Funeral (schedule change!). CAASPP, Sex Ed, PFT

[prin...@sethigh.org]

Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,

• Unscheduled day off (Anieya's funeral, May 14)
• CAASPP State Testing for 11th graders (Tue and Wed)
• Sex Ed and Fitness Gram for 9th graders (Wed)
• Reflection of Knowledge presentations for grades 9, 10, 12 on Tue
• College Day for 9th and 10th graders (Thu)
• CAASPP reward trip for 11th graders (Thu)
• Scheduled day off on Friday, May 9

Unscheduled day off (Anieya's funeral, May 14)

Since we have many staff members and students who will want to attend the funeral, we have decided to use our one snow day for the year on this day to give everyone who wants to go to the funeral an opportunity to attend.  Thank you for your understanding.  The Seniors will be on day 2 of their Senior Camping Trip that day, so we will end the camping trip early that morning and pack up before breakfast so that we can all attend.  It is not possible to reschedule the camping trip, and I think it will be good for us all to be together the prior evening anyway.  We usually struggle to get the seniors to want to stay past breakfast anyway, because they're all done with camping by that point and just want to get home to take a shower, so I think it will be fine to pack up early.

CAASPP State Testing for 11th graders (Tue and Wed)

This next week winds up being a bit of a crazy week while we try to fit in the various State mandates.  The 11th graders and 11th grade parents have already been notified about the CAASPP testing, so I'm only including this here as a reminder and to give the 11th graders credit for the extra work that they'll be doing for the school.  The CAASPP testing is a selfless gift that every 11th grade gives to our school.  It means little for them, but is so important for the future of our school.  We exist and have received our two California Distinguished School awards because of the efforts of the 11th graders in past years.  Thank you Juniors! 

Sex Ed and Fitness Gram for 9th graders (Wed)

California state law, the California Healthy Youth Act, requires that comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education be provided to students at least once in middle school or junior high school and once in high school, starting in grade 7.  We choose do this with our 9th graders so that we can make sure that they are getting the information they need as early as possible in their high school career.

Instruction must encourage students to communicate with parents, guardians or other trusted adults about human sexuality. Instruction must be medically accurate, age appropriate and inclusive of all students. It must include the following:

• Information about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including transmission, FDA approved methods to prevent HIV and STIs, and treatment
• Information that abstinence is the only certain way to prevent unintended pregnancy and HIV and other STIs, and information about value of delaying sexual activity
• Discussion about social views of HIV and AIDS
• Information about accessing resources for sexual and reproductive health care
• Information about pregnancy, including FDA approved prevention methods, pregnancy outcomes, prenatal care, and the newborn safe surrender law
• Information about sexual orientation and gender, including the harm of negative gender stereotypes
• Information about healthy relationships and avoiding unhealthy behaviors and situations

You can examine the curriculum that we will be using here. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

The instruction for SET will be provided by Michelle McCurdy, MSN,RN,FNP-BC, District Nurse, Lakeside School District.  We have had a lot of success in the last three years with having the whole 9th grade class taught together, so we will continue that practice this year.  We were particularly pleased to see the boys fully understand the excess reproductive burden that the girls bear.  Ms. Geis and I will be present during the class to make sure that the class runs smoothly and does not devolve into silliness.  We provide opportunities for the students to ask questions anonymously so that no one has to feel embarrassed about the questions they may have.

State law allows you to remove your student from this instruction. If you do not want your student to participate in comprehensive sexual health or HIV prevention education, please give a written request by replying to this email.  If you have questions, please do not hesitate to reply in this email.

Reflection of Knowledge presentations for grades 9, 10, 12 on Tue

All of our students do an end of year Reflection of Knowledge (ROK).  The rubric for these can be found here.  We are only strict about the dress code for seniors, so please do not fret about that if you have younger students.  The students saw some amazing ROKs this week that 7 of our Seniors did in front of the whole school.  For younger grades, they will be doing their ROKs only in front of their Advisory classes.  These are mostly a celebration.  We want the students to take the reflection seriously and to practice presenting, but this is low stakes and not something that our younger students should be anxious about.

College Day for 9th and 10th graders (Thu)

On Thursday, while our 11th graders are on a reward trip after doing their CAASPP testing, our 9th and 10th graders will be visiting colleges.  Permission slips have either already gone out for those going on trips or will be going out soon.  Our 11th and 12th graders each year are encouraged to organize and sign up for a 7-student personal van trip college tour to schools in Southern California that I will take them on.  Our thinking with college visits is that the younger grades need these visits to be general college tours with the purpose being to encourage the students to start thinking about college.  By 11th and 12th grade, the students have specific schools that they are looking at, so we want to help them visit those specific schools.  In many cases students do college visits with their families, but we know that some do not have that opportunity so we hope to fill in that gap.

CAASPP reward trip for 11th graders (Thu)

Our 11th graders will be going to Knotts Berry Farm as a reward for successfully completing the CAASPP.  Thank you 11th graders!

 

Thanks everyone!

Dr. McCurdy