Dear Students and Families,
Dear Parents, Caregivers, and Students,
I hope this message finds everyone in our Patriot family safe, healthy, and excited to begin the new school year. In just a little over a week, our dedicated staff will be welcoming our students back to learning. We have experienced some unique challenges over the last few months, but I am very proud of the way our families and staff have worked together during this time, and I know that we will continue to work as a team to put our students’ best interests first.
Our staff has been working hard in anticipation for our safe return to learning. Our custodial team has sanitized our entire building and will continue to do so daily. Since we will not be able to have traditional lunchtime in the cafeteria and at recess this year, our cooks have been preparing for the safe delivery of breakfasts and lunches to individual classes. Teachers and instructional aides have been collaborating in developing our Brick and Click instruction so that, regardless of whether they will be in our classrooms or learning from home through Schoology, all students will receive the same challenging level of instruction with the same high standards and expectations for learning.
On September 8, our students will begin reporting to school, either in person or online, on a staggered start. This year, BCS is operating under the Brick and Click model of instruction. Based on parent responses to the surveys sent out by BCS, your child will either be a brick or click student. Brick students will receive in-school instruction from SMMS teachers 5 days a week. Our click students will also receive instruction 5 days a week from our SMMS teachers, but they will not be in our building. Instead they will log into Schoology each day at their assigned times for their click classes. Please follow the schedules being sent out this week for the dates and times when your child is expected to either report to school or log into Schoology. Individual student schedules are being finalized now and will be uploaded to Schoology very soon. You will receive notification when they are completed.
Over the next several days, you will receive regular updates through Ntouch, Schoology, and Facebook about important information concerning the start of school. Since we will not be able to have a traditional orientation this year, our staff is creating an orientation video with valuable information about our school procedures and services. Each of our teachers will also be sharing a welcome video as well. Once those have been uploaded to our SMMS webpage, you will receive notification that they are ready for viewing.
I know many families in our community have experienced a lot of change over the last few months, and our school has also needed to make changes to make sure our students stay safe and healthy, but our staff’s steadfast dedication to our students’ learning and well-being has not changed. On behalf of our Patriot staff, I thank you for the opportunity to continue to educate your child. Have a great last week of summer vacation, and we will see everyone very soon.
Sincerely,
Tony Ponton
Principal, Spring Mills Middle School
