CAC High School Principal’s Notes
Dear High School Parents,
Welcome to this week’s edition of Highro-Glyphics!
Thanks to all students, parents, faculty, and staff who have helped make the first week of school a success. The logistics all went very well, and students were cooperative and positive despite so many things being different than before: campus entry and exit, mask wearing, area cleaning, social distancing, one way staircases, and much more. All of these measures are there to keep our community safe and healthy so that we can focus on our main goal: learning.
As I visited classes this week, rooms looked different, but learning looked the same. It was a joy to see face-to-face classroom activities again (even if those faces were all covered). I got involved in some of those activities myself, trying to solve a problem in math and a puzzle in science. I performed poorly on both, but that’s OK—as those math and science lessons demonstrated, we often learn by finding what doesn’t work before we can find what does work.
We continue to refine our COVID mitigation strategies as we learn more about how those measures work in practice. As Dr. Harris noted in yesterday’s welcome letter, your family can help by continuing to practice good social distancing outside of school.
Principal’s Notes Highlights:
● Principal’s Virtual Coffee
● Back to School Night
● Health and Safety Checklist
● Late arrivals to Cairo
● Food on campus
Principal’s Virtual Coffee
Join us for a principal’s virtual coffee Tuesday, September 1 at 2:00 pm. We will discuss how our Blended Learning program is working, review health and safety protocols, and discuss plans moving forward. This will be a good opportunity for parents to ask questions, as there will be no Q&A session during Back-to-School Night. Parents will receive a Zoom link via email on Tuesday morning.
Back to School Night
Back to School Night will be the evening of Wednesday, September 2. We will start with an orientation on Zoom at 5:00 pm Cairo time. Parents will receive a Zoom link via email on Wednesday morning. The orientation will be recorded. The rest of the evening will be asynchronous, as parents will be able to access teacher-produced videos through the CAC parent dashboard. In the videos, teachers will introduce themselves and provide a brief overview of the particular course.
Health and Safety Checklist
Please take time to review the checklists for students and parents (click here) related to health and safety. As with anything, teenagers will require practice to develop good habits. Please make sure your child knows how to properly wear a mask and does so in all public areas. Please also model appropriate wearing of masks, as they will follow your example. As noted above, we need to be quite strict about wearing masks and maintaining social distance on campus. Students who do not comply with health and safety protocols will be sent home.
Students late returning to Cairo
We appreciate that due to circumstances beyond their control, some families have not yet arrived in Cairo. If you are in this situation and have not already been in communication with me, please contact me at jduggan@cacegypt.org. Students unable to return to campus due to COVID-19 related travel complications have access to online materials and should contact their teachers now that their schedules are available on Skyward. Please also see information in the CAC Reopening Plan.
Food on campus
Campus food vendors remain closed for the time being. Students are encouraged to bring healthy snacks and lunch from home. Food deliveries for HS students are allowed to the back gate only.
Jerry Duggan Rachel McCall
HS Principal HS Assistant Principal
Counseling Department Announcements
Counselor Appointment System
Counselors will continue to be available for your students during the school day as we have been in the past. In order to control for the amount of foot traffic in our work area during the mitigation procedures for Covid, we have set up an online appointment system so we can meet students one at a time for a pre-arranged appointment in our office space (or online if the student is at home for a blended learning day).
Students can pre book a meeting time for breaks or lunch, and same day appointments are welcome. There will be QR codes posted outside the counseling office and other locations on campus soon linking to the counselors’ appointment booking page.
These are intended to be short q/a or check in meetings. If the topic or discussion we need to have will take longer, students should email the counselor directly to set up a time for a Flex/Study Hall block in person or online(or after school if it is an off campus day for them). We are also regularly communicating with students via email.
Parents, feel free to email your student’s counselor if you have questions or need to discuss anything related to your student’s academics and well-being at CAC. Online meetings can be set up as needed.
For Seniors: The Official College Application Season for the Class of 2021 is about to start! Our Senior College Night programming will be online this fall with information your student can use to plan a successful application process. There will be recorded sessions about various country systems and application procedures that you and your student can view. You will be able to choose the sessions that pertain to your student’s individual process. Those sessions will be available for families starting September 8th.
Counselors will be meeting with your senior between September 8th and September 30th to go over his/her individual process. Students have been given instructions to contact counselors to set that up.
Schedule Change Requests: Sept. 3rd is the last day for high school students to make any schedule changes. The top priority is to make sure students are on track for meeting graduation requirements, so please note that only requests that fit the appropriate level can be considered, and there is no guarantee a change is possible.
Registration Deadline for October SAT Exam
As many exams were cancelled during the Spring Semester, the College Board has added an exam date on September 26th.
There is also another exam originally scheduled for October 3rd. The registration deadline for the October exam is September 4th.
If your student would like to take this exam, s/he will need to register at www.collegeboard.org.
Registration Deadlines for upcoming ACT Exams
There are 2 ACT Testing dates coming up in the Fall of 2020: September 11/12 & October 9/10. There are four locations in Cairo to take the exam (CAC is not an ACT test site).
**The next international testing date will be held in April 2021, pending further announcements from the ACT.
Your student can register for the ACT here http://global.act.org/
Claudia Bean, Kasey Semler, Cameron Simon
HS Counseling
General Announcements
New CAC Bus Application Form
The new Bus application form is now available on the parents’ dashboard.
Below is the direct link:
Bus Rules and Regulations 20-21
CAC Transportation Office
Student Physical Reminder – 2020/2021
If your student will be entering grades 3, 6 or 9 next school year, we ask that he/she is seen and examined by a doctor, and a physical exam form completed and sent to the health office on or before the first day of school in August.
Completed physicals are accepted at the health office, by email at cgallagher@cacegypt.org or nosama@cacegypt.org or hand-delivered to security at the front gate.
https://www.cacegypt.org/PDF/Student_Physician_form.pdf
CAC Health Office
Community hours for the CAC libraries
Both CAC libraries will be open on Saturdays between 10 and 2 for our parents, faculty and students, for 30 minute appointments. Please book your time on the CAC Dashboard where you see “Campus Facilities Online Appointments.”
You will be asked for the number of people coming. If you are a parent, please include your child/ren in the count. We can only have 10 patrons in the library at a time. Appointment requests are only accepted until Friday, at 7 pm. You will not be able to come on to campus without an appointment.
Please note that library community hours are ONLY for Saturdays at this time. The weekday lunchtime appointment slots are only for HS students.
Parents can only check out on Saturdays. We will resume holds delivery in a modified format when we have received all the students’ books back from the summer.
Library materials are now due
Please return all your library materials checked out during last school year. There are drop boxes outside the MS gate and the ES gate 6 until September 1. After that, please send your books with your student to deposit at the libraries.
After September 1, students with overdue books may find their access to Skyward blocked.
Josianne Fitzgerald
MHS & Head Librarian
Join CAC PTO Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/99506497883?pwd=d2NxNDFML25VQ01aM25vTitNeU9LQT09
Meeting ID: 995 0649 7883
Passcode: 353379
CAC PTO