Happy New Year Broncos!
Our staff was excited to welcome students back to school from winter break yesterday! The kids are happy to be back and we are looking forward to a great second semester.
For the next few weeks, you will see Mrs. Cheri Carter at Head Elementary as she is the interim principal until a replacement for me is hired at my current school. I am planning to be at Head at least one or two days a week as I prepare to make the transition full-time. Mrs. Carter is available to support the staff, students, and parents so do not hesitate to reach out to her!
We have exciting news around student devices to share. Beginning this week, we have checked out a chrome book to each student in our building to use for instruction in the classroom. In addition to using them for the occasional activity in class, if families requested it (through survey sent out this week), students will bring the device checked out to them to and from school daily starting today. This will allow the students to continue learning using their device at school as well as at home. Students will be able to access their teacher's eCLASS course page as well as programs such as Classworks, iReady, and Amplify to practice grade-level concepts and skills at home. The students use these programs at school and will know how to access them from home via their device. This daily practice of transporting their device will assist students in becoming accustomed to bringing their device home for digital learning days scheduled by Gwinnett County Public Schools in our district's 2021-2022 school calendar as well as any additional days that may be added this semester. Parents, please help us in reminding students to bring their device back to school each day along with the devices' charging cord so that it may be used for classroom learning. We are excited to be able to offer this resource!
For parents that have requested hotspots, please note that we have a limited quantity available for checkout. They will be checked out to students in the order we received the device requests. Hotspots will only be sent home in the event that GCPS moves to digital learning.
Students and staff have done a great job in coming to school wearing masks each day. Please remind students that masks are also required on buses. In addition to wearing masks, the staff provides multiple times during the day to allow students to wash their hands. Hand sanitizer and other resources to disinfect and sanitize high touch surfaces are used to keep everyone safe. We have also temporarily reduced the number of classes eating in the cafeteria each day. Classes are on a rotating schedule for the month of January. Due to the increase in community spread, for now, we will continue to limit visitors to the school building for lunches, volunteering, meetings, etc. Communication will be shared once we can return to visitors inside of our school building.
Thank you, as always, for your support in helping us ensure each student at Head reaches his/her highest level of learning and for keeping our students and staff as safe as possible!
Your Proud Principal,
Dr. Tonya Burnley
