Greetings, Upper School Spartans and Grade 8!
I hope your first days of Spartan Distance Learning are going well. I have been hearing such good things from parents and faculty alike, and I hope your experience has also been positive. I know some of you may be missing school and your interactions with your friends and classmates, while others may be treasuring the time away. Maybe a little bit of both! Either way, this is truly an adventure for us all, and one in which I know we can all shine, learn new things, and expand our horizons.
As our Upper School students (and soon-to-be Upper School students), I want to reach out to you directly with some updates on our School calendar. You may have heard that yesterday the Florida Department of Education extended school closures through Friday, May 1, 2020. Thus, St. Johns will remain closed, with Spartan Distance Learning in effect, until that time.
You probably have questions about what this means for you for the remainder of your School year, and for sports and other activities. First let me say that our academics will continue as much as possible as planned. We've had great success with distance learning so far, and will continue to tweak and improve things as we go. Unfortunately, athletics will remain on hold as long as campus is closed. And as to activities, I'm happy to say that Junior-Senior Prom has been rescheduled for Saturday, May 23. We'll have more details on that soon. Also, yesterday all of you except our seniors should have received your course request forms for next School year. The new due date for those is Friday, April 17. Please scan them (your phone works great for this) and email them to your assigned college counselor (see the alphabetical breakout in the email I sent you yesterday).
Let me know if you have other questions or concerns and we'll try to get answers for you. Meanwhile, I encourage each of you to try to stay positive, stay on track, and try to stay active. It's important for each of us to engage in some sort of physical activity each day-- whether you are currently taking a PE course or not-- and I hope each of you will try to take some time each day for a walk, a run, a bike ride, or some other sort of activity. It will help you with your academics and your overall mental health.
If you are feeling stressed out or anxious, please take advantage of our School Guidance Counselors. Mrs. Korahais stands ready to help through this unusual time, and you can book time to talk with her simply by shooting her an email at akorahais@sjcds.net.
That's it for now - please stay safe and do your part to keep our St. Johns family safe! And let me know if you have any questions whatsoever.
Spartan best,
Mary Virginia Fisher
Acting Head of School
- Coronavirus