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River Bend Families,

After watching the weather forecast shift over the last two days and hearing today from the National Weather Service that their winter advisory has shifted to a winter warning with the expectation of 4 to 8 inches of snow falling, increased blowing winds and heavier snow fall from 8 to 10 AM,  River Bend will be switch to a remote learning day Wednesday, February 12th.  Teachers and administrators have been preparing students for the possible weather event.  After school activities will be cancelled.

Principals and teachers will provide remote learning schedules and information to students. Remote learning schedules are also posted below by building.

Please stay safe and warm,

Darryl Hogue

Remote Day Schedules for Each Building:

• FES/FBP: Remote Learning Days Schedule
• RBMS:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a-pO1e4bVtJbsLSLscUYmbpIxHN6RaKYYpsSyfZULbA/edit?usp=sharing
• FHS:

To: River Bend CUSD 2 Families, Staff and Students,  
Subject: PowerSchool Cybersecurity Update

Dear families and educators of the River Bend community,

We are writing to inform you of the latest updates regarding the recent cybersecurity incident involving PowerSchool, the software vendor that provides our Student Information System (SIS).

Yesterday, January 29, 2025, PowerSchool initiated the process of notifying individuals whose information was determined to be involved.

PowerSchool has engaged Experian, a trusted credit reporting agency, to provide complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services to current and former students and educators that had information exfiltrated from PowerSchool SIS. PowerSchool is doing this regardless of whether an individual’s Social Security Number was exfiltrated. In the coming weeks, Experian (on behalf of PowerSchool) will be distributing direct email notifications to involved individuals (or their parent/guardian, as applicable) for whom PowerSchool has sufficient contact information.

Additionally, PowerSchool has worked with Experian to set up a dedicated, toll-free call center to answer any questions associated with these offerings and the incident. All the information regarding the activation of and access to these services will be included in the email sent to you by Experian. 

Whether or not you receive an email, you may also visit PowerSchool’s website to learn how to activate the offering from Experian, linked here: http://www.powerschool.com/security/sis-incident/notice-of-united-states-data-breach/.

As a reminder, we encourage you to visit https://www.powerschool.com/security/sis-incident/ for up-to-date information on the cybersecurity incident. Protecting our students and teachers remains our top priority. Thank you again for all of your support and understanding during this time. We will continue to share more information from PowerSchool as it becomes available.

Sincerely,
Darryl Hogue, Supt. River Bend Schools
 

River Bend Families, 

Dr. Hogue recently announced that he will retire at the end of the 2025-26 school year. The River Bend Board of Education is grateful for his 12 years of service to the River Bend Communities and we wish him the very best as he joins his family in full time service to support them.

It is the job of the River Bend Board of Education to hire and support a superintendent. Given the current educator shortage and shrinking pool of qualified candidates, it has become common practice for Boards of Education to work with internal candidates when filling open positions. Over the last year, Mrs. Kelli Parsons has earned her Superintendent endorsement, completing her internship in the district. During her internship, Mrs. Kelli Parsons successfully took on several District level duties including writing the Preschool For All grant and overseeing the resulting growth in preschool operations, attending budget and levy workshops, and participating in district committees. During the time of her internship, Mrs. Parsons expressed interest in becoming the superintendent of a small, rural school district. Given her interest, the Board of Education has had the opportunity to observe and work with Mrs. Parsons to evaluate her candidacy for the superintendency. After observing, meeting with and interviewing Mrs. Parsons, The River Bend School Board feels they have a highly qualified candidate who has demonstrated a high level of success throughout her internship and with the many activities and initiatives she has led.

While the historical approach to hiring a superintendent has been to engage a professional search firm, this process is not required. The Board of Education is excited to announce that Mrs. Parsons has been selected to replace Dr. Hogue, beginning her tenure as the next superintendent in July, 2026. She will be able to work closely with Dr. Hogue during the 2025-2026 school year. This will give Dr. Hogue and Mrs. Parsons a full school year to transition and plan for the future of River Bend.

Mrs. Parsons is currently working on completing her doctorate in educational leadership through Illinois State University. She holds a professional educators license with endorsements to serve as a superintendent, chief school business official, and director of special education. Mrs. Parsons has successfully worked as the Fulton Elementary School Assistant Principal for the last two years. Prior to joining the River Bend District she worked for Regional Office of Education 4 as a Social Emotional Learning Specialist. Before moving to the community, Mrs. Parsons worked for five years as a Special Education Coordinator for BMP Tri-County Special Education Cooperative and for fourteen years as a Special Education Paraprofessional then Teacher for the Henry-Stark Special Education Cooperative. Mrs. Parsons began her career in education as an Agriculture Teacher and FFA Advisor in Brown County and Roseville.

We look forward to Mrs. Kelli Parsons tenure as the next Superintendent of River Bend Schools,

Dan Portz River Bend Board of Education President

TO: River Bend CUSD 2 Families, Staff and Students,                                   
SUBJECT: Power School Data Breach
 
Dear families and educators of the River Bend community,

PowerSchool – a cloud-based software vendor used by River Bend – recently experienced a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to certain information in the PowerSchool Student Information System (SIS). 

On Tuesday, January 7, 2025, PowerSchool informed us that they experienced a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to certain PowerSchool SIS customer data, which impacted many school districts both domestically and internationally, as Power School serves over 60 million students and has more than 18,000 customers. This data breach was an attack on PowerSchool and was not a cyberattack directed at River Bend. While the threat actors were not directly attacking our district and did not directly access any of River Bend’s systems, unfortunately, Power School has confirmed that some of the information extracted through PowerSchool belongs to some of River Bend’s families and educators.

We are reaching out to share information and next steps that we recently received directly from PowerSchool:

Identity Protection and Credit Monitoring Services: PowerSchool has engaged Experian, a trusted credit reporting agency, to offer two years of complimentary identity protection services for all students and educators whose information from our PowerSchool SIS was involved. This offer will also include two years of complimentary credit monitoring services for all adult students and educators whose information was involved.

Notification to Individuals Involved: Starting in the next few weeks, in collaboration with Experian, PowerSchool will provide notice to students (or their parents / guardians if the student is under 18) and educators whose information was involved, as well as a phone number to answer any questions you may have about the incident. The notice will include the identity protection and credit monitoring services offer (as applicable). 

As soon as PowerSchool learned of the incident, they engaged cybersecurity response protocols and mobilized senior leadership and third-party cybersecurity experts to conduct a forensic investigation of the scope of the incident and to monitor for signs of information misuse. PowerSchool is not aware of any identity theft attributable to this incident.

In the meantime, I encourage you to visit https://www.powerschool.com/security/sis-incident/ for up-to-date information on the cybersecurity incident. We care deeply about the welfare of our Power School families and will continue to do everything we can to support you. Thank you for the important role you play in our community and your shared commitment to putting our students first. We will continue to share more information from PowerSchool as it becomes available.

Sincerely, 

Darryl Hogue, Supt. River Bend Schools
 

Dear River Bend Families and Staff,

As we venture further into January and February, I wanted to provide a quick weather update for our current school year.

• Canceling school- If snow or blowing snow make the roads dangerous to travel on we will delay the start or cancel school. I work closely with our area road commissioners and other schools to determine safety of the roads. When temperatures get to the -20 to -25 with or without windchill it becomes dangerous to be outside for very long, school will be delayed or canceled.
• Canceling, delaying the start, or going remote- This is a difficult decision and many times involves many factors. During the winter months when cold weather and snow are predicted, we will ask students to bring their Chromebooks home so that remote learning can be an option. Our hope is to keep the calendar intact so not to disrupt pre-planned events or appointments.

Making up snow days also has many factors to consider. While in-person learning is best, remote learning has value and can be a useful tool for managing make-up days. Remote learning on a short term basis allows school calendars to remain intact. Days off for both students and staff can be valuable during the winter months. Both teachers and families also plan appointments on our scheduled holidays. I have also heard that people enjoy snow days and prefer making up school at a later time. The decision to use a remote learning day may depend on the number of make-up days already used or the length of day being interrupted by cold or snow. When school is canceled, an announcement will go out as soon as possible identifying if the day will be remote or rescheduled for an in-person day.

Options for delaying, canceling or remote learning:

1. Delay the start or leave early and still get through a school day.
2. Prepare and have Chromebooks at home for students who can complete school work remotely. Each building principal and teachers will provide details for remote learning days.
3. If a weather situation comes quickly upon us and we are not prepared for a remote learning day we will cancel and make the day up in person or remote.
4. In person make up days have already been preplanned- MLK day (Jan 20th) will be used if a weather event occurs before December 21st, 2024. President’s Day (Feb. 19th) will be used if a weather event occurs before January 31st, 2025. The Monday after Easter (April 1st) will be used if a weather event occurs after March 14th, 2025.

As a note, due to a calendar schedule submission and change at the Regional Office of Education, for the 25-26 school year River Bend was notified in the fall that we have one extra day scheduled this school year. That means if we need to use a snow day, we will have already made it up. Or if we get through the winter and do not need to use a snow day, the last day of school for students will be Wednesday, May 21st.

Remote Day Schedules for Each Building:

• FES/FBP: Remote Learning Days Schedule
• RBMS:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a-pO1e4bVtJbsLSLscUYmbpIxHN6RaKYYpsSyfZULbA/edit?usp=sharing
• FHS:

Dear River Bend Community,

River Bend CUSD #2 is planning to update our strategic plan.  A strategic plan provides guidance and sets goals for the Board of Education as they endeavor to lead and grow River Bend Schools.

The Board of Education would like to invite all community members who have an interest in working through the process to join us for an informational meeting on Tuesday, October 15th at 6:30 in the Fulton Elementary School Conference Room.  

Our initial meeting will cover the need to update our strategic plan and outline the steps the District will utilize during the strategic planning process.  

If you are unable to attend our overview meeting and would still like to take part in the strategic planning process, please send me an email so that I can invite you to additional meetings.  

Gratefully,

Darryl Hogue

Strategic Plan Invite