April 9, 2021 Good afternoon Daniel Hand High School community,
Reopening Update It has been another exciting week at Daniel Hand. In-person student attendance has been excellent and "school" seems as close to normal as it has been for some time. With that being said, we are frequently reminding all school community members to wear masks correctly and to social distance from others whenever possible due to the serious nature of COVID-19.
Class of 2021 Attention members of the Class of 2021, please mark your calendars and plan to attend a brief, but important, meeting in the Dining and Assembly Hall during period 2 on Friday, April 23, 2021. The focus of this meeting will be to discuss several year-end events that have been planned or tentatively planned. This meeting will provide you with a great deal of information that we hope you will be excited to hear. We are looking forward to a great end of the school year.
Class of 2022 Students and families of the Class of 2022 will receive two emails later today. One email will provide important details regarding the upcoming N.G.S.S. assessment scheduled on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. The other will provide details about the Junior Prom that is scheduled on Friday, May, 14, 2021.
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 – N.G.S.S. Assessment In November 2015, the Connecticut State Department of Education (C.S.D.E.) adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (N.G.S.S.). With this curriculum adoption, a state-wide assessment was put in place. Participation in this assessment is required for all students in Grades 5, 8, and 11. All students in Grade 11 will take the N.G.S.S. Assessment on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. It is important to note that this assessment will only be administered in-person. Therefore, all juniors, including those who are full remote, must report to DHHS in-person on April 28, 2021. April 28 will be a remote learning day for all freshman, sophomores, and seniors. On this day, all faculty members will be administering the N.G.S.S. Assessment, therefore asynchronous learning tasks will be posted on Google Classroom. All freshman, sophomores, and seniors are expected to log into their Google Classroom and complete the posted assignments.
Additional information will be communicated to all students in Grade 11 and their parents/guardians later today and in the coming weeks.
National Assistant Principals Week: April 5 – April 9, 2021 Please join me in recognizing Mr. Bodner and Mrs. Whitcher during National Assistant Principals Week. The role of the assistant principal often times goes unnoticed but I can state with certainty that our building would not operate as efficiently and effectively without the ongoing efforts of Mr. Bodner and Mrs. Whitcher. Although they both have many strengths, what I appreciate most is their student-centered focus that drives their decision-making. The responsibilities of an assistant principal are endless during typical times and are even more challenging during a pandemic. If you have a moment, click on the following link to send Mr. Bodner (bodnerb@madison.k12.ct.us) and Mrs. Whitcher (whitcherm@madison.k12.ct.us) an E-Card to thank them for the positive impact they have at Daniel Hand High School. Enrollment Status and Attendance (Reminder) In order for teachers to be prepared on a daily basis and to ensure we can contact trace effectively, students are expected to attend school based on their parents/guardian's selection for attendance. 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 are not be permitted.
Click on the link below to request a learning model change: Parking and Traffic Pattern – Update Although a bit challenging at times, on-campus parking seems to be working. All seniors appear to have a space to park and juniors with approved parking passes can continue to park on campus. Junior parking passes will no longer be issued for the remainder of the year as we have reached capacity. School personnel will continue to monitor the parking scenario on a daily basis. If faculty, staff, or seniors cannot find 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: For the remainder of the school year, students driving to school without the required parking pass affixed to their windshield will not be allowed to park on campus.
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 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 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 – Cohort A 19 – Cohort B 20 – Cohort B 21 – Cohort B
Week of May 24 – 28 24 – Cohort A 25 – Cohort A 26 – Cohort A 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 B 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 decisions and enjoy the April vacation.
Stay healthy,
Mr. Salutari
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