HILLSBOROUGH RESPONDS
eLearning overview for parents during the school closure
MESSAGE FROM SUPERINTENDENT ADDISON DAVIS
Dear Families,
These past three weeks have been unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. Our teachers and staff have been working tirelessly to help our students continue to learn and experience as much normalcy as possible.
However, I know how stressful the eLearning process has been on you, our parents and guardians. I want to thank you for the time and effort you are giving, every day, to help our students continue to learn and succeed.
By this time, all our learners should have a device at home. If you do not have a device yet, please reach out to your student’s school and let them know. Additionally, if you are having questions or concerns about eLearning at your child’s school, do not hesitate to communicate with your child’s teacher or administration. We are all here to help.
As you may know by now, we are also making updates to our Grab-and-Go food distribution in order to better comply with CDC guidelines. Since the Grab-and-Go meals started, our schools have served more than one million meals! I’m so proud and grateful to our Student Nutrition workers, security and custodial teams and bus drivers for ensuring our students get fed and stay safe doing it. You can find the new rules further down in Hillsborough Responds or at HillsboroughSchools.org/coronavirus/grabandgo.
Again, THANK YOU for all you’re doing to partner with your teachers and schools to guarantee eLearning success.
Addison Davis
Superintendent of Schools
IMPORTANT GRAB-AND-GO CHANGES BEGINNING THIS WEEK
Beginning this Wednesday, April 15, our district will be distributing food one day per week-- providing students one week's worth of food at a time, instead of daily distribution.
Due to new CDC guidelines and a statewide stay-at-home order, our district wants to minimize contact between Student Nutrition Services workers and our families. We believe one-day-a-week food distribution will be safer for the community as a whole.
Families will be able to pick up a week's worth of nutritious meals every Wednesday at the same 147 sites-- between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. This will include one pound of lunch meat, a loaf of bread, milk, juice and nutritious snacks. Students will receive enough food for each school day. Buses will also be transporting food into specific neighborhoods for pick up every Wednesday.
Each student will receive a bag of food that needs to be refrigerated, and one that can stay at room temperature. It's important to note that these food bags will weigh over ten pounds together. If you are walking up or riding a bike to a Grab-and-Go site, please have your child bring their empty backpack to provide a simple way to transport the food.
Please note-- we will be feeding students this Monday, April 13, and Tuesday, April 14 at Grab-and-Go sites- to make sure students have nutritious meals before the new schedule starts this Wednesday. For a list of frequently asked questions, please visit HillsboroughSchools.org.
Thank you for your cooperation as we continue to keep our community safe while making sure our children have food during this closure.
AMAZING RESOURCES FROM OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Get creative and get ready for football season at the same time! The Tampa Bay Buccaneers has created a downloadable coloring book for young Buccaneers!
Keep Busy with the Bug! The Tampa Bay Lightning has created daily academic and physical activities for home.
The Museum of Science and Industry is offering Virtual MOSI! They are posting experiments, science clues and art that families can do from home! There are even mysteries for students to solve!
A READING CHALLENGE FROM SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER, DR. STACY HAHN
Some of the squares include: Read to a pet or stuffed animal, draw a picture based on your favorite book or write a poem!
When you're done... Make sure to color in the square and share your progress on social media by tagging @HillsboroughSch
Watch Dr. Hahn complete one of the squares on the challenge... Reading a Recipe and making a dish!
MAKING SURE STUDENTS ARE SAFE ON ZOOM
Zoom has become a powerful tool in our eLearning process. Here are the protocols teachers are following to make sure Zoom meetings are as safe as possible:
Protocols for using Zoom with Students
- Before using Zoom with students, ensure that the following settings are selected using the web interface. The settings menu is located on the left side of the screen under the heading “Personal”. These are the recommended default settings:
- Video should be set to ON for the host and can be set to ON for the participants. Parents may decide to turn video cameras off during teleconferencing.
- Audio should be set to Telephone and Computer Audio so that students may join using either.
- Screen Sharing should be set to Host Only.
- Set Private Chat to off.
- Mute participants on entry so that instruction is not interrupted by students joining the call late.
- Any recording of instruction must be of the teacher. No recording of students should be made.
- Keep meeting invites private. Post them in Edsby. Do not post them on social media.
- Require a password for your meetings. Post the password in Edsby.
- Set Waiting Room to ON for all participants so that you can control which participants you allow into your session.
- Either generate a new Meeting ID for each meeting or create a recurring meeting that requires a different password for each meeting.
You can find all this information in our eLearning Contingency Plan
IMPORTANT REMINDERS FOR OUR FAMILIES
All report cards are now available online for our middle and high school students. You can find them at reportcards.sdhc.k12.fl.us
We are working for a way to deliver report cards for our elementary students since they would normally bring paper report cards home in their backpacks. We will communicate that information when we are able.
CENSUS 2020:
By now, you should have received a postcard from the Census Bureau with information about how to fill out your census. Census information is very important for our community and our school district. Based on data gathered by the census, $675 billion in U.S. Government funds, grants and support is distributed among states and communities. That information helps draw school boundaries, determines the need for new schools and determines the money received for special education, classroom technology, teacher training and more.
Find out more at 2020Census.gov
MONDAY, APRIL 20 IS A PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED NON-STUDENT DAY: This means there will be no eLearning on this day.
CELEBRATING OUR SPECTACULAR SENIORS
We know our seniors are missing out on so much of their final year. Thank you to everyone who recommended an outstanding senior for us to recognize. We will continue to do this through the end of the year. If you'd like us to recognize your outstanding graduate, email us at newsletter@sdhc.k12.fl.us with their name, why they're amazing and a picture.
PJ Whitaker - Senior at Plant High. PJ is stepping up during the school closure by tutoring underclassmen in math and science. He is offering free online tutoring via FaceTime and earning volunteer hours for his Bright Futures Scholarship.
David Haynes - Senior at Riverview High. David is a Running Back and loves playing football. He's managed to play and keep up with his school work and plans to attend FAMU in the fall. David misses his friends and teachers but is staying positive through the quarantine.
Jada Davis - Senior at Newsome High. Jada is from a military family and Newsome is the third high school she has attended. However, she remained dedicated to her academics and has a GPA of 4.68. Jada will be attending FSU in the fall and majoring in Computer Science.
Bella Bozied - Senior at Alonso High. Bella will graduate as an Honor Grad in the top 10% of her class. She is Secretary of the Senior Class, co-anchor of the Alonso Morning Show, President of Key Club, Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook, Captain of the Golf Team and plays for the Girls Flag Football Team. Bella will be attending FSU in the fall and has an interest in Journalism and Communications.
Skip Carmichael - Senior at Wharton High. Skip is an academic and athletic success. He has spent 4 years in the Navy Jr. ROTC program. He has also completed 10 triathlons including the World Championships in Switzerland. Skip also plays electric guitar for the Wharton Jazz Band. He plans to attend Northern Arizona State University in the fall.
Madison Hudgins - Senior at Newsome High. Madison is outstanding in many ways. Academically she has a 6.2 GPA and has lettered all 4 years in Chorus. She is a proud recipient of the Medallion Scholarship and will graduate with 47 college credits. Madison plans to attend the University of Tampa and her goal is to give back to the community she grew up in.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Email: newsletter@sdhc.k12.fl.us
Website: HillsboroughSchools.org
Location: 901 East Kennedy Boulevard, Tampa, FL, USA
Phone: 813-272-4000
Facebook: facebook.com/HillsboroughSch
Twitter: @HillsboroughSch