Course Request Verification Process Due Wed, April 8 at 6PM

Hello Families,

I hope you are all staying healthy and are able to cherish the ability to pause and spend quality time with loved ones during this difficult time. Please see the important message below that was just sent earlier this week via Schoology to all current 9th, 10th and 11th grade students:

Good Evening Newton South Students,

Please bear with me as there is a lot of important info to share!

I know that your counselors have been working hard with you to get all of your course requests for next year completed in Aspen over the past few weeks. However, for various reasons, I also know that some of you may not have been able to connect with your counselor to finalize requests. No worries!

Starting this evening, we are now moving on to the verification process. At this point, EVERY student needs to follow these 2 steps:

1. Log on to Aspen and closely verify your course requests for next year. You should see a pdf. in your documents folder called “South April 2020 Verification Form of Course Requests” that contains all of your requests.

2. IMPORTANT: Fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/2bgmnxCt4agvf6rn9

EVEN IF ALL OF YOUR COURSE REQUESTS FOR NEXT YEAR ARE ACCURATE, you need to fill out the form to acknowledge that you have seen all of your updated course requests.

Because of the uniqueness of this year with verification being remote instead of in school, we will be spreading verification over a few days, but we still need everyone to understand that these requests are considered final once verification closes (teachers may still make changes to recommendations through June). PLEASE MAKE FINAL CHANGES ON THE VERIFICATION FORM BY 6:00PM ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8TH.

Related Info:

1. Newton South High School builds the school-wide schedule based on requests made by students. Consequently, student requests impact the number of courses and sections of each course that the school is able to run. This impacts staffing decisions which are made in the spring of each school year. In order to meet the needs of students, appropriately staff the building, create optimal class sizes, and remain within budget constraints, we are firm in our position that students may not change course requests after Verification, the final part of the registration process.

2. Counselors have received a number of questions about “ level watch lists” and “review in June” etc. now that we are at home. Though I don’t yet have a definitive answer regarding processes for how this will work, I can say that our goal will be to ensure that the pandemic does not eliminate your ability to demonstrate your readiness for a higher level. However, please DO NOT use the verification google form to request a course at a level higher than the one that your teacher recommended for you but rather, begin by having discussions with your teachers over the next few weeks. Again, teachers would be the ones to make changes after the verification period, not students.

3. If you have any questions about the verification form or process or need technical help, please contact South scheduler, Ms. Cassell at cassellf@newton.k12.ma.us. and if you have specific questions about your course requests, please contact your counselor.

Thank you and wishing you good health and connection with loved ones during this unusual time!

Mr. Hardiman
NSHS Interim Vice Principal