Secondary Spotlight
May 15, 2016
Happy Sunday to all!
Just a few reminders:
- SPECIAL CALLED BOARD MEETING - MAY 26- ALL PRINCIPALS ARE EXPECTED TO ATTEND- 8:30 AM - BOARD ROOM
GRADUATION RSVP for middle school principals-Please RSVP to Secondary Programs if you plan on attending your feeder graduation ceremony. The high school principals acknowledge those in attendance at the beginning of the ceremony. It is always nice to see our feeder principals celebrating our graduates!
- Please ensure your teachers who need to attend Secondary Learning Lab, sign up on STI- PD. This will take place June6-9 at Lee High School.
- All Lead Alabama and Educate Alabama evidence should be updated and completed no later than May 23rd.
- HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS- please remind students that they are not allowed to visit elementary and middle schools after exams. Schools are still in session and instruction is taking place. MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPALS- if you have high school students come to your school, please tell them that they cannot visit classrooms and contact the HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL and Secondary Programs if this becomes an issue at your school.
- MASTER SCHEDULE- please remember that the master schedule should be developed by a school administrator ( and team). Please be mindful of racial isolation and composition as you build your master schedule as well.
It is also an expectations that schools build in common planning time. Anne Jobe has created built in common planning times for both grade level and department planning. How will you ensure this is purposeful next school year? (Finley's schools - this is an expectation next school year.) I encourage you to visit www.allthingsplc.info . This resource provides an extensive amount of resources on how to organize PLCS, forms for PLCs, and instructional strategies that are shared at PLC meetings. We must focus on strengthening the core and differentiated instruction.
- HIGH SCHOOL BLOCK SCHEDULE PD- Secondary Programs' Block Schedule POC, Leslie Esneault, has organized block schedule training for all high schools. This will take place on October 11, full day. Schools are asked to select and send a team of 5, which should include the school principal. The training will be provided by the Bureau of Educational Leadership and will focus on sharing practical strategies that will maximize student learning. The expectation is each high school's block schedule team will turn this training around on the October 26 1/2 PD day. HIGH SCHOOLS SHOULD DEVOTE THIS 1/2 PD TO BLOCK SCHEDULE PD.
- PACING GUIDES UPDATES- Pacing guides are almost complete. Teachers will have access to the 2016-2017 during summer months :-). Once the pacing guides are completed, the Secondary District Writing Team will then add writing prompts to each core pacing guide. Thanks to all teachers who participated in this great PD experience.
Upcoming Events
May 17- 20 Senior Exams
May 16-20- Grades 6-11 Schoolnet Benchmarks
May 23-26 Grades 9-11 Teacher Made Exams
May 19- Board Meeting; 5:30
May 20- Seniors last day
May 24- Exams begin for grades 9-11
May 26- SPECIAL CALLED BOARD MEETING 8:30 AM
June 3- Class rolls/ master schedules due- racial isolation is a focus
June 3- End of Year Checklist due to your DOI
Celebrations and Welcomes
Scholarship Update:
HCS high schools have received over $42 million dollars worth of scholarships to date! We are $1 million dollars above last year at this time. Our goal is to surpass the $52 million dollars worth of scholarships received last year. A special thanks to our school counselors, district college counselors , Sherri Crigger and Cedric Delbridge, and Donna Clark for their hard work and dedication to ensuring scholarship opportunities for HCS students.
As of May 13, 2016, Columbia = $4,172,498; Grissom = $11, 687,649; Huntsville = $15,456,122; Johnson = $3,642,075; Lee= $5,235,654; New Century= $3,897,486
*amounts represent scholarship reports from senior counselors