A Note from Mr. Montgomery
What a start to our remote learning efforts. First a couple of thank yous. Parents, we so appreciate your engagement with Tuesday’s pick up of materials. 98.8% of you picked up materials that day and it was encouraging to be able to talk to you (even at a distance) and share encouragement with you and your students. It was good to see smiling faces! Second, a huge thank you to our staff who has come together to share and support each other through this move to remote learning. If someone didn’t know how to navigate a particular platform, another staff member was there to offer support and help. We have been greatly encouraged by the unity and support of the Heritage community and we give thanks to God for His provision here at school.
A couple of quick notes to share with parents:
1. We want to try and limit the number of emails you get from Heritage. We understand as we made the transition that communication was important but we also don’t want to inundate you. We’re going to try to limit communications from the school office/administration to a once a week newsletter. You’ll still get a morning devotion from Mr. Montgomery or another teacher and other communications related to remote learning directly from your student’s teacher.
2. Please bear with us as we continue to work out the kinks of the technology. We know for some of you a couple of the links didn’t work this week and that some platforms had a few hiccups along the way – we’re working to make all of that more efficient.
3. Generally teachers will be engaged in teaching and learning with your students between 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM daily. Between 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM they will hold “Office Hours” to answer any remote learning specific questions you or your student may have. While you may not be able to contact the teachers during those office hours and need to email them at other times, please expect your responses from the teachers to be primarily sent during this time of day. (Other questions related to school wide issues should be directed to Mr. Montgomery or other Office/Administrative staff). Teachers will be preparing for the next day’s lessons throughout the day (and likely into the evening) but we need to afford them some distance and time away from school to support their own families after 3:00 PM and on weekends. Thanks for your support with this.
4. We’ve had several requests for parent/student contact information so you and your student can stay connected to other parents and students either via email, phone, or good old fashioned snail mail. If you’ve agreed to make your information public in FACTS Management (Family Portal) below are the instructions for finding that information in the online school directory that so you can stay connected.
It goes without saying that we miss the direct connection and interaction with all of you – students and parents – and we’re hoping and praying for a quick resolution to all of this. In the meantime, we’ll continue to prepare remote learning opportunities for our students to ensure we’re living up to our Mission of partnering with you in providing a biblically faithful and academically excellent education for your children.
We will continue to trust and love our great and mighty God who has our best interest in mind and is working out everything for our good and His glory. I’ll leave you with this encouragement from Paul David Tripp (who has become one of my favorite pastors/authors/educators/speakers). He says this in his
New Morning Mercies
devotional,
We really don’t know much. Every day we are all greeted with mysteries. None of us can predict for sure where our personal stories are going. We are all confused about what happens to us, to those close to us, and in the world in which we live. As much as we try to make sense of our lives, there are things that we simply aren’t able to understand. Here’s what all this means – you and I will never find inner peace and rest trying to figure it all out. Peace is found in resting in the wisdom and grace of the One who has it all figured out and rules it all for His glory and our good. There is so much we don’t understand. There is so much that we are incapable of understanding. So rest is found in trusting the Father. He is not confused, and he surely does have your best interest in mind. Today your Heavenly Father reaches down and says: “I know you don’t understand all that you face, but remember, I love you. Trust me and you will find peace.”
Grace and peace be with you all,
Scott
