IMPORTANT UPDATE: First Day of School & Power Restoration 8/13/26 AM
Dear District 194 Families,
We are happy to share some good news as our schools and community continue to recover from this week’s major storms. Please read this entire message carefully as it contains important information.
Power has been restored at Columbia Central and Steger Primary Center. Steger Intermediate Center and the District Administration Center remain without power at this time, but we believe power will be restored and the building will be operational by this weekend.
With that in mind, we are modifying our start-of-school schedule in what we hope is one final time to give our staff, families, and schools some additional time to clean up, recover, and get back to normal following the storm.
NEW SCHOOL START SCHEDULE
Monday, August 17 – Teacher Institute Day
Tuesday, August 18 – Teacher Institute Day
Wednesday, August 19 – FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR K-8 STUDENTS
We know this has been an unusual and challenging way to begin a school year. We hope the additional time gives our staff the opportunity to prepare our buildings and classrooms while also giving everyone a little more time to recover from the storm.
PowerSchool, Class Placements, Schedules, and Bus Info
More good news: power at Columbia Central is back on and appears to be holding, which means our PowerSchool server is now up and operational.
Families should be able to log in to PowerSchool to view class placements, schedules, and bus information.
As a reminder, only students who are fully registered and have completed residency verification will be able to see their teacher/class placement or schedule.
If you recently completed registration or still need to provide residency documentation, our staff will begin working through those registrations again right away. Our goal is to have all eligible students fully processed and placed into classes before the first day of school on Wednesday. We appreciate your patience with our staff as they work through registrations that could not be processed while our power and systems were unavailable.
Families should be receiving information very soon on how to log in to PowerSchool and create an account if needed. Should you have any issues, there will be information about how to reach out to our tech support.
Rescheduled Orientations & Car Tag Pick-Up Information
With our revised start date, the following events have been rescheduled:
Steger Primary Center
Preschool Meet & Greet at SPC
Monday, August 17
5:30–7:00 p.m.
The first day of preschool attendance will be Friday, August 21.
Kindergarten Orientation at SPC
Tuesday, August 18
5:00–6:30 p.m.
First Grade Families
First-grade families who would like to hear the building principal's presentation are welcome to attend the Kindergarten Orientation on Tuesday evening. Please note that first-grade teachers and classrooms will not be available to first-grade families during Kindergarten Orientation.
Steger Intermediate Center
2nd Grade Presentation at SIC
Monday, August 17
6:30–8:00 p.m.
Car Tags, Name Tags & Printed Presentation Materials
Families may pick up these materials from the Steger Primary Center Main Office and the Steger Intermediate Center Main Office on Monday, August 17 or Tuesday, August 18 between 8AM and 3PM or during the orientation times at each school. Folders containing the materials will be available in the office.
Columbia Central
Monday, August 17
5th Grade Parent Presentation – 5:00–6:00 p.m.
8th Grade Parent Presentation – 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Given the situation with power and clean up on the streets we are cancelling our planned Back to School parade that was scheduled for this Sunday, August, 16. This has become a great new tradition but given the unfortunate situation we cannot logistically make it happen.
Thank You
We know that changing schedules creates challenges for our families, and we greatly appreciate your patience, flexibility, and understanding throughout the past several days.
Most importantly, we hope our families and community members are safe and recovering from the storm. We know many of you have been dealing with power outages, downed trees, property damage, cleanup, and other challenges of your own.
We are excited to see our buildings becoming operational again, and our schools getting ready to welcome students.
We look forward to seeing our students for the first day of school on Wednesday, August 19!
Thank you for your continued support of District 194.
Sincerely,
Dr. Anthony McConnell
Superintendent
Steger School District 194