District 204 Shares First Semester News, Holiday Wishes

Press release from Joliet Township High School District 204 :

Dear Parents and Students,

I am wishing all our students and families a happy holiday and new year. We made it through First Semester! I want to take a moment to thank our students and families for their perseverance and resiliency. Remote learning is not easy, but we found our way by working together, and we experienced success.

Semester 1 Success

• Over 90 percent of our students attend one or more classes each day.
• Over 70 percent of all student grades are within the A, B or C category.
• Over 4,000 online parent teacher conferences were scheduled and an additional 550 parents requested conferences to take place on another day.
• JTHS staff provided free, online tutoring to students at convenient hours such as weekends and evenings.
• An online Gateways to Graduation program was developed to help seniors recover credit to graduate on time.
• An online Winter Credit Recovery program is available at no cost to students whose Semester 1 grades fell between 50 to 59 percent. These students can improve their grade over winter break and earn credit.
• Students had access to over 40 online clubs, and when permissible, athletic competitions and practices took place.
• Laptop computers were distributed to 99.1 percent of our students and over 1,300 students received hotspots or grant-funded access to Wi-Fi.
• And finally…..we successfully moved to the Infinite Campus system!
  I hope you all find Campus Parent/Student informative and easy to navigate.

While I know the list above does not cover it all, it is important to take a moment to reflect on what was achieved. We have the best students, families, teachers, staff, Board of Education and community! I am grateful for all of you!

Semester 2
As Semester 1 comes to an end, we look forward to Semester 2. The first day of Semester 2 classes are Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Classes follow a new and simpler schedule with 40-minute class periods and 10 minutes in between each class. Remote learning will continue until February 16, 2021, and we will re-evaluate the decision to deliver instruction remotely on a monthly basis for the remainder of the school year. The schedule for the first week of Semester 2 classes is below.

Report Card Reminder 
As a reminder, Semester 1 Report Cards will be posted to Campus Parent and Campus Student no later than December 21.  Instructions for accessing report cards are available in English and Spanish. If you need assistance, contact Central Campus Family Liaison Alicia Rojas or West Campus Family Liaison Lisa Guzman.  Our Family Engagement Liaisons can help in English and Spanish. 

Scholarships
Seniors, now is the time to apply for scholarships! We update our online Scholarship Bulletin regularly. During break, consider submitting scholarship applications.
Central Bulletin 
West Bulletin 

Featured Scholarship: Holly Club/Barbara J. Rakoski Volunteerism College Scholarship
Amount: $1,000
Deadline: February 15, 2021
Qualifications:  It is that trait of desiring to serve that is the most important in the Holly Club selection process.

Staff Appreciation from Students
Our fine arts students and student ambassadors recorded beautiful music and words of appreciation to share with our staff. I thought I would share their message for you to enjoy. My wish for all of you is to find and express gratitude wherever and whenever possible, even during these hard times.

Happy Holidays!
Dr. Karla Guseman

This press release was produced by Joliet Township High School District 204 . The views expressed here are the author’s own.