Well, this is our last Monday Moment for the 2020-2021 school year.  I am sure you are excited about that for more than one reason.  :-)  When we think back to August, it was a LLOONNNGGGGG time ago - but think about how much we have grown and the resilience we have developed.  

I just want to say, "Thank you", for giving so much to the students and families in our community.  

I found this visual about the nervous response system this weekend on Laurie Desautel's Facebook page.  It really hit home with me.  I am not sure about you, but there are times that I lay in bed at night wondering what we can do for some of our tough kids and why they act the way they act.  This visual helped me to see that most of the time their brains are reacting in a way that allows them to feel safe, but it comes out so differently!

As we start to think about next year, I think it is more important now than ever that we continue to learn about the brain and the way it responds.  Our students deal with a lot - their lives are tough.  We are giving them their greatest gift by working to understand them, providing to them skills for how to handle their thoughts, feelings and reactions - along with an education that will serve them the rest of their lives. 

Looking forward to getting through this week with all of you.  Thanks for making this school year so GREAT.

Important Information: 

Locker Clean Out - Sorry for the last minute communication on this!  We are going to clean out lockers on Monday. This should be a quick process We will use the following estimated schedule: 

8:45 - Seniors

9:15 - Juniors

9:45 - Sophomores

10:15 - Freshmen

11:15 - 8th Grade

11:45 - 7th Grade

Computer Returns -  By the end of the day on Wednesday, we will need to have picked up all computers.  If students say they are taking a summer course - they still need to take their computer to the tech room during designated times and we will check computers out for the summer there.  

      Senior computers will probably mostly be picked up by the end of the day on Tuesday.  Grades 7-11 will be picked up on Wednesday throughout the day for students who have finished finals.  If you have a 7th period class on Wednesday and can give them their finals on Tuesday or get them started on Tuesday so they can finish by 2:30 on Wednesday - that would be helpful.  Please talk to your students about the importance of checking them in!

Senior Walk Through - On Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. we will have our senior walk through.  Seniors will be making their final trip throughout the school as they travel through the elementary and around the high school one last final time.  At 9:00 on Wednesday, we will make an announcement by intercom for you to please send your students out to the hallway to wish the seniors well.  

Senior Schedule:  Seniors should be in class Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday is graduation practice.  Practice will begin at 9:00 with Senior Walk-Through and then we will proceed to the football field for practice.  There is a picnic scheduled for lunch time at Leopold Park.  Graduation is 2:00 on Sunday, May 30th.  We would love for teachers to attend.  If you do plan to attend, please let us know so we can make sure there is enough seating. 

Thursday:  Thursday is teacher's last day of school.  We will have a retirement breakfast to honor Mr. Bob Linne at 8:00 a.m. in the cafeteria.  After that, teachers will have time to work in their rooms and finish up grades, etc.  Here are a few reminders: 

     * Grades are due by the 27th at midnight.  If you need extra time, please let us know.  We do need to finish them up as soon as possible.

     * Ivy Tech Grades - If you teach an Ivy Tech class, please do not forget to log-in and post those grades as well. 

    * Textbook Rental Excel File - Please remember to check this excel file for your classes to see if it is accurate or changes need to be made.  

   * SFS - Please remember to update your personal goals in the SFS system.  Also, it is important to make any changes you wish to Domain 1 and 3.  

   * Classrooms - Please remember that all materials need to be off of your walls for the summer.  Some of you may be moving classrooms, so make sure you have it ready to move if you are one of those people (we have talked to you if you are moving.)  Please let us know if you have any questions. Also, if you have a mini-fridge - remember it is important to take those home over the summer and keep them there.  

    * Have a great summer! 

Final Week

End of the School Year Be Like:    https://www.facebook.com/jody.french.90/videos/1200443516633907

Legislative Update - This week, the IASP sent out their final legislative update.  As you may be aware, the legislature was very kind to education.  Here are a few things that may be of interest to you:  

    * HB 1001 - State Budget  (All schools received more money.)  

            Education Saving Accounts - First ESA in Indiana.  These will only be applicable to Special Education students and they cannot be in a public school.  This would be used for services for a special education student, including tuition.  

           Choice Scholarships were expanded.   Family of 4 that earn $140,000 or less can apply for  90% of tuition support for private and charter schools.  It used to be a tiered system and now it is just a flat 90% of tuition rate. 

           CTE Funding- CTE funding stayed the same for Level 1 and 2 courses. This was a win!

           Early Graduates - We will NOT get funding for the second semester for Early Graduates.  We do not have many early graduates at Perry Central. 

           Virtual Students - Students who choose to learn virtually through our APEX program will only be funded at 85%  next year.  This is what the rate was prior to COVID.  During COVID, they raised it to 100% funding, but now they are moving it back to the original amount.

            Special Education Grants - Increased by 5% the first year and 10% the second year of the budget.  Good news for more funding on this front. 

            Increase for Public Education - Public Education did get a significant increase.    

 HEA 1040 Sudden Cardiac Arrest for students - basically an informational law that says we must share specific information on physical forms to all families.  

HEA 1266  School Efficiency - Request for Information bill that will explore opportunities to improve efficiency among schools.  Transportation is how this started, wanting schools to share transportation and create transportation hubs that would "save schools/tax payers" money.  There are no mandates at this time, just studying how schools can work together to save.  (We will see where this takes us.)

HEA 1313 - Mandates that Indiana Management Performance Hub gathers information about students who have graduated with disabilities and see if they are connecting to services available to them once they graduate.  

HEA 1384 - Civics Education Commission and charges them to create a civics standards that will be covered in one semester somewhere between grades 6-8.  The 23-24 6th grade class in that begins in  will have to have this course before they exit middle school - but right now they are creating the standards.

HEA 1514 - Accountability Legislation that will develop the skeleton that will develop the new accountability system.  There is no timeline on when it will go into place.  It does not remove the school letter grades and allows schools to include custom indicators and longitudinal data (test score data) on a dashboard.  2020-2021 - we will NOT receive a letter grade.   Waiver of GQE participation - seniors that couldn't take the GQE exam this year because of a COVID situation the requirement that they must take it can be waived. 

SEA 196 - Credits for CORE 40 - will allow schools to substitute elective courses with experiences that incorporate content and knowledge in STEM classes.  

        Important Information: 

Commodore Pride-  This week is our annual Commodore Pride Day and I think the weather is going to be beautiful (a little hot) but sunny!  Please see schedules below: 

        High School (9-12):  Will begin at lunch.  9th & 10th grade will report to the pavilion during normal time. - grades 11 and 12 should report to their WIN.  Once we have had time for the 9th and 10th to go through the line, we will call for 11th and 12th grade.  Phil and friends will be grilling hotdogs for the students and everyone will eat out at the pavilion.  After that, activities will begin.  Thanks to Vanessa Johnson for taking the lead for the high school.  Please see her for details.   (By the way, do we know what the teacher dress-up theme is?)

        Junior High (7 & 8):   Junior high students will start with community service, have pizza on the north side of campus with a kick ball tourney, then move to Commodore Pride Activities.  They will end at 1:30 where they will report to assigned locations for movies.  Please see the link HERE for location details.  Teachers will be free to participate with the high school students around 1:30.  

9th grade Debate:  Sean Schaefer and Alyssa Howe's students have been working hard to prepare for a debate - English 9 vs. Honors English 9.  This will take place in the high school gym during periods 5-7 on Tuesday, May 18th (if you have freshmen, they will not be in your class that afternoon.)  9th grade students will eat pizza around 12:00 to gear up for the event.  Thanks to Wendi Rich, Tara Bishop, Jane Goffinet, and Toni LaGrange for judging and Sean and Alyssa for pulling together such an authentic learning event! 

Senior class Trip:  Seniors will be going on their senior class trip this Friday, May 21st.  I-t is a -few days early due to Holiday World's COVID schedule.  Seniors will be expected to be in class next Monday AND Tuesday to make up the day.  Graduation Practice will be on Wednesday, May 26th.   

Final Days/Final Exams:  Even though we are down to the final days of school, there are still 8 days of academic work left.  The time we spend in the classroom focused on learning is important.  For final exams, we are not going to have a special schedule.  We ask that students have something important to do the last day of school.  If you feel like you have a 2-day final, please start on Tuesday during your class period.  If you do not have a 2-day final, please give it on Wednesday.  If we want students to stay focused until the end, we must provide them the opportunity to do so.   

    Grades:  I know this year has been harder to keep up with grades, but ensuring grade books are up-to-date these is very important as parents and students are looking and it is important feedback for learning.  Please continue to be diligent.  Final grades are due May 28th.  It is important that grades are wrapped up in a timely manner at the end because we have many state reports and colleges that are waiting for them.

Final Evaluations:  Please be sure to get into SFS and update your personal goals - letting us know how you ended up.  This is a percentage of your final evaluation, so important for our process.  Also, if you want to make any changes to Domain 1 and 3, you are allowed to do that during this time.  

Congratulations To:

Jill Little's CNA Class for earning a 100% Pass Rate for their CNA Certificate. 

Andrea's Clark and the Perry Central Band for earning the state Music Award.  This is a very prestigious award that only is awarded to a small set of schools across the state.  

Early College Kudos!

  

Well, you've done it again!!  Perry Central Jr./Sr. High School is a fully re-endorsed Early College High School!  Our interview last week went very well and we received word late last week that we made it again.  The Early College program encourages us to ensure ALL students have the opportunity and supports to gain some type of education beyond high school.  That can look like a workforce industry certification, 2 year degree or 4 year degree.  Indiana is working hard to ensure that 60% of its citizens have a credential of some type as the new economy requires this level of education.  

Thank you for providing this opportunity to our students.  We are a Small School but offer Big Opportunities - because of all of you!  

Important Information: 

Junior High Commodore Pride Information -  We are getting closer to our day of Commodore Pride.  I wanted to share the tentative junior high agenda.  You can find it HERE.  If you see anything that needs to be changed, please let me know.  Also, in the agenda is a link to the community service activities that groups want to conduct.  We need to finalize this list by Friday.  In the yellow column there are some notes - if you can please answer the questions that would be great.  We need to line up transportation and some other details, so this information is important.  

I would love to come up with a live skit or Tick Tock for the opening of the gym time.  Anyone have any ideas?  

High School Commodore Pride - High School Commodore Pride will be the afternoon of May 20th.  Vanessa Johnson and company are working out the details for this activity.  More will be posted soon.  

Testing -  We still have quite a bit of testing this week.  

    * AP Testing: AP Language will test on May 12th and AP Biology on May 14th.  

    * Junior High ILEARN: Also, we had quite a few students in quarantine for part of the junior high testing.  We will be testing those students on Wednesday and Thursday this week in the morning in the high school library.  Testing will probably run from 8:00 - 10:44 or longer each day.  This is the  last week ILEARN is available for junior high students. 

    * Biology ILEARN: Vanessa and Jill will be giving the Biology ILEARN test on Wednesday and Thursday in their classrooms.  Testing will be throughout the day.  

Awards Night - Wednesday, May 12th is our Annual Awards Program.  Later this week, we will email you the order in which we will present awards.  Like always, we will have teachers present awards in teams by subject area.  If you have questions about your pins, please see Sheila.  

Scholarship Night - Friday, May 14th is our Scholarship Night.  Perry Central Alumni, Adam Etienne, will have the honor of addressing the students and their families.  We are fortunate to have the opportunity to give out many scholarships.  Thank you to Dana Harris for coordinating this large event.  

State Award - If you see Shea Berkhouse this week, tell her Congratulations.  We will be traveling to Indianapolis with her this Wednesday as she will be accepting the Award of Excellence for the strength of her pathway.  She is representing our entire region and she is doing it well.  

Teacher Appreciation Week

 

Each year, about this time, we have several recent graduates that try to come back and visit their high school teachers.  They are so proud of their accomplishments after high school and want to share their success.   

Their desire to return is because of the important role teachers play in the lives of students.  Not only do teachers teach content, but also life lessons and develop relationships with that reach far beyond 12 years of school.  Teachers provide hope that carries with each child throughout their lives. 

On behalf of all students and to those who have influenced me - THANK YOU!  We hope you feel special this week - because you deserve it!  

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Important Information: 

Teacher Appreciation Week:   (You are welcome to wear jeans this week - and remember, there are no calories to county during appreciation week!  Enjoy!)  

Monday - Cinnamon Rolls - from Administrative Assistants

Tuesday - Bagels - Athletic Department

Wednesday - Chips and Salsa - High School Office

Thursday - Lunch from Bandon - Corporation

Friday - Sweet Treat - High School Office

We are Still Testing!   We will have several students testing on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.  

    AP Calculus  - May 4th  (Will test in Mr. Linne's Room.  Mr. Linne's 2-4 classes will report to Mrs. Guillaume's Classroom)  

    AP Literature  - May 5th  (Will test in Flex Room.  Flex will report to Alyssa Howe's Room 1st and 2nd period and the High School Commons 3rd and 4th period.)   

   ILEARN - 7th and 8th Grade students will take the math test.  You can find the schedule HERE.  Please help students find their locations.  Notice we will start testing during 1st period on Tuesday. 

Grades - We are finishing up another quarter very quickly.  Please remember, it is very important to keep your grades up so students know where they stand in their classes.  Also, if you have seniors, it is VERY important that we are communicating if students have any chance of not passing for graduation.  Please reach out if you need help with any of this!  

Commodore Pride - Due to a conflict with the senior class trip and Holiday World, we will move Commodore Pride to Thursday, May 20th for junior high and high school students.  Details will follow soon.  Seniors will then have the opportunity to go to Holiday World on Friday, May 21st.   

      **  Because of this change, seniors will be required to attend school on Monday and Tuesday - May 24, 25 and will have graduation practice on May 26 (not attending any regular classes.)   

High School Band - Mrs. Clark and the High School band learned that earned a Gold Rating for their entry in the IHSMA Contest!  This is a very big accomplishment for our students.  Thanks to Mrs. Clark for her leadership.  Students will be performing in their last concert at the band banquet on Thursday, May 6th.

High School Awards Night - May 12th is our annual High School Awards Program.  The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. and we ask all teachers who teach high school students to attend.  We will have special seating for teachers.  If you have questions, please let us know!