Principal Rock answers new quarter questions

By Catherine Brown, Photo & Business Editor

        On Wednesday, Oct. 4, students and teachers will begin the second quarter of online learning. Principal Danny Rock answers some frequently asked questions that should relieve some of your new quarter stress.

Q: Why is the second quarter starting on a Wednesday?
A: “We divided the two quarters based on an equal distribution of instructional days.” Rock said. “[This way] teachers can plan out and cover the same amount of content they did the other quarter.”

Q: When will students receive their final first quarter grades?
A: “Students will receive their final grade as a semester grade at the end of the second quarter. So final grades will be posted by the first week in February.” Rock said.

Q: Is off quarter work mandatory?
A: “It depends completely on the course. Some teachers are doing optional off quarter work, some teachers are doing required [work].” Rock said.

Q: What is happening with SMART in the second quarter?
A: “A majority of our students have logged in as they have been directed too in order to earn their SMART credit. However a very sizable number of students, over a hundred, have not shown up for enough SMARTS to earn credit… We’re not trying to issue 200 F grades for SMART during a pandemic.” Rock said. “We are going to hit the reset button for second quarter. We are also going to reduce the amount of days students have to log into smart [As well as] start having class meetings, and counselors being able to visit SMART periods.

Q: Why do we have three half days next week?
A: “We want the last day of quarter 1 and the first day of quarter 2 to be half days like our Friday schedule, to create some extra space just in the transition between quarters as well as around the election.”

Q: What is happening with GoGuardian?
A: “We turned off the ability for GoGuardian to work on private machines so the only way you can access Go Guardian is on your school issued chrome book. I believe we are going to open back up that ability.” Rock said. “We have some informed consent we need to give families [for them to sign off on] that Go Guardian is a monitoring tool and so there is a possibility that if someone has it on their home machine that a teacher could see into that machine and whatever it is showing them.”
        This new quarter is sure to bring new challenges to the way we run school, but that is par for the course in 2020. With the help of our excellent administrators and teachers, we will get through it together.