Update and maybe another Distinguished School Award?

[prin...@sethigh.org]

Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,

• Might there really be a back-to-back-to-back California Distinguished School Award?
• Thanksgiving Week holiday (11/24-11/28)
• No Minimum Day on 12/4 (it's on 12/11 instead)
• Fall Exhibition and Minimum Day (12/11)
• Finals (12/18 and 12/19)
• Update to Parent and Student Handbook

Might there really be a back-to-back-to-back California Distinguished School Award?

The California Dashboard results are out and all of the dials are pointing in the right direction for SET High to be awarded yet another California Distinguished School award!  See the results here.  There's no guarantee that we'll get the award this year because the requirements have not been consistent over the last few cycles, but if they use the same metrics as last time (all indicators in green or blue) then we should be a shoe in.  You might remember that I was uncertain how our suspension rate numbers would compare to the previous year's data because that is a relatively arbitrary representation of school culture, especially in a small school like ours where one or two incidents can result in dramatic swings one way or the other, but we got green so we're good to go!

Fall Exhibition (12/11)

Exhibition is a must-attend event at SET and is an opportunity for our students to showcase their work.  The evening is mandatory for students and highly recommend for families and extended families.  I love to see the pride with which our students showcase their learning.  All of our parents should see this for themselves!

More details about parking, etc. will be shared when I send out the reminder for the event next month.  For now, just know that you should plan on spending about 30 minutes at school sometime between the hours of 5:30 and 7:00.  Parking can be a pain so probably best to not try to show up at 6:30 because you might miss the whole event!

Finals (12/18 and 12/19)

November and December go by quickly with all of the winter holidays.  Students, don't forget to stay on top of your projects and assignments during all of the holiday fun!

Update to Parent and Student Handbook

We have always had a number of best practices involving Adult/Student Professional Boundaries that we recently put into an explicit board-approved policy.  These policies will eventually have a permanent home in the Staff Handbook and in the Parent and Student Handbook, but they are going into effect immediately even though they do not currently live in those documents.  There is nothing specific that students need to do differently since the onus is on the staff to maintain professional boundaries, but I think it is important to highlight the differences that students might see going forward.  One of the key changes is requiring that all direct messaging with students occurs on the SET High managed Google Chat, and restricting the late-night non-emergency chats to before 9:00 PM.  I just responded to a student question last night at 9:01 PM and had to let them know that going forward I would only be able to respond to emergencies at that late hour.  Students, when staff tell you this, it's because we are all following policies to keep you safe and not because we are ignoring you.  We explicitly DO NOT have a limit on when emergency communications can occur because we want to make sure that we are there for our students in times of crisis.  So, students, you don't need to do anything differently.  Just please be understanding of the boundaries that we need to maintain in order for everyone to be safe.  This is actually a good time for me to mention that you should always be considerate of the time when sending messages because some of us do not mute late-night messages so that we can be available in emergency situations.  In the event that your message wakes me up, let's please not have it be a meme that you thought I might find funny!

Another rule that we are going to be stricter about enforcing that would be helpful to get parent and student understanding with is the "can't drive only one student" rule.  We are always good about not initiating rides with a single student, but sometimes a staff member gets left with a single student for a short period of time when doing drop-offs.  Parents, please understand that unless we get your permission to drop off your student at another student's house, the only other option is for the final two students to both be dropped off back at school.  This is relatively rare, but I just want to explicitly state it because it may be different from what staff have been willing to accomodate in the past.

Here is the document that clearly states what students should expect.  Note that there is no unreported event that led us to needing this document.  We are just trying to get ahead of possible problems and to do our best to protect the safety and interests of the students and staff.

Thanks everyone!

Dr. McCurdy