Message to Families

<\To families who did not get this message delivered to their email, please ensure we have your correct email in our system by reviewing/updating your student’s Data Verification Form accessed through parent Source account. You have until Sat, 9/30 to do this. This can only be done once per student. Also, ensure you have updated your SchoolMessenger preferences.

Beloved Families,

I hope you had a great first week of school! It was really nice to connect with all of our students in their classrooms and our halls. The energy and excitement around campus this week was buzzing, and exciting to be around. A highlight to the week was our Freshman Scavenger Hunt, where our incoming Freshman learned about our Nathan Hale campus and culture through an interactive activity through school.

Another highlight to the week were our Grade Level Meetings during Mentorship where we introduced our administrative and counseling team to each grade level, followed by reviewing our schoolwide expectations. It was a great first week of school! Please see our information below on syllabus review and academic support time.

We had several parent volunteers come in and help with collating the Start of School packets as well as helping students with their lunch PIN numbers. Thank you for your support with these activities! And thank you to all our parents and guardians for ensuring their student(s) are getting to school in these first few days.

Syllabus Review with Student

Families, please check each class syllabus with your student, as each syllabus will have a grading policy, retake policy, cell phone and device expectations for class, and a communication plan for grades and missing assignments throughout the course.

Academic Support Time

Starting on Wednesday, September 20th in the second half of Mentorship, students needing to retake quizzes or tests, or needing extra academic help will be able to use support time to do so. Students will need a support pass from their teacher they will be visiting, and can use the time for academic planning and support.

Attendance Practices at Nathan Hale HS and Nathan Hale website

For those new to Nathan Hale wondering how to sign your student out early for an appointment, please read our Attendance webpage on our website. Parents do not need to come into the building to sign their student out, though we recommend pre-arranging where outside you will meet them. Methods of signing out your student are noted on the webpage. The Nathan Hale website has a lot of helpful information, please check it out!

Start of School Packets and Device Agreement 

Your student should have brought home a manila envelope with start of school information and a few forms. Please return required forms to the school as soon as possible. An electronic version with Nathan Hale specific info will be emailed home to families on Monday. 

Lastly, thank you all, in advance, for signing the 2023-2024 Device Agreement. Your partnership in this change is extremely important to us keeping our classrooms free of distraction and focused on teaching learning. For good context and information on the impact of phones in schools, please read the following article with your student from The Atlantic Monthly by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. (If you can’t access the article, which has an audio option, you can download this attached pdf: Article by J.Haidt)

With love,

William Jackson, Ed.D. (he,him)
Principal
Nathan Hale High School