School and district newsletters

Question: What happened to the district newsletter, as well as each schools newsletters? I looked forward to them every month but have not seen any updates since last year.

Answer: Thank you for your question! My colleagues and I in the district communications office are glad you’re interested in reading about events happening in B-P schools.

Several times over the past few years, we’ve surveyed parents and other residents about how they access B-P news and how they’d like to receive school and district news. Based on results from those surveys, we’ve chosen to shift our efforts more toward our digital communications channels — the district website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube channel, mass emails/SMS text messages/phone calls, and the mobile app — since the vast majority of parents (nearly 90% on one survey) said they’d rather receive information that way.

School newsletters

Question: Am I to assume that none of the schools are putting out newsletters this year? We are almost to November and none of the schools have put one out. Not to mention it looks funny to still have last June's on the website. I looked forward to seeing what the schools are up to.

Answer: The school newsletters will be published quarterly this year, around the time that student report cards are issued. Each school works with the district communications office to publish their newsletters and arranges for their own individual deadlines.
- answered by Michele Kelley, district communications specialist

Classroom news in HS newsletter

Question: Why is it that the high school newsletter never has any information about what is going on in the classroom? The other three buildings don't seem to have a problem with this. The general public may want to see what is going on in the school.

Answer: Unlike teachers in the elementary and middle schools, high school teachers teach as many as six different courses involving up to 150 different students. To require high school teachers to submit monthly reports on each of their classes for the high school newsletter would create a significant time commitment for them -- time I would rather see them spending on lesson planning, grading and educating our students.

Our high school newsletter does feature classroom news from time to time. In addition, whenever our teachers are doing something new or innovative in their classrooms, we encourage them to share those experiences with the community, and we often publish news from high school classrooms on our district website and Facebook page. (Learn about two of our newest classes, Design and Drawing for Production and Introduction to Engineering, at our Re-Imagining webpage.)

Any parents who are interested in learning more about what is happening in their children's high school classrooms should contact their children's teachers -- click here for our high school directory. They should also talk to their children directly to find out what their children are learning, what areas they're excelling in and where they could use additional help. Parents should call the counseling center at 954-2620 with any questions or concerns.

- answered by Robin Blowers, high school principal

Where's the TLC newsletter?

Question: The TLC newsletter online is from June 2010. Why?

Answer: The Learning Community did not publish a September newsletter because, prior to the start of school, I sent a five-page letter to all parents that contained the relevant information they would need for the beginning of the school year. The October newsletter is now available on the district website.
- answered by Terry LaFountain, The Learning Community Principal