Hello STEM Families.
I hope you are all enjoying the warmer weather and time with your children. While our students are on break, many of our staff work throughout the summer preparing for the next school year. Our building facilities and maintenance teams are busy repairing, cleaning, painting and carpeting. Teachers and counselors are creating Problem-Based Learning opportunities, assessments, and ACCESS lessons, and administrators and office staff are gearing up for the start of another successful year at STEM in August.
Review and Processing Feedback
At the conclusion of each year, we look to the feedback we have received and lessons learned to help us determine necessary improvements to better serve our students, families and staff. Thank you for your part in this process. We gather this information through surveys, meetings, and informal interactions with all our stakeholders.
Standards-Based Grading/Learning
As you know, we have been working hard to ensure that Standards-Based Grading and Learning is a good fit for our school. We believe that with some adjustments to our practices, SBL aligns well with our Problem-Based Learning model and efforts to provide our students and parents with the feedback they need to grow academically and socially. Please click here to read more about SBL Grading here.
Exciting News
This coming school year, we’ll begin equipping sixth graders with school-owned and managed devices. This shift maximizes instructional time by enabling more targeted support during lessons. Remote software installation will further contribute to this goal. To prepare, parents of sixth graders will complete the necessary paperwork during Express Check-In. Laptop distribution will occur during Access classes on Wednesday, Aug. 7. If you have any questions, please contact our IT Department at support@stemk12.org.
Preparing for Express Check-In
Express Check-In will begin in mid-July, with an exact date to be announced soon. The purpose of Express Check-In is for families to have the opportunity to update/confirm their contact and important information, sign important documents and pay for student fees.
This year, student fees will increase by $50 to accommodate the increase in consumable expenses that we’ve seen increase over the past few years. We’ve been fortunate not to have raised student fees over the past several years, but for us to provide our students with the best possible educational experience, we have to implement this slight increase in fees this year.
During Express Check-In, you’ll be able to review the complete document of what the student fees pay for. However, to give you an idea, the student fees help cover the cost of instructional materials, supplies, and consumables. Items that are also covered by fees include helping to fund security, mental health support and Special Education costs.
Student fees do not cover AP test fees, AP books, field trips, yearbooks, computer devices, bus fees, optional locker rental, student parking fees, BASE, Enrichment fees, CHSAA fees and other individual costs.
Also, during Express Check-In, families will review and sign off on the Student-Parent Handbook, the Transportation Management Plan, the Technology Acceptable Use Policy and the STEM Approved Apps and Website Use Form.
Please see the Elementary News/Updates or the Secondary News/Updates section of the newsletter for information on how to prepare for Express Check-In.
I hope you have a great summer.
In partnership,
LynAnn Kovalesky, Executive Director