Dear Parents,
As you can imagine, the past week has been quite busy “not at the Academy.” We commented to our Board Chair, Robert Mayes, earlier in the week that it was harder to have school on campus than it was to have school on campus. The teachers and administrators have really risen to the occasion and have jumped into the e-learning process.
Many of you heard Governor Ivey announce on Thursday that there would not be school on campus in Alabama for the remainder of the year. We have received several questions about how this will impact South Baldwin Christian Academy.
First, and most importantly, the K-12 program will finish the 2019/2020 school year using e-learning. Payments for aftercare services were suspended on March 6th and refunds will be sent to parents. If you have questions regarding financial assistance for tuition, please email a description of the need and circumstances to: Covid19@southbaldwinca.net
Second, the school office will continue to remain open this week March 30 – April 3 from 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.. We encourage parents to stop by and pick up any remaining student items during that time. Student portfolios of work created in art class this year will be available for pick up in the office. The office will be closed April 6 – 10 for Spring Break.
Finally, in an earlier communication, we introduced families to our plans for online learning. This plan is being implemented in phases.
Phase I: Introduction to Online Learning (Mar. 18 – April 3)
- Teachers, students & staff began working with online instruction technologies (Zoom, Google Classroom, Class Dojo) to get comfortable and familiar with using these tools.
Spring Break (April 6-10)
Phase II: Structured Online Learning Model (Apr. 13- May 21)
- Students login to Zoom from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. Mon. – Fri. for online class lectures/lessons/group help.
- Students/teachers can schedule additional Zoom meetings for one-on-one help from 12 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Mon. – Fri.
- Recorded Zoom sessions will be available for those students who cannot “attend” virtual class sessions.
- Student attendance will be determined by completed work.
- Teachers will post assignments daily.
- Class assignments due dates for the week will be determined by the teacher.
We are currently thinking through the effectiveness of administering the Spring NWEA test. We will keep you updated as we work through this decision. We are sure there will be many more decisions to be made along the way and we will communicate with you as quickly as possible. Please keep an eye out for our regular Monday news email updates.
Blessings,
SBCA Administration
