The Knight's Stand Newsletter, 11.4.20 😊

Dear Montview Families,

This past week we brought in our first group of students for our learning centers here on campus. It was incredible to have students walking into our building for the first time in nearly seven months, both this week and last week. It makes me long for the day when more students can be in our building, as I now see more than ever that schooling is a social enterprise and relies on the connections forged between a classroom of learners and their teachers. All of us - students, families, staff - are working hard to make our remote learning work but the challenges are immense for all of us.

As we settle into a longer stretch of online learning, we as a school are soon going to share new ways for our kids to connect through shared interest and opportunities with other students. We are looking to develop clubs and online activities that will support students connecting with others who they may not have class or advisory with, but who might share another interest. Additionally, we want to explore a safe and healthy manner for small groups of students to potentially interact on our campus. There is much to be considered for that possibility, but we know the value of person to person connection and want to make that an opportunity for more students. We see the need for creative solutions to help our kids to connect and to strengthen our community. Please be on the lookout for these opportunities.

Finally, I want to share that I know none of this is easy and our inability to bring large numbers of students back to school weighs on me and our staff each day. We know the challenge of online learning. We know we have much success to celebrate in how we have all adapted, yet we know this is far from ideal and is making it an incredible challenge to help our kids grow. I believe firmly though, that if we unite as a community to learn and grow during this time we will come out strong on the other end of this challenge. In the next weeks, we will be working to connect our families with one another and to host workshops that can support you to learn the best methods for supporting your kids. We will also use our conferences in early December to share the best methods for supporting your kids and to celebrate their successes.

As a school, we promise to further push the social dynamism that needs to be fostered and we hope you will take part in those opportunities with us.

Go Knights!

John Clark, School Director

Last week we invited three students in our Knights’ Castle back to school and this week we started our remote learning centers for a select number of kids. While we wish we could have more students with us, we are thrilled with the attendance and effort of our nearly 30 students who joined us.

They have engaged in their work incredibly well and are taking advantage of this opportunity. Our goal is to increase the engagement of our students, provide them with more in-person supports, and we hope to increase their overall gains. Additionally, we are learning lots about the effectiveness of our health and safety protocols and feel confident about our ability to bring more kids back safely, as time permits.

Here are a few photos from our first days of our learning centers:

While our timeline for a more robust return to school has changed, we want to ensure that families and students have early access to and experience with our Daily Health Screener.

Currently, every staff member and student who enters the building must complete the Daily Health Screener and walk past our Thermal Scanner for a temperature check. We believe that we have a thorough plan to maintain the Health and Safety of our community while inside the building. The first step in the process is our Daily Health Screener.

Currently, parents are not allowed into the building, as all meetings will be held virtually. However, for students, this is the link to use. While only students from our Center Program and Remote Learning Centers should complete this every day for now, we wanted to share it with all of you ahead of any decisions to return to school.

DSST Daily Health Screener (link)

Student Email: first name.last name.mtv @ scienceandtech.org

Password: student's 6 digit lunch #/DPS ID

It’s November and our Core Value focus this month is Doing Your Best!

We are kicking off a variety of student celebrations and rewards to recognize students who are going above and beyond in our community in a variety of ways.

Attention 8th Grade Families!

If your student is struggling with missing assignments and you want to know how to check to make sure your student is actually completing and submitting work check out this VIDEO by Mr. DuCharme.

Also, our Knight's Community always has amazing Morning Meetings. Below are two recent ones from 6th Grade Science Teacher, Tracey Neubrand, and 6-8 ELD Teacher, Sarah Gibson. As an added bonus, if you were ever interested in what our Knight's Mascot has been up to recently, look no further.

Neubrand 6th Grade Morning Meeting: Science Experiment
Gibson 7th Grade Morning Meeting: Elections
What's our Knight been up to?

Thursday and Friday, November 19-20, Early Dismissal at 1:00pm: Interim Assessments for Science, Social Studies and Honors Math

Friday, November 20: End of Trimester 1

Monday-Friday, November 23-27: Thanksgiving Break, no school for Students

Monday, November 30: Start of Trimester 2

Want to know what else is happening at DSST: Montview MS?
Follow us, below on Facebook or
visit the DSST: Montview MS website

Mr. Clark's Corner

Celebrating the Weird and
the Written Word at MTV MS

Remote Learning Center & Knights’ Castle Updates

DSST: Montview Student Health Screener

School Culture Corner

Important Upcoming Dates:

Interim Assessment Information

School Accountability Meeting

Helpful Links