From the Associate Principal

The school year is off to a terrific start!  I have had the opportunity to visit every teacher and spend time listening and experiencing the education your daughters and sons are experiencing.  And what a wonderful combination of lessons I was able to observe. In both Precalculus and Economics, they were discussing and learning about graphs and the language used to discuss increasing and decreasing graphs.  Virtually the exact same graph in Precalculus when discussing increasing intervals becomes a conversation about economic growth in Economics. The vertical alignment in the English Department was so clear as I visited English 10, AP Language (11th grade), and AP Literature (12th grade) and each of the teachers spoke about word choice and “diction”.  

Topics included in this are:

1. Back to School Night wrap up
2. Set Up Gradebook Notifications “How To” Information
3. Thoughts and Information from the Academics Office (shared at Back to School Night)
1. Preparing students for college and the world beyond St. Francis
2. FACTS SIS (formerly RenWeb)
3. Google Classroom & RenWeb
4. Tutorial & Mandatory Tutorial
5. Communication
6. Textbooks
7. College and Guidance Counseling 
8. Summer School Transcripts
4. Graduation Gown Orders

Back to School Night 

It was a pleasure to see so many families on Tuesday evening for Back to School Night.  Thank you to the parents who attended. Top attendance was demonstrated by the freshman class with 80% attending followed by the sophomore class with 72%, seniors with 57%, and the juniors at 44%.  Thanks all around for the hospitality of the St. Francis Parents Association (SFPA), Varsity Council, and National Honors Society (NHS). The SFPA provided the food and welcomed parents, and the students helped pass out schedules and give directions.

If you missed Back to School Night, please make sure you have taken some extra time to review the course syllabi and if interested, reach out to the teachers directly.  The next school-wide opportunity to connect with teachers is Parent-Teacher Conferences on Tuesday, October 29. Conferences will be scheduled by the Front Office beginning in October, but mark your calendars now.

Gradebook Notifications: “How To” Information

FACTS SIS/RenWeb provides every parent with the opportunity to receive daily or weekly notifications.  These notifications will send information each time your student earns score lower than 80%. Please use this link (How to Set Gradebook Preferences) to follow the steps for setting up the notifications.

Thoughts and Information

It is the responsibility of St. Francis High School to PREPARE students for college and the world beyond our beautiful campus.

• Preparing them means helping students learn how to struggle, how to apologize, how to think of others first, and how to communicate.
• Preparing means holding them accountable, helping them cope with change, and assisting them as they learn from their mistakes.  
• We need to encourage students to be uncomfortable with hard conversations, with making a mistake, and without knowing exactly how a situation will end.

FACTS SIS (formerly RenWeb)

• Digital grade books can provide students and parents with up to the minute information regarding attendance and grades, however ….
• Please do not use FACTS/RenWeb to replace direct conversations with your student.
• Valuable lessons are learned when young adults have difficult conversations with their parents and teachers and are held accountable for explaining what they need and how to improve going forward.
• Please help your student email and prepare for conversations with their teacher.
• Grades are very artificial at this point - there are not enough grades entered into the grade book to buffer when a student earns an extremely high or low score - the grade is not authentic to their actual content knowledge.  
• For example, a student who has not submitted the only homework would be earning a 0%, even though they may know and understand Algebra.  On the other hand, a student who turned in the single homework assignment but did not solve the problems correctly may be earning a 100%, an artificially high score for a student who does not understand the actual math.  

Google Classroom & FACTS/RenWeb

• Teachers have the option of providing information to students and families via Google Classroom or FACTS/RenWeb.
• FACTS/RenWeb is the software used to communicate attendance and grades.  FACTS/RenWeb is also used by some teachers to digitally post-primary course documents, such as the syllabus.
• Google Classroom provides teachers and students with a method for more in-depth communication.  
• Many teachers provide students access to digital copies of notes, presentations, worksheets and other class materials.  
• Teachers can also require students to submit their digital documents via Google Classroom.
• Speak to the teacher to request parent access to Google Classroom.  

Tutorial and Mandatory Tutorial

• Monday through Thursday teachers are available in their classrooms until 3:00pm.  
• Students are encouraged to make use of Tutorial for individual questions and/or quiet work/study time to ensure their personal success.  
• Students who need assistance should speak directly with the teacher and request extra help, particularly if there are other students present.  This allows the teacher to prioritize and share their time with the students in the room.
• Mandatory Tutorial has been assigned to all students earning a D+ or lower on their June 2019 report card.  Those students must attend Tutorial through Monday, September 9, after which they may be notified if they no longer have to attend.  
• Parents of students assigned to Mandatory Tutorial will be sent an email each afternoon stating whether or not their student attended Mandatory Tutorial.

Communication

• St. Francis makes use of a variety of tools for communicating with parents. In addition to RenWeb, St. Francis regularly distributes information through the mail, email, and via text or phone messages.  We encourage you to read all messages to stay informed.
• Please assist St. Francis in communicating with you by keeping all contact information up-to-date. To update your contact information, please call the Front Office.
• If a parent has a concern relating to a specific teacher, the student should speak with the teacher first. 
• Following the student-teacher conversation or email, a parent may contact the teacher, particularly if there has not been a resolution.  It is not necessary to cc an administrator.
• At times, an in-person conversation is far more effective. To request a meeting with a teacher, please contact the teacher via his/her email address.  
• If the agreed-upon implementation plan or process does not produce an improvement or resolution, contacting the department chair and/or the Associate Principal is the next step.
• The Administration expects a teacher’s first priority to be the instruction of students, so emails and phone calls are returned during their limited periods of free time or after hours.  
• If you encounter school employees in the community, please be respectful of their time off and their family time and refrain from “talking shop”.  

Gradebook Notifications

• Please see the attached “How to Set Gradebook Preferences” document to set your email notifications.
• This will set the frequency of emails you are sent regarding individual assignments.
• SF will continue to send weekly grade book reports on Fridays.
• If you are not receiving emails from FACTS/RenWeb, please confirm your contact information with the Front Office.  Then check your email account contact settings to ensure the reports are not delivered to your junk/spam folder.

AP Exams (May 4 - 15, 2020)

• The College Board has COMPLETELY CHANGED how and WHEN AP Exams are ordered.
• Students will be required to commit to taking their exam by Friday, September 20.
• The fee charged by the College Board is due to SF on Friday, October 18.  The fee is $94 per exam.
• Please plan ahead and make sure there are no scheduling conflicts for students May 4-15, 2020.

Textbooks

• Refer to the syllabus of the course and contact the teacher if you have questions about the textbooks.
• If you have purchased digital versions of the books, please speak with your student to ensure the book is uploaded on their iPad and they have followed the preliminary steps to gain access to the book and all of its related materials.
• The courses listed on the class schedule for this evening are the only courses your student has this semester.  Textbooks should be purchased for these courses ASAP. Courses during second semester - indicated with an “S” on RenWeb will not be used until January, and do not need to be purchased now.

College and Guidance Counseling 

• Mrs. Haydee Lemus is the freshman counselor (Class of 2023)
• Mrs. Patricia Gutierrez is the counselor for sophomores, juniors, and seniors 
• All parents are invited to all informational meetings hosted by the Counseling Department.
• Students and parents are reminded to check email regularly for Counseling Department communications.

Summer School or any other approved courses taken at other institutions

• Please submit OFFICIAL transcripts to the Front Office at St. Francis High School.
• Transcript envelopes must remain sealed and be opened by the Front Office at SFHS.

Graduation Gown Orders

• Graduation gowns are ordered through National Recognition Products (NRP).
• NPR provides information and a catalog of their products to all senior families.
• Orders are then taken on campus during late September.  The orders are also delivered to SFHS and distributed to students at two different times.  In early spring, students will be given their graduation invitations and in mid-May, they are given their gowns.
• Important Dates to Remember:
• Week of September 16 - Distribution of NPR packets to seniors
• Thursday, September 26 - Orders at 2:30 pm- 3 pm (last names A-L)
• Friday, September 27 - Orders taken at 12:21 pm (last names M-Z)