This year our faculty and staff have implemented a new program called Professional Learning Communities or PLC’s. This will involve the teaming of teachers who will meet weekly to assess student progress. Through team collaboration, students will be taught a set of standards which are objectives that are required by the state for each subject. This curriculum will be shared and taught by a team of teachers, instead of only being taught by one core subject teacher.

Also, our school board has adopted a 9-week grading period to correspond with future changes in statewide testing. SJHS will provide mini-term reports at the end of every 3 weeks to communicate each student’s progress. A traditional report card will be given at the end of every 9 weeks. Many of our grading policies will also change to standards-based grading which will reflect more of the student’s actual tested knowledge rather than homework and extra credit grading. This is an effort to mirror the student’s mastery of a specific subject area on both the report card and the TCAP proficiency test.

Another new program added this year is Academic Achievement and Advancement or AAA. This program will use the student’s prior TCAP test scores and their 3-week progress to determine placement. AAA was implemented as an adjunct to raise the student’s proficiency in a specific area of subject matter. AAA will rotate students in and out of the program based on mastery of their specified area of need. At the end of 3 weeks and/or completion of benchmark testing, some students may rotate out of the program and other students may rotate into the program. AAA was designed to assist in individualized student learning and achievement.

Our faculty and staff at SJHS are very excited about this new school year. There are many challenges and changes that are being made and worked through in order to provide each student the best possible individualized success. As with most new ideas and programs, there may need to be adjustments and other changes to achieve the desired outcome. We appreciate your patience and cooperation as we have each student’s academic achievement as our number one priority. We welcome parent involvement and communication to ensure the academic success of each student at SJHS.

Thank you,
Rodney Boruff
Principal