Message from Principal Thompson

Stallion Families,

I hope you had a wonderful break and are as ready as I am for 2022! We missed our Stallions; it's great to see them fill our hallways up with laughter and learning this week!

While we know we have some challenges ahead of us with the spread of Covid-19, we have the utmost confidence in our community, staff, and students to work together to ensure the safest school environment possible.

Please read below for updated information from our nurses and reminders regarding our Covid-19 protocols and procedures. We also ask that you help us remind our students of the importance of masking, washing our hands, and keeping our social distance at this time.

Let’s make this a great return to school and a wonderful new year together!

Stallion Strong,

Principal Thompson

UPCOMING DATES

JAN 7: Student Leadership Team Applications Due

JAN 17: Martin Luther King, Jr Day - no school

JAN 19: Career Day Submissions Due

JAN 21: Career Day

 NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS

Message from the School Nurses

As Covid is at the top of everyone's mind, we have a few reminders for our community:

If your student is sick at home, they should not come to school. Please assess your student(s) daily at home before sending them back to school.

If you student has tested positive, or been in close contact with a confirmed covid-19 case, please EMAIL Nurse Assistant Lewanda Mclemore-Vaughn at lmclemorevaughn@dallasisd.org. (Nurse Sundin will be out for a few weeks.) Emails reporting Covid-related information should contain:
1. Students’ legal name and class section / teacher
2. Date of close contact or positive test
3. Symptoms and any further context
4. Vaccination status of the student
5. Copy of positive/negative Covid-19 test if applicable

We will continue to adhere to the same quarantine rules as the Fall and isolate for 10 days after a positive Covid test. The new CDC guidelines suggesting 5 days of isolation has not been adopted by Dallas County or the district, and therefore does NOT pertain to K-12.

Those who have been fully vaccinated and are deemed a close contact will not be required to quarantine if they are not displaying symptoms. As always, anyone who displays symptoms of COVID-19 should stay home and contact their health care provider.

If your child has been fully vaccinated, please submit a copy of the vaccination card to lmclemorevaughn@dallasisd.org.

See HERE for the full letter to parents. Please have a safe and healthy week!

Why might my student be missing an ACP grade on their report card?

At the December 2021 Board meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a waiver to specific ACP policy language to ensure student semester grades are not negatively impacted by Fall ACP results.

Currently, EIA (LOCAL) requires the ACP to count for a percentage of the student’s semester average (15% of a high school, 10% of a middle school and 5% for elementary). Understanding that the impact of the pandemic will require additional time to accelerate learning, it is our intention to hold students harmless during the recovery process.

Approved Protocol

To ensure students are held harmless by the Fall ACP results and to ensure that teachers, leaders, and the District retain key data to inform instructional support decisions, the following protocol will be implemented:

The Fall ACP grade will be included in the semester grade calculation only if it helps the students’ semester average (i.e. only if the ACP will bring the semester average up).
The Fall ACP will NOT be included in the semester grade calculation if it will harm the students’ semester average (i.e., the ACP will bring the semester average down). In this scenario, the students’ semester grades will be determined by averaging the first two grading periods of the semester.

This ensures that students receive the most benefit related to semester average calculation while maintaining the focus on using data to improve future achievement outcomes.

Other Things to Note

Principals and teachers would continue to get the ACP data aligned with STAAR projections to plan for Spring semester instructional adjustments at the campus level.
Student grades would only be positively impacted by this proposal, they could not be made worse.
The final grade for the semester, whether it includes the ACP or waives the ACP based on this protocol, will still be utilized to determine class rank calculations for applicable courses per EIC (Exhibit B).

At this point, no proposal is being made for Spring ACP inclusion in semester grades. Any discussion on the Spring will come at a later date.

Submissions Due January 19

If you're viewing on mobile and cannot access the QR, you may visit THIS LINK to upload videos. Just tell the kids a little bit about what you do and why it's great! Kids think it's SO COOL to see someone they know in these compilations!

X-Large Cardboard Boxes Needed for Theater!

If anyone has XL cardboard boxes, the theater department would love to use them for sets and props! Anything 4ft x 4ft or larger is ideal; refrigerator, mattress or furniture boxes are perfect. Just bring them up to school and the front office staff can help store them in the auditorium. Thanks!

STUDENT LEADERSHIP TEAMS!

Dear Stallion Families,

Lighthouse is so excited to introduce our Student Leadership Teams! We will have three teams this school year, with the hopes of adding more in the coming school years. Applications are available by the trophy case and by Ms. James's office. Applications must be submitted no later than January 7th; no late applications will be accepted.

Thank you for your participation, and if you have any questions please contact: Cristina Romero (Lighthouse Coordinator) crromero@dallasisd.org.

Thank you,

Lighthouse Team

CRITERIA TO BE ACCEPTED

For all positions: