Friday, September 18, 2020

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We are excited to announce that seniors Amelia Cassin and Sarah Koch have been recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation as National Merit Semifinalists. Additionally, seniors Josie Chitwood, Meaghan Northup, Christina Overley, Amelia Rauch, and Madeleine Will have been named National Merit Commended students for their excellent scores on the PSAT as well.  We are so proud of the academic achievement of these students! 

We continue to monitor our number of COVID-19 positive cases associated with our school and we continue to report this information to our school community.  Currently, Assumption has no active positive Covid cases. Our total positive COVID-19 cases reported to our local department of health as of August 1, 2020, is still 22 (19 students and 3 staff).  As we have reported previously, none of these 22 individuals contracted the disease from AHS and only one of these individuals ever came to campus resulting in a school wide notification being sent on August 24, 2020.   

The state department of health is continuing to publish the number of COVID -19 positive cases at schools throughout Kentucky and is available on the State’s kycovid19.ky.gov website.  As we noted last week, this information is not accurate since there appears to be a lag in reporting between the local and state health departments. As of September 17, the state site lists 17 active COVID-19 positive cases at Assumption High School.  The state site also lists 1 student and 3 staff members as having recovered.  That means a total of 21 cases associated with AHS since August 1, 2020.   

As you may know, this past Monday, Governor Beshear announced new requirements for coronavirus reporting for schools as well as new metrics for schools related to mode of instruction – specifically when a school would need to move from in person to fully virtual instruction due to COVID-19.  Later today, leadership from our area Catholic high schools will be meeting (virtually) with the Archdiocese to discuss these new reporting requirements as well as the metrics for mode of instruction. We will send a Special Message from the President and Principal detailing these new directives once they are finalized.   

We again want to thank our parents for adhering to our health and safety protocols and for keeping your daughter at home when she is ill or not feeling well and for contacting our school nurse if she:   

• has tested positive for COVID-19, or   
• suspects she may have COVID-19, or    
• has been exposed to someone with COVID-19, or       

• undergoes testing because she has COVID like symptoms or has been advised by her health care provider to undergo testing; or     
• if anyone in her home is being tested for COVID-19 due to symptoms.    

In each of these situations, your daughter should not come to school.  Our school nurse, Laura Burnam and can be reached at Laura.Burnam@ahsrockets.org or 271-2507.     

Most importantly, we want to again reinforce that parents limit their daughter’s socialization outside of school.  In the majority of these 22 COVID positive cases above, the transmission occurred through a social activity where health and safety precautions were not practiced. We want to continue in-person instruction but need your help so we can limit the spread of the disease. 

Again, we appreciate your understanding and support!  

CALENDAR NOTES FOR NEXT WEEK:  

• DAILY SCHEDULE:  Next week we continue with our traditional hybrid schedule: 

• Monday, September 21 – Day 1: In-Person – Maroon Cohort, Virtual at Home – Blue Cohort 
• Tuesday, September 22 – Day 2:  In-Person – Maroon Cohort, Virtual at Home – Blue Cohort 
• Wednesday, September 23 – LEAD & Learn Wednesday:  All Cohorts Digital at Home 
• Thursday, September 24 – Day 3: In-Person – Blue Cohort, Virtual at Home – Maroon Cohort 

• Friday, September 25 – Day 4:  In-Person – Blue Cohort, Virtual at Home – Maroon Cohort 

• COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID INFORMATION NIGHT FOR SENIORS AND PARENTS:  We will be hosting a virtual Financial Aid Information Night on Monday, September 21, at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom.  If you have any questions, please contact KIMBERLY HABICH. All seniors and parents are welcome to attend both events. A link to the Zoom meeting will be emailed prior to the event.  

• VIRTUAL MOCK SCHEDULE NIGHT:  Parents – you will have the opportunity to participate in a mock schedule of your daughter’s classes to meet her teachers and learn a little bit about each of her classes. We will host our Virtual Mock Schedule Night on Wednesday, September 23, beginning at 6:30 p.m.  To attend via Teams, you will need to know your daughter’s email address and her email password.  You may access Teams by using your daughter’s tablet PC, a mobile device, or your personal computer.  Please see directions below for each method. 

• DIRECTIONS FOR DAUGHTER’S TABLET 
• DIRECTIONS FOR MOBILE DEVICE 
• DIRECTIONS FOR OWN DEVICE 

This week on LEAD & Learn Wednesday, we trained your daughters on how to help you access their classes. Before next Wednesday, please make a date with your daughter to clarify how you are going to access her Teams on Wednesday night and also let her show you around the Teams application. She will be excited to show you what she knows, and this will help to maximize your comfort on Wednesday night. We look forward to seeing you virtually at Mock Schedule next Wednesday! 

FROM CAMPUS MINISTRY:   

• MERCY DAY CELEBRATION:  On Wednesday, September 23, we join schools across the country who are sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy to celebrate our common identity and mission.  We will have a Virtual Mercy Day Celebration assembly at 9:30 a.m. that day to highlight the many ways that we make mercy real as individuals and as a community, especially in the areas of the “critical concerns” of the Sisters of Mercy. We will also name this year’s “Models of Mercy.”  You can watch along at AHS’s YouTube page.   

• PARENT PRAYER: The Parent Prayer group usually meets each Tuesday morning from 8:30-9:00 a.m. in the chapel at St. Catherine’s Convent in the McAuley Center.  This week, however, parent prayer groups for all the Catholic schools will meet on Wednesday, September 23, at 9:00 a.m. at Holy Trinity Parish at 501 Cherrywood Road (outside under a tent on the southeast part of campus).  The goal is to celebrate the wonderful sports rivalry between St. X and Trinity and the unity that joins the mission of all of our Louisville Catholic high schools.  If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Amy Bartley at amyrosebartley@gmail.com.   

VIRTUAL ACADEMIC AWARDS CEREMONY:  Invitations were sent out Thursday morning to parents via email for our virtual academic awards ceremony on Sunday, September 27, at 1:00 p.m.  At this ceremony, we honor the academic accomplishments of the following groups of students – sophomores, juniors, and seniors who earned a 4.0 GPA during the 2019-2020 school year; newly inducted Beta Club members; newly inducted National Honor Society members; freshman McAuley Scholars and newly inducted McAuley Scholars; and seniors recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.  We ask parents to check their email closely for information and access to the awards ceremony virtually.  If you have any questions, please contact  KATHY FLEISCHER, registrar.  

ATTENDANCE UPDATES AND INFORMATION: Taking attendance is an accountability issue (as well as a legal issue) that Assumption High School takes seriously.  Especially this school year, since virtual and in-person attendance is so fluid, we are working diligently to keep accurate records. There are a couple of specific attendance details that parents/guardians need to be aware of: 

• HYBRID STUDENTS ATTENDING VIRTUALLY ON DAYS THEY ARE SCHEDULED TO BE IN-PERSON: One of the great benefits of our hybrid schedule is the flexibility it allows when a student needs to learn from home because she is not feeling well, needs to be quarantined, etc. It also is having an unplanned outcome of allowing students to be present and learning on days when they would have had excused absences for things like out-of-town athletic competitions in the past. We must, however, require that a parent/guardian notify the attendance office by 8:30 a.m. on the day of the temporary switch so we will know the student is not physically in the building as expected (changes for travel need to be communicated a week in advance if at all possible). Also, the reason for the temporary switch needs to be one for which an excused absence would be granted in “normal” times; since students would not normally be excused from school because they were tired because they worked late or stayed up late doing homework the night before or they simply overslept, we respectfully ask that parents/guardians not abuse our flexibility by requesting their daughters be allowed to attend virtually instead of in person for these kinds of reasons.  

• ATTENDANCE ON LEAD AND LEARN WEDNESDAYS: LEAD and Learn Wednesdays do count as official days of school, so it is essential that students are in attendance virtually for any and all scheduled meetings at activities/events–they are not days off. While those scheduled activities will change from week to week because we want to make sure that the time is used purposefully to meet program and community needs, students will generally begin the day’s scheduled activities with Homeroom Meetings in Teams at 9:00 a.m. Attendance will be taken in homeroom, and it will be essential that your daughter is there as this will count as her official attendance for the day. OF NOTE: This week we had 80 students with unexcused absences on Wednesday. If a student needs to be excused from school on a LEAD and Learn Wednesday for a medical appointment, college visit, etc., the parent/guardian does need to notify the attendance office/request an excused absence in advance. We will trust parents/guardians to “take attendance” during the times that their daughters are engaged in independent learning time.  

• HOMEROOM/LUNCH ATTENDANCE WHEN STUDENTS ARE ATTENDING VIRTUALLY:  Attendance is taken during lunch when students are in homeroom.  In order to keep accurate records for students who are attending in person each day and also to help ensure our all-virtual students’ connectedness to homeroom, during lunch block, teachers are taking attendance by doing the following:  students who are present in person in the classroom are marked PRESENT; those who attend the lunch period virtually are marked PRESENT VIRTUALLY; and those not in attendance, either in-person or virtually, are marked ABSENT.  These are the only options available for our teachers to use when recording attendance in PowerSchool.   This means that although students in the hybrid model are not required to check in virtually at lunch time and those in our all-virtual model are only required to do so on Days 1 and 4, they will appear in the system as absent.  We want to reassure you that this will not impact their overall attendance and students will not be penalized or disciplined in any manner as a result.  Thanks for your understanding as we address this additional wrinkle this school year! 

IMPORTANT FLIK LUNCH REMINDERS:  Please check your daughter’s lunch account at www.myschoolbucks.com if she is pre-ordering lunches. All of the balances that were left from last year have been carried over to the new school year. You can add money to your account online or have your daughter drop off the check in the cafeteria drop box during school hours.  A few reminders: 

• LUNCH ORDER:  Update:  Lunch orders must be submitted by 8:30 a.m. the morning of but can be ordered a week in advance through this link: www.flikisdining.com.  For full information about the lunch ordering process, please click on this link: INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACCESSING LUNCH MENU AND ORDERING.  
• CANCELLING ORDERS IF DAUGHTER IS ABSENT: If your daughter has pre-ordered lunch and is absent on that day, please go to the website and cancel your daughter’s order before 8:00 a.m. on the day the lunch is to be delivered or the lunch will be charged to your account.  
• FORGOTTEN LUNCH: If a student realizes that she has forgotten her lunch once she is at school, she can order from a limited menu through a “Late Flik Orders” link on Student SharePoint.  Orders must be submitted by 8:45 a.m. 

DAILY ANNOUNCEMENTS:  We have added a new feature on the website for daily announcements. Students and parents can find them on our website under About > AHS Newsroom > Daily Announcements.  Here is a direct link to the page:  DAILY ANNOUNCEMENTS. 

DUAL CREDIT INFORMATION – COURSE REGISTRATION: Attention, parents of students enrolled in dual credit (DC) courses:  If your daughter is enrolled in DC English, she began her registration for this course through University of Louisville this week.  All other students enrolled in dual credit classes this semester will be enrolling in the next week.  (EXCEPTION:  DC Precalculus and DC Calculus are considered Spring courses and students will register in January.) Full information regarding dual credit classes is available through this link:  AHS DUAL CREDIT FACT SHEET 2020 – 2021.  DUAL CREDIT SCHOLARSHIP: In late September, your daughter will want to keep an eye out for an email from KHEAA to take advantage of the Dual Credit Scholarship, which pays for two classes for every student in the state of Kentucky throughout her high school career.   Each of our partner schools (WKU, UL and JCTC) has different requirements for courses, and Assumption will take care of getting the transcripts and test scores to these schools.  It is the student/parent obligation to make sure she is registered with the university and to pay any tuition not covered by the KHEAA scholarship.  Information regarding the KHEAA scholarship can be found at https://www.kheaa.com/website/kheaa/dual_credit?main=1 but the system is not yet ready to accept applications.  If you have any questions, please contact JUDY FIELDHOUSE.  

LAST CALL FOR HANDBOOK AGREEMENT FORMS:  If you haven’t already done so, please take time to review the STUDENT-PARENT HANDBOOK 2020-2021 and the COVID-19 HANDBOOK SUPPLEMENT that are both available on our website. Please review the handbook/supplement carefully as it is part of the legal agreement between you and Assumption High School—it lets you know what you can expect from us and what we expect from you and your daughter.  Since it was due to your daughter’s homeroom teacher today (Friday, September 18), she should have already asked you to sign the Student-Parent Handbook Agreement Form verifying that you have read and agree to be governed by the rules and policies in the handbook. If she didn’t, please ask her about this, take care of it this weekend, and have your daughter bring the signed form to main office on her first day in the building next week. The printed form is on the first page of her Student Planner and must be signed by both the parent and student. Note: students in the All Virtual/Pink Cohort can access and submit the form via the cohort’s team on Microsoft Teams. 

MAIN OFFICE AVAILABILITY:  To adhere to state mandates in response to COVID-19 and to continue to keep our entire community safe and healthy, we are continuing to recommend that parents email or mail any school-related items instead of dropping them off at school.   Assumption’s Main Office is open from 7:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday.  In line with Assumption’s Re-opening and Learning Plan, visitors to the school will continue to be limited.  Any visitor who has an appointment requiring them to come into the building should come to the Tyler Lane door, ring the buzzer, and will be met there.  Visitors must wear a mask, undergo a temperature scan, and complete a health screening before entering the building.  Please feel free to contact Amy Schelb at 502-458-9551, option 0, or email at amy.schelb@ahsrockets.org for questions regarding the above or if you need assistance during this time.   

Gratefully, 

Martha Tedesco 

Principal