By now you should have received GBSD’s Return to Learn Plan (Version 8.28.2020) from the district office. There is a lot of valuable information in there, so I would like to take an opportunity to highlight a few areas, and add some things that are unique to GHS:

• Start of School (page 13)

• As you have heard, we are starting the school year online in our new eGBSD Comprehensive Distance Learning model.

• This model will be different from the Distance Learning for All model we used in the spring.

• We will start using Google Classroom and Google Meets for face-to-face opportunities

• There is a brief introduction to Canvas, a Learning Management System (LMS) we will be replacing Google classroom with later this fall.

• There will be more information about Canvas coming after we get the school year started, and there are few more in the document for those who are ready to check it out now.

• Daily Content (page 15)

• What can I expect to see with eGBSD for teachers daily?

• High School Online Schedule (page 19)

• Students will begin school with an Advisory period- M-F from 9:00-9:20am

• Period 1- 9:25-10:40am

• Period 2- 10:45- 12:00pm

• Lunch- 12:00- 12:40pm

• Period 3- 12:40-1:55pm

• Period 4- 2:00- 3:15pm

• Student Support (Teacher office hours)- 3:15-3:45- please encourage your student(s) to take advantage of this opportunity

• Attendance (page 20)

• Teachers will take attendance daily in each class/course

• We strongly encourage students to attend the face-to-face class sessions. However their attendance will also be counted if there is any of the following that day:

• Participation in an online class

• Communication from the student to the teacher via chat, text message, or email (two-way)

• A phone call with the student, (or for younger students, with the parent)

• Posting/turning in completed coursework to a learning management system, web-based platform, or email

• Asynchronous vs Synchronous learning

• Based on guidance from the state and feedback from parents and students about last spring, there will be multiple opportunities for students to be online face-to-face with their teacher each day.

• Grading (page 22)

• Our traditional grading system will resume for the 2020-21 school year.

• Teachers will establish reasonable due dates for all graded coursework and assessments in determining a student’s grade and proficiency on grade-level standards.

• Report card grades will be documented in Synergy and report cards will be accessed through ParentVue.

• Technology (page 49)

• The district has a chromebook ready to be checked out to each student (no need to share devices this year!)

GBSD is committed to providing devices for ALL students in our district. We are encouraging families to take advantage of the devices as they are familiar to teachers, they are loaded with the applications needed and our technology staff know how to problem solve issues with these devices if they come up during the school year.

Student schedules will be available the week of September 8th. We are working diligently to fine tune the schedules given the Comprehensive Distance Learning program. Once they are available via studentvue and parentvue, please contact your students counselor for any schedule questions. Counselors are assigned by your students last name alphabet and you can find those breakdowns at the end of this newsletter. Schedule changes will be very difficult given the circumstances and priority will be given to those students who are mis-assigned a level and/or pre-requisite course and any mistakes that may exist.

If your student still has outstanding textbooks from prior school years please return them this Thursday, September 3rd at Gresham High School. Students can come to the Front Doors located off of the Division Street parking lot. Staff will be available from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. Please wear a mask and maintain social distancing. It is important that we get back as many books as possible so that we have the needed items to check out to students for the upcoming school year.

The Gresham-Barlow School District will begin the school year with online instruction only. Each Gresham-Barlow student will participate in eGBSD, the District’s comprehensive distance learning program taught by our GBSD teachers.

To ensure that each student can participate in online instruction, as well as have access to online resources and assignments, the District will loan a device to each student.

The devices must be returned by June 10, 2021 or upon leaving the district, whichever comes first.

Student ID numbers required to pick up Device(s)
You will need the student ID number for each student in your family in order to check out a device. The student ID number is also your student’s lunch number and is listed on report cards. If you do not have the number, please log into ParentVUE or review your student’s last report card.

You can check out devices at one of four locations. For your convenience, each location will be open from 10 am to 5 pm each day.

Pickup Dates:

Note: These dates are for all students in all schools EXCEPT Dexter McCarty Middle School and Clear Creek Middle School. See below for more information.

If your oldest student is in high school pickup device(s) on either Tuesday, September 1, or Wednesday, September 2.

If your oldest student is in middle school pickup device(s) on either Wednesday, September 2 or Thursday, September 3.

If your oldest student is in elementary school pickup device(s) on either Tuesday, September 8, or Wednesday, September 9.

Pick Up Locations:

Dexter McCarty Middle School and Clear Creek Middle School Students Only:
Your devices will be distributed at your own school on September 10th, from 3:00pm to 7:00pm and September 11th, from 9:00am to 1:00pm. You can come at any time to check out your device. Your siblings who attend a different school will have to check out their device at another school. See the “Pickup Dates” schedule above for students who do NOT attend Dexter McCarty Middle School or Clear Creek Middle School.

Note:

Students new to the district need to be enrolled by August 26 in order to check out a device during the district-wide device distribution schedule. Any students enrolled after August 26 will need to make arrangements through their school to check out a device at a later date.

We encourage families to come throughout the day to help us maintain safe social distancing during check out. Our process will allow you to check out devices without leaving your car. We ask that you remain in your car.

If you do not have a vehicle and need to walk to the site, we will provide a walk-up option that will require families maintain safe social distancing while waiting.

We ask for your patience as we complete the device check out process with each family.

Questions? Please call: 503-258-4733.

We wanted to remind you that Parent Verification for the 2020-2021 School Year opened August 15, 2020.

Before the beginning of every school year, we request that parents/guardians review and/or update their family and student information.

Keeping your family's information up to date is crucial to receiving timely communication from Gresham-Barlow School District and ensures that you can be contacted in case of an emergency. This year all updates can be done online through your ParentVUE account.

After logging in to ParentVUE, click on the "Online Registration" tab in the top right-hand corner to start the verification process.

Don't have a ParentVUE account or have other questions? Please contact your child's school to obtain your activation code.

It is with great enthusiasm and excitement that we report that phase 2 of the construction project was completed ahead of schedule August 21st. We received occupancy for the second phase of construction which includes our Media Center, multiple computer labs, a career and technical education suite that houses our marketing / business program and graphic design programs. We also completed our counseling offices, child development center along with our main office and a number of conference rooms. There is too much to list, but we indeed look forward to a time when our students and community can come look at the awesome facility that this community built. Thank you so much for your continued support.

Phase 3 is underway that includes our new gym, updated pool facility and brand new female locker room as well as a number of other instructional spaces for our students and community to enjoy. Stay tuned!

COUNSELORS:

• A - B and Active ELL
  Julie Conroy 503-674-5530 conroy@gresham.k12.or.us
  
• C - Ha
  Andrea Parra 503-674-5528 parra14@gresham.k12.or.us
  
• He - M
  Hannah Anderson 503-674-5527 anderson185@gresham.k12.or.us
  
• N - R
  To Be Determined, send questions to Laura Blaser.
• S - Z, and Department Chair of Counseling
  Laura Blaser 503-674-5529 blaser@gresham.k12.or.us

ADMINISTRATOR:

• A - Go Erin Voelker voelker@gresham.k12.or.us
• Gr-O Cheeri Schacht schacht2@gresham.k12.or.us
• P-Z Jason Bhear bhear@gresham.k12.or.us

The office hours will be from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. If you have questions please call our main number (503-674-5500). Currently our buiilding is closed to the public. If you need to access a staff member in person please call the school first to get directions on how this can occur.

It’s been a big summer in the athletics and activities department. Not only have we been adjusting to a pretty fluid situation around the pandemic and what we will be allowed to offer, but we also have two new directors. Brian Davis has been hired as Activities Director and Ty Gonrowski is our new Athletic Director. Both of our new directors are excited to find opportunities for our students to get involved with athletics and activities during this very different school year.

Ty is entering his 13th year at Gresham High School and has been Activities Director for the last six. Prior to that he taught English and journalism, and has coached football, cross country, girls basketball and softball for the Gophers. Before coaching at Gresham, Ty spent a number of seasons in the PIL coaching football and baseball at Cleveland, and football and girls basketball at Franklin.

Brian has spent the last 25-years in education and athletics, teaching AP Psychology, Sociology, Honors World History, AVID and Options programs, and has extensive OSAA experience coaching multiple sports: volleyball, football, track & field, and girls basketball. He also coaches youth baseball and basketball. In addition, Brian is a staff developer with an emphasis in “Cultural Responsiveness” and takes pride in connecting with and inspiring others to become their best selves.

Briefly, here is what we know about what athletics will look like at the start of the school year (as of August 28). Our governing body, the OSAA, has adopted a new calendar for athletics for this coming year. This means that from the start of school in September through late December, there will be no games as we normally know them. However, the Gresham-Barlow School District is working on a plan to allow coaches to develop virtual workouts. This is in line with what nearly all of the Mt. Hood Conference is doing as well as many other schools at the 6A level. More information is to come on this but for a student to participate in these, they will need to be cleared through the athletics and activities office. We will have this system available to families to sign students up as soon as possible.

Clearance will look similar to years past where the student and their family will still have to sign a waiver, provide a physical and do some other paperwork. We are, for now however, holding off on charging a participation fee until we know what our actual competition seasons look like comes into focus.

We will provide you with an update to this plan as they become available. As usual, please feel free to contact any of us in the office with any questions.

Ty Gonrowski

Athletic Director

gonrowski@gresham.k12.or.us

Brian Davis

Activities Director

davis194@gresham.k12.or.us

Tahana Young

Athletics/Activities Secretary

young4@gresham.k12.or.us

To access our school calendar please click on the Gresham High School like below this article. This will take you to our home page on our website. Our calendar is located on the left hand side of the page.