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Dear QHST Students and Families,
I would like to begin by thanking all of our QHST Students, Teachers, and Families for their continued support, throughout our transition to Remote Learning. As the year winds down, I would like to express that it is our QHST Professional Community’s unwavering goal to provide all QHST Students and Families with the highest levels of support, as we navigate the challenges and difficulties ahead together. We will transition to Summer Remote Learning soon, and I will share more information when it becomes available from the Chancellor’s Office. As we learn more information about September 2020 and the possibilities of a return to our school building, I will share that as well. Today, I am writing to share some important information regarding end of year activities and a transition from our current work of Remote Learning, to learning activities focused on community-building, rebuilding relationships between students and staff members given the challenges of live and synchronous Remote Learning through meeting and activities facilitated through Google Meet, enrichment activities, and support-based learning experiences for those students who are still working to complete Remote Learning work and meeting learning standards. Additionally, I would like to share some information related to our plans to celebrate the work of students across all grade levels, in addition to the ways that we are planning to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of our graduating seniors in our QHST Class of 2020.
A Transition to New Work of Remote Learning – This past Friday, (6/5), will mark the end of our current work of Remote Learning, as we have been engaging in it. No new content-based learning experiences will be facilitated with students, and no new content-specific work will be assigned. Monday, (6/8), will be a day for all members of our QHST School Community to reflect of our work during Remote Learning. Additionally, we will be facilitating Listening Circles with students on Monday (6/8), to build on the work that we started on Friday, 6/5. In line with my message from last week, students can sign-up for these experiences, including different groups of teachers, at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/qhstlisteningcircles. All students should still complete the Student Daily Attendance and Engagement Survey at the Remote Learning Student Homepage, every day.
Additionally on Monday, students should begin to take stock of their progress and performance in all classes throughout our transition to Remote Learning. Students should identify and submit any outstanding work to teachers. QHST Teachers and SLC Youth Development Teams (SLC Assistant Principals, Guidance Counselors, Deans and SLC Support Staff) will also look closely at students’ progress throughout our transition to Remote Learning, and will begin to reach out to students and their families, who have not yet demonstrated completion of learning standards and content work. SLC Youth Development Teams will work to support students and families to facilitate students’ resolution of Incomplete (NX) Grades prior to the end of the Spring Term, and the start of Summer Remote Learning. We will finalize students’ Spring Term Marking Period 2 grades, and begin to finalize 2019-2020 Spring Term Final Grades (the grades that go on students’ transcripts) on Monday, 6/22. The last day of the Term is Friday, 6/26. Students must submit work to teachers early during the last week of June to ensure that there is enough time to grade students work. Students should work hard to submit all work by June 22nd. Students have the opportunity to revise and resubmit work (for higher grades), and/or to submit missing work (or in some classes, to complete additional project-based “make-up” learning experiences, if students’ teachers’ communicate regarding such supplementary), over the next two weeks. If students and/or families have questions regarding student performance in specific classes, please check our online student gradebook system – SKEULDA/PupilPath, and/or communicate directly with teachers. As students work toward
Queens High School of Teaching 74-20 Commonwealth Boulevard, Bellerose, New York 11426 Phone: 718-736-7100 ∙ Fax: 718-736-7117 Website: www.qhst.org ∙ Box: www.qr.net/qhst
Ean Corrado, Principal Sabaa Daly, Assistant Principal Organization Brian Chaback, Assistant Principal Emerson SLC Camille Gardner, Assistant Principal Freire SLC Cindy Kontente, Assistant Principal Montessori SLC
demonstrating completion of Remote Learning work and/or submit revised work, we ask that students communicate with teachers using our QHST Gmail, to ensure that teachers are able to evaluate and grade work, provide students with feedback, and update grades.
All QHST Teachers’ Office Hours – Beginning on Tuesday (6/9), all QHST Teachers will begin to facilitate Live & Synchronous Office Hours with students. We will share a schedule of these QHST Remote Learning Teacher Office Hours with students and families on Monday, 6/8. QHST Teachers will continue Remote Learning Office Hours through Friday, 6/12. Each QHST Teacher will be available for one hour each day to meet live with students via Google Meet. During Office Hours, teachers will be available to meet with students who are still working to complete their Remote Learning work, and/or students who need support with make-up or revised assignments, to ensure that all students have the support to achieve success by the end of the school year to avoid a grade of “Incomplete” (or NX) (which will require that students attend Summer School Remote Learning). Additionally, as I shared in a message about two weeks ago, all students who achieve success in Remote Learning content-area learning experiences that culminate in a Regents Exam, are eligible for Regents Exam Waivers (students will receive the Regents Exam credit aligned to the course, as long as they pass the class). However, a final grade of “Incomplete” this June, jeopardizes students’ Regents Exam Waivers (students can earn Regents Exam waivers if they complete work during summer Remote Learning, however that is the final opportunity based on the current guidance from NYCDOE Academic Policy & NYSED Regulations). Additionally, during Remote Learning Office Hours, teachers will be available to meet with students’ to reconnect, check-in, and begin to rebuild relationships in preparation for next school year. We strongly recommend that students take advantage of teachers’ Office Hours for either academic support and/or to reconnect and check-in with your teachers. We will communicate more information regarding the specifics of our scheduled work during the week of June 15th, and have been in conversations regarding engagement in community-building and enrichment activities for all students, in addition to continuing to support students to complete learning and make-up work (if necessary).
End of School Year 2019-2020 & Remote Learning Celebrations of Student Work & QHST Class of 2020 Graduation – During the week of June 22nd – 26th, we are planning end of year celebratory events, including ways that we can recognize students’ accomplishments in each grade level, through Remote Grade Level Awards Events. We will share more specific information regarding the final dates and times of these events by next week. Our goal is for a week of QHST celebratory events, to culminate in a Remote Graduation Ceremony for our QHST Class of 2020. We aim to facilitate our QHST Class of 2020 Remote Graduation Ceremony on the same scheduled date as our previously scheduled Class of 2020 Graduation at St. Johns, 6/24. Last week, we received final clearance from the DOE Central Offices to solidify our partnership with an organization called Full Measure education services, to support our planning and facilitation of our Class of 2020 Remote Graduation. Since Remote Graduation events have never been engaged in before in the NYCDOE, this is uncharted territory and we are “learning how to build the plane as we are flying it”. We will work hard to have everything necessary complete by 6/24, and will be able to confirm the final date and time for our Class of 2020 Remote Graduation Ceremony by next Monday, 6/15. At the latest, we will facilitate our QHST Class of 2020 Remote Graduation Ceremony by Tuesday, 6/30. Again, we will finalize the date and time for the first streaming of the event by next week. Additionally, the event will be made available for all QHST Class of 2020 Graduates and their families to download and preserve a digital copy for posterity.
In addition to our QHST Class of 2020 Remote Graduation, to make this year as special and memorable for our graduates and their families, we have partnered with Jostens, to make a Remote Yearbook “social-media” Signing Page available for all QHST Class of 2020 graduates and their families. Thorough the Remote Yearbook Signing Page, QHST Class of 2020 Graduates can celebrate and memorialize their high school experience, and invite fellow students, QHST Teachers and Staff, and family members to engage in Remote Yearbook Signing. Please see the attached information connected to our QHST Senior students’ registration for our QHST Remote Yearbook Signing Pages and/or see the information online at: www.yearbooksigning.jostens.com. Due to the COVID-19 Crisis, the completion and publication of QHST Class of 2020 hardcopy Yearbook was delayed. We have been in touch with the publisher of our Yearbook, and we will finalize the Yearbook on the date of our Remote Class of 2020 Graduation Ceremony, to ensure that we can include as much content as possible. Students and families can still submit content t our QHST Class of 2020 hardcopy Yearbook at the Yearbook Google Classroom. The Yearbook should be ready for delivery to our school building about 4-6 weeks after it is
finalized. Additionally, we have not received clear guidance from the Mayor and Chancellor’s Offices regarding our ability to return to the school building to receive and/or distribute Yearbooks and additional Class of 2020 graduation materials, including Diplomas, and Senior Sweatshirts and T-Shirts (all of which were already ordered and paid for, and should be pending delivery and/or may have already been delivered to the school building). As soon as we have more information from the Mayor and Chancellor’s Offices regarding a return to our school building for the distribution of these materials, we will share that information with students and families. We will also return any additional property that students have in the school building (lockers, etc.) at that time.
We have received approval from DOE Central Offices to use school funds to cover the cost of the Remote Learning Graduation Ceremony. The costs of all other QHST Class of 2020 graduation related activities, events, and materials, including the cost of our St. Johns Graduation Ceremony, our Prom, our Spring Senior Trip, Senior Luncheon, and Students’ Caps and Gowns, will be refunded to students and families as part of a prorated 2020 Senior Dues Refund, which will be based on the amount of Senior Dues that were paid, prior to our transition to Remote Learning. We will share more information regarding our 2020 Senior Dues Refund distribution, once we have more clear guidance regarding our ability to return to our school building to distribute senior materials. For students and families that would like to individually order a Class of 2020 Cap & Gown to have it for personal pictures, to submit pictures to our QHST hardcopy Yearbook, and/or as a graduation keepsake, please see this information related to a NYCDOE approved Graduation Cap & Gown vendor, Graduation Source: https://www.graduationsource.com/regalia/high-school.html
Given the COVID-19 Crisis, our transition to Remote Learning, and all of the challenges and difficulties that we navigated together over the past few months, we are working to make the end of the 2019-2020 School Year as supportive, celebratory, and memorable for all students, as we plan our end of year activities. We will share more specific information as it becomes available, as we move through this week and into next. I remind all students and families to ensure that you complete the Regents Exam Waiver Approval Form, which was shared via a message that was sent out last week. Here is the link to that form: https://forms.gle/6g2ScoL3XkNkecHNA
Beginning by Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, members of our SLC Youth Development Teams will be reaching out to students and families, to provide as much support as possible for students who currently still need to demonstrate completion of learning and/or complete Remote Learning work, to avoid the need to participate in Summer Remote Learning. Beginning Monday, 6/8, students who have not yet achieved success in all content area courses (any students who have not yet achieved a passing grade in courses, as per SKEDULA/PupilPath grade point averages), should begin to communicate with their teachers and meet with their teachers during their scheduled Remote Learning Office hours.
I wish all QHST Students and Families health and safety, as we move through the last few weeks of the 2019-2020 Remote Learning School Year. I look forward to collaboratively celebrating our many successes, and making the most of the amazing work that our students and teachers engaged in, during our end of year QHST Grade Level Awards Events and our QHST Class of 2020 Remote Graduation Ceremony.
Warmest Regards,
Mr. Ean Corrado Principal
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