Greetings All Kennett High School Students!
It is almost time for the start of a new school year on Tuesday, September 8th, and we are very excited to welcome you back! As was announced at the August 3rd School Board meeting, Kennett High School will be delivering instruction online until November 13th, so our opening will look different from a traditional start of a school year. While our remote learning marking period will share some similarities to what we experienced together in the spring, our online programming will be much more structured and engaging to provide all of you with an optimal learning experience. Virtual Orientation on Tuesday, 8/25 at 11am. Zoom information will be sent out on Monday.
Expectations
Even though we are learning in a remote learning environment, our expectations for you as students have not changed: we expect your absolute best. Your teachers have been hard at work designing and preparing rigorous, relevant, and interesting lessons that will challenge you and expand your knowledge. It will be critical in this unique learning environment to manage your time effectively and to organize your daily schedule in a way that affords you multiple opportunities to study, learn, and grow. To provide all of you with the best opportunity to do this, we have adjusted our school schedule to be more conducive to your success.
Routine
A typical week at Kennett High School this fall will be distinctive, starting with our Monday Jump Start Day. At least five times a marking period always on a Monday, you will meet with all of your teachers for 8 different classes for a 20 minute overview of the lessons for the week. During this time, teachers will introduce new content, explain activities for the week, and/or provide updates for upcoming assignments and assessments.
On non-Jump Start days, we will follow an AB Block schedule which simply means we will alternate through 4 different classes each day. For instance, on A Day, you will attend Blocks 1, 3, 5, and 7, while on B Day, you will attend Blocks 2, 4, 6, and 8. In addition to your 4 daily blocks, you will also have a daily “Flex” period in which you will revisit your class periods in order, 1 through 8, to get additional help, to make up assignments, or to complete any other activities as identified by your teachers. Ultimately, this “Flex” period is an opportunity for you to work with all of your teachers to do your best academically throughout the school year.
TCHS
Students who attend TCHS will also be required to remotely participate in their TCHS courses. You will attend your KHS classes every morning exactly as you did in previous years. You will also be responsible for checking in to your Flex period for periods 1 through 4. If you do not need additional support from your teachers during the Flex period, you may work independently on your assignments prior to logging in to your TCHS courses at 11:45am. On jumpstart days you will be able to view all TCHS course lessons asynchronously since you will be required to attend your KHS courses during the afternoon.
Extracurricular Activities
I also want all of you to know that our expectations for participating in extracurricular activities has not changed, and we expect all of you to get involved in clubs, activities, and athletics in some way in our online setting. Club and activity advisors and coaches are developing fun and creative ways for you to continue to work together in pursuit of your organization’s goal. We have included our updated list of clubs, activities, and athletics in this letter. Please read through this information carefully and select those areas in which you would like to participate. The research about extracurricular activities is clear: if you are engaged in school activities beyond academics, you do better in school. I am challenging each of you to sign up for at least 1 club, activity, or sport for the 2020-2021 school year.
Finally, I want all of you to know that as your principal, there is nothing more I want than to have you return to the school building and for us to resume our operations as normal. Our job is to provide the best learning experience for our students, and we are committed to seeing this through in our remote setting this fall. As part of our process to continually collect feedback from students about your experiences with remote learning, we will be holding weekly Student Roundtables as we have in the past. In our roundtables, we will discuss issues important to student life and will use your feedback to make adjustments to our programming. If you would like to participate in a roundtable this year, please send me an email at jhritz@kcsd.org.
There is an extensive amount of information included in this letter that I am asking you to carefully read through with your family so that you are prepared for a successful school year starting on Tuesday, September 8th.
Please know that if you need anything or having any questions, I am here to support you in every way that I can.
In the meantime, please enjoy the remainder of your summer vacation, but please know we are excited to get back to our important work of helping you learn and achieve your best!
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hritz, Ed.D.
Principal, Kennett High School
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