April 5, 2024
Have a great weekend,
Mark
Assistant Principal's Happenings
Several thoughts, announcements, and thank-you’s this week. Let’s get started …..
Coaches and Supervisors
Thank you for doing a great job communicating with me regarding eligibility for your student participants. It can be a lot to try and keep straight. The important thing is that we get it right. Thanks for asking questions and keeping the lines of communication open.
Ten Day Contracts
For a peek into the life of your AP, this week I’m busy discussing 10-day contracts with students. School board policy allows students to miss 10 days without penalty (this includes codes 2,3,13, and 16). After 10 absences, students must make up time in order to receive credit for that course. (See Student Handbook, p.10 #2). We formalize this in a contract, sign it, and send it home. Currently, we have 25 students with new contracts for the ongoing Spring ‘24 Semester. Students make up time by sitting in the office, similar to detention, or by working with a teacher before or after school.
ELL Aide Expectations / ELL Accommodations
First, kudos to Kristen Fober and Michelle Cervantes for helping develop a document that will give our ELL aides more clarity on their roles and responsibilities. Thank you!! It is linked here. If you have an ELL aide assigned to your classroom, I encourage you to look through it as well, so you know what direction we’re providing to our ELL aides. We anticipate that Betsy’s replacement will start next week.
The ELL aide position can be difficult -- we tell them not to translate too much, but they also feel responsible for the success of their students. Our newcomer students face stiff challenges as well. We know that it takes 7 years to develop academic English skills, but when they arrive at 15+ years old, we don’t have that kind of time.
We can help them as a teaching staff by ensuring we are following proper accommodations, linked in this document. (Also, there is a key to the color code at the bottom of the worksheet). One of the easiest accommodations can be shortening an assignment as needed. If needed, dust off the SIOP strategies from previous training. Thank you for all you do to help each of our kids succeed.
Campus Life
Campus Life was given approval to hold a weekly meeting in the Little Theater from 7:15-8:00am on Fridays. They start today, April 5th. Campus Life is affiliated with the Teen Center in town. This is not a school student club and has no affiliation with the school. Their volunteers go through background checks and training. They have been instructed to stay in the Little Theater. Students are allowed to bring friends, but the Campus Life volunteers are not allowed to go into the commons or hallways to recruit students. Campus Life has already held this type of meeting in the Middle School for the past several years on Wednesday mornings. We are hopeful they can provide additional positive support for our most at-risk students.
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