As you've likely heard in the news, the Delta variant of COVID-19 is highly contagious and is hitting schools that have already opened pretty hard. Unfortunately, Trivium Academy has seen this to be true first hand.

Every Monday, we have to report the number of positive cases to the Texas Department of State Health Services for the prior seven days. At this point, we will be reporting positive cases for 18 students and six staff members. We are posting notifications in Bloomz for the families of affected classrooms and/or extracurricular sports. If you receive this notification, you can assume that your student has been in contact with a student and/or staff member who has tested positive although it might not meet the definition of a "close contact."

In the most recent health guidance from TEA, it says that:

"Parents of students who are determined to be close contacts of an individual with COVID-19 may opt to keep their students at home during the recommended stay-at-home period. Parents who opt to send their children to school in the two weeks following exposure are encouraged to closely monitor their symptoms."

As a result of the increasing number of cases on campus, we are returning to a higher level of COVID protocols beginning this week to try and keep our Knights as healthy and safe as possible during these difficult times.

What we are doing:

What you can do to help:

We are keeping a close eye on the legal situation regarding mask mandates. It is not as simple as the media might make it seem. At the moment, we are following legal counsel's advice to not issue a mask mandate, but we highly recommend that all who enter the building wear one.

The other question we continue to hear is about a remote learning option for this school year. As it stands right now, we do not have the ability to offer remote learning and receive funding for those students. Currently, TEA has made it clear that they expect schools to be open for in-person learning only and that we have to provide 75,600 minutes of instruction during the school year to receive full funding. At this point in time, there is not an option for a Missed School Day Waiver should we need to close due to a high rate of infection. However, we do have extra minutes built into our calendar that we can use if absolutely necessary.

We will continue to closely monitor the situation and provide updates if the Public Health Guidance from TEA or Gov. Abbott changes or if a Special Session of the State Legislature provides any new avenues for us to explore.

At Trivium our primary communication platform for both classrooms and our school community is Bloomz.

If you don't think you are seeing updates from the school, it's probably because every year we re-set the membership of the community.

To join (or re-join) the Trivium community and gain access to important school communication you will need this code: XDQHDC.

Teachers provided access codes to their specific classes at Meet the Teacher night, so make sure and join your student's class pages to get updates from their teachers. If you need a class code, please contact your student's teacher(s) directly.

Instructions for accessing Bloomz can be found in the graphic below.

Don't we all need a little good news right now? In the midst of all the goings on in the world, let's take a moment each week to focus on something positive. After all, it is good for our mental health! Even though the Delta variant is causing a rocky start to another year, there is still A LOT of good happening at Trivium.

Hello, Parents and Knights! My name is Ginger Story, and I am so excited to be the new Licensed Professional Counselor at Trivium Academy. This is going to be a fun year filled with learning, growing, and lots of new adventures. I cannot wait to get to know you, your family, and most importantly, your Knight!

This will be my tenth year in education, eighth year as an LPC, and first year as an LPC on a campus. My role as an LPC at Trivium is to support the Social Emotional Learning environment and to provide Social Emotional support to the students and staff. This can look like individual counseling, group counseling, classroom SEL guidance, and much much more.

As I am getting to know all the students at Trivium, if you think you child could benefit from counseling services, please find the link to the Parent Counseling Referral Form.

You can also use this form to communicate any issues or situations that I may need to be aware of.

I look forward to this year at Trivium!

Ginger Story, LPC

ginger.story@triviumacademytx.com

We are so excited to add the following members to our growing staff for the 2021-22 school year! Please give a big Trivium welcome to the following new staff members:

Morgan Jones - 1st Grade

Megan Scott - 1st Grade

Kimberly Ditty - 2nd Grade

Aileen Camblin- 2nd Grade

Kaitlyn Allen - 3rd Grade Humanities

Holly Atkinson - 4th Grade Humanites (Welcome back!)

Lindsay Fryar - 4th Grade Humanities

Christine Drumm- 6th Grade Humanities

Seewon Choi - MS Math

Larry Snyder - MS/HS Science

Carolyn Duke - HS English

Stephanie Madrigal- Elementary Spanish

Matthew Kies- Art/Photography

Brett Davis- Art/CTE

Samantha Ilif - Special Education

Laticia Matlock - Special Ed Assistant

Ann Henkels - Dyslexia Therapist (Welcome back!)

Jenny Castillo - Receptionist

We are adding four new courses to our OnRamps offerings this year. Students in high school have the opportunity to take these dual enrollment classes through the University of Texas at Austin. Our pilot course last year, College Algebra, taught by Mrs. Ram resulted in all of the eligible students receiving three hours of college credit. These students all have a UT transcript now with credit that should transfer to their selected universities in a couple of years when they head off to college.

Our OnRamps teachers go through two weeks of extensive training to be able to offer these classes to our students. We are thankful for the following teachers and their dedication to Trivium and our students, and we are excited about these new classes!

OnRamps Rhetoric (6 credit hours) - Ms. Duke

OnRamps American History (6 credit hours) - Mrs. Parker

OnRamps Physics (4 credit hours) - Mr. Ball

OnRamps Pre-calculus (3 credit hours) - Mrs. Ram

We will also be adding two new Advanced Placement (AP) courses to our high school this year. In addition to AP Human Geography and AP World History, we will be offering AP Psychology and AP Art: Design.

It's exciting to continue to see our high school program grow. It won't be long now until we have our first graduating class in 2023!

We require each student to have one short-sleeved navy polo with the embroidered crest. This polo and any embroidered or plaid pieces must be ordered from either Tommy Hilfiger or Lands' End. All of the other basic uniform pieces may be purchased anywhere you choose.

As you are shopping, please remember that we do not allow hoodies. You might want to purchase a sweater or jacket through one of the uniform vendors.

Tommy Hilfiger: https://www.globalschoolwear.com/

Lands' End: https://www.landsend.com/shop/school/S-ytp-xe8