Dear Freshman Parent(s),

Your son has been sent an email to his Jesuit High School email account with instructions on how to access Powerschool and his Fall schedule. Parents will be emailed their access information for Powerschool during the first week of school. Please continue to check PowerSchool as it will have the most current version of your son’s schedule.

Each freshman schedule should contain the following courses:

1. English 1 or English 1XL – two semesters
2. World Language (French, Latin, or Spanish) – two semesters
3. Mathematics (Algebra 1, Geometry, or Algebra 2) – two semesters
4. Biology or Biology XL – two semesters
5. Visual and Performing Arts – two semesters
6. Theology 1 – one semester / PE 1 – one semester
7. Flex Period – two semesters
8. Flex Period – two semesters (Intro to Computer Science may replace a semester of Flex).

In addition to these classes, you will also see a Health Ed. Course and Service & Justice. Both these courses are required. Students take Health Ed. online and their progress is monitored by their PE teacher. Freshman will engage in Service and Justice programming in the context of their Theology 1 course. Additional opportunities will be available to them throughout the year. Following safe distancing guidelines, these opportunities will not be required.

Placement into advanced XL level classes is based on grade history, HSPT scores, teacher recommendations and the results of placement tests he may have taken. If your son took a summer school math class, his final math placement was reviewed upon completion of the summer school course. Placement into advanced level classes in subsequent years will be based upon student performance in each subject area and department recommendations.

When you registered your son, you were asked to select two choices for both World Language and Visual and Performing Arts. Your son’s schedule should include one of these two choices. Due to staffing limitations and in rare cases, schedule conflicts, it is possible that we had to place him in a different World Language or Visual and Performing Arts class to enable him to obtain a schedule with a complete list of courses. We thank you for your understanding and patience.

In addition to his 6 academic classes, your son’s schedule will include at least one Flex period. For the 2020-2021 school year, due to distance guidelines that require us to reduce average class sizes, an 8th period was added to the schedule, which means that your son’s schedule this year will include an additional Flex period each semester. This will allow us the ability to space our students appropriately pursuant to county guidelines. When on campus, your son will report to a designated area during his scheduled Flex period. He will be directed to a desk and asked to stay there. During his Flex period your son may use this time to get started on homework, watch videos, read, etc. Please do not request an additional academic course to fill either of these Flex periods. It negates the efforts we have made in this schedule adjustment to allow all students to return safely.

Taking into account the above information, please look over your son’s schedule to ensure that it includes all the required courses listed above. If you notice that he has an incomplete schedule (missing course) or other scheduling error such as a duplicate course, please communicate your concern to us using an online schedule change request form. This form can be found on our website using the search keyword “Schedule Change Request.” The last day to submit an online schedule change request is August 10.

Because of restrictions on class sizes due to mandated physical distancing, students are very limited in making any changes to their class schedule. We will only make a change to your son’s schedule for one of the following reasons: He is missing a graduation requirement, he has taken a summer school course and the same course appears on his schedule, he has duplicate courses or he does not have 8 periods scheduled including Flex periods.

Given the uncertainty surrounding the school year and various guidance documents from State and County public health officials, some courses in Physical Education and the Visual and Performing Arts departments will need to adjust curriculum and instruction as necessary under on-campus and/or distance learning protocols:

• Due to concerns related to adapting mitigation practices and the difficulty of livestreaming physical activity, Physical Education courses have been canceled for all freshmen and sophomores for the duration of the 2020-21 school year. Freshmen, however, are still required to complete Health Education during the semester they would have taken PE1. Information on the Health Education course will be shared with freshman students and parents the first week in September, regardless of whether the school is in distance or in-person learning; until that time, freshmen will still see PE 1 on their schedules. Students who would have been enrolled in PE1 will have the requirement waived for the year. In lieu of the PE classes, members of the PE Department will be sharing resources and workouts for all students to use during their Flex periods (when learning from home) or outside the school day (when learning from home or on campus).
• At this time, students will not be singing on campus, so choir courses will adapt to include some vocal practice at home as well as focus on musicality and some music appreciation. This will allow students to understand music in a new way and include a fundamental understanding of how music is created using rhythm, melody and harmony.
• At this time, students will not be playing instruments on campus, so band courses will continue to focus on students’ skills as instrumentalists and musicians with practice and assessment of skills on individual instruments at home during both distance and on-campus learning.

The textbook list will be posted to the school website on July 28. Please use the search keyword “Textbook list” to access the 2020-2021 Textbook List. If you have questions or concerns regarding textbooks, understanding the student schedule, Dean’s office procedures, or our BYOD program, you are invited to attend our Parent Survival Skills 101 August 5 at 6:00pm via Zoom.

Please continue to check the Welcome Class of 2024 page on our website which will include a variety of documents such as the Student Activities Calendar, the Student-Parent Handbook and information about the start of the school year. Please set aside time to review each of these documents with your son prior to his orientation on August 17. We do not have a list of school supplies; rather, each teacher will let students know what they will need for their class during the first week of school. Thank you for your confidence in Jesuit High School. We look forward to working with you in assuring your son’s intellectual, spiritual, physical, and social development over the next four years.

Sincerely,

Colin O’Connor
Incoming Assistant Principal for Academics