May 8, 2020

Seniors will receive their cap & gown and a lawn sign this month

Our high schools have created personalized lawn signs to celebrate the Class of 2020. Both the sign and Seniors’ cap and gown orders will be ready for pickup later this month. A drive-by process will enable families to collect both items at the same time while maintaining social distancing guidelines. This activity will take place on May 21 for MHS families, and May 22 for AHS families. Details will be communicated by your student’s school.

Our thanks go out to local business owners Rob & Kristi Stout of Alpaca Signs. The Stout’s not only produced 18” x 24” signs with each student’s name, they have generously donated two 4-ft x 8-ft signs celebrating our graduates and erected them on school grounds. We’re grateful for their school spirit and support!

Join us for a virtual School Board Meeting

The Appoquinimink School Board will hold its monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 12, at 7:00 p.m. The session will be streamed live. Parents, staff and stakeholders are invited to join us at https://bit.ly/appoyoutube. Not able to watch in person? The meeting will be archived on YouTube, available for viewing at a later date.

School Board Meetings do not include an open Q&A period, but realizing that these are unusual times, we have created a special email address: SB-Questions@appo.k12.de.us to ensure that we are in touch with your concerns. Please submit your questions on/before Monday, May 11, so that the Superintendent can attempt to address the matter in the context of his presentation. ASD parents and staff will receive a reminder on May 11. For a copy of the agenda, click here.

School registration has gone online

Until we’re back in our buildings, families who are new to the district, or have a child entering kindergarten for the first time, can register online. Grade-specific forms, in English and Spanish, can be found on our website, https://bit.ly/ASD-OnlineReg.

• Parents/Guardians are asked to complete the forms, then scan or photograph their responses, and email the resulting file(s) to the Registration Secretary at their neighborhood feeder pattern school.

• If you need help to determine the feeder pattern for your home, click on Delaware’s School Locator feature (https://schoollocator.doe.k12.de.us/) then enter the house number, street name and zip code.

• We ask that ALL incoming families try to have registration forms submitted by the first week of August. As the fastest-growing school district in the state, we rely on your early response to determine staffing needs for the year ahead and ensure we have enough time to find the best candidates for the job!

• Once we are back in our buildings, families will be required to provide original documentation of your child’s birth certificate and medical forms, and parents will be asked to present a state-issued photo identification card (ex. Driver’s License). The Registration Secretary at your school will coordinate this process. Feel free to reach out to her if you have questions about this process.

You can vote from home this year – voting dates just changed!

In a modification announced on yesterday, Governor Carney rescheduled the state’s Presidential Primary to July 7 and moved the School Board Election to July 21.

Governor Carney’s state of emergency order provides an option for voters to request absentee ballots online, and even vote online for the State Primary (7/7) and School Board Election (7/21). The Governor has indicated that voters who are self-isolating or wish to practice social distancing due to COVID-19 may qualify themselves as “sick” or “physically disabled”. To submit your ballot online, go to https://ivote.de.gov/. The Department of Elections has created a helpful YouTube video to explain this procedure. To view it, go to, https://bit.ly/AbsenteeBallot_HowTo.

A reminder about the evaluation process for middle and high school

Last month at this time, we discussed grading. I’d like to revisit the topic this month. Middle and high school students will receive grades for the 4th marking period. Results will be based on student samples from remote learning.

Students have either an activity or an assignment associated with every class, every day. These daily activities and/or assignments are linked to student attendance. Your child's submissions, housed in Schoology, will form the basis for their grade.

As parents, the most important thing to remember is that each class has a daily assignment or activity. To make sure your student is current in his/her assignments, go to the Home Access Center (HAC) and look for the abbreviation rcv – short for received – alongside the task associated with each class.

Locker clean-0ut

As I mentioned in one of my earlier messages, ASD will be creating a plan for families to collect belongings left in their student’s locker when schools were closed. Currently, we envision a drive-by event similar to the one used for tablet distribution. Schools will update you when more information becomes available.

Home deliveries to our Teacher of the Year Winners

• Click here for a photo album

Our school communities (parents, students, staff) nominated hundreds of talented educators for a Building-level Teacher of the Year Award. Winners were determined by a rigorous process that included written essays, observations, an interview and portfolio submission. While we’ve had to temporarily postpone the formal celebration, Superintendent Matt Burrows and Asst. Superintendents TJ Vari and Sharon Pepukayi made surprise visits to all the winners to express our appreciation with a personalized lawn sign this week!

One of these building-level honorees will be selected to represent the Appoquinimink School District as our candidate for statewide honors. We’ll make that surprise announcement after our rescheduled recognition event for all 17 building-level winners concludes.

EARLY CHILDHOOD • APC: Amanda Sarant • CLECC: Tanya Belitskus • SMECC: Danielle Cotton • TECC: Dana Luff

ELEMENTARY • BME: Karen (Karenina) Speciale • BHE: Holly Schwalbe • CLE: Amy Dunn • LGE: Ashley Zeroka • OBL: Laura Levine

• OSE: Dayna LePore • SLE: Sandra Urbiola • TES: Jessica Newman

MIDDLE • AGW: Jaime Churchill • MMS: Bret Vendrick • RMS: Katie Wright

HIGH • AHS: Jessica Davis • MHS: Gina McKinney

Feedback/Evaluation in PK-Elementary

As discussed in earlier communications, Grades PK-5 are NOT using traditional grading practices to evaluate student growth during the remote learning process.* Instead, your child’s teacher is focused on providing weekly feedback that reviews the educational concepts introduced during the period, and offers guidance on how your student can improve, learn and grow. While schools and teachers have been given flexibility to determine the best method of communication, every family can expect weekly feedback.

Instructionally, classes are utilizing common lessons, learning tools and pacing in the online environment. For example, Grade K-2 students across the district use a program called Smarty Ants for literacy, and platforms Bridges Math and DreamBox for digital math. In Grades 3-5 the resources we have selected include KidBiz for language arts, with Bridges and DreamBox for digital math.**

The Elementary Education Team has compiled a grade-specific resource summarizing the purpose and principles of remote learning, educational information about the digital platforms we have selected, and an explanation about the analytics each resource provides.

• Preschool Feedback • Kindergarten Feedback • Grade 1-5 Feedback

The team is working now to determine what our final (end-of-year) progress reporting tool will look like. We will be communicating that, as well as any summer learning information, later this month.

*While we learn remotely, no grades, or terminology like outstanding, satisfactory or inconsistent will be used. **Our Preschool Team continues to create their own age-appropriate activities.

May 14: Bagels with a Board Member has gone virtual!

Parent and School Board Member Michelle Wall is your host for this monthly event, which is now available online. Michelle will be joined by Superintendent Matt Burrows at an informal session where we'll discuss your thoughts and ideas while attempting to answer education-related questions. This is the first time we've taken "Bagels" virtual. You'll need to register in advance. Step 1: Using the supplied link, please complete a simple registration form, https://forms.gle/ySxryzrZV264Rvue7. Step 2: Michelle will send out a zoom link to those who complete the sign-up process. We hope to see you there!

Mark your calendars: The Grab-N-Go Café will be closed Memorial Day

Our Café will be closed on Monday, May 25 (Memorial Day), but we’ll make up for it by supplying families with 5 days’ worth of meals the Wednesday before the holiday (May 20). Service will resume as normal on Wednesday, May 27. Our staff will be inserting English/Spanish language flyers into meal bags the week leading up to the closure, and we’ll send automated messages out to families. Please mark your calendar and help spread the word to friends and neighbors.

Calendar reminders

• May 12: Virtual School Board Meeting at 7pm. • May 20 (Wed): 5 days of meals provided at the Grab-N-Go Café. • May 25: Memorial Day. No school for students or staff. Our Grab-N-Go Café will be closed. • June 1: Last Senior Day. • June 11: Last Student Day, Grades KG-11. • July 21: RESCHEDULED School Board Election.

That concludes today’s update With you in learning, and with gratitude,

Matt Burrows, Ed.D. Superintendent