and manage fees and payments for athletics, classroom and textbook, and food service.
• Now, as soon as a teacher makes a change, that change will be available instantaneously.
• Parents can also set thresholds that will trigger alerts that will notify them of changes in their student’s profile.
• The portal’s social media-style message wall makes it easier for parents to communicate with teachers and support staff, while providing a single destination for important school/district announcements.
• One of the biggest improvements for the 2019-2020 school year will be the streamlined enrollment process for the parents.

The target date for returning TVSC students to begin enrollment on the Skyward site is the week of July 29th. During the week of July 15th, parents should be looking for an enrollment letter to arrive in their mailboxes that will contain all the information necessary to complete the enrollment process.

Summer break is just around the corner.  Students and families are looking forward to swimming, travel, camp fires, and many outdoor activities.  While it is a great opportunity for families to spend more time together, it is also important that some of that time is spent reading throughout the summer.  When children do not read during summer break, many skills which were learned during the school year are lost over summer.  This is referred to as “summer slide.”  According to research by Children’s Literacy Initiative, children can fall 2 years behind in reading by 5^th grade if they don’t read over the summer. However, parents can help prevent summer slide.

Before summer break begins, parents should sit down with children and set some goals for summer reading.  Goals could include a number of books to read, an amount of time to read each day, or a list of different genres to read each week.  The goals should be realistic and achievable.  A reward system could be initiated to provide incentive for your child to read each day.  Sharing an ice cream cone on a hot summer day is a great reward for summer reading!

       For children to maintain their interest, it is important to choose books which are not too easy nor too difficult for your child to read.  Now is a great time to talk to the child’s teacher to learn more about the child’s reading level.  Teachers are a great resource to get ideas of books for children’s summer reading.  Once parents have lists of books, it can be a fun adventure to visit the local public library with the child so that the child can choose books to read.  While at the library, inquire about their summer reading programs.  Most public libraries have inexpensive or free summer activities which help children connect to various books and authors.

       Parents need to show children that reading is a priority, and the more they read, the better readers they will become.  Modeling this is the best way to get children excited about summer reading.  One way to do this is to declare a daily reading time when parents and children all take time to relax and enjoy a book.  Another way to increase a child’s love of reading is for the parent and child to read together.  Taking turns reading paragraphs makes reading fun while enhancing the special parent-child bond.

       Summer break should be a time for your child to have fun.  Reading can be fun!  Packing books into your bag to enjoy at the beach, going on a “reading picnic” at a nearby park, or writing your own books together that your child can read to grandma or grandpa are all ways to instill a love of reading in a child.  While you’re having fun reading this summer, parents will be supporting their children and helping to prevent the summer slide.

Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation is in the process of reviewing and revising the strategic plan for our district’s collective future and ask for your input for our focus for the next five (5) years.

In the fall of 2018, TVSC received an IDOE Innovation Planning Grant which gives us the foundation to explore further what our staff and students need to thrive (academically and social-emotionally or mental health, work-life balance) and how transforming their experiences at Valley can be a catalyst in this endeavor.

Please take a few minutes to complete the brief survey.

Fast Facts:
1. Survey only takes a few minutes.
2. It will gather valuable data for the district as we plan for the future.
3. Survey window is March 18 through March 29, 2019.
4. Survey is conducted by Bright Minds Marketing, Indianapolis.
5. Survey results will be presented and shared.

Copy and paste the English or Spanish survey link below:

English – (Parents and Staff) Survey Access Link
https://tvsc2019english.sawtoothsoftware.com/login.html

Spanish Survey Access Link
https://TVSC2019spanish.sawtoothsoftware.com/login.html

Thank you again for your time and commitment to Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation.

Spring is in the Air – Important TVSC Calendar Update for March!

*School is in Session on Friday, March 15th (End of Grading Period)
*Parent-Teacher Conferences Start the Week of March 18th
*School is still in Session on Friday, March 22

As of today – only 20 more school days until Spring Break! Finish Strong Valley!