"Quite frankly, I&apos;ve worked in this community for 30 years and I&apos;ve never seen anything like it - people coming together, for a common cause, led by students." - Tim DeWeese, Director of Johnson County Mental Health Center. Our 2021-22 season of BV unmuted starts off with one of the most important topics out there - student mental health. Blue Valley seniors and #ZeroReasonsWhy members Anna Hamilton and Esha Parikh join Director of Johnson County Mental Health Center Tim DeWeese and Blue Valley Schools Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan. They discuss the importance of storytelling and community mobilization campaigns to remove the stigma of mental health and prevent teen suicide.For more information on #ZeroReasonsWhy, visit www.zeroreasonswhy.org If you or a loved one need or want help, someone is always here for you. Call 913-268-0156 to speak with professionals who care about you - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

Toddcast² - The Blue Valley Schools Superintendent's Podcast

BV unmuted - #ZeroReasonsWhy In Blue Valley And Beyond

"I&apos;m excited to get everybody back for sporting events and all that stuff. I&apos;m really excited to get back to the normalcy of school. I feel like everyone deserves to have that high school experience." - Gage Roach, junior at Blue Valley West. We close out our third season of the Blue Valley Schools podcast with a look back at a school year unlike any other. Three BV high school students - BVNW senior Emma Johnson, BVW junior Gage Roach, and BVSW senior Karthik Sathish - join Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan in an honest conversation about their experiences with virtual and hybrid learning, life as a student amid a pandemic, and their hopes for the future. 

BV unmuted - Ready For Normal: Students Reflect On A School Year Like No Other

"With COVID-19, you get exposed and may not have symptoms for up to 14 days. You can spend 14 days potentially exposing everyone wherever you go. With the flu, often times it&apos;s only 2 days from when you get exposed to when you show symptoms and get sick." - Jenna Miller, MD, FAAP We&apos;ve had a lot of questions from our listeners about the differences between COVID-19 and the seasonal flu. In this episode, we answer a lot of those questions. Blue Valley&apos;s Dr. Chris Jenson is joined by Jenna Miller, MD, FAAP, from Children&apos;s Mercy to discuss how these viruses can affect us, the amount of time they can continue to affect us, and how the vaccines are produced to stop them. 

On Call with Doc J - COVID-19 vs Flu

"We&apos;ve had a lot of great questions from our parents, students and staff regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and these questions are important... We wanted to hit them head-on and share the results with you." - Dr. Chris Jenson, Blue Valley Medical Consultant When circumstances are changing fast, sometimes you&apos;ve got to change gears. That&apos;s why we&apos;ve teamed up with Blue Valley&apos;s very own Dr. Chris Jenson in a podcast series we&apos;re calling "On Call with Doc. J." Dr. Jenson is a former ER doctor, a Blue Valley teacher, and is currently serving the district as our Blue Valley Medical Consultant. Over the next few weeks, Dr. Jenson will invite local and regional health experts to answer questions about the coronavirus pandemic. Our goal is to work through these topics with you, keep you informed, and let you know what Blue Valley is doing to help keep our students, staff and community safe. For more information, visit the BV COVID Dashboard. 

On Call with Doc J - COVID-19 Q&A

"We need to ensure staffing needs are met, we need to look at master schedules, and we&apos;re going to go hand-by-hand through all of our student&apos;s schedules to make sure things are right. In order to get all of that done and still give our staff a winter break, we need time to get that accomplished." - Kelly Ott, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Innovation The deadline is quickly approaching for families and students to change their learning mode selection for second semester. In this episode of BV unmuted, Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan joins Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Innovation Kelly Ott to inform families about the learning mode choices available, changes being made for the second semester, and why the deadline for selection is important. The deadline to make changes to a student&apos;s learning mode is November 16, 2020. If no changes are made, the student will continue to learn in the same mode they selected for first semester. For more information and to make changes to your learning mode selection, visit www.bluevalleyk12.org and click "Back To School". For a transcript of this episode, click here 

BV unmuted - Learning Mode Selections: Deadline Nov. 16, 2020

"We don't need to be perfect. Every moment isn't going to be Instagram-able. What is it that we can do so that when our head hits the pillow at the end of the day, we as parents can say 'Hey - that was hard, but we did it.' " - Tracy Foster, Co-Founder of START In this episode of BV unmuted, Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan invites our District Coordinator of Student Support Services Tara Walrod, along with START co-founders Krista Boan and Tracy Foster, to talk about helping our kids manage their screen time in a year when their devices are more important than ever before. The goal is to help all students have healthy habits when learning on their devices, while also feeling safe, sane, and seen during this unprecedented school year.  For more information on START, visit https://www.westartnow.org For a transcript of this episode, click here 

BV unmuted - Screen Time Sanity: Parenting In A Digital World

"Trust your gut. We are facing so many changes and there are so many different ways that our kids are under stress. If you, as a parent, just have that sense that something doesn&apos;t feel quite right, please reach out to us." - Karen Mulligan, Social Worker Manager The challenges of this upcoming school year are unprecedented - and while that may feel like an understatement, it is simply accurate. In this episode of BV Unmuted, Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan visits with District Coordinator of Student Support Services Tara Walrod, Social Worker Manager Karen Mulligan, and School Psychologist Emily Demo. The panel talks about how staff can build relationships with students whether they are learning in-person or online, as well as how to help parents recognize the signs of stress in their children and when to get them help. For a transcript of this episode, click here

BV unmuted - Social-Emotional Learning While Social-Distancing

"This is a pandemic. I&apos;ve never been a superintendent before, but I&apos;ve certainly never been a superintendent in a pandemic. I&apos;ve never been an educator in a pandemic. It&apos;s going to take all of us - working together - to ensure that we have a safe, sound and sincere quality of education for our Blue Valley students." - Dr. Tonya Merrigan, Blue Valley Schools Superintendent In our inaugural episode of BV unmuted, Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan joins a team of Blue Valley educators on the front lines of making sure our students can return to learn. Deputy Superintendent Katie Collier shares our strategies to provide safe and secure in-person learning for students in our school buildings. Director of Facilities and Operations Jake Slobodnik explains the tireless efforts to ensure clean classrooms and facilities for all students and staff. And our Executive Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Innovation Kelly Ott dives in to the vast details of our virtual learning option for students who plan on going to school online. While we make every effort to address the concerns of our entire Blue Valley community, we understand that many people may still have questions about the 2020-21 school year. Feel free to call the Back to School hotline at 913-239-4045 from 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday with questions not addressed on the district’s Back to School website, www.bluevalleyk12.org/backtoschool For a transcript of this episode, click here 

BV unmuted - Return To Learn: Planning In A Pandemic

"If we&apos;re going to be ready for students in August, we need to get back to some semblance of normal - but the new normal is going to look very different." - Dr. Tonya Merrigan, Incoming Superintendent For our team here at Blue Valley Schools, it feels like a lifetime since we shared our last podcast with you and, in some ways, it has been. Some things will be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic passes and some things will change. But one thing that will never waver is our commitment to the health and wellbeing of our students and staff. In this episode of Toddcast², Superintendent Dr. Todd White talks with Incoming Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan, BVSW Science Teacher Chris Jenson, M.D., and District Nurse Coordinator Tara Asher, RN, about our progress during the pandemic. The conversation includes our process for closing out the current school year, our work we have planned for this summer, and reopening our schools and buildings for the 2020-21 school year. 

Toddcast² - COVID-19: The Present, Our Progress, and a Plan for the Future (Season 2, Episode 13)

"I have parents tell me that their children are coming home and teaching them about what is happening in the classroom... the parents can see the progress the children are making and that we are establishing a love of reading for them." - Alaina Talley, reading specialist at Heartland Elementary In this episode of Toddcast², we continue our conversation about literacy in the classroom. Reading specialist Alaina Talley and second grade teacher Julie McInerney share their strategies for supporting students with dyslexia and how staff are using their literacy training to help all students succeed. 

Toddcast² - Literacy In The Classroom (Season 2, Episode 12)

The Toddcast² is your window into the work happening behind the scenes of Blue Valley Schools. Why is it to the "power of 2?" We include at least two perspectives for every topic we cover. Superintendent Dr. Todd White will host a variety of guests to talk about a variety of subjects. It's a conversation about what we're doing here at Blue Valley Schools and how we're striving to make every day a great day for our students, staff and community.

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