Cyber School – Letter from Mr. Retzer – ACA

Cyber School – Letter from Mr. Retzer

The mandated closing of schools has placed a unique burden on our teachers, parents and students to carry on the educational process. Because of these extraordinary circumstances the ACA staff is developing new ways for ACA teachers and students to obtain ACA educational goals. The Administrative Team – Mrs. Carol Paige, Director of Curriculum & Instruction; Mrs. Alicia Volpe, Director of Academic Policies; Mrs. Courtney Odom, Secondary Principal; Ms. Amanda Pine, Elementary Principal; Mr. Nelson Ortiz, Director of Operations & Finance; and me – met via the Internet yesterday afternoon and have worked for several hours to develop clear directions for our teachers to proceed in providing educational services to our students.

We are now asking our teachers to translate the guidelines we developed into lesson plans for our students.

The teachers are now actively working to develop specialized Lesson Plans, establish online class procedures and provide specific information for their students. Classes will resume on Monday.

These will be the expectations for ACA students.

Again…this is not a vacation, we are still in school. There will be homework assignments, quizzes or small projects and tests or large projects. There will be due dates and the same rules will apply for late assignments.
All students will receive introductory information from their teacher by Friday afternoon. Lesson plans and assignments will be sent to students or will be accessible by 8:00 each morning for that day\’s work and assignments.
All assignments and grades count the same as in a normal classroom.

Students will likely need to spend several hours a day to accomplish their work. Please remember that our students spend approximately 6 hours per day in the classroom. Thus, the assignments for all of their subjects will likely not be in an hour or even two. Parents will likely need to help younger students stay on task.

Here are some ideas…

Have your students work on one subject, then take a break for a few minutes before going on to the next assignment.
Minimize the distractions by placing the student in an area without the television and where they can give the best attention to do their assignments.

If your child becomes ill

You must call in or email to notify each day a student is \»absent\», too sick to do their assignments, just as if we were in a normal school setting.
If more than two days, then a doctor\’s note is required, as normal.
If there is no note no makeup work will be allowed, grades of \»0\» will be entered and the \»absences\» will be considered \»unexcused.\»

Also, please be aware to watch for the symptoms of covid-19. The first treatment is at home, but if the fever contiues to rise then to seek medical help.

Please remind your children that the home is the first line of defense to practice good health procedures by washing hands, not placing hands in the mouth or around the face and to cough or sneeze into a Kleenex or into their sleeve.

I am continuing to pray for all of the ACA family.

God bless you and keep you,

Mr. Marvin Retzer
General Director