This week at LPHS, January 8, 2018

Welcome back and Happy New Year to all of you!  I hope you were able to enjoy a restful break. 

I am excited to get back to work and to wrap up semester 1.  We do not have a lot going on during the school day this week, so it is a good time to get back to work with minimal interruptions. 

On Wednesday, all four administrators are required to be at a PD session at the board office for the full day.  We will be able to return in the case of emergency, but please understand that we will be out of the building otherwise.  We should all be reachable by cell phone or email.  If you work a lunch on Wednesday, we will have a radio at the podium.  Please make sure that one person has it with them to listen for communication from the office.  

On Thursday, we will have a meeting with all Early Middle College students during fifth hour in the auditorium to review some expectations moving forward.  This will include leaving after class or going to the media center/athletic wing to wait for their next activities.  Please do not have these students in your classroom unless they have made an appointment with you. 

Special Ed Final Exam Schedule: Please see the schedule here and make sure you are entering students in that will require their test be read to them on the appropriate time and day.  Please do this as soon as you can so that all students are accounted for and special ed teachers can be prepared. 

Hallway Expectations: As a reminder, we are implementing some new strategies to cut down on the number of students that are in the hallways during class time.  The first, and most important is that you provide any student that leaves your classroom with a written pass.  This is a must and we need everyone on the same page.  If students do not have a pass, they will be escorted back to your classroom.  Repeat offenders will be taken to ISS.  In addition to this, I am asking that all of you make sure that you are doing an accurate job recording tardies in your attendance.  This includes recording first hour tardies.  We are still working on how we will address the first hour tardies, but I would like you to let your students know this week that first hour tardies will now be recorded as if it is any other class.  We have too many students circling the hallways well past the start of first hour class.  Please also remember that students who are not on your roster are not to be in your room during any class period unless you have discussed it with their scheduled teacher. 

I realize that the majority of this post sounds negative, but we must address this glaring issue in our building.  You guys do tremendous work in establishing relationships with students and I appreciate the fact that they want to hang out with many of you well beyond the time they are supposed to, but we must leverage that relationship into an understanding that they can't learn unless they are in class! 

Thank you for all that you do and have done to this point in the school year.  It has certainly been refreshing to work with all of you and I am looking forward to a productive 2018 at LPHS!

Have a great week!