We hope this finds you all well. DON’T FORGET – PCS and DCS Picture Day is Tomorrow!!
Preschool –
Dear Friends and family,
Tracy Learning Center Preschool needs your sweet support! We’re selling yummy See’s Candies for our spring fundraiser. Our goal is to raise money for outside play equipment. From now until March 12, 2021, you can make a purchase and a percentage will go to our school. Please help us reach our goal by sharing with your friends and family.
Visit our shop
https://www.yumraising.com/
to pick and choose your favorites and buy your candy online. It’s that easy!
Happy shopping, and thanks for your support!
PCS
DCS
Parents/Guardians/Students:
MHS
MHS UNITY VIDEO: https://youtu.be/R63CV8XG6-o
Preschool –
Dear Friends and family,
Tracy Learning Center Preschool needs your sweet support! We’re selling yummy See’s Candies for our spring fundraiser. Our goal is to raise money for outside play equipment. From now until March 12, 2021, you can make a purchase and a percentage will go to our school. Please help us reach our goal by sharing with your friends and family.
Visit our shop
https://www.yumraising.com/
to pick and choose your favorites and buy your candy online. It’s that easy!
Happy shopping, and thanks for your support!
PCS
DCS
Parents/Guardians/Students:
MHS
SAVE THE DATE: Summer Delta College Early Start Info Meeting Tuesday 2/23 at 11:30am Current 9th-11th grade students and their parents/guardians are invited to join our upcoming informational Zoom meeting about the Delta College Early Start Program for Summer Semester. This program is an amazing opportunity to take tuition-free Delta College classes while in high school. If a student earns a B or higher in a college class, Millennium High School will award that student with a $100 scholarship! *Please note that all Delta classes will be held online this summer.* There are multiple steps a student must take to qualify for the program, but interested students should make sure they are earning A’s and B’s in their high school classes, have time in their schedule for an online college class this summer (students may take an MHS Fast Track class AND a Delta class), and follow all outlined steps carefully and on time. Much more information will be shared at our meeting, which will be recorded for later viewing for those who cannot attend live on Zoom. All the required paperwork will also be released following the meeting. **On-campus students may tune in live during their study hall period (bring headphones/ear buds), and catch anything they miss by viewing the recording which will be posted following the meeting.** Summer Delta College Early Start Info Meeting WHEN: Tuesday, February 23 at 11:30am-12:30pm WHERE: On Zoom at this link: https://tracylc-net.zoom.us/j/
In the Classroom…..
This past week the anatomy and physiology students at Millennium diagramed the structures of the eyeball. After learning the different parts of the eye, they were ready to see them in a real specimen. Our on-campus students conducted a cow eyeball dissection while using document cameras and break-out rooms to allow the distance learning classmates to see the actual structures in the eye of the cow which are very similar to our own eyeballs. The in-person dissectors needed to use their senses and communication skills to express to their classmates how the different parts felt and looked. It was an all-around fun learning experience for the anatomy and physiology students.
MHS Athletics is back!
It has been 46 weeks and 4 days (326 days) since any of our teams last participated in a CIF Athletic Contest. This afternoon that streak was officially broken as the CCAA & MVL Cross Country teams took to the course in Turlock for the 1st time. Rather than racing in the typical male/female groups, school cohorts were assigned start times in 5-minute intervals, with the Millennium squad taking to the line at about 3:40pm.
Reminder: Monday, February 15th is Presidents Day and we will have no school.
PCS
DCS
Parents/Guardians/Students:
MHS
MHS Senior Class T-Shirts! LAST CALL!!!
The end of the year is rapidly approaching and we are getting ready to celebrate our second “Quarantined Class” over the last year. Class of 2021 T-shirts are now available for pre-order, which will go toward helping us organize a couple of activities for the Senior class before we send them off! Thank you Ms. Groteguth for putting together the designs.
https://tracy-learning-center.
MHS had the first Honor Roll drive-thru ceremony last week for our amazing online students. It was great to see so many people!!! Great job Falcons!
Returning to Campus Learning
Primary Charter has limited spots for students to return to campus for class beginning February 16, 2021.
Discovery Charter has limited spots for students to return to campus for classes beginning February 22, 2022.
Millennium High School will accept students that would like to return to campus for classes immediately.
Please email Michele Beringer at mberinger@tracylc.net to see if your student’s class has an opening and schedule a start date.
Note: This is a story from a high school opening its doors to in-person instruction. Please read the things students had to say.
Meanwhile, MHS is inviting high school students to return during the month of February. We miss the students and hope they will be returning soon. In-person classes have been open to students since November. We have an excellent record of safety with consistently implemented protocols to protect students and staff.
If your high school student wishes to return, contract Michele Beringer at 290-0511 or mberinger@tracylc.net
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Since mid-March, she had been in her room alone, doing school from her laptop. Like most of her classmates, she usually kept her camera off, her sense of isolation deepening.
She slipped into a depression.
She’s a freshman and until today, she had not met a classmate or teacher in person.
A high-achiever who made straight A’s, her grades dropped last semester, causing her anxiety to skyrocket.
“I can’t do this for another semester,” she told her mother. “I want to try to live.”
The return to in-person learning is coming just in time for Amy, whose identity the Journal is protecting.
On Monday, she and several hundred freshmen were back in the classroom, the next step in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools’ reopening plan. About 2,400 freshmen will return in cohorts, alternating between in-person and remote learning.
For Amy, that will mean going to school two times a week, and though she craves more interaction, it will allow her to connect with teachers and classmates, walk the halls of her school and try to salvage what’s left of this milestone year in a young person’s school career.
Originally scheduled to return on Jan. 25, high schoolers are the last group of students learning remotely. Acting on the advice of local health officials, Interim Superintendent Tricia McManus recommended the return date be pushed to Feb. 22 to give the district time to review all the ways it is trying to keep students and staff safe and limit the spread of COVID-19. Eager to get some high schoolers back to in-person learning, the school board compromised, voting to have freshmen return on Feb. 1 and grades 10-12 on Feb. 22. High schoolers also have the option of continuing with online learning.
Visiting Reagan High School Monday, McManus said having a staggered return for high school students was a good idea because it acquaints them with their new school.
“They haven’t been here before,” she said while touring the high school with its principal, Brad Royal.
A research team out of Duke, the ABC Science Collaborative, is reviewing the district’s data and making sure the safety protocols are in place for three more grades of high school students, a cohort of students that McManus said presents a bigger set of issues than elementary and middle school children. High school students will move around their schools more and because many have drivers licenses and jobs, they interact with more people. In response, McManus told the school board last month that the district will beef up its contact tracing program.
Reagan’s freshmen class is divided into four cohorts that will alternate in-person and remote learning. Monday’s cohort at Reagan was expected to be 125 students.
The return of local high schoolers comes at a time when passions are running high across the country, with both sides pointing to compelling stories and reports that affirm their positions.
Mental health experts warn of a looming crisis among young people, evident in Las Vegas, Nev., where a rash of suicides prompted the school board there to reopen the schools as quickly as possible, according to a story in the New York Times.
For Amy, the isolation was crushing. Many of her friends from middle school are not attending her high school, leaving her with no friends. Online school work was grueling.
She was looking forward to Monday with some trepidation.
“I know we can’t do anything together, but I hope seeing a person makes a difference,” she said.
Much like the decision-makers in the school district, high-school students have varying opinions on whether to return to school.
At Reagan on Monday, Daniel Reyes and Leila Ramirez were the only two students in Marilyn Mercer’s English class.
Leila said she decided to go back to class because she has trouble staying on task in remote learning and for her mental health.
“I’m very, very talkative,” she said. “In May, I had this huge feeling of depression and isolation.”
“I’ve heard my sister talk about it and I wanted to experience it,” he said. “It’s helpful to have Ms. Mercer here to ask questions.”
In a few weeks, Olivia Kuhner expects to return to Reynolds High School for her junior year. She is ready to interact with teachers face-to-face. She found asynchronous learning — which is not live — to be a challenge that can leave students unmotivated.
“Mainly, it’s about hands-on learning,” she said of her decision to return to school. “That’s a big part of Reynolds as a school.”
Meanwhile, Laura Doughton has made the decision to finish her senior year online. The high number of COVID-19 cases over the holidays convinced her to stay home.
She beats isolation by spending time with her twin brother during the school day and playing online card games with friends.
PCS
TK and Kindergarten enrollment has begun!!
We are starting the enrollment for Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten for the 2021-2022 school year. If you have a child that is turning 5 between December 3, 2020 thru September 2, 2021 you will apply for Kindergarten. If your child turns 5 between September 3, 2021 thru December 2, 2021 you will app;ly for Transitional Kindergarten.
The application deadline is February 26, 2021 Any applications received after that date will be placed on a waitlist.Once you receive acceptance notice, Physicals will be mandatory for enrollment to Kindergarten and cannot be dated before March 1, 2021 to enroll for Kindergarten. If you have any questions please email our registrar at mberinger@tracylc.net
K and TK Application (PDF)
K and TK Application (en Espanol)
DCS
DCS Picture Day is Wednesday, Feb 14th
MHS
Picture Day-
All High School Students (including online students) Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Gym. For online students, we have a Google Form that you must complete to sign up for a time slot.
MHS Online Student Picture Day Sign-up
Learning Continues on MHS Campus-
Physics kicked off a unit on electromagnetism this week with a day fully dedicated to exploring the behaviors of magnets. Did you know that there is a national laboratory in Florida dedicated to building and housing magnets? Next week we will have the great fortune of participating in a Zoom field trip to speak with a specialist from Florida’s Maglab to learn more about what makes their magnets the most powerful in the world.
Congratulations to all our Honor Roll recipients!
We had a fun celebration on Thursday to show how proud we are of your hard work and dedication. Go Falcons!!
New CDC Research Backs Biden Push for In-Person Schooling
By Sarah D. Sparks & Mark Lieberman — January 26, 2021 8 min read
A staff member holds the door open for students on the first day of school at Goodwin Frazier Elementary School in New Braunfels, Texas, last August.
Mikala Compton/Herald-Zeitung via AP
Research released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is adding fuel to the Biden administration’s push for school districts to return to in-person instruction, even amid the latest wave of the pandemic.
However, at least one of the new studies warns against governors’ moves to restart high school indoor sports in several states.
A handful of new studies, including one released Tuesday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, add to evidence that students and teachers may be able to safely return to in-person instruction, even in communities with widespread coronavirus infection, if the schools use key health and safety practices such as mask-wearing, social distancing, sanitation, and keeping students in small groups or “cohorts” to limit interaction.
“As many schools have reopened for in-person instruction in some parts of the [United States] as well as internationally, school-related cases of COVID-19 have been reported, but there has been little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission,” wrote CDC researchers led by Margaret Honein in an accompanying viewpoint essay in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
“The preponderance of available evidence from the fall school semester has been reassuring insofar as the type of rapid spread that was frequently observed in congregate living facilities or high-density worksites has not been reported in education settings in schools.”
Schools used clear health protections
NOTE
The Tracy Learning Center Schools have been open for in-person since October and early November. We have approximately 45% of our students back on campus. We follow safety guidelines and are proving to be a safe place. In all these months, we have had four positive COVID cases which resulted in closing a room or a school for the quarantine time. None of the cases traced back to exposure at school.
PCS
Happy Monday! We will be passing along more info as we get closer but we have our PCS picture day scheduled for Wednesday, February 24th.
DCS
Welcome to week 24 parents/guardians and students!
Please visit our website to find our most current Nest standings (Leadership page), our class updates (56 and 78 pages), information about ‘your circle of control’ (Counseling Corner), and information on ELPAC practice meetings (EL Program).
MHS
MHS FALL 2020 HONOR ROLL!! Congratulations to all of the MHS Falcons who are on the Honor Roll for Fall 2020! Please see the attached list of recipients! Honor Roll GPA’s are based on Fall Semester Total Unweighted GPA’s, which can be found on student report cards in Aeries. (Delta College classes are not included.) Students Attending On-Campus: Your honor roll certificate and a treat will be delivered to you on Thursday, February 4th! Students Attending Distance Learning: Certificate (And Treat!) Drive-Through Pickup When: Friday, February 5th between 11:00am-12:00 noon Where: High School Staff parking lot / car line near the basketball courts How: Students and parents, please remain in your car and wear a mask – our high school staff will hand you your certificate and treat through the window! **If you are unable to pick up your certificate at this date/time, it will be mailed to you.**
English Language Learners – ELPAC testing starts next week. We encourage you to take a moment and explore the test using the link below. As with any test, you do better when you practice.
https://www.elpac.org/resources/online-practice-and-training-test/