Weekly News & Notes

It has been a few weeks since the Weekly News came out. First we had the week of vacation, and then I unfortunately wasn't here for a couple days. But I'd like to get back in the swing of keeping people in the proverbial loop though some weekly notices, which hopefully have some purpose in terms of letting you know what's happening!

Senior Exams and Class Elections

During the week of May 27, we will have a different period schedule due to senior exams and class elections. The schedule was posted to the conference some weeks ago and will be re-posted; also, the schedule for class elections will be that week.

• Current Freshman class (upcoming Sophomores) will be held on May 28th- A period
• Current Sophomore class (upcoming Juniors) will be held on May 28th- G period
• Current Junior class (upcoming Seniors) will be held on May 29th- E period
• The speeches for Student Government positions will run concurrent with each class’s speeches, however, voting will occur from 7:30-12:35 on May 30th.

The goal will be to have the speeches done within a half hour to allow class time. Keep in mind that the rising seniors will also have a presentation regarding Lifetouch.

For senior exams, we hope that grades will be posted quickly to allow us to intervene in places where students need additional support, summer classes, etc. For those of you teaching AP classes, if you could have the grades posted before exams start, it would make our identifying of graduation and Class Day speakers much easier!

Senior Week

Senior Week will be busy, to say the least.The science MCAS is Monday and Tuesday, a schedule to which also appears here. There will be graduation rehearsal on June 4, Class Day on June 6, and nightly events for the seniors. Your presence at any and all events, and the support and visibility of the staff at graduation on June 8, are all appreciated.

Thanks to those who participated in the graduation poll. No changes - though the request of many people to present the faculty in ceremonial cap and gown, which the school would have to fund/coordinate, is a great thought and something we will think about into next year.

We hope to have as many senior obligations collected as possible before Class Day; again, if you know of them, please start taking a log down so we can help. To that end, we will allow seniors some time on Wednesday and Thursday of this week to clean out lockers before/during the first few minutes of the day.


Two MCAS Down!

Thanks to all the proctors, teachers who moved, teachers who adjusted, and teachers who prepped students (you know, all of you) on the days of MCAS. They are hectic and scattered, but they went off mostly seamlessly.

Similarly, the coordination of all the AP tests, and the preparation of the students, was palpable in speaking with them. Regardless of the results, it was obvious that you all worked tireless to prepare them and put students in a good position to perform on test day.


Scheduling

Schedules have been turned to guidance for review, so counselors are looking at fixing student schedules, making adjustments to levels for rising eighth graders, and looking at places where some tweaks need to be made. That said, our hope is to give staff their teaching assignments (what classes, not necessarily what schedule) sometime in the next two weeks.

Where things have been in terms of the schedule so far:

1. Number of sections for each course have been identified.
2. What courses will or will not run based on staffing have been identified.
3. Where co-taught and support sections fall in the schedule.
4. Common planning periods, with some hope that those can be frozen.

What still needs to happen:

1. Some hiring. It could impact some sections here and there based on the staff.
2. Grade 8 level confirmations.
3. Students adding Elective course based on total credits.
4. Adjustments based on pass/fail for this year.
5. Finalizing co-taught section rosters.

Again, once we have the green light, which should be soon, teacher sections will be distributed, after which people can start the process of planning for next year in June of this year. I know, not the best way to spend June, but at least it's a start!


"The Binders"

Finally, for those of you who were taking the time this year to construct binders, finalize their SMART goal work, share their practices, and provide the massive quantity of information in support of the great things you have all done - wow. Sifting through the lessons, samples of student work, feedback to students, collaboration, PLC logs, outreach to parents, connections to peers, evidence of lessons - there have been so many great things that so many have done this year. We hope that the binders serve as some sense of validation for many of you, because it is clear how hard we are working... both to compile and to read them. Hopefully, with each year, the process will become less nebulous and easier to navigate.