It is the end of the first quarter, which marks 25% completion of the current school year. This is a great time to intentionally check in with your student(s) to talk about what has worked for them as the year has gotten underway and to talk through adjustments that might need to be made over the next nine weeks. High school is different than middle school and that shift is worth discussing. Grades are not final until the end of each semester, and those final grades are based on a cumulative total, not the average of two quarters. Basically, October 23rd is the halfway point - there is a lot of teaching and learning ahead of us before the semester ends.



A huge shout out to those of you who managed to sneak in some parent teacher conferencing this last week. We hosted over 1300 conferences in the two days, with a ton of focused conversation on student growth, academic focus and long-term goals. If you were unable to attend, or have a follow-up conference need, please reach out directly to our teacher(s) to schedule some time. The two dedicated days are a nice way to host these conversations, but we are always here to work in partnership with you and your student. Just ask!



Hand in hand with academic success is regular daily attendance, which is another thing we would really like you and your student to talk about. While we certainly know there are reasons for students to miss school we also ask that those are limited to the absolutely cannot be re-scheduled items. In addition, we are seeking your help with reducing the number of tardies (both excused and unexcused), aggravated tardies (more than five minutes late to class) and left without permissions. Many of you have the PowerSchool app which gives you live-time attendance notifications should you want them. That is the best way to have up-to-date data. We are also happy to email you a quick look-up report any time you request it to show you the point in time grades and the attendance codes for the past two weeks. Together we can clean up a lot of the attendance alphabet soup. We do not want the T’s, C’s, D’s or L’s for attendance.



Looking ahead to November there are a couple of weeks with adjusted bell schedules and days off due to Inservice days and holidays. We encourage you to make a note of the following no-school days for your student:

November 11th Veterans Day

November 12th JSD Inservice Day

November 13th JDHS Inservice Day

November 26th Thanksgiving Day

November 27th Day after Thanksgiving Day



As always, thank you for sharing your student with JDHS. It is a joy to have every one of these 967 young adults here in our halls!