October 26th

 SJVS ALL

Vision/Hearing Screening

SJVS Hearing and Vision scheduled is scheduled for December 3 and December 4 at the Brown Elementary School Gymnasium. Here is a link to sign up if you are interested in participating. SJVS Hearing and Vision Sign-Up

Pictures

All pictures should now be available to view.  We will be announcing our retake day next week.

Tutoring

Our National Honor Society is offering virtual tutoring from 3-7 PM Sunday-Thursday for up to 60 minutes per session. Please fill out the form below if you are interested. 

https://forms.gle/J18HhF5Gx5mTJN7U8

ELEMENTARY

Teachers

All teachers are now in place for our elementary.  We are excited to have added Ms. Anna Layer as our 2nd grade teacher.  We have an amazing elementary staff and are excited for the work they will do with our learners.

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Continued Monitoring

We continue to monitor the situation at our SJVS Middle School level.  We are aware of several issues and are working on resolutions moving forward.  Thank you for your continued support and patience as we grow this program to what we envision it can be. 

HIGH SCHOOL

Academic Letter

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to our virtual students who have earned their academic letter for the 2019-2020 school year.  While we are not able to celebrate as normal in person, the high school administration is working on a video to be sent out.  I am looking at another option as well to celebrate our students at SJVS who have earned this tremendous honor. 

PSAT

9-11 Virtual Students, reminder that the PSAT will be this Thursday, October 29th at SJHS.  Please arrive at Field House entrance by 7:30 am.

AP Testing

Here is a link for more information on AP testing. 

Overdue books and fines

If you have books, calculators, computers etc from last school year that you have not yet returned, please do so ASAP.  If you are coming in to take the PSAT that is a great day to do that.  Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

October 18th

 Picture Day THANK YOU!

Picture Day was a huge success!  Thank you to the Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor, Geskus Photography, Central Office Administrative Assistant Mandy Mortimore and all of you who attended for making it such a great day.  It was so nice to connect in a socially distant way.  We will have a retake day announcement very soon for sometime in middle of November. 

Success coaches. 

We are working to fill a few success coaches who have left us. Our current success coaches have been working diligently to meet with each virtual student weekly.  This is a REQUIREMENT by the State of Michigan and we need your help.  Please make sure you and/or your student are checking their emails and ensuring that these meetings take place. Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

ELEMENTARY

By the end of the week we should have all of our teachers in place and we are SO EXCITED for this.  Our second grade teacher should be able to be introduced any day and hopefully be able to "meet" the 2nd grade families on Friday morning and beginning lessons next week. 

Lexia, IXL oh my....  We are hoping to have these programs available by next week to all of our virtual learners. Please stay on the lookout for more information on this.  

MIDDLE SCHOOL

We are continuously evaluating the program and next steps.  We know there is work to do to improve the experience at the middle school level.  We will continue to discuss, plan and implement changes that we both are able to and feel like will benefit our students.  

One area of note is communication with teachers.  At the is time the company is asking for 48 hours to respond to any and all communication.  They are also asking for 48 hours for grading.  We have been in contact with the company that these time parameters are often not met. They are asking that you document the course and teacher and let your success coach know so that we may let the company know specific instances.  

HIGH SCHOOL

PSAT 

All 9th-11th grade students will be taking the PSAT on Thursday October, 29th

All Students should plan on arriving at 7:30 at the SJHS field house entrance. Freshman will be in field house and sophomores and juniors will be in the competition gym. Students must wear a mask.  Students are allowed to have a snack and a drink if they would like.  No phones are allowed in testing area and are recommended that they not be brought.  Please check here for lists. 

Parents should plan on picking up their students between 11 and 11:30.  You may have to sit and wait for them to finish. 

Practice tests are available if you would like to stop by the high school office.  But, we would also encourage you to log into Khan Academy to practice on their as well.  

Communication with teachers

One area of note is communication with teachers.  At the is time the company is asking for 48 hours to respond to any and all communication.  They are also asking for 48 hours for grading.  We have been in contact with the company that these time parameters are often not met. They are asking that you document the course and teacher and let your success coach know so that we may let the company know specific instances.  

 

 

We are excited to share with you the process for how our SJVS students can access books from our

school library/media centers! 

Please use the links below to place orders for books via your student’s home school.  

 

• Orders should be placed by 12:00 (noon) on Mondays.

• Orders can be picked up at each school’s office anytime on Wednesdays.

• Note:  Parking lots are especially busy before/after school. 

• Please plan accordingly or stop by during a late-start before students arrive.  

• All checkouts are for two weeks.

• Students may have two items checked out at a time.  

• Please plan to return items to the school offices on Wednesdays when picking up future orders.  

 

Brown  bit.ly/brownbookhub

Clarke    bit.ly/clarkebookhub

Lincoln     bit.ly/lincolnbookhub

Upton bit.ly/uptonbookhub

SJHS           bit.ly/sjhsbookhub

 

To search the book collection in each school, please visit the district website and choose the Media Center link

at the top  https://www.sjschools.org/district-media-center-overview. 

Scroll to the bottom of the page for links to each library’s Destiny catalog.

 

If you have any questions, please contact  Amy Dirlam, Director of K-12 Libraries and Instructional Technology,

via email at adirlam@sjschools.org or phone, 269-926-3416.  We look forward to seeing your children’s requests soon!

 

October 11th

  

Count Day Continued

Our success coaches are required to meet with each student twice a week between Wednesday and Tuesday. This is a requirement by the State of Michigan. At the elementary school level, one of these meetings each week will likely be replaced because of our own teachers holding morning meetings each week.

SAT Testing: 

Due to the fact that our Seniors missed the opportunity to take the SAT last spring because of Covid, the

State of Michigan is requiring us to provide an opportunity for all of our Seniors to take the test onsite.

We have scheduled next Wed., Oct. 14th as that date.  Seniors will need to arrive at 7:30am and report

directly to the competition gym where they will take the SAT test from approx. 7:30am to 1pm, once

they finish the SAT they will be released for the remainder of the day. 

Media Center Update

Last spring the SJPS library/media center staff checked out thousands of books to students when schools closed due to the pandemic.  We hope everyone enjoyed having books to read during the spring and over the summer.  While we have gotten many books returned, there are still hundreds checked out.  We would love to have these items returned so they can be properly quarantined and made available for other students to enjoy them!  Please watch for emails containing what items your student may still have checked out and please plan to return them on October 16th at picture day!  Also, at picture day, we will have information available regarding the process for virtual students to check out books from the school libraries moving forward.  We are excited to keep ALL students in St. Joseph Public Schools reading this year.  Thank you for your support!

SJVS Elementary Update

Parents of students in grades 1, 3, 4, 5 should have received an email from me this afternoon introducing you to your new SJVS teacher. We are still finalizing our 2nd grade teacher and will announce that person just as soon as we can.  We are extremely excited to have these tremendous teachers working with our families.  

Success Coaches

We have all but one of our success coaches in place, we did have one take a new job so we will be replacing that person very soon. Our K, 5th and 8th grade success coaches will be reaching out to you Monday afternoon.

Computer Update    

We received an update from our technology department that our new chrome books should be in by the end of the month. Once we know exact dates will will be announcing a return/exchange/pickup time for our virtual learners. Stay tuned.

Picture Day

UPDATE from GESKUS:  The virtual students will not be able to prepay for their packages and they will not be receiving an order form.  They will be online ordering only.  Picture day they will receive a card after they have their picture taken and it will have information for them to use to go online and view their picture and place an order at that time.  The order will then be mailed to the home.

We are excited to announce a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor, 190 W Empire Ave Benton Harbor, MI 49022. We will be utilizing their teen center for our Picture Day on October 16th. Below you will find the schedule. If you have multiple students you are welcome to bring them to the scheduled time with which ever one of their grade levels works best for you. We will also have SJ face masks available that day. Look forward to seeing some smiling faces for school pictures. A makeup day will be announced later for sometime in mid November.

8:00	Kindergarten and Siblings	A-F
8:10	Kindergarten and Siblings	G-M
8:20	Kindergarten and Siblings	N-Z
8:30	1st Grade and Siblings	A-F
8:40	1st Grade and Siblings	G-M
8:50	1st Grade and Siblings	N-Z
9:00	2nd Grade and Siblings	A-F
9:10	2nd Grade and Siblings	G-M
9:20	2nd Grade and Siblings	N-Z
9:30	3rd Grade and Siblings	A-F
9:40	3rd Grade and Siblings	G-M
9:50	3rd Grade and Siblings	N-Z
10:00	4th Grade and Siblings	A-F
10:10	4th Grade and Siblings	G-M
10:20	4th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
10:30	5th Grade and Siblings	A-F
10:40	5th Grade and Siblings	G-M
10:50	5th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
11:00	6th Grade and Siblings	A-F
11:10	6th Grade and Siblings	G-M
11:20	6th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
11:30	7th Grade and Siblings	A-F
11:40	7th Grade and Siblings	G-M
11:50	7th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
12:00	8th Grade and Siblings	A-F
12:10	8th Grade and Siblings	G-M
12:20	8th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
12:30	9th Grade and Siblings	A-F
12:40	9th Grade and Siblings	G-M
12:50	9th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
1:00	10th Grade and Siblings	A-F
1:10	10th Grade and Siblings	G-M
1:20	10th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
1:30	11th Grade and Siblings	A-M
1:40	11th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
1:50	12th Grade	A-M
2:00	12th Grade	N-Z

AP TESTING

Registration and deposit deadline for students is November 12

$95 per AP exam , payment made in full at time of order. 

If a student orders an exam after November 12, the cost is an additional $40 ($95+ 40 =$135)

To make payment with echeck or credit card:   https://sjschools.revtrak.net/- no service charge this year

• Select High School > AP Course Testing > AP Testing Payments

Fee Waiver-  If you qualify for a fee waiver, please see Mrs. Wagner. More information on fee waiver qualification: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/sat-fee-waiver-student-brochure.pdf

BOOKS

The SJPS library/media team has put together a website to help students and parents navigate district technology.  There are many parts of this site that should be helpful for virtual students and parents.  Additionally, the library team is working to put together a process for virtual students to order books for checkout from the school media centers.  Known as Book-Hub (think Grub-Hub) students will be able to pre-order books and have them available for pick-up on designated days.  This program is being tested with face-to face students now, with books being delivered to classrooms,  and we will soon have information for virtual families. 

In the meantime, please explore the digital library resources available on our websites below and explore some of the wonderful ebooks available.  More information regarding Book-Hub for virtual students will be coming next week, so please do not use the Book-Hub forms yet; we will have a separate form for virtual students to use.  With each of the links below, SCROLL toward the bottom of the pages to access online resources and ebooks.  

Elementary Virtual Library      Middle School Virtual Library      High School Virtual Library

October 5th

 

Count Day Reminder

This WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7 is count day. PLEASE make sure each student is logging into each course and completing one assignment minimum in each of their courses. Thank you for making sure this happens.

SJVS Elementary Update

Since the beginning of our journey into our virtual school, we had a vision in mind of how we wanted the virtual school to look.  We were fortunate to have three St. Joe elementary teachers who were able to begin the school year teaching virtually through the Edmentum system.   The rest of our students were to have teachers that Edmentum  provided to teach our students daily with lessons and to foster relationships not only with the students, but amongst the students as well.  Several meetings with  Edmentum ensued as our expectations were not being met.  They did assign teachers, but those teachers are not teaching live lessons to our students . This did not meet our vision.  We have made a decision to provide our elementary students with teachers who work for SJPS.  We are in the process of finalizing the hiring of elementary teachers for grade levels that do not have SJPS teachers already assigned.  These teachers will be completing training with Edmentum this week and we hope to have them on board and interacting with our students later this week.  We want to be responsive to the needs that our families have addressed with us and provide a virtual experience that meets those expectations.  Thank you for your continued patience and support as we make these necessary changes.

Success Coaches

You should have heard from your success coach by now with the exception of Kindergarten, 5th and 8th grade. Your success coach should be reaching out and introducing themselves as well as setting up virtual meetings with the students. We are hoping that ALL of our success coaches will be in place and working with families to ensure student success by the end of the week.

Computer Update    

We received an update from our technology department that our new chrome books should be in by the end of the month. Once we know exact dates will will be announcing a return/exchange/pickup time for our virtual learners. Stay tuned.

Picture Day

We are excited to announce a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor, 190 W Empire Ave Benton Harbor, MI 49022. We will be utilizing their teen center for our Picture Day on October 16th. Below you will find the schedule. If you have multiple students you are welcome to bring them to the scheduled time with which ever one of their grade levels works best for you. We will also have SJ face masks available that day. Look forward to seeing some smiling faces for school pictures. A makeup day will be announced later for sometime in mid November.

8:00	Kindergarten and Siblings	A-F
8:10	Kindergarten and Siblings	G-M
8:20	Kindergarten and Siblings	N-Z
8:30	1st Grade and Siblings	A-F
8:40	1st Grade and Siblings	G-M
8:50	1st Grade and Siblings	N-Z
9:00	2nd Grade and Siblings	A-F
9:10	2nd Grade and Siblings	G-M
9:20	2nd Grade and Siblings	N-Z
9:30	3rd Grade and Siblings	A-F
9:40	3rd Grade and Siblings	G-M
9:50	3rd Grade and Siblings	N-Z
10:00	4th Grade and Siblings	A-F
10:10	4th Grade and Siblings	G-M
10:20	4th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
10:30	5th Grade and Siblings	A-F
10:40	5th Grade and Siblings	G-M
10:50	5th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
11:00	6th Grade and Siblings	A-F
11:10	6th Grade and Siblings	G-M
11:20	6th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
11:30	7th Grade and Siblings	A-F
11:40	7th Grade and Siblings	G-M
11:50	7th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
12:00	8th Grade and Siblings	A-F
12:10	8th Grade and Siblings	G-M
12:20	8th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
12:30	9th Grade and Siblings	A-F
12:40	9th Grade and Siblings	G-M
12:50	9th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
1:00	10th Grade and Siblings	A-F
1:10	10th Grade and Siblings	G-M
1:20	10th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
1:30	11th Grade and Siblings	A-M
1:40	11th Grade and Siblings	N-Z
1:50	12th Grade	A-M
2:00	12th Grade	N-Z

AP TESTING

Registration and deposit deadline for students is November 12

$95 per AP exam , payment made in full at time of order. 

If a student orders an exam after November 12, the cost is an additional $40 ($95+ 40 =$135)

To make payment with echeck or credit card:   https://sjschools.revtrak.net/- no service charge this year

• Select High School > AP Course Testing > AP Testing Payments

Fee Waiver-  If you qualify for a fee waiver, please see Mrs. Wagner. More information on fee waiver qualification: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/sat-fee-waiver-student-brochure.pdf

BOOKS

The SJPS library/media team has put together a website to help students and parents navigate district technology.  There are many parts of this site that should be helpful for virtual students and parents.  Additionally, the library team is working to put together a process for virtual students to order books for checkout from the school media centers.  Known as Book-Hub (think Grub-Hub) students will be able to pre-order books and have them available for pick-up on designated days.  This program is being tested with face-to face students now, with books being delivered to classrooms,  and we will soon have information for virtual families. 

In the meantime, please explore the digital library resources available on our websites below and explore some of the wonderful ebooks available.  More information regarding Book-Hub for virtual students will be coming next week, so please do not use the Book-Hub forms yet; we will have a separate form for virtual students to use.  With each of the links below, SCROLL toward the bottom of the pages to access online resources and ebooks.  

Elementary Virtual Library      Middle School Virtual Library      High School Virtual Library