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