We made it!

Welcome to the last day of the 2011-2012 school year. It has been an adventure and a joy to work with you all and to get to know you and the amazing New Tech program you have built!

In my 21 years in education, the end of the school year always sneaks up, but this year was unlike any other I've experienced before~ I feel so unprepared to say goodbye today and tomorrow. I apologize for letting the year-end wrap up get a bit chaotic. I'll definitely do better next year! One completely unexpected event was the catastrophic failure of our staff / student server (NTHS-1). It failed about, oh I guess it's close to two weeks ago, and Shaun and I have been tied up in extensive communications with the central office trying to figure out what was going on and what we could do to remedy the situation. In a nutshell, this event was unpreventable and one of those rare 'perfect storm' things that no one saw coming and no one could have prevented. And it was catastrophic; we have potentially lost sixteen years worth of documents. We are still working with the District Office to try to recover as much as we can from a back up file, but there are no guarantees. Cross your fingers and think good thoughts. Hopefully we can salvage a lot. The two people who were impacted the most on our staff seem to be Heidi, who lost everything she had created over the years relating to our awards ceremonies and scholarships. She was scrambling to recreate everything and worked long and hard over the weekend to pull everything together. The other staff member severely impacted was James Brown, who had many students upload portfolios onto the server. We fear those may not be recoverable.

I want to thank everyone for all your tremendously hard work and the weekend time that I know so many of you have put in, especially recently. I also want to express how impressed I was with Tech Lends A Hand. The quality of the work you guided your Advisories in was exceptional. Tom and I were able to visit a number of you in action, and many of our students were making meaningful contributions to our community. I didn't think about this earlier but I need a copy of any letters and donation requests that you or your students sent out; we are going to do a better job next year of tracking our donations and sending thank yous. Although this probably goes without saying, if your advisory did not send a donation thank you letter (we have a standard template in the office) that includes our tax-ID number, please be sure that you or a student sends one out, and provide a copy to me in the Admin Office. If you can't locate a student to create the thank you letter today, just put it on your "to do" list for next year. A late thank you is better than no thank you at all!

Everyone will teach advisory again, following the new model created by a group of staff through the "Heidi Challenge Collaboration" that occurred during our Mandatory Staff meetings. We will fine-tune the advisory plan together as a group when we return in August. You will be sent a Google doc later today asking your opinion about whether you want a 9th and 11th advisory mix or a 10th and 12th advisory mix. We will try our best to accommodate any special requests from you.

Here is our draft master schedule (rooms and periods are still being worked out):
Provenza: Communication Studies (1), English 9 Workshop, English 9 (2)
Serene: World Studies (2), ICE
Federico: American Studies (2), Video Production
Hale: Political Studies (2), English Workshop for 10-11
Wilson: World Studies (2), AVID
Carlton: Scientific Studies (1), Stand-alone Algebra 2 (2), Algebra 1
Jouaneh: Biofitness (2), Advocate
Dennett: Communication Studies (1), Art 1 (1), Art 2,3, 4 (1), Adv Drama (1)
Spanish (P/T) JE Buckingham: Spanish 1 (3)
Spanish (F/T): Spanish 2 (2), Spanish 1 (3)
Brown: Digital Media 2 (3), Virtual Digital Media 2 (1), Webpage Design
Kosanke: Spatial Studies (1), Yearbook, Digital Media 1, Digital Media 3
Wolf: Biofitness (2), PE for 10-12
Abboud: Chemistry (2), Biology (1), Tours & Marketing, Advocate
Paisley: Spatial Studies (1), Algebra 1 (2), Math Workshop
Baldauf: Political Studies (2)
Bynum: Scientific Studies (1), Stand-alone Physics (2), Chemistry (1)
English: American Studies (2)
Solberg: ISPE, Leadership

When I meet with you as part of Check Out (you meet with me last, after you've gotten everything else signed off), I will have you sign up for your preferred Adjuncts next year, following the new Adjunct design created by a group of staff through the "Heidi Challenge Collaboration" that occurred during our Mandatory and voluntary staff meetings. I will also send you a Google doc later today that would allow you to review the new plan and sign up virtually.

If you are attending NTAC, be sure that Pam has you on the list, and that you reserve your own airline tickets. You may submit a request for advance reimbursement using a form available from Pam. I hope to see you all at Pam's house later today for our Luncheon and Secret Pal reveal. Best wishes to you all over the summer. Please feel free to keep in touch. My cell phone / home phone number is 707-260-9235. I look forward to our continued work together in August!

Sincerely and with regard, Michelle