SCHOOL INFO
September 10, 2021
Dear L&G Families:
I want to take a moment to recognize the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, which is tomorrow. Certainly it was a hallmark date in many of our collective memories, although not for our students who were not yet born. They have been raised, however, in the shadow of that day. Truly, a wonder that twenty years have gone by.
In COVID news, the surge of cases in Vermont continues - approaching the highest number of cases at any point in time in the last few years. Additionally, the Agency of Education has updated its recommendation around assessing our vaccination percentages - it was originally 10 days of school, and now the earliest we can review our percentages will be October 7th, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see that get extended indefinitely. In the meantime, our “eligible student” vaccination rate is still under 60%, so keep sending those scans/pictures of vaccination cards to jdaigneault@windhamcentral.org.
With regards to masks, the vast majority of our students have been compliant with mask wearing in the building, but unfortunately there are some who continue to have their noses uncovered, or have the masks “slip down” multiple times during each class. Teachers have been very patient with this in the first two weeks of school, as we know the adjustment returning to school has been hard. However, starting this coming week, students who continue to struggle with not wearing masks appropriately, will be given one warning and then sent to the main office. At that point, we will reach out to parents and require them to be picked up for the day. We recognize that this may create a hardship for parents, but since this is a safety issue, we hope parents will talk with their children over the weekend so that everyone fully understands this expectation. I have shared it with the student body during this morning’s zoom announcements. Thank you for your continued support.
This coming Wednesday (9/15) is our first Early Release Day of the year. Busses arrive for our departure at 11:30am. Typical of these types of days, staff will be getting professional development in the afternoon.
Another upcoming day to be thinking about is Friday, 9/24 - Picture Day!
Attached to this email is a document that we send out every year, called the Home/School Compact. While it is a requirement of us accessing federal tax dollars (Title 1), the concepts contained therein are entirely valid and useful. Please take the time to review the compact as it spells out the tacit agreement that we all share in educating your children.
And finally, a few reminders about grading this year:
Beginning this year, we will be utilizing a new gradebook program, called JumpRope instead of the usual PowerSchool gradebook. Powerschool will still be used as our information system, and your login information will still access attendance data, etc.
In the coming weeks, you will receive a JumpRope login that will be used for both you and your child.
We are moving to JumpRope because it is a gradebook especially designed for proficiency based grading, and we feel the challenges that we faced interpreting grades will no longer exist with this new interface. It will be new to the teachers, so please give us a few weeks to explore it and become familiar with its operation before we open up the family portal! I am fairly certain that you will like the clarity that it will bring.
Also new this year, we will not be using the traditional “quarters” as grading terms. We will run report cards only at the end of each semester (Jan and June) and we will run progress reports typically every 4-5 weeks. Grading will also be viewable online once the family portal is opened up near the end of September.
Grading information is always available on our website by clicking on the menu item “Academics” and then “Grading at L&G.” Please let us know if you have any questions!
Thank you all for reading - I hope you have a great weekend!
Bob Thibault
Principal
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