2020-21 Reopening Plan Updates

Today is the phase-in day for Red (all grades A-K) and Thursday is the phase-in day for Gold (all grades L-Z), from 9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. each day.

Classes for all students, including those on the gray learning plan, will begin on Tuesday, September 8 at 7:45 a.m. Teachers have begun reaching out to students on the gray learning plan.

At Home Learning
Students who are logging into class from home need to do so via Zoom. In order to access each class’ Zoom information, students need to check each teacher’s PowerSchool page. Teachers have created course information pages in PowerSchool. Within that Course Information page, students will find a Zoom link and/or the Zoom meeting ID number and pass code. This grants access to the individual courses throughout the semester/year.

If a Zoom link is not working, students should notify the teacher via email in order to troubleshoot. Check bishopwatterson.com (click on 2020-21 School Year) for reports of any outages or technology problems.

These instructions apply to all students, whether attending on the orange learning plan or on the gray learning plan. Students are expected to be online on time for each of their class periods. The orange learning plan class bell schedule can be found in the Student Handbook.

FAQs
We have added a Frequently Asked Questions page to our website. To access it, click on the 2020-21 School Year block on our home page, or click on the button below.
Complete School Forms by Thursday at 3:00 p.m.

All start-of-school-year forms are now available on Final Forms. Forms include technology acceptance, handbook acceptance, emergency medical and public information release. This replaces the paper forms traditionally sent home on the first day of school. While Final Forms is the same system used for athletics, please note that ALL parents and students must have a Final Forms account in order to complete school paperwork.

All forms must be completed prior to the first day of school in order for your child to attend.
 
If you have logged into Final Forms for athletics, you will use the same login information.
 
If you have never logged into Final Forms, you will need to create an account.

Students must also sign forms. Each student will receive an email to the bwhs.org account.
Welcome New Teachers and Staff!

We extend a warm welcome (or welcome back) to our new faculty and staff members for the 2020-21 school year.

Alaina Burke will be teaching English 10 and British Literature. She graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Integrated Language Arts Education with a History Minor and taught at Delaware Hayes High School last year.
Steve Crossin ’04 returns to his alma mater to teach Introduction to Physics and Chemistry (IPC), Honors IPC and Earth and Space Science. Mr. Crossin, with nine years of experience in the classroom, joins us from St. Timothy where he taught math and science to grades 6-8. He holds a degree in Human Development and Family Science from The Ohio State University.
Marcy Forker ’02 will be assisting in our technology department this year. She spent the last two years as the 6th and 7th grade math and science teacher at St. Matthew School. Mrs. Forker holds a B.A. in Psychology and a Bachelor’s Plus in Middle Childhood Education from The Ohio State University.
Zach Johnson becomes our second Student Wellness Counselor who will be assisting with the Dominican Program. A Bishop Hartley graduate, Mr. Johnson earned a B.A .in Psychology from Ashland University and a Master’s in Social Work from The Ohio State University. He did his student internship at Bishop Watterson during the 2019-20 school year.
Rick Kohut, with 17 years of teaching experience, joins the BWHS staff to teach Theology 9 and 11. He earned a B.A. in Communication Arts from the University of San Francisco and an M.Ed. in Religious Education from Boston College.
Julie Lutz will be teaching Theology 10 and 11 at Bishop Watterson this year. She joins us from St. Mary Parish in Delaware, where she was the Director of Faith Formation for Adults. Mrs. Lutz has taught adults, teens and youth in five dioceses across the U.S. -- Phoenix, Las Vegas, Portland (Maine), Pensacola-Tallahassee, Columbus -- over the past 25 years in the role of high school teacher, youth minister, consultant and director of faith formation. She holds several degrees from Franciscan University of Steubenville: BA in Psychology, BA in Theology, MA in Theology & Christian ministry with an emphasis in Catechetics.
Vincent Lyons joins the BWHS staff from St. Cecilia where he taught middle school science. He will be teaching Biology, Honors Biology and AP Biology at Bishop Watterson this year. Dr. Lyons holds a B.S. in Agricultural Education and a Ph.D. in Sport Management from The Ohio State University in addition to an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Masters in Divinity from Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
Kelly Matthews ’03 is re-joining the BWHS staff to teach British Literature this year. She previously taught Italian I-IV here for four years and has been the director of our Italian Exchange program for the past five years. Mrs. Matthews holds B.A. degrees in journalism and Italian from the University of Dayton and an M.A. in Italian from The Ohio State University. She taught Italian for two years at Ohio State and one year at the University of Mississippi in addition to serving as Director of Education for a local Italian language and culture group.
Haley Mengon will be teaching Algebra I and Geometry at Bishop Watterson this year. She joins us from Immaculate Conception where she taught 7th and 8th grade math for the past four years. Mrs. Mengon holds a degree in Integrated Mathematics with a minor in Math from Kent State University.
Samantha Rosetti is our school counselor for students with last names beginning H-O. This will be her ninth year as a school counselor, having served in this position at all grade levels with the last five in the high school setting. Her experience has been in parochial and independent schools in Maryland and Virginia with her most recent position doing College Counseling in Towson, Md. Mrs. Rosetti holds a BA in Psychology and a minor in Theology from The Catholic University of America, an M.Ed. in School Counseling from The College of Saint Rose and an Educational Specialist degree with a concentration in Administration and Supervision from Old Dominion University.
Nate Steingass will be teaching Precalculus and Calculus this year. He joins us from St. Francis de Sales School (Toledo) where he taught for three years. He spent a year as a graduate teaching instructor at Bowling Green State University, where he earned his M.A. in Statistics. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics from The Ohio State University.
Tyson Williams is a familiar face to students who took summer Physical Education at BWHS in years prior. He has been in charge of summer P.E. for the past six years and an instructor for 16 years. Mr. Williams will be teaching our Beginning Woodworking and Intermediate Woodworking classes. He joins us from Holy Spirit School where he taught Physical Education for 17 years. He holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Ohio Dominican University and earned a Bachelors Plus Education from Ashland University.
Spirit Signs

The cheerleaders are selling spirit yard signs. The fall order deadline is September 18!
Campus Ministry Cues

As we transition to a very unique school year, the Campus Ministry Department offers links to the following resources.
 
"Helping Teens Transition to the New School Year" an Ave Spotlight podcast featuring Roy Petitfils, a Catholic counselor who specializes in working with young people and their families.The interview with Roy begins at 8 minutes into the podcast. Click here for the podcast.

Another great resource is a free ebook from Roy which will help you in your conversations with your teenager. You can download Little Book of Questions That Get Teens Talking at roypetitfils.com.
Worth Repeating
Guidance News

New Alphabet Assignments
Students are assigned to their counselor based on their last name. We have restructured the guidance department for 2020-21:
Last Name: Counselor
A-G: Mrs. Sponseller, mrs.sponseller@bwhs.org
H-O: Ms. Rosetti, ms.rosetti@bwhs.org
P-Z: Mrs. Kirby, mrs.kirby@bwhs.org

Jon Peterson and Autism Scholarship Students:

Ms. Creighton is our College Counselor and is available to all students for college preparation assistance, ms.creighton@bwhs.org

Appointments
To help us maintain spacing between students, students will be required to make an appointment with their counselor unless it is an emergency situation. Appointments can be scheduled through our website. On the Academics menu click on School Counselors. Students will receive an email confirmation that will serve as their pass to come to the office at the scheduled time.

Schedules Available
Student schedules can now be viewed in PowerSchool.

Due to COVID-19 capacities and managing the number of students in overflow rooms, schedule changes will be very limited this year. No elective changes are possible. In the cases listed below, a schedule change may be made:
1)    An error in your schedule. Errors include not having the correct pre-requisite class, missing a class required for graduation or required by your college for admission, in a class that you have already received credit for, or in an incorrect class (i.e. English 10 instead of English 9). Errors do not include being placed in your alternate elective choice instead of your first choice.
2)    A student in an honors or AP class may request to change to the CPI level.
3)    A class can be dropped for a study hall if you do not have a study hall.

Please contact your counselor by email if you need a change due to one of these issues. 

All schedule changes must be complete by Friday, September 11.
Bus Service Starts Tuesday

Bus service from Dublin, Hilliard, Worthington, and Columbus is expected to begin on Sept 8. If you have any questions please contact Vince Lombardo at mr.lombardo@bwhs.org.
Student Handbook Changes

Bishop Watterson's Student Handbook for 2020-21 is now posted and available 24/7 on our website. It can be found on the Student Life menu.
Or click on the button below.


COVID-19 Information and Reopening Plans
  • COVID-19 Acknowledgement of Risks
  • Covid-19 Instructional Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines
  • Comprehensive Reopening Plan 2020-21 School Year
  • Diocesan Policy on Travel
  • Diocesan Policy for Virtual Classroom Activity
  • 2020-2021 Bell Schedules
General Updates
  • Updated Smart Watch policy
  • Shoes with any type of wheels are not permitted
Sept. 4: No School/Teacher Work Day
Sept. 7: No School/Labor Day
Nov. 2: Quarter 2 begins
Nov. 25-29: Thanksgiving Break
Dec. 19-Jan. 3: Christmas Break
Jan. 18: No School/Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Jan. 25: Quarter 3 begins
Feb. 5: No School/Staff Development
Feb. 15: No School/Presidents’ Day
March 15: No School
March 29: Quarter 4 begins
April 1-11: Easter Break
May 27: Baccalaureate
May 29: Graduation
June 3: Last day of School
Lunch 2020-21

We are making changes to our lunch routine for the school year. Students will eat lunch either in the cafeteria or a gymnasium in order to comply with social distancing requirements.


Cafeteria food service will be provided with additional safety measures in place, including:
  • No cash will be accepted this year. Instead, All payments must be made through eFunds electronic lunch accounts. Families who would like to purchase food but have not yet established an account should do so now. Instructions can be found on our website on the Student Life menu. Click Lunch Menu. We recommend you set up negative-balance notices to receive an email when the account is empty. Freshman Parents: You will be able to set up electronic lunch funds after your child receives a student ID number at Freshman Orientation.
  • Families who had unpaid eFunds balances from March need to pay the balance.
  • Microwaves and extra utensils will no longer be available for students who carry lunch to school.

Columbus Metropolitan Library Info

At Columbus Metropolitan Library, we’ve decided to delay in-person Homework Help and Reading Buddies programs out of an abundance of caution, but we remain committed to providing online learning support for students, teachers and parents.

With that in mind, we developed and launched our School Help webpage featuring:
  • Online K-12 Homework Help, with staff ready to answer homework questions and help with reading practice via text, chat and phone, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Video tutorials with step-by-step instructions on how to use key homework tools.
  • HelpNow, a resource that offers 24-hour access to study tools and test preparation, plus online tutors available every day from 2-11 p.m.
  • Links to school district and library resources.
Support Bishop Watterson When You Shop
Support Bishop Watterson when you order from Amazon!
We are participating in the Amazon Smiles program and will
receive a percentage back when you shop at the link below.
Bishop Watterson participates in the Kroger Community Rewards program.
To sign up, go to kroger.com, log into your account and under Savings & Rewards click Kroger Community Rewards. Search for Bishop Watterson. Our number is VG154.
Bishop Watterson participates in the Giant Eagle Apples for the Students program. Each time your Giant Eagle Advantage Card is scanned, your purchase earns funds for Bishop Watterson for educational needs. Register your Giant Eagle Advantage Card at the link below, entering school ID 4654.