Burchell Newsletter
April 2023
As you know, Burchell students put in a lot of effort in their standardized tests last week, and while we are waiting for some make up scores, our results are looking amazing so far!
For the fourth year in a row, we are seeing growth and improvements school wide.
- Math: We went from 42nd percentile last year to 44th this year. We are in the 76th percentile in growth!
- Reading: We went from 39th percentile last year to 56th this year! We are in the 61st percentile in growth!
- Language: We went from 37th percentile last year to 53rd this year! We are in the 51st percentile for growth.
For the first time ever, our scores are considered high achievement and high growth in all three categories!
Graduation is Friday May 16 @ 7pm. All graduates must attend grad practice at 11am that morning at the Menard Sports Complex in order to participate that night.
Class of 2025 Checklist and Registration for Senior Fun Day on the website (https://bhs.matsuk12.us/counseling/graduation)
Sign up before we fill up!
If your student needs additional time to complete their courses, catch up in credits, or graduate, Burchell will be providing a brief summer school program right after the semester ends. Your student only needs to attend for the days it takes to complete their course work or to graduate. Since there is limited summer school offerings this summer, we expect to fill up fast, so if there is a chance your student will need summer school at all, please sign up below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfliAs_HoP-eJ0JYWKTFEl5Y8TFLkqGw0u8mypYcQE2X2EcyQ/viewform
It has been a wonderful break, and we are excited to get back to our Family Connect Nights! We have a quarter full of fun activities for you and your families. Mark your calendars for the following dates, and watch your emails for RSVPs for each event. Some of them are limited in participants.
Dates to Remember:
April 10th: Disc Golf with Kevin
April 17th: Family Game Night led by Yearbook Managment Club
April 24th: Grow It Yourself: Gardening Kits with Mrs. Shreve
May 1st: To Be Determined: We are currently looking into something extremely fun! As soon as we have the go ahead, we will let everyone know!
May 8th: LEAD Afterschool End of the Year Bash led by LEAD Afterschool
Use the link below to RSVP for our first event next week, April 10th, with our very own Kevin Vacca!
Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe73R9zoVh5sXzbeiXvfnj5A0JuDjbI39EbUTaRShVxQgNFLg/viewform
Food and drinks provided, prize drawing at the end, must be present to win.
See you all there!
Remote Learning and Region Clarification
Regarding busing and busing delays or cancelation, Burchell is Region 3, though we have students from five regions who attend our school, so it can be very confusing! If your boundary school/bus zone is closed, there is no need to call the school to excuse your student. We will go ahead and mark them remote (but call us if your address is not up to date in our system or if we make a mistake).
Burchell will stay open unless Region 3 or all of the schools are closed, in which case I will always notify parents when we are closed or remote. Here is a link to all of the regions from the Matsu website. And below is a cheatsheet for all high school regions.
REGION #1: Palmer High, Valley Pathways
REGION #2: Colony High, Mat-Su Middle College
REGION #3: Burchell High, Mat-Su Career & Tech HS, Mat-Su Central, Mat-Su Day School, Wasilla High
REGION #4: Redington Jr/Sr High
REGION #5: Houston High
REGION #6: Su-Valley Jr/Sr High
REGION #7: Glacier View School
Congratulations, Mr. Carte! ๐
Congratulations to Mr. Carteฬ for winning the AASSP Region VIII Assistant Principal of the Year! Mr. Carteฬ is not just an assistant principal at Burchell. He leads several programs in the school, including ABLE, LEAD After-School, and PACE. He recently earned a grant for our Family Connect Program that runs four nights a month each quarter, which informs parents with helpful tips, while also providing families an opportunity to engage in healthy food and activities. Burchell is blessed to benefit from Mr. Carteฬโs ceaseless efforts to make this the best school in the Valley!
If a parent or student needs to report a behavior, threat, or suspicious activity, or really doesn't know where else to turn, the distict has a new tip/support app called STOPit. You can make an anonymous tip that our school's leadership team will receive. There is no need to type in a code; simply type in Burchell as the school. There is also an incident response center that is available 24/7 if a student in crisis needs to talk to someone. Anything that is reported regarding student safety will be discussed with a student's parent/guardian. Reach out if you have questions.
Different name, improved program!
Gradient Learning is the new name of our alternative 9 - 12th grade program at Burchell. Summit Learning was an offshoot of Gradient Learning, a non-profit organization that provides our learning platform, curriculum, and training. The focus of Gradient Learning, like Summit, is to improve the instructional experience for students so that they achieve more and acquire learning habits that make them better students along the way. Even more so than Summit Learning, Gradient is committed to developing resilience, confidence, self-direction, curiosity, and purpose in an authentic way.
Besides a brand change, Gradient will be housed on Canvas, a much more robust learning management system and platform that will give you easier access to your students academic progress, along with a more common-sense understanding of it. We will provide you instructions to have your student's progress sent directly to your email in a future newsletter, so stay tuned!
Attendance Communication Q&A
If your student is tardy or absent, even if they are excused, the automated system from the district will call you.
If your student has an unexcused absence, our secretary will send out a text and/or email. We need you to excuse your student if there is a legitimate reason for him/her being tardy or absent. Please do not excuse students who simply get up late or donโt leave the house on time.
You must log into the system and excuse your student through ParentVue no later than 8AM, or before our first bell. If it is after this time, ParentVue will not allow you to enter an excused absence or tardy.
Have your student request paperwork from the counselor or front office. This paper must be signed by the teachers, counselor, and principal.
That means your student has had five days where the parent or guardian did not call in or come into the school to excuse the student. This could lead to an intervention and team meeting to help resolve the attendance issue.
This is a serious matter where the studentโs academic success at Burchell is at risk. Set up a meeting with the principal and counselor immediately to discuss the situation and come up with a plan to keep Burchell a viable option.
If a student has had more than three unexcused tardies, you should expect a phone call from the front office. This normally results in lunch detention. If unexcused tardies continue, it will result in a meeting with the principal.
Tracking ABLE Progress:
Every student has a unique Individualized Learning Plan, or ILP. Each ILP shows a studentโs number of credits, what they have completed for the year, and what their goals and plan are for each week, month, and quarter. A studentโs mentor can share the ILP with the parent, as long as the parent has a Gmail account and requests access. Once shared, you will receive an invite through your Gmail to open the ILP. It will be easier to do this if you also download the Google Drive and Google Sheets apps to your phone, if accessing by a phone.
Here are the mentor teachers to email to request access: lisa.boswell@matsuk12.us; simon.nashold@matsuk12.us; deborah.magoon@matsuk12.us
