Please note the following dates regarding Term 2,  HyFlex schedule this week, and report cards from Interim Vice Principal Chris Hardiman.   

1. Last day of Term 2 for seniors was Friday, 1/22.

2. Last day of Term 2 for 9th, 10th and 11th graders is on Tuesday, 1/26 (and report cards will be posted Friday, 2/5 by 5:00pm).

3. Tuesday, 1/26: ALL classes for ALL grades are asynchronous EXCEPT for community and flex block, which will be synchronous. Teachers of juniors have been asked to assign limited work this day because more than half of the junior class will be taking the PSAT’s from 9:15am to 1:00pm that day (and some students who receive accommodations won’t be done with testing until 2:30pm)

4. Wednesday, 1/27: 9th grade orientation for cohort B and remote students last name LO – Z and asynchronous work for ALL grades (more info will be shared by Mx. Tori Parker, Student Life Coordinator)

5. Thursday, 1/28: First day of Hyflex for COHORT B! We look forward to seeing you in person and continuing to connect with our distance learners.

6. Friday, 1/29: Report cards for SENIORS ONLY will be published in Aspen by 5:00pm

Hello South Students and Families,

Please take note of the following items of interest:

1. GPA Findings and Summary Decisions from the South/North GPA Committee  For any questions about GPA and the decisions made by both South and North, please contact Director of Guidance, Dan Rubin: [email protected]

2. Wednesdays 1/20 and 1/27 are ninth grade orientation days. Our Student Life Coordinator, Tori Parker, sent out information regarding that event for ninth grade families. Classes for all grades will be asynchronous for the whole day on both 1/20 and 1/27. If you are a ninth grade family and didn’t receive information about the orientation days, please contact Mx. Parker at: [email protected]

3. End of term 2 for grade 12 is Friday, 1/22. A reminder that we decided to end term 2 a bit earlier than the other grades in order to ensure that term 2 grades can get processed and sent out to colleges in a timely manner. Report cards for grade 12 will be posted by the end of the day on Friday, 1/29.

4. End of term 2 for grades 9, 10 and 11 will be Tuesday, 1/26. Report cards for grades 9, 10, and 11 will be posted by the end of the day on Friday, 2/5.

5. Term 3 schedules will be posted and shared with students on Aspen, hopefully by the end of next week. We will let you know when they are available as students in the hybrid program, in particular, need to be aware that typical room assignments have changed due to room spacing and social distancing. Stay tuned for MUCH more information over the next couple of weeks from the South deans regarding the transition to the hybrid model on 1/28. 

6. Approximately 270 juniors will be taking the PSAT on Tuesday, 1/26 and many of our teachers will be proctoring the exam. Therefore, know that all classes for all grades will be asynchronous that day EXCEPT for community block. We are asking students to log into community block at the regular time (2:35pm to 3:05pm) and then, if meeting with a club or getting extra help from a teacher, report to flex block. More information to follow.

Have a great long weekend!

Chris Hardiman
NSHS Interim Vice Principal

Hello Students and Families,

You are receiving this email because currently you are registered to attend NSHS “hybrid” as we transition to hyflex at the end of January.

The Chromebooks that were ordered for our ninth graders in April 2020 unfortunately still have not arrived and may be delayed several more weeks. At the same time, all hybrid students will need to have a computer (Apple laptop, PC laptop, or Chromebook) with them at school each day. Therefore:

• You may bring a personal laptop device with you to school.
• If you don’t currently have a school-issued Chromebook or personal laptop device, but need one for hybrid, please complete this google form: https://forms.gle/SE1zBqmEGU4PxEZAA

Thank you,

Chris Hardiman
NSHS Interim Vice Principal

Dear Newton South Students and Families,

1. Midterm Comments/Progress Reports:

Term 2 Midterm Comments/Progress Reports are now posted on Aspen: (https://aspen.newton.k12.ma.us/aspen/logon.do). Published reports can be found on the initial page of the parent portal under the “Published Reports” widget. A PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader, Preview) is required to display all published reports.

In addition, every browser has its own settings for “blocking pop-up” windows. You must allow pop-ups from the ma-newton.myfollett.com site in the browser of your choice in order to display the report.

If you do not know how to login to Aspen, or need help resetting your password, please call your student’s house office.

A reminder that we have amended our comments list for this second term to reflect the current educational model we are working in. Here is a list of the comments that teachers could choose from for context purposes:  2020-21 Midterm Comments (amended for term 2).

*Please note that students whose parents/guardians had a conference with a given teacher(s) on 12/9 or 12/6 may NOT have a midterm comment for that particular class/classes.

If you have a specific question about any of the comments, please contact your/your child’s teacher.

Chris Hardiman
NSHS Interim Vice Principal

Hello Families and Students,

Here is a link to a recording of last night’s  HyFlex Q & A webinar for anyone that was unable to watch live.

Principal Aronson also wanted to clarify one of his responses to a question last night about voluntary staff Covid testing. Below is the accurate information:

“Staff will be tested once a month to begin the NPS voluntary covid testing program. Initially NPS will test ~500 High Needs educators, who are in close contact with students before break. Then other educators working with students in person (elementary and middle), then HS educators and others will be tested in mid January”

Regarding the HyFlex vs. Distance model survey, the district sent it out to all families yesterday via School Messenger. This is exactly what the email from the district looked like:

From: NPS Office of Secondary Education <[email protected]2.ma.us>
Date: Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 11:30 AM
Subject: High School Learning Model Selection
To: YOUR EMAIL HERE

Dear NPS High School Families,

As you know, the high school is transitioning to a Hyflex hybrid model at the end of January. To determine the number of cohorts and student placement within specific cohorts, we are beginning the process now.

Below is a link to the form to select your learning model. You should receive one email for each student and you must complete one form for each student. The student ID is pre-filled into the form. The form must be submitted by Sunday, December 13 at 11:59 p.m.

If you didn’t receive it, first please check your email folder. If you still can’t find the email with the survey link, please contact me and I can send you a link to the form. A reminder that the deadline to fill out the form is 11:59pm this Sunday, 12/13.

Finally, to answer a FAQ that has already come up….

We need you to do the best you can, right now, to make a selection. Your selections now will impact how many cohorts we build. We need to build cohorts so that we can assign classes to rooms etc before Jan 27. There will be opportunities to change your model, after Jan 27, though we don’t yet know how frequently. You should anticipate that this selection, that you make now, will be in place through AT LEAST February vacation. 

Thanks,
Chris Hardiman
NSHS Interim Vice Principal

Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming.  SIGN UP is REQUIRED! For new parents, please sign up early as spots are limited.  

• To make sure that all families have the opportunity to see teachers, there will be two phases to the sign-up process.
• During the first phase of sign-ups, from 7PM on SUNDAY 11/29 until 7PM on WEDNESDAY, 12/2, you may only schedule a maximum of 3 teacher conferences per child. 
• During the second phase of sign-ups, from 7AM on THURSDAY 12/3 until 7PM on SUNDAY, 12/6, you may sign up for a maximum of 3 additional conferences. Total conferences CANNOT exceed 6 per child.  

DETAILS on SIGN-UP INSTRUCTIONS:  Teacher Conferences Info Letter

A reminder that conferences are on the following dates:

Wednesday, December 9th from 4 – 7PM (School schedule as usual)

Wednesday, December 16th from 1 – 4PM (*Special schedule—see below)

*Please note that there will be a special schedule developed for 12/16 to reflect the early release that day. We are working with the transportation department to see if we can arrange a 12:30 dismissal on this day so that teachers can have a 30-minute break before the first conference at 1PM. We will share out the schedule as soon as it is finalized.

Chris Hardiman
NSHS Interim Vice Principal

Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming.  SIGN UP is REQUIRED! For new parents, please sign up early as spots are limited.  

• To make sure that all families have the opportunity to see teachers, there will be two phases to the sign-up process.
• During the first phase of sign-ups, from 7pm on SUNDAY 11/29 until 7pm on WEDNESDAY, 12/2, you may only schedule a maximum of 3 teacher conferences per child. 
• During the second phase of sign-ups, from 7am on THURSDAY 12/3 until 7pm on SUNDAY, 12/6, you may sign up for a maximum of 3 additional conferences. Total conferences CANNOT exceed 6 per child.  

DETAILS on SIGN-UP INSTRUCTIONS:  Teacher Conferences Info Letter

A reminder that conferences are on the following dates:

Wednesday, December 9th from 4 – 7pm (School schedule as usual)

Wednesday, December 16th from 1 – 4pm (*Special schedule—see below)

*Please note that there will be a special schedule developed for 12/16 to reflect the early release that day. We are working with the transportation department to see if we can arrange a 12:30 dismissal on this day so that teachers can have a 30-minute break before the first conference at 1:00pm. We will share out the schedule as soon as it is finalized.

Chris Hardiman
NSHS Interim Vice Principal

Good Afternoon Students and Families,

NOTE:  November 25th Special Schedule

There will be staff professional development from 8:00am to 9:30am on Wednesday, 11/25.

From 9:15 – 9:30, students will be asked to fill out a survey that will be shared on the South all-school Schoology page (it will also be sent to student school gmail accounts in case they don’t see the Schoology message).  This survey is a follow-up to one sent to students in September to solicit feedback on the remote school experience.

ALL Students are encouraged to please fill out the survey on Wed, Nov 25 as your feedback and thoughts are very important to us as we continue to evaluate our learning options, including the “hyflex” model that the district in-person high school working group has presented in their Draft Recommendation on November 16 to the School Committee.

Hello South Students and Families,

A few updates/clarifications…please bear with me:

1. Term 1 for Grade 12 ONLY will end next Friday, 11/6 and report cards will be available for Grade 12 ONLY on Friday, 11/13 at 5:00pm. 

For grades 9, 10, and 11, term 1 will end on Friday, 11/13 and report cards will be available on Monday, 11/23 at 5:00pm.

This change from previous years is due to the fact that we started school later and yet since so many seniors apply early to college, we need to still get senior grades closed and out to colleges ASAP.

2. School Communications for Students During COVID:

The question has come up about how students, most of whom are learning remotely, are getting information passed on to them about events, clubs, and other important info. We have three avenues of communication that we are using:

a) Student NPS Gmail Accounts and Schoology–teachers and faculty advisors regularly contact students through either school Gmail, Schoology, or both (and schoology messages do ALSO go to the student’s Gmail account, just not vice versa) and I also share relevant information with students almost exclusively through their Gmail accounts. Please remind your students to be checking their school Gmail accounts on a regular basis so that they don’t miss any school-related information that may be shared.

b) School-wide Schoology Group: When the school closed down in the spring, we piloted a school-wide Schoology group where information relevant to students could be posted and shared. Now that the majority of clubs and activities have started meeting, we are hoping to get that Schoology Group active again. Our Student Life Coordinator, Ms. Parker, is working on a plan/system for the use of the school-wide Schoology group so that we can highlight student-related events, including potentially club specific info, without over saturating the site with too much information at the same time. We are hoping to have an update on this soon.

3. Clubs/Activities 

Speaking of clubs/activities, as I have mentioned in previous emails, we are centralizing all of our information on a Google document this year: NSHS 2020-21 Clubs and Activities This document is available for students to peruse using their NPS Gmail account (we are limiting the document to NPS students using their school email only to protect the privacy of students who appear in club-made videos) and we encourage all students to bookmark it for easy access. The link to the clubs document can also be found on the student activities page of the South webpage.

The clubs Google doc. is organized by club category and there are Zoom meeting links, club meeting days/times, a listing of the faculty advisor, and a listing of the student leaders of each club. Students can also sign up for all clubs directly through the Family ID registration link at the top of the document. If a student has a question about any club, they should send an email directly to the student leader of the club, the listed faculty advisor, or both. If specific club information on the document is incomplete, it means that the student leader has not yet turned in the annual club paperwork required of all clubs and so is not meeting yet….we recommend students check back on a weekly basis as information becomes updated.

Finally, there have been some questions about whether clubs can have some meetings on campus or not. A few challenges so far this year are:

1. Many of our faculty who advise clubs are not currently working on campus and advisors do need to be in the building with students while they are meeting.

2. Many of the clubs meet during flex block which is in the middle of the school day so it may be difficult for students and faculty advisors to go back and forth between home and school and make it back to their next class on time.

That said, if a club wants to try to have even a meeting or two on campus either during the school day, before school or after school, AND their faculty advisor can join them, I have asked them to reach out to me about a possible date and time and then I can share procedures/next steps to try to make it happen.

These are such challenging times with many time consuming logistics to figure out to try to get students and staff in the building, whenever possible. We appreciate your patience as we work to try to accommodate requests and we will continue to do our best to think “outside of the box”, while maintaining health and safety protocols, at the same time.

Have a great weekend,

Chris Hardiman
NSHS Interim Vice Principal