Desert Ridge Junior High School

Hello Rattler families,

I hope you all are enjoying the last days of summer vacation and your families have been blessed with good health.

We have so much to do this week as our front office opens for business today. There are so many questions I am sure you all have, and we will do our best to answer them. Thank you for your patience as we take this week as a district to recalculate the staffing patterns with all the data collected last week from our families. We cannot answer questions about class sizes, electives, schedules, or teachers because all of that is in the process of recalculation. We will share updates with you as we learn what the new numbers look like for students and the options families selected.

Safety is our goal and we are cleaning the classrooms and preparing the hallways for student traffic. We plan to train the students about the importance of the flow of traffic in the hallways. We have plans set-up for walking in hallways, on sidewalks, and the correct doors to enter and exit.

We have all 7th grade students and new 8th grade students to welcome to DRJHS. If you have not taken the virtual tour, please visit the video above. Before August 17th, we plan to open the campus up for families to walk the courtyard and hallways. The classrooms will not be open, but we want to get students and their families on the campus to feel the excitement and see all the improvements we have made. We are finalizing safety precautions and we will share dates as soon as possible.

The following schedule is for all 7th grade students and new 8th grade students to pick up their Chromebook and charger. Families will follow Madero Ave. past the school to the baseball field. From there, drive behind the school until you reach the stop sign. Take a right and students will exit the car and enter the hallway to get their Chromebook. Parents will stay in their car and we will get your student back out as soon as possible. We have social distancing procedures set up for non-contact check out.

July 27th, 8:00 - 10:30 and 3:00 - 4:30

July 28th, 8:00 - 10:30 and 3:00 - 4:30

July 29th, 8:00 - 10:30 and 3:00 - 4:30

July 30th, 8:00 - 10:30 and 4:00 - 6:00

Aug. 4th, 8:00 - 11:30 and 1:00 - 5:00

Right now, I ask that you continue to be patient and information will be coming to you this week as we learn of the staffing we will have and any new messages from Governor Ducey that may impact the current plan of in-person school beginning on August 17th.

***URGENT***

Parent Homework - Before Chromebooks can be picked up, ALL families must complete your Annual Update / Awareness Contract / Chromebook Agreement via Infinite Campus.

https://ic.gilbertschools.net/campus/portal/gilbert.jsp

Thank you,

Mike Davis
Principal

Desert Ridge Jr. High

Students who choose GPS Global Academy online for the 2020/21 school year will be able to return to Desert Ridge Junior when ready to return to in-person learning. As a school community we are excited to be able to offer this level of flexibility to meet the needs of our students and families. In the meantime, while studying with GPS Global Academy, students will enjoy being a part of a supportive online learning community, frequently interacting with their teachers and classmates and some of those teachers may well be ones from our very own campus. Parents will have easy access to their GPS Global Academy teachers, just like when students are on-campus, and will be communicated directly with by our GPS Global Academy team. During this time, students will also be able to access extra-curricular activities, athletics, and performing arts at their home campus, as they are available. When the time is right, we look forward to welcoming any GPS Global Academy students who want to return back to Desert Ridge Junior High School.