Congratulations, you've made it to the holiday break!

I know that the past few months have been stressful and overwhelming at times. You have all been on a pretty steep learning curve, but you have persevered and have made it this far! I have only been filling in for Mr. Neall for a couple of weeks, and I can already see how hard the students, parents, and teachers are working to make this a positive and successful experience.

It is important to recognize that some of the learning your students have done over the past few months will never be able to be measured on a report card. They have learned how to problem-solve with technology, how to participate in virtual meetings, and how to navigate a variety of different websites and platforms. We are building a generation of students who are learning how to advocate for themselves and show resilience beyond our expectations. Parents and learning coaches - thank you for working in a partnership with us as we navigate this new virtual world.

If you would have told me at the start of 2020 that this is where we would be at the end, I would never have believed it, but some of the best moments of my career in education have occurred over the past nine months. To see the ways that our community and our schools have pulled together in the face of a crisis has been truly humbling.

I hope our Bobcat Virtual families take time to relax and rejuvenate. January 4, 2021, will be here before you know it!

Mrs. Allyson Walroth

Interim Bobcat Virtual Director

Secondary Curriculum & HS Assistant Principal

I know that Mr. Neall communicated with you that he has been sick. Many parents have reached out and inquired about his health. While I cannot share private details with you, I can tell you that he is doing better every day. I know that he misses all of you and would much rather have spent the past couple of weeks at work!

If you are interested in sending him a "Get Well Soon" card, you are welcome to send it to the following address, and we will make sure that he gets it:

Jeff Neall

GBHS West Campus

1 Jewett Trail

Grand Blanc, MI 48439

I am sure that he appreciates all of your well-wishes and healing thoughts.

In case you don't know me, I wanted to do a quick introduction. I am filling in for Mr. Neall as the Interim Director of Bobcat Virtual. I have been with the district for 15 years, as a high school English/French teacher, an assistant principal at GBHS, and most recently as the Secondary Curriculum Director. I have been involved in the planning and implementation of Bobcat Virtual for the past three years and have been working closely with Mr. Neall during first semester. It is a program that is very near and dear to my heart, and I want to assure you that I will do whatever I can to help make it a success while we await Mr. Neall's return!

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. My phone number is 810-591-6649, and my email address is awalroth@gbcs.org. I look forward to hearing from you.

The end of the semester is quickly approaching. Please pay attention to teacher deadlines. While the end of the semester is January 22, many teachers have set deadlines for work to be turned in before that because they need to be able to grade and submit their records the following week. Since students will only have a couple weeks to complete work when we return in January, the two weeks of the holiday break provide a great opportunity for students who are behind to get caught up. Over the weekend, please take an assessment of where your student currently is in each of his/her classes. Make sure to look at your student's current grade as well as his/her progress in the class. A student may look like he/she has a 90% in a class but has only completed about 10% of the work. If teachers have deadlines, you can also look to see if your student has missing work.

If you have not created a parent account to view your student's progress, please see the instructions linked below:

Just like at the middle school and high school, courses that are for high school credit have a final exam. In general, those exams are worth 20% of a final semester grade; however, this year the high school has changed the weighting to 10% of the overall final grade. The classes in Bobcat Virtual that are worth high school credit will also follow that formula. In addition, if a student earns an 80% or higher on the final exam, he/she will earn a passing grade for the class, regardless of his/her overall grade.

For some classes in Bobcat Virtual, it is important for teachers to give their exam live so that they can monitor their students as they complete the assessment. For other classes, students can take the exam as soon as they get to that point in the course. We will be working on a schedule after the holiday break so that students know if and when they will need to take their exams.

Keep an eye out in January for communication about returning first semester books and picking up supplies for second semester. Some of the novels that students checked out will be re-used by different students during second semester, which means we do need them returned so that others can check them out. We will communicate some scheduled drop-off and pick-up times; however, if you'd like to drop things off early, there will be a 24-hour drop off tub located outside the front door of both middle schools and both high school buildings beginning January 4, 2021. Books can be placed in any of those four tubs and will be logged back in for students.

For second semester, we will be encouraging students to use scanned copies of most of our novels. Being that we are a virtual school, we will have some novels available to be checked out by students who need a physical copy, but we will be requesting that most students use the virtual copy if they can. We will have all virtual novels available for the beginning of second semester.

We have submitted an order for elementary workbooks, and they should arrive well before the beginning of the second semester. We will communicate a schedule for pick up after the holiday break.

As you may know, all seniors are required to complete a Senior Exit Presentation as a requirement of their graduation. Many students have struggled with understanding what a good presentation entails, so Rachel Kenney, BV/HS English teacher, has volunteered to run three workshops to help students prepare. These are voluntary workshops, and any student working on a Senior Exit Presentation is welcome to join.

Workshop Dates:

• Tuesday, January 5 (2:15-3:15pm)
• Tuesday, February 2 (2:15-3:15pm)
• Tuesday, February 23 (2:15-3:15pm)

Students can access the workshop by using this Google Meet link: https://meet.google.com/lookup/kenney2020.

Content covered in the workshop includes:

• Purpose of the Senior Exit Presentation
• Overview of the requirements
• Tips for a successful presentation
• Resources to use
• Q & A session