April 1, 2021
Good afternoon Daniel Hand High School community,
Reopening Update It has been an exciting week at Daniel Hand. Monday had the feel of a first day of school. The positive energy in a building was obvious. Outside of the need to remind a few students to wear masks correctly and a battle between the wind and our newly installed tents, it has been a very positive week. Please continue to keep in mind that we are still living in a pandemic and COVID-19 is a very serious concern.
Enrollment Status and Attendance In order for teachers to be prepared on a daily basis and when necessary, to ensure we can contact trace effectively, students are expected to attend school based on their parents/guardian's recent enrollment selection for the remainder of the school year. An email to a faculty or staff member, is not an acceptable way to update a student's attendance status. To request a change in attendance status, click on the link below to complete the required form. Requests to transition to remote learning will be approved immediately. Requests to transition from remote to in-person learning will take up to a week for approval. In any scenario, all requests will be confirmed via an email from school personnel. Please note that daily changes in enrollment status will not be permitted.
Click on the link below to request a learning model change: Remote Learning Day-Friday, April 9, 2021 Friday, April 9, 2021 is a remote learning day for all students. As a reminder, this is due to the high number of staff members receiving the second vaccination. Students are required to login to each of their classes based on the time schedule detailed below. Some classes will be synchronous while others will be asynchronous. Synchronous learning will involve teacher and student engagement via Google Meet while asynchronous learning will require students to independently complete a defined task assigned by their teacher.
Period Begin End 1 9:00 9:36 2 9:40 10:16 3 10:20 10:57 4 11:01 11:38 5 11:42 12:19 6 12:23 1:00
Parking and Traffic Pattern – Update After a careful review of parking this week, please be aware that junior parking passes will no longer be issued for the remainder of the year. Seniors, and juniors already approved to park, will continue to be allowed to park on campus. School personnel will continue to monitor the parking scenario on a daily basis. If faculty, staff, or seniors are having difficulty finding parking spaces, the junior privilege to park will be revoked with very little notice. Again, I strongly encourage juniors currently driving to school to have a backup plan if this privilege has to be revoked.
Important: Although there was flexibility this week, effective Monday, April 5, 2021, students driving to school without the required parking pass affixed to their windshield will not be allowed to park on campus.
The traffic pattern below is important for the safety of our school community as well as to increase efficiency when entering or exiting the campus. It is unacceptable to disregard this pattern. School Security Personnel and our School Resource Officer will be assisting with enforcing this expectation. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
A.M. Dropoff Traffic Pattern
- Enter the campus from Green Hill Road via the Daniel Hand driveway. - Take the first left available in the parking lot. - Take the first immediate right. - Take the second left. - Proceed to the drop off area that is in front of the athletic storage shed.
- Exit the campus via the Polson Middle School driveway.
P.M. Student Pickup
Student pickup at the end of the school day is located in the back parking lot by the tiger (banner) door entrance. Please note that dismissal from school is at 2:00 p.m. and buses depart from the school just before 2:10 p.m.
Quarantine Adjustment The following quarantine update was included in Dr. Cooke's message last Friday.
MPS currently uses a 14-day quarantine for all identified close contacts. Due to improving metrics and in accordance with updated guidance from the state, the district will move to a 10-day quarantine after April break. However, in keeping with both CIAC and State guidance, students will still need to quarantine 14 days prior to returning to athletics or extracurricular activities. We understand this may cause some confusion but will clearly communicate with families the dates for both returns if your student is instructed to quarantine.
Masks/Handwashing/Sanitizing (Reminder) Wearing a mask correctly is one of the most effective mitigating strategies to minimize the spread of COVID-19. All school community members are still required to wear a mask when on campus or in the building. This requirement will not change even if some members of our school community have been fully vaccinated. Additionally, all school community members are encouraged to wash their hands often and to use the school's hand sanitizer dispensers anytime they enter and exit classrooms and prior to eating or drinking.
Period 1 and/or 6 Free (Reminder) Students in any grade are allowed to arrive to school late or leave early if they have period 1 or period 6 free in their schedules. Permission forms are available in the main office. All students seeking this option must have permission from their parents/guardians. As an important reminder, students MUST be present for the start of Period 2 per State attendance requirements.
Returning School Materials (Reminder) As students return to the building it's a great opportunity to return any outstanding equipment, textbooks, and library books. Students who have borrowed additional chromebook chargers over the school year will receive an email from the library this week notifying them if that equipment has not been returned.
Visitors (Reminder) Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, visitors are still not allowed in the building.
Cohort Schedule For planning purposes, see below for the cohort schedule for the remainder of the school year.
Week of April 5 – April 9 5 – Cohort A 6 – Cohort A 7 – Cohort B 8 – Cohort B 9 – Remote Learning Day
Week of April 12 – April 16 12 – Vacation 13 – Vacation 14 – Vacation 15 – Vacation 16 – Vacation
Week of April 19 – April 23 19 – Cohort A 20 – Cohort A 21 – Cohort A 22 – Cohort B 23 – Cohort B
Week of April 26 – April 30 26 – Cohort A 27 – Cohort A 28 – N.G.S.S. Assessment for all juniors, all other grades = remote learning day 29 – Cohort B 30 – Cohort B
Week of May 3 –7 3 – Cohort A 4 – Cohort A 5 – Cohort B 6 – Cohort B 7 – Cohort B
Week of May 10 – 14 10 – Cohort A 11 – Cohort A 12 – Cohort A 13 – Cohort B 14 – Cohort B
Week of May 17 – 21 17 – Cohort A 18 – Remote Learning Day 19 – Cohort A 20 – Cohort B 21 – Cohort B
Week of May 24 – 28 24 – Cohort A 25 – Cohort A 26 – Cohort B 27 – Cohort B 28 – Cohort B
Week of May 31 – June 4 31 – No School 1 – Cohort A 2 – Cohort A 3 – Cohort B 4 – Cohort B
Week June 7 - 11 7 – Cohort A 8 – Cohort A 9 – Cohort A Trimester 3 Exams (Underclassmen) 10 – Cohort B Trimester 3 Exams (Underclassmen) 11 – Cohort B Trimester 3 Exams (Underclassmen)
Week of June 14 – 18 14 – Trimester 3 Exam Make-up Day (Last day of school) 15 – Professional Development (Faculty and Staff only) 16 – Summer Vacation 17 – Summer Vacation 18 – Summer Vacation
Please continue to make safe and healthy decisions that include wearing a mask, social distancing, and washing your hands regularly. I continue to ask that you avoid supporting or participating in behaviors that can lead to increased Covid-19 metrics.
Enjoy the extended holiday weekend and stay healthy,
Mr. Salutari
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