Dear Thomasville City Schools Community,
It is hard to believe we are completing our fourth week of digital/distance learning. I am proud of the attitude, flexibility, grace and resilience shown by our faculty, staff, parents and students. I am especially proud of our senior class of 2020. Schools across our state and country have worked extremely hard to come up with a “plan” to continue instruction. This is complicated due to connectivity issues in our communities. Parents have worked extremely hard during this time to encourage and assist their students while trying to continue their normal lives and we know this has been difficult. I want to thank each of you for your patience and understanding as we do our best to sort out an extraordinary amount of information from both the state and federal level in regards to education. These are extraordinary times which call for extraordinary measures.
To ensure you have been provided with the most recent information during this school closure, below are several updates that have occurred since Spring Break:
Graduation
Our plan is to have a regular graduation if it is deemed safe based on local, state and CDC guidance. Our intention is to continue to monitor the situation and make a decision in mid May based on the information we have at that time. Our hope is we will have information then to determine if a graduation ceremony later in the summer is an option. We are also working on a virtual graduation if a final decision is made that we cannot hold a safe graduation. We want to do everything in our power to hold a regular graduation ceremony.
Grading
Teachers continue to deliver valuable instruction and this remains an important time for students to be engaged in their learning. Student’s overall grades will not decrease from the March 13 date of our closure, but opportunities remain for students to improve their grades based on completed assignments for grades 1-12. May 8 will be the last day for students to turn in assignments in order to give our teachers ample time to grade assignments and work with any students needing help.
Kindergarten - GKIDS reporting was suspended by the state department of education and will not be reported. Kindergarten report cards are finalized with the 3rd 9wks (March 13).
Meal Service
At this point, meals are available at no cost for all students and will continue with a weekly pick up as long as it is deemed safe. The weekly pickup will be held at Thomasville High School and communication will be provided via social media.
Board of Education Meeting
Our March BOE meeting was held via phone conference and streamed via our YouTube channel. We will follow this same plan for our future BOE meetings and will communicate if there are any changes.
Plans for students to pick up belongings from school
We are working on a plan to make this available but we want to wait and ensure everyone’s safety before this is announced.
Thank you to our students, parents, teachers, support staff, and leaders! It has been wonderful to watch the Bulldog Pride during these difficult times.
Sincerely,
Ben Wiggins, Superintendent