Mrs. Vereyken’s Weekly Update 2/22 – 2/26

We hope that you had a wonderful Academic Break! We have around three weeks left until this Quarter ends. Please make sure your student is logging into Canvas every day during the week and staying on top of their daily assignments and instruction. Please make sure they do not wait until the last minute to complete their missing assignments and make up work.

Here’s a quick glance at the week:

Monday, 2/22:

• 3^rd Grade Students return to campus for in-person learning 
• Material Distribution from 9:00 A.M. until 4:00 P.M. USB Flash Drive drop off/pick up.

Tuesday, 2/23:

• 4^th Grade Students return to campus for in-person learning 
• ACT for Juniors @ 8:30 A.M. 
• Virtual Curriculum Fair @ 5:00 P.M. via Canvas 

Wednesday, 2/24:

• 5^th Grade Students return to campus for in-person learning 
• Math 1 Check In @ 8:30 A.M. 
• 8^th Grade Science Check in @ 8:30 A.M. 

Volunteers Needed:

• Due to the most recent inclement weather, there are a few trees down on campus that we would greatly appreciate any volunteers to help with. If you’re available to help, please reach out to Mrs. Moore at emilymoore@cgsnc.org. Thank you! 

Fire Drill:

• Parents, we have had 1 fire drill with our K-2 students that have been on campus. Please remind your students that fire drills are necessary to practice in order to keep everyone safe in case of a real emergency. We will be having another one soon, please help them understand the importance of practicing for a fire drill and to not be afraid of the noise. Thank you for the help with this at home! We do not want fire drills to be a traumatizing event for any of our students.

Testing:

• There are a few testing events taking place this week on campus. Please take a look at the attached testing calendar for updates on the testing t
• aking place.

Report Card Audit:

• 1^st-5^th Grade Families, we greatly appreciate your patience with us as our Report Card Committee completed the report card audit for our elementary report cards for Quarter 1 and Quarter 2. Our Report Card Committee worked endlessly combing through EVERY elementary school student and EVERY course they were enrolled in during Semester 1 and EVERY assignment they were assigned. This was an extremely time consuming and tedious task but now we can honorably report that ALL student report cards in grades 1^st-5^th are now accurate for Quarter 1, Quarter 2, and Semester 1. Unfortunately, there were some mathematical discrepancies and some students will notice a change in their first and second Quarter report card grades. Some students had grades increase for courses and some students had grades decrease. If your student’s grade decreased significantly, you will receive an email from me with this information so that you are aware. The reasons for decreases or increases in Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 grades came from the following: 

• Syncing Issues: This was one of the major discrepancies found. Information that was input into the Canvas platform did not accurately transfer over to the PowerSchool platform. PowerSchool is the platform that actually “prints” and “stores” student grades. Sometimes, a teacher had the intention of having an assignment “sync” over to PowerSchool but somehow the correct “button” wasn’t selected to enable this function. At times, some assignments went over but there was a glitch and the platform only pulled “half” of the class’s grades over, and not all. These issues were combed through one-by-one by our committee and all teachers with this issue made these corrections.

• Blanks for missing Assignments: All assignments have been accounted for. There should be no “blanks” left in any gradebook for any student. If a student does not complete an assignment, there will be a “0” placed in the assignment grade until the assignment is completed. There are times when a teacher may “exempt” a student from an assignment depending on the teacher’s discretion, but there will be a “purple /” in the assignment place that shows that the assignment is being “exempt” and not held for or against a student. No longer will there be “blanks” in the gradebook for any student. Every assignment given will hold a “value”. This is something that we have corrected for every teacher’s gradebook to ensure consistency and equity amongst all of our students. 

• Category Weights: Another issue that was found when completing the report card audit was held within the “category weights” (Tests/Quizzes, Classwork/Homework, etc.) that are input into a teacher’s gradebook to account for the “value” that each assignment shall hold. There weren’t “many” of these errors but our committee did fix any gradebooks that did not reflect the true values of the assignments as listed out in our Student/Parent Handbook. We ensured that the same weights that were input in Canvas at the beginning of the year also reflected the category weights input into the PowerSchool platform as well.

• Grade Floor: One issue we found with a select group of teacher gradebooks was that the grade floor value of a 50% was put into the wrong location. We changed our “normal” procedure for the location of where to place the grade floor prior to the first Quarter grade completion date, but some of our teachers unknowingly put in the grade floor value in the wrong location. Some of our teachers placed the grade floor value into the 1^st Quarter grade spot and it should have been put into H1 for Semester long courses, and in the S1 spot for yearlong courses. This is mathematically the most equitable way to ensure that all students no matter the course they took have the same opportunities as other students. This issue was addressed and every grade floor was input for all eligible students correctly. If your student was applicable for a grade floor, you will have a document attached to your child’s report card stating this information with more clarity.

• Those were the MAJOR updates/changes found when completing our audit. We greatly appreciate your support and understanding as we identified and made these corrections. We also apologize for any frustration or disappointment we may have caused by making these changes. We pride ourselves on academic integrity and once these mistakes/errors were found, we all jumped into gear to ensure all students have accurate and precise records.

Blended Enrichment Survey:

Please see last Friday’s email in regards to a blended enrichment survey for our Middle and High School parents to complete if interested (6th grade through 11th grade) that is due by February 26, 2021.

Survey for Blended Enrichment (Middle and High School Students):

Food and Nutrition Letter from NCDPI:

Please see the attached Food and Nutrition Letter from NCDPI in regards to if you are in need of school lunches for your student.

Material Distribution:

-On Monday, February 22, 2021,  we will have another distribution of materials for students. If your student has any of the courses listed below, please make sure that you come by campus and pick up their materials. Please stay in your vehicle and we will bring the material out to you. Please enter from the Burch Bridge Road entrance and travel around the building to the front circle. We request that you wear your face mask while interacting with our faculty/staff and that you remain 6 feet apart to social distance. If you’ve been in contact with anyone that has tested positive for Covid-19 or if you have symptoms of Covid-19 yourself, please do not come on campus. Thank you for helping us keep our faculty/staff safe!

 Students with last names A-M will need to pick up materials from 9:00 A.M. until 12:00 P.M.

Students with last names N-Z will need to pick up materials from 1:00 P.M. until 4:00 P.M.

Materials needing to be picked up from students on: Monday, February 22 , 2021
Wright, McCollister	1st grade remote students only	Assignments to go along with Canvas lessons and Valentines for those that haven’t picked them up already

Tags: Update from Mrs. Vereyken