Greetings Mather Families! I hope that this month's newsletter finds you safe, healthy, and warm. It was great to see so many of you attended our virtual parent-teacher conference night last month, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet individually and sit in on conferences with some of our families. This time of year is exciting but can also be stressful. In an effort to reduce some of the academic stress and anxiety our students, families, and staff may be feeling right now, we will be focusing our support for students as they work hard every day. Beginning this week, classroom lessons on Wednesdays will focus on support, time to conference with teachers, time to catch up on missing assignments, and time for enrichment and reflection. The purpose is to allow everyone to catch their breath and catch up! Our goal is to increase the percentage of students earning A/B/C grades, improve attendance/engagement, and increase the sense of care and support our students deserve to feel at school. A more detailed communication on our student support plan will be emailed later today, but I want to reiterate that the safety, academic excellence, and social-emotional well-being of our students remain our priorities.

As always, if you are in need of assistance of any kind, please reach out to us. Mather continues to work with community partners to get our families the support they need. From take-home meals offered at Door 4 to mental health services and referrals, we are here to help. If you are in need of support of any kind, please email contactmather@cps.edu.

Go Rangers!

Principal Auffant

Please join us on Tuesday, December 8, at 5:00 pm for an Open Discussion with Principal Auffant.

Check the website at the time of the meeting for the link!

Next Friday, December 18th, Mather High School will be hosting our 2nd Ranger Day. The goals of this day are to focus on social-emotional learning for students, help students connect with their peers and Mather staff, and build school spirit/culture.

At 8 AM, all students should attend their regular advisory class. Here, teachers will be taking attendance for the day, distributing grades to students, helping students reflect on their academic performance and prioritize which office hours they should attend, and explaining the session offerings for the afternoon.

From 9-11 AM, each staff member is offering office hours. Students who are struggling with a class or need help with a concept or assignment should take advantage of these office hours.

From 11-12, there will be a whole-school lunch break.

From 12-2:15, there will be 3 session times offering different options for students. These will include club meetings and other opportunities for students to de-stress, connect with their peers/staff, and have fun. Some sessions that will be offered include yoga, guided meditation, a cookie decorating demonstration, kickboxing, holiday crafts, and community-building games.

We hope that this day will allow our school community to take a break from our normal technology-heavy routine, receive extra support if needed, submit any missing/late work, and most importantly, connect with others at Mather that they may not "see" on a regular basis.

Even though this year will begin with remote learning, students must follow the virtual attendance expectations given by the district. Even under the circumstances, student attendance is very important and necessary for them to be successful.

• Students must be signed on and participate in each classroom Google Meeting, on time, in order to get credit for attendance for that period. Teachers will then report student attendance as normal.

• If students arrive at the Google Meeting late, they will be marked as tardy

• If students do not participate in one or multiple of their daily Google Meets, their attendance will be marked as Absent/Half Day Absent for the school day. Parents will be notified.

The following are procedures for reporting your child's absence during remote learning. Emails or notes cannot be accepted to report your child’s absence.

Please call the attendance office at 773-534-2340. Know that only a parent or guardian can call in to report an absence. You can save this number in your phone for easy access.

Parents and Guardians must provide the following information:

• The date of the absence

• The student's full name

• Your name, and your relationship to the student

• Your call back number

• Reason for the absence - below are the acceptable reason for student absence according to the CPS and State of Illinois guidelines

Student Illness

Observance of a religious holiday

Death in the immediate family

Family emergency with an explanation

Circumstances which cause for a reasonable concern for your child's safety

Other situation beyond the control of the student

Oscar Urbina - Attendance Coordinator

773-534-2340

ourbina1@cps.edu

Winter Break

Winter break begins on Saturday, December 22, 2020 and ends on January 1, 2021. Students are expected back in school virtually on Monday, January 4, 2021 at 8:00 pm.

The New Aspen Parent Portal

Chicago Public Schools is excited to announce that starting April 22nd, 2019, Parent Portal will be replaced with a new system called Aspen. Aspen will provide the same capabilities as the old Parent Portal while adding new features including Graduation Requirements, Student Fees, and a new, easy-to-use mobile interface.

IMPORTANT NOTE: To access the new Aspen Parent Portal, all current portal users and parents who are interested in creating an account for the first time must set up a new account. Existing Parent Portal accounts will not automatically be transferred to Aspen. Follow the steps below to set up a new Aspen Parent Portal Account.

How can I create a Parent Portal account?

Please contact your school to provide your up-to-date email address and request a Parent Portal account in Aspen. Once parent contact information has been verified by the student’s school, parents will receive a signup email from Aspen. If you don’t receive the signup email, we recommend checking your Spam folder. If you are unable to locate the email, please contact your school for assistance.

Here is the LINK for directions to set up your Parent Portal!

If you have questions or need help please contact Mr. Urbina: p) 773/534-2340 or email: ourbina@cps.edu

Are you experiencing technical difficulties? Call the CPS Hotline for support: 773/417-1060. They are available from 7:30 am - 4:30 pm to provide support to CPS students.

Are you having a password issue? Did your Chromebook break? Check out the links on your Google Classroom "Class of" page and we will help you out!

Do you still need a Chromebook for your student to log into their classes? There is a link on the "Class of" page as well! Students can access this page and add parents!

The health and wellbeing of our students and staff is always our top priority. Since the temporary closure of our schools due to COVID-19, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has served millions of grab-and-go meals to families. We are committed to providing meals throughout the closure, during the remote learning schedule. Parents/Guardians/Students can pick up meals at more than 450 schools, Monday through Friday from 8 am to 1pm.

Please go to Door 4 at Mather High School to pick-up food

At this time all athletics have been postponed until January 2021. When we have more information we will update all students and families.