Please be advised that virtual instruction for students in grades 8-12 has been extended through Monday, March 1, 2021. At this time, students will return to in person instruction on Tuesday, March 2, 2021.
Extracurricular activities for the Middle/High School have been canceled through March 1, 2021.
VACANCIES
Guidance Counselor – The Oswayo Valley School District has an opening for a Guidance Counselor to serve students in grades PK-12 available at the start of the 2021-22 school year. Applicants must possess current Pennsylvania certification. Interested individuals should apply online at www.oswayovalley.com and include a letter of interest, resume, transcripts, copy of certification, and three (3) letters of recommendation. The position will remain open until a successful candidate has been found.
Anticipated Elementary Principal – The Oswayo Valley School District has an anticipated opening for an Elementary Principal available in April 2021. Applicants must possess current Pennsylvania certification and experience in Federal Programs is preferred. Interested individuals should apply online at www.oswayovalley.com and include a letter of interest, resume, transcripts, copy of certification, and three (3) letters of recommendation. The position will remain open until a successful candidate has been found.
The District is continuously in need of substitute employees for the following positions:
Cafeteria Worker, Custodian, Instructional Aide, Secretary, and Teacher
Interested individuals should complete an online application at www.oswayovalley.com
If you have any questions or need assistance with the application process, please contact Mrs. Christi Stedman in the District Office at 814-260-1700.
Please be advised that the Oswayo Valley School Board of Directors will hold a Facilities Committee Meeting on Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. for a walk through of the Oswayo Valley Middle/High School building and grounds.
Please be advised that tomorrow, Tuesday, February 23, the district will be operating virtually for all students in grades PK-12. Students in grades PK-7 will return to in-person instruction on Wednesday, February 24. Students in grades 8-12 will remain in virtual instruction through Friday, February 26. All Middle/High School extracurricular activities are canceled for the week. Elementary tutoring is canceled for tomorrow, but will resume on Wednesday and Thursday.
On February 18, OV Superintendent Jed Hamberger participated in a hearing with the PA legislature on expanding broadband access in rural Pennsylvania. There were over 122 participants, including representatives from local, state, and federal governments, school districts and Rural Broadband Providers, Potter County Planning Commission, ag associations, internet service providers and telecommunication companies, and the media.
All of the hearing materials, including the agenda, testimony and video recording link, are now available on the Center for Rural Pennsylvania’s website:
https://www.rural.palegislature.us/publications_hearing_expanding_broadband_rural_pa.html.
Following the hearing, the Tribune-Democrat published an article on Pennsylvania’s digital divide. You can access the article by visiting:
We would like to thank everyone who participated in yesterday’s hearing. Together, we will continue to lobby for the needs of our families and rural communities.
The OV Heart Heroes do it again! This year, the Oswayo Valley Elementary School Heart Heroes raised over $5,828 for the American Heart Association during the Kids’ Heart Challenge Event! Over 43 students participated in this year’s event! The top sponsors from each homeroom were as follows:
5G – Kaitlynn Costello $168
5W – Reese Thompson $290
4G – Heidi Schimp $166
4W – Wyatt Willetts $259
3G – Phillip Long $284
3W – Tanner Fetzer $186
Congratulations to Reese Thompson who was the overall top sponsor student! Way to go, Reese!
This year any student who raised $150 or more had the opportunity to toss a pie at Mr. Dickerson. Due to the overwhelming support of our community, 20 Heart Heroes had a chance to pie their Principal! To date, the Oswayo Valley Elementary School has raised over $60,000 for the American Heart Association! Way to go, OV!
Thank you to all the Heart Heroes, friends, family, and the OV community for your continued support. We would also like to thank Mr. Dickerson for being such a good sport and to Miss Mashensic for all she does to teach our children about health and wellness and bring awareness to this very important cause. Thank you, Miss M! 
To view the video of the Kids’ Challenge, please click on the following link!
Please check out a recent article by the York Dispatch.
OP-ED: Pa. schools are bleeding cash while students receive substandard education
Please see link below for a video from Mr. Dickerson regarding Elementary Virtual Instruction Expectations.
Please click on the link below to access Oswayo Valley’s Attestation Ensuring Implementation of Mitigation Efforts.
Please see attached a revised transportation plan. The changes are highlighted and will take effect on Monday, November 16, 2020.
**UPDATE: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is extending flexibilities to allow free meals to continue to be available to all children throughout the entire 2020-2021 school year.
We are pleased to announce, the USDA has extended several of the Summer Food Program waivers that allow us to feed all students free breakfast and lunch until December 31, 2020 or until funding is no longer available.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided free of charge for ALL students until further notice. Please note, students must take a complete meal and are only eligible for one free breakfast and one free lunch per day. Any extras would result in a charge to the student’s account.
All student account balances will remain on hold until December 2020 or until we receive further guidance.
As a reminder, the program is also available to all children ages 0-18. If your child is not currently attending Oswayo Valley and you wish to participate, please contact Mrs. Sharron Gustin at 814-260-1701 to make arrangements to pick up the week’s worth of free meals.
During the morning drop off time at the Elementary School, there should be only one lane of traffic around the building at each drop off point. No car should go around any stopped vehicle to move up in line. We understand that this new procedure may add time to the morning drop off routine, but student safety is our number one concern. Parents should allow more time in the morning to combat any possible issues that would increase their time at the school for the morning drop off. This procedure is to ensure the safety of all students, parents, and van/ bus drivers. It is important that everyone follows this procedure to help the school keep everyone safe.
On October 1, 2020, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay order on Governor Wolf’s limits regarding group gatherings, including sporting events. After careful consideration and review, it is in the best interest of the Oswayo Valley School District to comply with the guidelines immediately. Due to our capacity restrictions, each Oswayo Valley athlete will have 4 tickets available for indoor sporting events moving forward starting on Friday, October 9. Outdoor sporting events will continue at the 250 person capacity including all people in attendance. As per the District’s Health and Safety Plan, we are required to comply with legal actions, orders, and recommendations set forth in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Oswayo Valley School District apologizes for all of the changes and reminds everyone that games are being streamed live through our Facebook page. We thank you for your continued support of our students and schools.
Please review the following for more information:
Third Circuit Court of Appeals – Stay Order on Gatherings
Governor Wolf’s Crowd Limits Remain for Weekend’s High School Football Games
Governor Tom Wolf filed a Motion for Stay of the District Court’s Order in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which would restore the 25/250 person indoor/outdoor crowd limitations during the pendency of the appeal. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued an Order this afternoon granting Governor Wolf’s Motion to Stay. This Order restores the 25/250 person limitations at the current juncture. As such, The Oswayo Valley School District must reduce capacities for indoor and outdoor events to 25 and 250 persons respectively until further notice. Unfortunately this means we cannot have spectators at our indoor events effective immediately and must limit our outdoor events to 250. We will continue to livestream our indoor home events when possible.
As this continues to progress, we will keep the community and staff updated as possible. We thank you for your understanding and continued support.
For the safety of all students at the Oswayo Valley School District, please only send prepackaged snacks for birthdays or any special events. The risk of allergies for students and the current Covid 19 situation have forced us to limit what can be brought into the district for students. This is not saying that we don’t want to be able to celebrate special events for the students, we just have to do our part in limiting the exposure to food allergens and Covid 19 possible exposures.
Good afternoon OV,
Yesterday’s court decision has provided ample amounts of confusion for all of us. Our goal in the bubble was to preserve educational opportunities for our students. We did not address spectators at the formation of our bubble, yet now we need to come to a consensus on a direction as this legal battle continues. Each district’s perspective is important and should be respected. Bubble administration supports the following:
School Districts in the four-county IU9 sports bubble do not support participating school districts opening sporting events to the general public. There is support for permitting home teams to allow parents and families to attend events in limited numbers. School districts reserve the right to cancel participating in a contest that is open to the public.
School districts have worked so hard to open schools. Mass gatherings promote the (increase risk) spread of the COVID-19 virus. 4 or 5 cases of the virus may result in shut down of our in person learning models, disrupt the educational process and inconvenience all of our families and their daily lives. We must reduce the risk of a school shut down as much as possible for safety and educational reasons.
Due to the risk of mass gatherings, we will be issuing one (1) ticket per student athlete who would participate for indoor sporting events. Each ticket will permit two (2) individuals to attend the event. Students will be issued their ticket today before dismissal. I am aware that many other spectators would like to attend, but the two (2) person limit will continue and families will have to consider rotating who can attend each of the indoor events. For those who cannot attend, we will also be conducting live streaming of the games on our Facebook page. Public comments may be made on the Facebook page, but please be advised school policies apply and must be adhered to. I would regret to be forced to shut down the live feed due to public comments being inappropriate.
Doors will be open for spectators for 25 minutes prior to the start of the game. For example: a 6:00 p.m. game time, doors will be open from 5:30 p.m. – 5:55 p.m. No other spectators will be permitted to enter the building after 5:55 p.m. due to the screening procedures. Spectators will be permitted to bring only water bottles into the building. There are designated fountains where bottles can be refilled. The concession stand will be closed.
Outdoor sporting events will not be issued tickets due to the low number of visitors that are attending our outdoor events. Yesterday’s cross-country meet was at 174 people total in attendance including staff, students, and spectators. We will continue to only allow home team spectators to attend all of our events.
All other mandates still apply:
Jed Hamberger
Superintendent
Please be advised that the Elementary School playground and surrounding fields are closed to the public during normal school business hours.
Please click on the following link to view the CDC’s Back to School Planning for In-Person Classes.
Following the PIAA’s vote on Friday, August 21, 2020, to allow fall sports to be a local decision and in the absence of a response from Governor Wolf and Secretary Levine, the Superintendents of the public schools in the McKean, Elk, Cameron, and Potter counties will propose to each of their respective School Boards, a regional fall sports schedule with the first week of competition being September 14, 2020. The athletic directors and high school principals are in the process of revising schedules in preparation for the individual District’s proposals. The pandemic coordinators are revising fall sports health and safety plans and moving those plans forward for approval to each School Board. Per the PIAA’s position, if each school’s coaches, athletes, officials, and parents/guardians strictly adhere to the school district’s health and safety plan for athletics, student athletes and coaches should be reasonably safe to play fall sports.
Regardless of the precautions in place, there is an increased risk of an exposure to COVID 19 for participants in fall sports. Ultimately, it is the parent/guardian’s decision regarding whether their child will participate. The Superintendents and School Boards wish to provide student athletes with every opportunity to have a fall sports season in the safest manner possible.
We believe the opportunity for students to participate in athletic and extra-curricular activities is important to their overall mental health and well-being and such experiences create an overall positive school climate. We also recognize the balance between physical health and mental health during a global pandemic. School organized events that include strict adherence to protocols, wellness screenings of participants, and district to district communication affords a balance between ensuring physical health and mental health.
Each school district’s pandemic coordinator will carefully monitor the extent of community spread in their counties and school districts and will cancel games in order to ensure not risking an exposure beyond an athletic team’s membership in a specific school district. School districts will not exceed the participation guidelines per Governor Wolf and Secretary Levine. Specifically, at outdoor venues there can be 250 participants and at indoor venues there can be 25 participants. Those participants include: student athletes, band members, cheerleaders, coaches, directors, officials, game management/help, and ambulance staff (football). Spectators will not be permitted. There will be no concessions. Further, senior nights will be planned for very early in the season to ensure that seniors are properly honored. Each District will make every effort to live stream Fall athletic events to their communities, to the extent that they are capable.
Please click on the following links for important information from UPMC Cole physician, Dr. Mary Ann Rigas and the American Academy of Pediatrics Guidance for School Opening.
Due to our changes in transportation procedures at the school, we are going to have to limit public parking for track use to the blacktop parking lot at the Middle/High School. All student transportation vehicles will be using the gravel parking lot and will need the space to make the turn without other vehicles restricting the buses.
Please click on the links below for important information regarding Oswayo Valley’s plans for Enrichment and Review during the school closure.
Superintendent Update on Google Classroom
The Department of Education (PDE) announced today all schools in the Commonwealth will remain closed through at least April 6, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 response efforts. The closure order could be extended beyond April 6 if necessary to save lives and stop the spread of COVID-19.
Under the new timeline, school buildings would reopen on April 7, 2020 for two days to allow school administrators, teachers, and other staff time to prepare classrooms, set up cafeterias, schedule transportation, and arrange other business operations. Students would return to school on April 9, 2020, unless extending the closure is needed in response to the situation with the virus at that time.
To assist schools during the extended closure, the state’s 29 intermediate units are ready to provide technical assistance to help develop continuity of education plans for all students beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, March 24, 2020.
Additionally, we are cancelling standardized testing for students in career and technical education (CTE) programs for the 2019-20 school year. These include exams from the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) and National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS).
We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we navigate this unprecedented time together and thank you for your dedication to serving and supporting your school communities.
Jed Hamberger, Superintendent
Governor Wolf’s order calling on all non-life-sustaining businesses in Pennsylvania to close their physical locations as of 8 p.m., March 19, does not prohibit school districts from continuing to offer food services to children during the statewide school closure. It does require schools to not let administration or staff work in the buildings. Administration will continue to work from home and be present during the lunch time between 11:30-12:30 LEAs may continue to bring in essential employees involved in the preparation and distribution of meals for children.
Dear Oswayo Valley Parents and Community Members,
Later today, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) will be announcing a cancellation of statewide assessments for the 2019-2020 school year. This cancellation includes the PSSA, PASA, and Keystone Exams.
We understand that during these unprecedented circumstances, school communities across the state are managing more pressing issues on the education landscape, like providing access to food and nutrition, and putting appropriate systems in place to continue student learning. Assessments should not be the focus of school leaders right now.
The Department is monitoring emerging federal guidance, working with other states to advocate for flexibility, and will pursue appropriate waivers to the fullest extent allowable as soon as the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) guidance is clarified.
Please continue to monitor your email and PDE’s website for ongoing updates and guidance as it becomes available.
Pedro A. Rivera II | Secretary of Education
Today, Governor Tom Wolf announced that all K-12 Pennsylvania schools will be closed for 10 business days including all before and after school activities, effective Monday, March 16. All District activities are canceled effective immediately and will continue through the ordered period. The Wolf Administration will continue to monitor Covid-19 in the Commonwealth, and at the end of 10 days will reevaluate and decide whether continued closure is needed. More information will be coming soon on lunch options for the Oswayo Valley School District. For more information from Governor Wolf, please see the link below.
