Principal's Message

Dear Brown School Family,

This year, all students in grades 4-6 will receive an iPad from our school and all students in grades 7-12 will receive a Chromebook. New Chromebooks are on order. Once the new devices are in and set up, we will set a date to have students swap out devices (turn in iPad and pick up Chromebook). For those students who will be receiving iPads for the first time, the iPad distribution will be at a later date. Please keep in mind we need to collect iPads from students, sanitize them, and then wipe/set them up for incoming students before distributing them. We appreciate your patience!

I am encouraging all high school students to sign up for one of our Black Centric High School Courses. Last year we introduced the African American Literature course taught by Neysa Jones, and 20 students took part. For this year we currently have no students signed up for the class, so please encourage your student to consider adding this engaging class to their schedule. This class meets Gold 1. For the 2020-21 school year, we have added another new course called Developing Black Historical Consciousness, which will be taught by Alex Murphy. There are 14 students signed up for the class currently, so there is room for more! This class meets Gold 4. For more information from the instructors of both classes, please scroll down to This Week's Essentials. To have a student's schedule changed, please email Pam.Willison@jefferson.kyschools.us.

Warm regards,

Dr. Angela, Principal

This Week's Essentials

Back to School Updates

JCPS Urging Families to Update Contact Information

Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) is urging families to verify that their contact information is up-to-date, and that they are registered to receive text messages from JCPS as the district prepares for the start of Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI).

Up-to-date email addresses and phone numbers will be important for families who need to request a Chromebook and/or hotspot for the upcoming school year. Communication from a student’s school and teachers also requires a valid email or phone number.

With job changes and work from home scenarios, existing email addresses may no longer be valid and need updating. For families currently receiving district and school emails and text messages, no action is needed at this time.

To ensure parents and guardians are receiving information from JCPS, they are encouraged to take the following steps:

To make sure you receive text messages, simply opt in to School Messenger by texting Y to 67587. You MUST opt in to this system to receive text messages. Even if JCPS has your correct phone number on file, you won’t receive text messages if you haven’t opted in to School Messenger.

To receive emails from the district and your child’s school, you must have your current email address in our JCPS system. Information can be updated in the Parent Portal. If you do not have a Parent Portal login, you can set up an account here.

If you have an existing account, go to Parent Portal and click “Log on to the Parent Portal.”

1. Choose Campus Parent

2. Enter log in credentials (user name and password)

• Click More

• Click Family Information

• Click Update (correct your information then click ‘Update’ again)

Families who have previously “unsubscribed” to emails from JCPS, or reported the emails as spam, will not receive future emails.

Fee Information for Families

We are awaiting approval from the Board of Education to charge fees for the 2020-21 school year. We have been approved to collect both obligations and AP test fees at this time. More information will be communicated regarding fee collection for the 2020-21 school year as we receive guidance.

Virtual Kindergarten Camp

Our virtual kindergarten camp and parent orientation sessions will take place next week. Specific information and a sign-up genius link will be emailed to families to select a date/time that works for them. Please be looking for that email. If you have any questions about our virtual kindergarten camp, please contact our learning specialist, Lisa Billings, at lisa.billings@jefferson.kyschools.us.

Virtual Orientation Sessions/Back to School Information

Please be sure to check our back to school page here for up-to-date information on our virtual orientation sessions and other pertinent information to the start of the 2020-21 school year.

Black Centric Course Options for High School Students

African-American Literature from August 1619 to August 2019

Neysa Barbour Jones

History has determined that on August 20,1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived in the New World and on August 23, 2019, The Brown School introduced its African-American Literature class. This class is one that enlightened, intrigued, and educated a class of 20 students who made a journey together to learn about the experiences of Africans and African-Americans through oral and written word. The year was a learning experience for myself as well as I’d not been privy to such a class in my own educational experience so as much as I enjoyed teaching my students, I enjoyed learning the material as well.

Our journey began with African fables and folktales, experiencing the voices of the African storytellers. Next we transitioned to slavery AND rebellion, realizing the pain secured in the waves that carried the slave ships and reading first-hand accounts of those in the grips of the brutality and exploring the resilience that kept some people alive. We questioned the words of the Declaration of Independence promising “unalienable rights” such as “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and how it applied to African-Americans.

Langston Hughes declared “Let America be America Again” and we discussed what America was, what it is, and what it is still yet to be, while Claude McKay, in “America,” shares his love for this land and takes the pain with the sorrow.

As Henry Louis Gates took us along “Many Rivers to Cross,” the classroom was bathed with silence as the students could now see what they’d imagined from reading the world of the Africans and African-Americans over the course of history: the poems, memoirs and stories had now come to life.

Ida B. Wells showed us the brand of justice afforded African-Americans during the Reconstruction period followed by discussions about fruit as it hangs from the trees as the idyllic image of a summer day only to gasp at the contrasting images of the “Strange Fruit” that Billie Holiday sang about.

Revealing our innermost thoughts and fears, we created and “wore the mask” as alluded to by Paul Laurence Dunbar and displayed it for others to see and in the process, learned that sometimes you need the strength to take the mask off.

Celebrations continued with learning about those little known, but extremely important African-Americans whose voices and talents were showcased during the Harlem Renaissance--especially when we read Their Eyes Were Watching God and explored the power of the female voice by the words from Zora Neale Hurston. The voices of the Civil Rights Movement rang loud and clear--and we learned that that period of time was much more than Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.--and created our own poems of protest, resistance and empowerment.

Literature moves us, challenges us, awakens us, and forces us to act. The African-American Literature class was a survey of the people, places and experiences that have impacted all humans and influenced generations. I look forward to engaging a new group of students to the power of the words, experiences and movements of a people who have persevered through insurmountable odds.

--June 2020

Developing Black Historical Consciousness

Alex Murphy

Teaching social studies at the J. Graham Brown School is the best job ever. Which is why I am excited to be able to offer the course, Developing Black Historical Consciousness this school year! This course will allow students to learn through Black History rather than learn about Black History, through inquiry based practices as well as the five principles of Black Historical Consciousness. Students will be given opportunities throughout the year to demonstrate their growth in argument and action around these five principles. My goal for this class is to help create historians that will be equipped with the knowledge, dispositions, and skills that will allow them to take informed action inside the classroom, school, and the community. By creating globally and culturally competent citizens within the classroom my hope is that students will take this experience to make the world a better place.

From the official JCPS description of the course:

“What is historically important to white people is not necessarily historically important to Black people", Dr. LaGarrett King. The goal of the revamped JCPS elective, now called “Developing Black Historical Consciousness,” is to investigate Black histories representative and centered on Black perspectives and voices in order to represent Black people’s full humanity. Rooted in civic dispositions, the five principles of Black Historical Consciousness developed by Dr. LaGarrett King (University of Missouri), Critical Race Theory, Social Justice, and Antiracism, the goal of this course is to teach through Black History, not about Black History as students develop critical civic dispositions and seek beliefs and behaviors towards social justice. These theoretical frames will help teachers and students view historical and contemporary experiences within the context of white supremacy, which permeates our racialized country so that they can use arguments and action to challenge and change institutions and individuals that perpetuate oppression.

Teacher-facilitated inquiry within democratic classrooms enables students to frame their learning around questions, use evidence from multiple sources and perspectives, and communicate conclusions through argumentation and action. Students will use questions to frame their thinking, guide their investigations, and determine the validity of evidence from multiple sources. Students will interrogate primary and secondary sources of Black individuals and organizations whose stories are often left out of traditional metanarratives. Students will engage in discussion and organizational tasks that enable them to work collaboratively to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize their learning to build better evidenced-based claims and arguments. Armed with knowledge, skills, and dispositions, students will be able to take informed action in their classrooms, schools, and the community. An end of the year capstone project that answers an individual student’s compelling question provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate their growth in argument and action around the five principles of Black Historical Consciousness.

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