Dear ARHS Parents/Guardians,
I hope this finds you in a warm, well-lit place. My intent here is to provide you with the framework of how we are thinking about transitioning back to school on Monday.
First, a caution. I can’t yet fully certify that schools will be open on Monday. I’ve spoken to the superintendent and she believes we will be open on Monday, but has a degree of healthy skepticism that something still could get in the way. Her recommendation is that we all check the district’s information line on Sunday (362-1898) for the final word.
What follows, however, assumes we will beopen for business come Monday.
The day will start with a check in with all students in their A period class. Despite the legitimate impulse to do so, we want to avoid jumping immediately back into the academic realm. Instead, we’ve allotted time to see how the kids are faring. We have prepared a set of talking points for all teachers to read to their A period class. The overall message: ’We know this past week has been hard on families and we are trying to figure out the best way to support each other.’
Teachers will then administer a brief survey to determine how many students are still without power, light and heat. We will tally these to determine the school-wide patterns. If we find, for instance, that a quarter of the students are still without electricity, this will certainly bear on how we go forward academically. To protect the privacy of kids, we purposely left ’food’ off the survey. We will develop another means of assessing this, especially with students on free or reduced lunch.
On the academic front, we’re exploring options for modifying the length of the trimester, but at this point, it seems unlikely that we will be able to extend the fall trimester. Adjusting the calendar has implications for both the Region and the district. There is no clear solution given the complexity of the issues. But, again, we are continuing the discussion.
As a result, the school-wide principle that will drive our thinking about the remaining few weeks of the trimester is this: rather than cram, or accelerate our pace, we need to cut, or limit the scope of what we can reasonably cover.Teachers, in consultation with their department heads, will figure out the specific implications for their courses over the next week.
I’m sure, once we are back in school, we learn more about how the last week has affected students and families. If there are issues we should be thinking about that I haven’t raised here, please let me know.
Thank you.
Mark Jackson
Principal