Posted December 7, 2020
North Community,
I want to provide you with an update for Spring Semester at North.
I have reviewed all data and the change of district expectations as it relates to Spring Semester at North. After reviewing this data, North will shift to Quarters for semester 2 with Odd classes taking place Quarter 3 (Jan – Mar) and Even classes taking place Quarter 4 (Mar – May).
As with all decisions during this pandemic, every decision has immense challenges associated with them. No matter what the change is, change is hard. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we need to be flexible and adapt to the pandemic situations.
Below is the rationale for why the decision was made to move to quarters at North.
Rationale
Data
All stakeholder groups favored Quarters.
· STUDENTS – (487 responded) 54% of students prefer Quarters with all Class Of groupings favoring Quarters
· STAFF (90 staff responded) – 49% of staff prefer Quarters with 17% being indifferent and 34% preferring Semesters
· FAMILIES – 87% of families who responded prefer Quarters
Recover Incomplete Grades
What we experienced this first quarter is that students were super maxed out and had no ability to recover grades from the Spring. We cannot continue another semester of students not having space and time to catch up from a pandemic that has brought many challenges.
In Person Instruction
Moving to quarters provides us with the best opportunity to return to actual in person instruction, whenever health officials determine it is safe to do so where students can move from class to class.
Mental Health
We have heard over and over that having 7 classes to focus on is too many to engage in remotely at one time and there needs to be more focus.
Next Steps
We will be providing space for students and families to process through what this change means over the next two weeks and will share those details next week.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at Scott_Wolf@dpsk12.net.
Thank you for being such a great school community!
-Principal Wolf