LEAD Innovation Studio
Vol. 4, Issue 1 - August 21, 2020
NOTE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
It is a busy and exciting time at LEAD! Our Facilitators are back to work and preparing for a school year unlike any of us have ever experienced. We are working hard to make sure that we have a great start to the school year, regardless of learning modality. We will work hard to clearly and concisely communicate with our families and students. Most importantly – we are committed to realizing our building vision, mission, and values.
LEAD Vision: Challenging each student to be a LEADer, to be Empowered, to Aspire, and to Dream
LEAD Mission: Our mission is to mentor and empower all students to reach their full potential through collaborative and innovative experiences to positively impact their community.
LEAD Values: Growth Mindset – Mentoring – Community – Empower – Commitment - Innovation
We are placing particular emphasis and focus this year on our LEAD Value of Community. We are excited to connect with all of you, and have some innovative ideas for exactly how we do that. Typically, we “launch” our school year with an in person registration event. We cannot do that safely this year and are working on how we connect in other ways. More details are coming on that – this will occur the week of August 31st. We will have an in person orientation event for our 9th grade students on September 4th.
This newsletter is our first official newsletter of the 2020-21 school year. We will continue to send newsletters out each Friday afternoon for the duration of the school year.
Here is a list of information included in this email – see below for more details on those items:
Table of Contents:
-Registration (LEAD and home high school information)
-9th grade orientation
-1st day of school/ 1st week of school
-Student Schedules
-LEAD Building Operation Plans related to COVID-19
-Facility updates
-School/ District Text messages
-Mentor connections
-Parking
-Transportation
-Yearbooks
-Laptop Distribution
REGISTRATION
LEAD’s registration will take place entirely online. This is due to both COVID-19 safety precautions and the fact that our facility is still being completed. There will be opportunities to purchase parking passes, spirit wear, engage in virtual activities, see the building virtually, and more. Typically we take student pictures at registration. We are working on alternative plans as we will not be able to conduct in person registration.
There should not be any need to attend home high school registrations, though you may do so if you wish. Please understand that some activities will not apply to LEAD students. Please refer to PHS/ PHHS communications for information about their registration events.
FRESHMAN ORIENTATION
Freshmen Orientation is scheduled for Friday, September 4th. All Freshmen will get the chance to meet their mentor and tour the building prior to the school start date. To participate students will be asked to sign up for a tour time with their mentor either between 9 to 11 am or 12:30 to 2:30 pm. Students will also have the opportunity to have a live Zoom tour with their mentor and community time group if they prefer an online format. More information will be sent next week.
There will not be an official in person “Registration” but we are excited to roll out many registration resources on August 31st including the following:
Access to new and improved school website housing all of our information and important details
Building Map
Pictures of Teachers in their departments
Back to school checklist including important information about purchasing activity passes, yearbooks, parking passes, and LEAD Spiritwear
Key features of our new space
COVID protocol
Parent Orientation is scheduled for Tuesday, September 15th. This will be virtual. More details coming soon.
FIRST DAY/WEEK OF SCHOOL
The first day of school will be Tuesday, September 8th. There will be many questions for both in-person and online students about the start to the school year. We will provide details as the day approaches – stay tuned! Please refer to the following charts for information about the various modes of learning and in-person reporting days:
STUDENT SCHEDULES
REOPENING PLAN AT LEAD
Click here for a link to a detailed plan for LEAD Building Operations related to COVID-19
FACILITY UPDATE
While there is still work to do, we will be ready to open our doors to students on September 8th. Here is a recent aerial view of our facility. We are excited to share some additional images and footage as part of our back to school communication and events in the coming weeks.
SCHOOL/DISTRICT TEXT MESSAGES
Families told us they preferred text messages to phone calls, so we added this communication tool through SchoolMessenger on August 19. We are using this service to periodically send you information.
On August 19, you should have received this message from the number 67587:
“Park Hill’s alerts. Reply Y 2 confirm, HELP 4 info. Msg&data rates may apply. Msg freq varies. schoolmessenger.com/txt”
Once you’ve opted in, you will receive this message:
“You're registered 4 SchoolMessenger notifications. Reply STOP to cancel, HELP for help. Msg&data rates may apply. msg freq varies. schoolmessenger.com/txt”
To update your cell phone number, you will:
1. Log into “Campus Parent”
2. Select “More” from the left menu
3. Click “Family Info” and find your name
4. Click “Update”
5. Enter the cell phone you wish to receive text messages
Please note that only guardians can receive district text messages.
Be sure to look for a message from 67587 on August 19, and be sure to reply “Y” or “Yes” so you can begin receiving our text messages!
MENTOR CONNECTIONS
Mentorship is a cornerstone of the program at LEAD. Mentors will be reaching out to all of their mentees ahead of the start of school. Whether students are in person or online, we will be looking to support all of our LEAD students with regular 1:1 mentor sessions.
PARKING PASSES
TRANSPORTATION
Student specific bus routing information will be made available before school starts.
Bus transportation is provided for all students. Buses will take students to their home high school. There are several shuttles from each school that will then bring students to LEAD. Those shuttles will depart the home high school at 7:40, so if students are walking, riding with a parent, or riding with sibling, they need to be at the home high school lot ahead of 7:40 – the shuttles will not wait past that time. Shuttles will bring students back to their home high school for the end of the day in time to catch the bus, or their ride, home.
There are shuttles provided to get music students between buildings.
Online students are responsible for their transportation to music classes.
Students may drive to school, but must have a valid parking pass.
Music students may drive to LEAD and their home high school. If they plan to drive to the home high school, they will need to purchase a parking pass through their home high school. That pass will be honored at LEAD as well – they do not need to purchase both stickers.
Parents may drop off and/ or pick up students directly at LEAD.
Details about student drop off locations and times will be provided before school starts. We are needing to ensure that all of our lots and access points are ready before releasing plans.
LAPTOP DISTRIBUTION
Online and In-person students should pick up their laptop devices before school begins – you should have received an email from the district technology department with details. Here is information from that email:
Your student can sign up to pick up their laptop between August 24 and September 4 at either Park Hill High School or Park Hill South High School. The process should take no longer than 10 minutes. No laptops will be issued without a signup at least 48 business hours prior to the appointment.
Step 1: Choose a location to pick up the laptop.
Step 2: Sign up using the link for that location (above). Important things to note:
- You must sign up at least 48 business hours before your pickup day to ensure the student’s laptop is ready.
- For families with multiple students – you must enter a separate sign up for each student to ensure a device is ready for each student.
Step 3: Pick up the laptop on your assigned day and time.
- Students are required to enter the school building alone to help with social distancing. Parents and siblings will not be allowed except for special circumstances.
- Face masks are required.
- Please keep a six-foot distance from others when possible.
- View the attached maps for parking and entrance information.
- The process should take no longer than 10 minutes.
If your student still has their laptop from the spring, internet access has been disabled and it should be returned to your school building as soon as possible. If your student fails to return this device or pick up their new device before school starts, we cannot guarantee they will have a device ready for the first week of school.
If you have any questions about your appointment, please contact the Department of Technology at 816-359-5000 Monday-Friday 7 a.m. – 5 p.m.
YEARBOOKS
Students who purchased yearbooks last year will have those delivered when we return to school. We are working on a plan for getting these to online students.