Jag Families,

I hope this e-mail finds you safe and well. I want to take a moment to thank our JAguar parents/families for all you have done from home to help support our efforts to continue your child's education online for Term 4 to finish the 2019-2020 school year. I know this has been a challenging time for many of us. Your efforts do not go unnoticed, and we appreciate your support from home.

This coming week we begin the fifth week of online learning, and we encourage everyone--students, parents, and teachers---to maintain a routine and to take things one step at a time. It may not take much to feel a sense of being overwhelmed, and that is not what we are after. Yet, if students, parents, or teachers are feeling this way, we have to know about it. Please be sure to maintain an open line of communication with your child's teachers, their grade level counselor, and their grade level assistant principal.

Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4-8, and we want to make sure our teachers are aware of how truly special they are. Please be sure to send them a special message next week and check out their "vintage" school pictures.

Picking Up Students' Personal Items from SMS- FBISD has given campus leaders very specific instructions on how to allow students/parents to pick up personal items from our school. As always, student safety is our top priority, so the first step in this process is to survey our SMS Jaguar families to determine how many students have personal belongings they would like to get back. In order to best assess the need for over 1300 students to get their personal belongings from our school, I am asking that each family speak to your child about items that he/she may have left at school prior to Spring Break 2020. Parents- please take a moment to complete this Student Item Pick Up survey with your child's help. Once the survey results are in, we will communicate a plan for picking up these items from our campus.This survey will be due by May 10, 2020.

Progress Reports- Term 4 Progress Reports will posted in Skyward yesterday, April 30. All SMS students will receive a grade for ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies. In addition, any SMS student enrolled in a High School credit course (Algebra I, Computer Science, Spanish I, and Principles of Construction) will also be given a grade. As communicated previously, the "grades" are not traditional numeric grades. The choices for teachers on the progress report were "Met Standard," "Did Not Meet Standard," or "Has Not Engaged." If your child received a "DNM" or "HNE" on his/her progress report, you will receive additional communication from me next week regarding ways we can work together to support your child in Online Learning before the end of the term. In addition, I'd like to provide you the following resources as they pertain to Online Learning:

• Superintendent’s Blog: Progress Reports, Met Standard and Online Engagement (4/30/2020): https://bit.ly/3cXmrzC
• Online Learning Parent Guides: www.fortbendisd.com/onlinelearningparentguides

FBISD Continues Loaning Laptops- FBISD will continue to loan out laptops and hotspots to any student/family in need of a device in order for their student(s) to participate in online learning. If your family is in need of borrowing a laptop from FBISD, please contact the FBISD COVID Hotline at 281-634-0043 to make the request. FBISD will continue loaning laptops through June 10, 2020.

In closing, I'd like to remind you all how much I truly miss seeing your children each and every day. I know that Jaguar teachers and staff join me in these feelings. Although this school year is not ending the way any of us expected, please know that we, the SMS Jaguar Staff, are still here to support your child and your family however we can. Please do not hesitate to contact any SMS staff member at any time should you have questions or concerns.

All my best,

Cholly Oglesby

Principal

Sartartia Middle School