Good afternoon! Here are this week's news and announcements from St. Johns Country Day School:
Moving Forward, Together
As mentioned in Head of School Valorie Baker's email last week, St. Johns faculty and administration have been working hard to develop plans that will enable us to come back to School— and back to campus— safely next month. At this time we plan to open under our Every Spartan, Every Day plan, which brings every student back to campus for the First Day of School on Tuesday, August 11, 2020. We have made a number of changes and adjustments to various policies and procedures — from new cleaning and sanitization procedures, to policies about how we occupy and move through campus, and even new bell schedules — in order for us to return to on-campus learning safely and effectively. More details are now available on the School's website at sjcds.net/forward.
Parent Seminar: Google Suite
Please join us for a parent education workshop introducing two tools that St. Johns teachers will be using this fall. Some teachers have already been using Google Classroom in their lessons, but starting this fall all teachers will transition to it. Google Meet, Google's video conferencing solution, will also be rolled-out School-wide. Come learn all about these great new classroom tools at one of two parent seminars on Thursday, July 30, at either 9:00 a.m. or 6:00 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. No RSVP is necessary but please do bring and wear a face covering.
Athletics Start Dates
Athletics practices start next week for most of our fall sports teams and start dates/locations and fall team schedules are available at sjcds.net/athletics. All dates are subject to change. Please reach out to the listed coach, or to Director of Athletics Traci Livingston, with any questions.
School Supplies
Looking for School supply lists? Grade-by-grade lists for Lower and Middle School students are available on My School App. From the relevant Division Group page, click on Topics and then School Supply Lists. Upper School students do not have grade-level lists, but are expected to come to School the first week with an adequate supply of paper, pens, pencils, etc. If a course requires any additional supplies-- for example, 3" x 5" cards, compass/protractor, etc.,-- teachers will inform students during the first week of school. Students are not expected to have these supplies on the First Day of School.
Middle and Upper School Course Schedules
Schedules for Middle and Upper School students will be available this coming Monday, July 27 on My School App. From your My School App parent landing page, just click on your student's name in the upper left, and that student's schedule should appear under the "Progress" tab.
MBS Bookstore Opens Monday
While most of your student's texts and learning materials are provided for them-- either in the classroom or pushed directly to their iPads-- a few courses require hard copy books or other materials. Once you have your student's schedule in hand next week, you'll be able to log into MBS to purchase any extra books or lab notebooks your student might need. You're not required to purchase items from MBS, but if you choose to buy elsewhere, please reference the required ISBNs to be sure you're getting the correct items/item versions.
Bell Schedules
As mentioned above, St. Johns is implementing new bell schedules for the 2020-2021 School year. The new, slightly more "chunked" bell schedules have a variety of benefits, including allowing some longer class periods each week, which enable deeper dives and more thoughtful work and discussion, and the ability for students to take these schedules with them into Spartan Distance Learning, should the School be required to pivot to distance learning at any point during the school year. Click on these links to download the new schedules for Lower School and Middle and Upper School.
School Year Calendar
The full calendar for the 2020-2021 School year is available at sjcds.net/calendar. You can download the latest fridge-friendly printable version, or click the RSS button, which is gray and looks like little radio waves, to subscribe to the School calendar on your phone or tablet. Or get started by clicking on the RSS button at the top-right of this box.
After School Program
St. Johns' After School Program offers before and after school care and enrichment programs for has offered before and after school care for Lower School students as well as after school study hall for Middle School students.
The program is open from 7:00 a.m. for before School drop-off and after school until 6:00 p.m. Students enrolled by month or semester in the After School Program may take advantage of the many enrichment activity offerings each quarter at no extra cost to the family. Learn more about it and register today at sjcds.net/afterschool.
Parent Back to School Nights
Mark your calendar now and save the date(s) for Parent Back-to-School Nights. Lower School Back-to-School Night will take place on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m., and Middle and Upper School will follow on Wednesday, August 26, from 6:00 p.m. until 7:45 p.m. We look forward to seeing you there! You can download the full 2020-2021 calendar either to your phone or in a handy fridge-friendly printable at sjcds.net/calendar.
Key Contacts
Some things never change-- no matter the circumstances, St. Johns' school administration stand ready to assist with anything you might need. Please feel free to reach out at any time to:
| Head of School Valorie Baker | |
| Head of Upper School Mary Virginia Fisher | |
| Head of Middle School Jackie Lentini | |
| Head of Lower School Otis Wirth | |
| Head of Administrative Affairs Tanya Powers |
Or, just reply to this message.
We hope you have a great week!