Dr. Fehrman's Friday Follow-up
May 21, 2021
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Launchpad for Learning
Have you heard about CSD Launchpad for Learning Camp? I am so excited to share an amazing opportunity for our students coming this summer. In July, CSD will offer the Launchpad for Learning Camp. This camp is focused on setting the stage for our students so they will be able to start school on August 3 ready to learn! This amazing opportunity would not be possible without the support and collaboration of the Decatur Education Foundation and the City of Decatur. I want to thank Gail Rothman from DEF and Claire Miller from COD for partnering with us on this innovative project that will be a great benefit to our students.
Launchpad for Learning Camp is an opportunity for students to build the foundation for success in the upcoming school year by getting a preview of the school day, including school expectations and essential content. The best way to ensure all our students are successful is to accelerate their learning by previewing core content and providing early access to learning the expectations for their school.
Schools will send additional information to parents on how they can sign their children up for Launchpad for Learning in the upcoming days. Below are more details about the camp to help you decide if you want to sign your child up.
Dates:
Cohort A: July 12 - 15
Cohort B: July 19 - 22
Grades: K - 8
Student Hours: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Location: At your child’s assigned school
Cost: $115 per child. Full scholarships are available to families as needed.
Student to teacher ratio: 15 students to 1 teacher
Sign your student up by submitting your information here.
Quarantine Learning Plans for 2021-2022
The current mitigation strategy requires non-vaccinated individuals to quarantine for up to 10 days after confirmed close contact with a COVID positive individual. CSD continues to explore if a modified quarantine policy is appropriate to decrease the amount of in-person instructional time lost due to quarantine. As this team assesses the viability of this option, additional information will be provided. However, CSD is committed to providing a seamless learning experience if students are placed in quarantine to minimize learning loss. Linked here are several options for CSD stakeholders to consider to ensure that if and when students are quarantined next year, their learning continues uninterrupted.
We will leave the feedback form open for responses up through June 4. We are also doing outreach communications and engagement with our families who may need this information translated.
Early Release Days and Dedicated Digital Learning Days
Plans for next school year are close to being finalized. CSD is committed to providing a full instructional day for students five days a week.
Early Release Days for Parent Conferences:
As we reviewed the calendar, we identified two opportunities to embed some innovative ideas for our community. CSD is interested in assessing if stakeholders would support embedding four early release days to provide dedicated time for teachers to hold parent-teacher conferences. The proposed early release dates are September 16 and 17, 2021 and February 10 and 11, 2022. Both dates are a Thursday and Friday prior to fall and winter breaks. Staff would hold parent-teacher conferences on Thursday starting after the early release time up through early evening hours. This provides teachers with the opportunity to meet with working parents after regular working hours. The extended hours on Thursday may not be enough time to hold all the needed parent-teacher conferences, so staff may schedule conferences during their planning periods as well. Staff would then leave early on Friday when students are dismissed. Early release days would be universally applied to all students in all schools from grades Pre-K - 12th grade. The College Heights and Frasier Center 0-3 tuition-paying programs will not participate in early release days.
Designated Digital Learning Days:
CSD also wants to ensure we maintain our ability to switch seamlessly to virtual learning if needed in the future. To ensure teachers and students are well versed in engaging in the virtual learning environment, CSD is interested in assessing if stakeholders would support embedding Designated Digital Learning Days (DLD) in the calendar for the upcoming school year. These DLD are not a component of the Decatur Virtual Academy. The DLD proposed here would provide a digital learning experience similar to what our families experienced in the current school year. The 0-3 tuition-paying programs and the College Heights Pre-K program will not participate in Digital Learning Days.
Additionally, the CSD 2021-2022 school calendar only incorporates one teacher workday, November 2. Incorporating designated DLD could also provide an opportunity for professional learning to be provided on DLD.
We will leave the feedback form open for responses up through June 4. We are also doing outreach communications and engagement with our families who may need this information translated.
Early Release Days and Dedicated Digital Learning Days Stakeholder Feedback Form
Racial Awareness Work
On May 13, Decaturish published an article containing a quote from me regarding a pending decision about changing the masking policy in CSD for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year. My statement was incorrect and harmful to individuals of color in our community. On May 14, I sent an apology to CSD staff and the CSD community. I realize that an apology is just the first step in the journey I must take to repair the harm I caused. The statement did not reflect my commitment to build community and not conflict.
I spent the weekend in deep reflection and I realize that I allowed implicit bias to overshadow my commitment to achieving equitable outcomes for our students. I have high standards for my actions and I promise the CSD community that no one is more disappointed in my actions than I am in myself.
As a white woman, my skin color affords the privilege to not think about race every day. As I prioritize that knowledge, I am taking this misstep as a learning experience to refocus my heart, mind, and work on renewing my commitment and work toward equitable outcomes for the CSD community. Throughout my three years in CSD, I have dedicated my work to bringing about equitable outcomes and it is time to take this to the next level.
Linked here is a detailed plan of the actions I will take to try and repair the harm I caused the CSD community. I will also be posting this plan on the CSD Equity Dashboard with regular updates for any community member who wishes to follow my progress. I go into this work with full knowledge that I may never fully regain the trust from some members of our community. Regardless of that knowledge, this is the work I will do.
Job(s) Well Done
Ivory Clarke
Mason Hardwick
Adam Hassan
Iylan Howson
Preston Wilson
The five students listed above were invited to apply for the National African American Recognition. These are students who have excelled on their PSAT/NMSQT exam. Students selected for this prestigious honor can cite it on their college and scholarship applications.
2. It has been so much fun attending various moving-up celebrations across the district. I had the opportunity to visit one at Talley this week. It was great to cheer on our rising 6th graders!
Angela Prophet - FAVE
Carrie Beauchamp - Winnona Park Elementary
David Harbin - Athletics Department
Eboni Golden - Clairemont Elementary
Eddie Johnson - FAVE
Erica Godfrey - Renfroe Middle School
Hannah Henry - Winnona Park Elementary
Jennifer Querubin - Westchester Elementary
Jessica Sturm - Decatur High School
Maury Gusta - Clairemont Elementary
Robyn Tibbetts - Renfroe Middle School
Taylor Cross - Decatur High School
Applications for Cohort 2 will be available at the start of next school year.
- Eoin McNally is the state champ in the 1600, the 4x800 team are state champs, and the boy’s team finished 4th overall.
- Christian Gonzalez finished 5th and Daniel Blaich finished just out of the medals at 10th in the 1600.
- Kenric Lanier competed in the long jump and finished 9th.
- 4x800 teams: The boy’s relay team of Billy Carlton, Christian Gonzalez, Eoin McNally, and Jake Westing are the new state champions! The girl’s relay team (Adeline Carlton, Poppi Florence, Gabby Malerba, and Mei McNally) ran a great race but finished just shy of a medal at 9th place.
- Kynnedy and Kyrsten Turner competed in both the 100 and 200 races and Kynnedy qualified for the finals.
- Kynnedy Turner, Kyrsten Turner, Kai Zokovitch, and Iylan Howson ran an incredible 4x400 prelim race, and the relay qualified for finals.
- Kennedy Bivens competed in the prelims of the 100 Hurdles. She finished in 9th place and she set a new personal best time.
- Eoin McNally ran his third race of the meet in the 800 meters. Billy Carlton joined him on the track, and they both qualified for the finals.
- Curran Brant raced a good 200 meters but didn't quite make the finals in that race. He then joined Joss Connally, Ben Markham, and Sultan Ziyad to run the 4x400. They had an extremely strong start but had tough competition and did not qualify for the finals.
- Grace Osborne competed in the 3200 and ran against the best competition in the state. She ran well and finished in 15th place.
- Finally, Daniel Blaich and Christian Gonzalez joined a tough field in the 3200. Christian led for much of the race, but in an incredibly hard-fought final 200 meters, he ended up finishing in 5th, with Daniel in 6th. Both boys set personal records in this race.
- On the final day of racing at the state meet, Kynnedy Turner made the podium in both the 100 (5th place) and the 200 (6th place). She then joined her twin sister, Kyrsten, as well as Kai Zokovitch and Iylan Howson in the 5th place spot for the 4x400 Relay. With just those four girls scoring points, Decatur Girls finished 19th out of 36 teams competing.
- In the 800 meters, Eoin McNally finished in 2nd place - finishing just 0.2 seconds out of first! Billy Carlton took the 8th place medal, so they both got some hardware to take home.
As a team, the boys finished in fourth place - 1 point behind Creekside and only 11 points behind the champions (Blessed Trinity). We are very proud of them and continue to have high hopes and expectations for next year.