Stowe High School
Week in Review
“Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” -Margaret Cousins
November 23rd, 2020
Although we had a shortened week, I wanted to share some additional information with families. This morning during Governor Scott’s press conference, an announcement was made regarding winter athletics. The start of winter athletics has been postponed until further notice. We know this must be very disappointing for our student-athletes who were expecting to start practice right after the November break. While we await further guidance on opportunities for students, we want to be clear that student-athletes should not hold in-person captain’s practices or team gatherings of any sort. Individual strength and conditioning and practice are allowed. We will provide additional information and guidance when we learn more.
In addition, as we move into the second quarter of the school year, we are actively exploring options for our schedule for next year. Part of this planning is reviewing our course offerings. We understand there has been confusion around whether SHS will offer AP courses next year. While we are currently working on developing two different schedule options for next year, we want to be clear that Stowe High School will offer AP courses next year, regardless of which scheduling option is utilized.
We all recognize the need to offer diverse and rigorous course options, including AP. The purpose of the two schedule options is to plan for the possibility of needing to follow similar COVID guidelines that are currently in place and also plan for opening schools under “normal” conditions. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions and SHS’s scheduling constraints we were not able to do so this school year. Thankfully, we have additional planning time going into next school year and will be able to make AP courses available to our students again. AP course descriptions will be included in our Program of Studies for the 2021-2022 school year for students to sign up for in the next several weeks/months.
Lastly, per new state guidelines, we will be adjusting our health screening questions upon return from the November break. The Agency of Education (AOE) announced today that beginning Monday, November 30, 2020, school screening questionnaires will need to include the following question:
“In the past 10 days have you or any member of your household attended a multi-household social gathering either indoors or outdoors?”
New guidelines state that anyone who answers yes, along with all members of their household, will be excluded from school and asked to quarantine for 14 days or after 7 days and a negative result on a PCR test.
We do hope everyone has a restful November break. Although it will be different for us as we adjust to how we “see” family and friends, we wish all of you time that is filled with happiness, gratitude, and wonderful memories.
Upcoming Events:
Friday, November 20- Quarter 1 Mastery Reports
Wednesday, November 25-Friday, November 27: School Break
Student Announcements:
This year our Student Leadership group is creating student announcement videos for all students. These videos are shared with advisories each Wednesday. Watch the most recent videos below.
September 30 Video October 7 Video October 21 Video October 28 Video
More Student News: Virtual College Tour Opportunities CLICK HERE
Snow Days will be School Days:
As the colder weather approaches and we already saw snow this week, we need to plan for the possibility of school closings due to inclement weather and unsafe road conditions. In the event we need to call for a snow day, we have developed a remote learning plan so that students can continue with their coursework. When we have a snow day, we will follow our current schedule . For example, if we need to call a snow day on a Tuesday, the students that were scheduled for in-person will have their classes remotely via Google Meet. Students who were already scheduled for a remote day will continue with the plan that was outlined by their teachers for remote learning.
Students giving back to our community: Nathan Kessler and Anders Holterman have been baking bread on the weekends and donating them to the Lamoille County Food Shelf. Check out this clip on CNN.
Congratulations to the new members of the Stowe High School National Honor Society.
We are excited to have a trained peer educator in our school. Kate Lewton joined our health classes this week to engage our students in learning key health topics such as STI's. She did an excellent job!
QR Code for Health Screening
Health screening stations in the main lobby.
Numbered parking spaces outside
Technology News:
*This year (2020-2021) we are using a new content filter for student devices. The product is called Securly. Securly is designed to block sites and content that are not suitable for school. The biggest difference students and families will see this year is since the filter is on the device, the content filtering that we use in our buildings is now applied to our devices when they are at home. Also, Securly has parental controls that we will enable and communicate more about later in the year. At this point, there is nothing parents need to do. If you have questions, please reach out to our SMHS technology manager Jake Goss (stowetech@lsuu.org). If your student experiences any technology based issues related to Securly, you can submit a ticket to our ticket system by emailing lsuutech@lsuu.org.
Family Resources:
*Please help the Health Department spread the word about the new video, "How Contact Tracing Slows the Spread of COVID-19." The brief video (1 minute, 42 seconds) is to help educate people about how contact tracing works, why it’s an important tool to slow the spread of COVID-19, and to encourage people to answer the call if they are called by a contact tracer.
*Assistance for overdue utility bills information
*Suicide Prevention Information from our school counselors
*Flu Shots
Now is the time to get your flu shot. Local pharmacies and primary care physicians are providing flu shots. The Community Health Team through CHSLV can help people navigate the medical system, including transportation to flu shots. Call 888-6017 or email cht@chslv.org.