Knightly News
August 22, 2023
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Letter from the Principal |
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The 2023-2024 school year is off to a great start! We're always excited to see our returning students and welcome all of our new students. It's just the best feeling to have all of these smiling faces back on campus.
The school days are a little bit longer this year, but I hope everyone enjoyed our first three-day weekend. It was much appreciated at my house! While our students are off this Friday, our staff will be having a professional development day. One of the many great things about the four-day week is that it gives us the opportunity to have a mix of professional development and work days built into the calendar throughout the year.
Thank you for your patience with carpool! Just when we were back in the swing of things, the city threw us a curveball by requiring us to all enter at the light. It will likely take another week or so to get back to being done with carpool in 20-25 minutes in the afternoon. We will monitor and adjust as needed to make this new routine work. In the mornings, please make sure that you are dropping off by 7:38 at the latest so that your children can be in their seats by the start of school at 7:40.
We have an exciting year ahead of us! We continue to participate in the Texas Charter School Athletic League, and our volleyball and flag football seasons will start soon with a record eight teams. Last year, we dipped our toe into UIL Academic and Speech competitions, and this year we are gearing up for even greater participation. We have a renewed focus on Genius Hour which is the hallmark of our program, and we have some exciting new secondary offerings such as Entrepreneurship, Fashion Design, and AP Music Theory that were added based on student requests. It's a great time to be a Knight!
As always, thank you for trusting us with your children's education! It is an honor and a privilege to work with such a great community of parents, students, and staff.
Proud to be a Knight,
Sheryl Bradley
Principal/Superintendent
#buildingthinkers
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Dear Trivium Academy Family:
Three months ago, Trivium Academy graduated its first senior class, a significant milestone in the relatively brief history of the school. This achievement was the result of years of hard work and energy invested by those graduating students, our dedicated faculty and staff, and our board of directors. We should all share pride and satisfaction in this wonderful accomplishment.
And yet, as significant as this milestone is, it’s just the gateway to the next phase of Trivium Academy’s growth and development. Three years ago, in the midst of the Covid lockdown, a small team of Trivium administrators and Portico Education Foundation directors (“Premises Search Team”) began working toward the next significant milestone for the school – a long term Trivium Academy campus.
A new family begins in a modest apartment or starter house, and Trivium’s current campus is its starter home. And, as with any thriving and growing family, there comes a time when the starter home becomes a limitation. Such is the case with Trivium’s campus under its current lease. The lease has been amended and extended from its original iteration several times, and the end of its contractual lifetime will now be reached after this ‘23-’24 school year.
To execute on Trivium’s plan to expand its student body, faculty, and program, the Premises Search Team has been working with Portico’s lawyers, real estate brokers, school bond advisor, and financial advisors to negotiate either a long-term lease or ownership of premises that can become Trivium’s “forever home.” Over the past year, not a week has gone by without some element of activity. Some disappointing, some encouraging.
This search has been guided by the three most important factors as identified by a focus group consisting of a cross-section of Trivium parents, students, and staff:
- K-12 should remain on one campus to foster the sense of community.
- The new building should allow us to continue and enhance our educational model.
- The location should be close to our current campus or closer to the middle of our boundaries, a radius of about 10 miles to the north/northeast from our current location.
Most of the negotiations have been subject to confidentiality agreements. And discussions of potential transaction details by the Board are likewise confidential under the Texas Open Records laws. For these reasons, information surrounding the future of Trivium’s campus is restricted.
However, as soon as an appropriate written agreement is executed regarding the campus for the ‘24-’25 school year (and beyond), we will be so excited to share the details with all of the Trivium family. Please rest assured that extra effort will be made to gather and respond to your questions at that time, broadly and transparently.
Until then, please know that nothing has changed regarding our use and enjoyment of the present Trivium campus for the ‘23-24 school year. Faculty and staff are welcoming new and returning students for this new academic year (and four-day instructional weeks), and before we know it, we’ll be congratulating our second class of seniors next May.
Respectfully,
The Portico Education Foundation Board of Trustees
Marci Roe, President
Beth Smith, Secretary
Thad Fenton
Karan Parrack
Erica Tuscano
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Save the date for our annual Curriculum Nights! This year we will have two separate events, one for elementary (K-6) and one for secondary (7-12). Come hear from our teachers and learn more about what to expect from the curriculum this year! |
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We are excited to have Wholesome Food Services available this year as a lunch option for our students. Please see below for ordering information and a coupon for 10% off that is good through September 9. Please remember that since we have this available option for food service, we are no longer accepting outside food deliveries at the front office.
If you are sending a lunch with your child, please make sure to include any necessary utensils. We only have what the restaurants send us for the purchased lunches and don't always have extras to spare.
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These Trivium Knights had a great time at football camp before the start of the year. |
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For the past two years, we have been fortunate to have Mrs. Story on campus as our Licensed Professional Counselor. While many of you know her in this role, you may not realize that she started her career in education as an ESL teacher and then moved into an academic counseling role. We are grateful that Mrs. Story has added the academic counseling side to her work this year. She has been busy working on secondary schedules and schedule changes and will be guiding the seniors as they navigate college applications. She's also in charge of the College Fair that we will have on campus in September. We are so lucky to have Mrs. Story as our counselor at Trivium! |
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This summer, our board approved the grading policy change below:
Quarter Average
Daily Work: 60%
Major Grades: 40%
Semester Average
Two Quarters: 92%
Semester Exam Grade: 8%
The Trivium model takes students through a process of engaging in curriculum, examining information critically, and expressing one’s learning based on previously gained knowledge. It’s important to us that our grading policy not only allows our students to remain competitive with surrounding districts, but also reflects the learning process as a whole and not just a few test grades. Teaching the whole child cognitively, emotionally, socially, and physically is a core value of Trivium Academy which requires us to look at assessing students in ways that one test cannot accomplish.
This progressive take on a classical education provides the strong basis of a liberal arts education. According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities, “A liberal arts education is a practical education because it develops just those capacities needed by every thinking adult: analytical skills, effective communication, practical intelligence, ethical judgment, and social responsibility.” By putting more weight on the formative day to day assessments of learning, we can provide more consistent feedback on these critical skills that will set a Trivium student apart in college and beyond, furthering our ultimate goal of building thinkers rather than test takers.
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Trivium is a public charter school and therefore must follow state mandates regarding attendance.
*Please note- Texas law requires a district to retain students who are not in school at least 90% of the time a class meets. This includes excused and unexcused absences. Also, per state law, after a student acquires 10 unexcused absences, districts are required to file truancy.
When a student is absent, parents must send an email to attendance@triviumacademytx.com on the night before or morning of a student’s absence.
When students are absent, we must have a note from the parent or doctor concerning his/her absence(s) when he/she returns to school. If a student does not have a note when he/she returns to school, an unexcused absence will be recorded for those days. A two-day grace period will be extended to the student to bring in a note. No more than 3 parent notes per semester will be accepted.
Notes must include the following to be accepted:
• Student’s first and last name
• Grade level
• Days and dates missed
• Reason for absence(s)
• Parent’s signature
• Contact numbers
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Secondary Ascender
Parent and Student Portals
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The Ascender Portal is available for secondary parents and students to set up an account to view grades. There are four links below. The first two links are the actual websites to login to either the student or parent portal in Ascender. The last two links are instructions for setting up your parent or student account.
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August 24 - Denim Design Day for High School |
We are having our first annual Denim Design Day on Thursday from 4-6 in the cafeteria. The freshman, sophomores and juniors will be able to get creative and swag out their blue jeans or blue overalls to wear to the games while the seniors will design on white jeans or white overalls. This will be a fun spirit wear item for all of the games but most especially for homecoming week. Homecoming this year will be the week of September 25th, culminating with the Homecoming game on Saturday, Sept. 30th at 10:00 am.
We have navy, red, and gold fabric paint and stencils as well as some fabric markers, but feel free to express yourself and bring a little bling to the party! A lot of people also like to use fabric appliques. You can google spirit overalls, homecoming overalls, or senior overalls to get some design inspiration.
Spread the word to all your friends. We hope to see you on Thursday! If you have any questions, please talk to Mrs. Zea.
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Please click on the "Online Calendar" link below to view all of the up-to-date events. |
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Phone: 469-854-9007
2205 E Hebron Pkwy, Carrollton, TX 75010
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