Closing out the School Year!
Greetings Parents and community members!
Last week was great! I was able to join several class meetings, small group teaching, and field day activities. We wrapped up our virtual Fun Run and I conducted my final Coffee Talk of the year. This week’s Beemail comes with lots of important updates and I’m going to do my best to try and squeeze it all in!
With the end of the year comes the end of another grading window. Remember, this grading window is far less impactful than others. Students grades SHOULD NOT have dropped from March 16th as this was a hold harmless period. Teachers will be posting and verifying grades this week and next. Remember that since we are not able to mail report cards, all grades should be viewed via Infinite Campus Parent Portal.
I’m super excited to announce the culminating event to our Virtual Learning time and 2019/2020 school year – THE HIVE DRIVE!! On Thursday May 21st, over 75 Brandon faculty and staff will drive through the streets of Buckhead to say goodbye to our our students! See below for route information. We encourage everyone to join us somewhere along the route. Please remember that for this to be possible, all CDC guidelines for social distancing must be followed. Final guidelines to be published next week!
I’m also happy to announce our 3rd and final food drive of this virtual learning period. Led by some parent volunteers, we will be collecting food donations for Peachtree HIlls Recreation Center which serves as a food hub for the NA cluster, as well as the Atlanta Food Bank. Refer to the special Beemail that came out Monday in regard to items needed and also referenced below. The food drive will be from 9am-12pm on Friday May 15, at PHRC.
Lastly, I received word on Monday night that all APS facilities are still closed for the months of June and July. This means that all student collection of items will take place during the first week of August (8/6-8/7). We will work on a plan to communicate how pickup will work, especially for our outgoing 5th graders. This also means that we still cannot have any rising grade level camps. It is my hope that this plan helps to limit the spread of any virus and will allow us time to enter a perfectly clean building in hopes of starting the school year and in person. Should anything change this summer, I will be sure to let you know. Remember that all returning students will be able to keep their APS issued iPads and Chromebooks with them all summer. Our Media Specialists will be publishing a link for online summer learning resources that will be available to all students, many of which they are already familiar with, on our Virtual learning hub HERE, prior to us leaving for the summer. If you are in need of medication and cannot go the summer without it, please email Nurse Oxman (lori.oxman@atlanta.k12.ga.us) or Nurse Ford (brandy.ford@atlanta.k12.ga.us) to arrange for a pickup time. While I know this situation is not ideal, I promise that I will do everything in my power to support our students’ and their learning at the start of the school year.
Lastly, I want to take a minute to thank everyone that helped make Teacher Appreciation Week so special. We had over 300 submissions for the teacher appreciation video that we shared with our staff. I received DOZENS of thank you emails from our teachers, many of them holding back tears, as they talked about watching the video tribute. As we close out this most unique school year, I’d like it to be filled with more joy then anguish, and more #MBFLEX activities than instruction. Rest assured that we will come back stronger than ever next year.
Take care