Hello Au Gres-Sims Families,
The prevalence of positive cases has unfortunately also resulted in the closing of our school on Friday of this week, something that will once again be the case on Monday (see attached and separately emailed letter). We truly hope that the unanticipated extended weekend allows the pause necessary to restoring the health of our staff and students so that we may get back to our primary purpose of teaching and learning.
In the rest of this newsletter, Mr. Zeien, Ms. Socha, and myself have provided additional information about our new protocols, including ways to think about them that we hope will answer many of your questions. I encourage everyone to read through these carefully.
I wish to close with an optimistic thought. It was Viktor Frankl in his classic book, Man's Search for Meaning, that claimed that their is meaning in suffering. Frankl said that, "In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning," a statement that leads me to believe that though we do not feel it now, what we are going through is going to make us stronger, and give us greater purpose.
Stay safe AGS and we will see you again soon.
-Mr. Ming
K-12 Principal's Update
Each month the elementary recognizes students for their respectful and positive behavior through our PAWS (Positively Awesome Wolverine Students) Program. Although they are definitely not doing it for the praise, I would like to thank the following individuals for their gracious donations to support this worthwhile program: Shirley Moore, Kelly Moore, and Liz Schnettler.
Because of Covid and our inclement weather day last week, it necessitated our change of exam dates and the timeline and procedures for getting semester grades sent out. Teachers were asked to have all grades into the system by Thursday at midnight so that semester grades can be sent out at the beginning of next week. Please note, any exam/class not finished because of the items noted above, will receive a grade of “Incomplete” and the grade/class will need to be completed upon the students return. Anything not completed by Thursday night for other non-excused reasons will receive a grade of zero. Students will need to speak with their respective teachers to set up an upcoming testing day.
From the Desk of Mrs. Socha
NWEA is underway in both the elementary and secondary buildings. The testing window is scheduled to end on February 4th, however because of the increased amount of absences, I know that I will need to extend this window with NWEA. I will be sending updated schedules to teachers once I have more information.
With the updated guidance that was released this week regarding our updated COVID protocols on campus, many families have reached out to inquire about switching to virtual for the remainder of the year. Although the original deadline for this decision was closed on January 14th, due to the updated procedures I have decided to reopen the enrollment window to allow for families to make that transition. The deadline for enrollment in our virtual program is now Wednesday, January 26th at 3:00pm. Please note that this is a semester commitment, which will go through the end of the school year. For your convenience, I am linking the overview for each program below. If you are interested in enrolling, please contact me to set up an appointment.
Second semester is underway and our new upgraded credit recovery structure is now in effect. Below you will find a copy of the letter that is going home with all students who are taking credit recovery classes to explain the changes. I have discussed this in my past newsletter entries, and I have also spoken with all high school grade level groups of students as well. I feel it is important to reiterate this message to all high school students so that they are full aware of the pathway to regaining credit if they do not pass a class, and also to help reiterate the importance of staying on task in their current classes, to prevent having to take credit recovery courses in the future. Here is the informational letter about our credit recovery options:
Beginning the 2nd Semester of the 2021-2022 school year, we will be making changes to our Credit Recovery format. There will still be 2 options to make up semester long credits for high school classes.
Option 1: Summer School
6-week long Summer Credit Recovery Session
Pre-assessments allow for students to exempt out of material they have already mastered
Each class costs $50
Students will have an Edmentum Teacher as their instructor
In-person attendance on campus is required
Cell phones are not allowed out during work time on campus
Students must check emails daily for communication from teachers
Option 2: In-School Credit Recovery
Class is built into daily schedule, students will work in Cyber Cafe or other designated classroom
9-week long Credit Recovery Session (1 marking period)
Pre-assessments allow for students to exempt out of material they have already mastered
Students will have an Edmentum Teacher as their instructor
Cell phones are not allowed out during work time on campus
Students must check emails daily for communication from teachers
In both options, students will have access to live on-demand help sessions from 9am-6pm Monday-Thursday and 9am-4pm on Friday for immediate help with school work. Students also have additional resources available for each class, including instructional videos from the instructors that allow students to have direct instruction before completing the work in the platform. There are also regularly scheduled live instruction meetings that students can attend. Teachers will be in regular contact with students and parents as well. Classes will be paced out with due dates to keep students on a pace to finish within the 6 or 9 week sessions.
This updated Credit Recovery model not only aligns the district with updated guidance from the state for credit recovery classes, but it also provides students with additional support, as well as the ability to make up for lost credit in a timely manner. Since these courses are designed for students who are seeing the content for the second time, this accelerated course with the ability to exempt from mastered material will allow students to get back on track and use their scheduled class time in a more efficient way.
If you have any questions, please contact me using the information below.
Jennifer Socha
Instructional Services Director
(989) 876-4686
Details on the Updated Protocols for Quarantine and Isolation due to COVID-19
MS. SOCHA
Each evening, the district will be emailing a letter to the family of any student who is in the classroom where a positive COVID case has been identified. It is important to note that receiving this letter does not mean that your child was in close contact with the positive case - it means that your child was in the room with an individual at some point over the last 48 hours. Under our previous protocols, when we identified a positive case, we spent a huge amount of time with each individual case interviewing students for close contact names, looking at seating charts and measuring distances between seats, watching video tapes and recording the amount of time students were sitting next to one another in the lunchroom or on the bus, calling teachers to identify differences in seating arrangement for various projects throughout the day, looking at absence records to determine if close contacts were present on the days in question. These investigations were followed up by individual phone calls to each family, followed up by informational emails to all close contacts about testing out protocols and dates. This being said, it is important to note that these investigations were often happening in the classroom of your child, but if your child was not a close contact, you were never aware that a positive case was in their classroom. With the updated procedures, you are now aware if a positive case was anywhere in your classroom, and you have the ability to test daily if you would like. You are not required to quarantine, instead you are encouraged to monitor for symptoms.MR. ZEIEN
With our recent changes to Covid protocols there have been many questions. One of the more common ones surrounds notifications and quarantine. Our new practice is that when there is a positive Covid exposure in the classroom we will notify you that there has been an exposure in your child’s classroom in the last 48 hours, but it does not necessarily mean your child was a close contact and needs to be quarantined. The exposure may or may not come from a student. It could be a staff member, such as myself. For instance, I may later find out that I am Covid positive and was in a classroom doing a 15 minute observation. If your child is exhibiting any symptoms and/or you want the peace of mind that your child is not a positive Covid case, you are welcome to rapid test in the morning starting at 8:00 using the same method we have used for “testing out” in the back bus loop. If you quarantine your child and they are not positive, it will be considered an absence. As always, I will always work with you to avoid any potential truancy issues.
Athletics Update
Next Week's Game Schedule
ALL ATHLETIC PRACTICES, GAMES, WORKOUTS, AND OPEN GYMS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED THROUGH MONDAY, JANUARY 24.
- Wed. 1/26 Varsity Boys and Girls Basketball HOME vs. Posen 6pm
- Fri. 1/28 Boys and Girls Basketball Triple Header (VG, JVB, VB) AWAY @ Alcona 430pm
- Sat. 1/29 Girls Varsity Basketball HOME vs. Whittemore-Prescott 4pm
Help Wanted at AGS
https://www.ags-schools.org/employment-opportunities--95
Job Opportunities at AGS
Full-time Special Education Teacher (1.0, but flexible to part time if desired by the candidate)
Upper Elementary Teacher (1.0)
Health Resource Advocate
We are also always on the lookout for substitute teachers. If interested, please inquire with Mrs. Miller in the district administration office, (989) 876-7157.
Au Gres-Sims School District
Email: web@ags-schools.org
Website: www.ags-schools.org
Location: 310 South Court Street, Au Gres, MI, USA
Phone: (989) 876-7150
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuGresSims/?ref=br_rs
Twitter: @agsschools