ROBOTICS IN ACTION

The 7707 Steel Eagles of Pleasant View Elementary are in their third year of competitive robotics. This year the team has grown to eight teams with 28 students participating. These teams compete monthly in a mixed league with other elementary and middle school teams as well as other tournaments in the Central Indiana area.

This Saturday, the team will host and compete at Zionsville Middle School (ZMS) in the Zionsville Winter VEX IQ Elementary Tournament. Currently six competing teams are ranked in the top 50 teams in Indiana with one team in the top 10.

This year’s game is called Pitching In, teams build robots that fling balls into high or low goals and end their run by attempting to have the robot hang in mid-air. This season has been a challenge but these young engineers continue to work diligently making mistakes and learning from those mistakes, and improving their design and driving. 

Please consider stopping by on Saturday to see these teams in action. The event is free and will run from 9:30 am until 4:30.

WINTER WEATHER REMINDER

As we move into the winter months, it is a good idea to (re) familiarize yourself with the protocol under which ZCS operates when managing weather delays and in-person closures.

Our ZCS weather team is gearing up for keeping an eye on the weather during the cold months.

Anytime there is an interruption to the schedule, you will be notified by our all-call system via email, text and phone. This is a good time to be sure your information is up to date. Information will also be posted on the district website and on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). We also use the traditional method of notifying the local television stations.

Please stay weather aware as we move through winter.

Winter weather protocols can be found on the ZCS website.

REDISTRICTING

We continue to collect input and refine models toward a redistricting recommendation to the Board of Trustees. By this time next week you will have received the latest information in the important process, a survey, a video link, and a very useful “impact” map device that will allow you to enter your address and see how/if each model impacts your child.

Public meetings (or YouTube Live, if CoVID prohibits public meeting) are slated for:

January 19 6 p.m. Zionsville West Middle School
January 20 6 p.m. Zionsville Middle School

CALENDAR 

Three important things to note, please:

1. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend is a four-day weekend for students. There is no school on Monday, January 17^th for the holiday, and there is no school on Tuesday January 18^th for students due to a staff development day.
2. February Break:  ZCS will be closed for break Monday – Friday, February 21 – 25. 
3. ZCHS parents are asked to note that Thursday, March 3 is a school day for all high school students, but only juniors will attend in person (for mandatory SAT testing, based on state requirement). All other ZCHS students will be having an e-day of instruction on March 3.

COVID-19 UPDATE

Boone County was designated “RED” this week, the highest category of community spread. We continue to mask in effort to keep as many kids in school as possible (and masked school settings require fewer absence days due to contact tracing).

We appreciate the diligent reporting of parents about student and household positive cases to our COVID Reporting Form across the holidays and into the new year.  Thanks to everyone for checking in with their children about any symptoms prior to sending them off to school each day. 

Here are the ZCS CoVID protocols—that are subject to change frequently.

Following are the CoVID-19 numbers as of this morning in ZCS. You'll see that RED in community spread is impacting us all.

Best,

Scott Robison, Ph.D.
ZCS Superintendent of Schools