Blog of Craig Smith: Beginning of Year Letter to LNC Families 2020

Dear Parents and Families of the LNC Community,

First and foremost, I hope this finds everyone with positive health as we collectively progress through our current situation together. On behalf of the Lake Norman Charter High School faculty and staff, Assistant Principal Mr. Funchess, and the administrative team, I would like to officially welcome you to the 2020-2021 school year. I am honored to serve as principal of the high school and with your partnership, in addition to our collaborative efforts aligned with LNC’s mission and core values, will continue inspiring our students to “learn, lead and serve.”

Mr. Craig Smith and

Mr. Marcus Funchess

(photo taken in 2019)

Hopefully you have taken the opportunity to view our School Reopening FAQ’s already. We provided information over the past two months via our Summer Updates and Schoology posts. This letter provides additional valuable information to assist in the opening to the school year. Please do not hesitate to contact me (csmith@lncharter.org) with any questions.

We provided student schedules digitally via Schoology, yesterday, August 5. Students should be able to log-in to their Schoology account and access their schedule. The release of schedules was delayed due to the necessary balancing of classes given the cohort assignments in preparation for a potential transition to Plan B. Furthermore, there will be no changes to schedules, except for a mistake on our part (i.e., course already taken). We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding with the complexity of that process.

We are proudly in year seven of LNC’s 1:World Program and the fourth year of laptop utilization at the high school. Our current 10th - 12th grade students kept their laptop throughout the summer, as we did not collect these devices last year. Families must pay their $125 co-pay at lncharter.org via the HS PayPal portal by August 12.

Freshman and New Student Orientation will still take place on Tuesday, August 11, but will take on a different format. We will livestream the program via Periscope at 2:00PM. You will be able to access the livestream via Twitter (@CSmithGoBlue), but you are not required to have an account. We will also post the link on Schoology once it goes live. Fortunately, the content will automatically be archived and I will also post it on my blog to accommodate those students and parents who are unable to “attend” at 2:00PM. If you have a 9th grader or a student new to LNC, please join us.

The opening day of school is Thursday, August 13. Our start time is 7:45AM. Student enrollment is critical to ensuring that students are engaged with their teacher and curriculum in order to be successful from day one. This student enrollment is also crucial to our school’s funding. As such, failure to check-in without prior communications to either Jane Vizard (jvizard@lncharter.org) or me for an excused reason could result in the student forfeiting their spot at LNC.

While our HS Remote Learning Schedule has been posted and shared in various locations, I am including it here:

1st Period: 7:45 - 8:15 AM

2nd Period: 8:20 - 8:50 AM

3rd Period: 8:55 - 9:25 AM

Break: 9:25 - 9:55 AM

4th Period: 9:55 - 10:25 AM

5th Period: 10:30 - 11:00 AM

6th Period: 11:05 - 11:35 AM

7th Period: 11:40 - 12:10 PM

Lunch: 12:10 - 1:00PM

Office Hours: 1:00 - 2:00 PM

We are busy upgrading our field and track as part of the Elevate LNC capital project.

This will be the schedule for Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday. Student Seminars will occur every Wednesday. On Wednesday, students will not follow a specific schedule, but rather utilize the day as an opportunity for more individualized check-in’s with their teacher, either remotely or in the building. For attendance, they will need to check-in with their first period teacher by 9:00AM.

We are currently working on plans for a modified “Back to School Night.” We will share details in the upcoming weeks.

Through ongoing support from our PTO, the Principal’s Coffee Chat will continue monthly and for the time being, will be accessible only through the livestream via Periscope (similar to the Freshman Orientation and the Coffee Chat that occurred on August 4), viewable through Periscope App, Twitter, or any internet browser. Therefore, I cordially invite all parents to join us for the first installment on Tuesday, September 1 at 8:00AM. Again, it will be archived, allowing all families to watch/listen to the recorded version at their convenience.

In addition, I encourage our families to connect with me through Twitter and my professional blog. I utilize both of these forums to communicate our successes, promote school-related events, share resources and connect professionally with educational colleagues across the nation.

I now would like to take this opportunity to introduce and welcome our new faculty to LNC:

Ms. Taylor Elkins - World History

Mrs. Stacey McClain - English 9, AP English Language (11th), and Creative Writing

Ms. Niamh Sinclair - Spanish II, Spanish III, and French III [Start date TBD]

Ms. Stephanie Zaino - Exceptional Children’s Dept. (Co-taught Biology, Math II, and Math III), and Study Skills

In addition, Counselor Mrs. Tarron Riggins opens up the year with us, after joining the team in December. Here are the student-counselor assignments:

9th - 12th Graders with Last Name A - G are assigned to Mrs. Riggins (triggins@lncharter.org)

9th - 12th Graders with Last Name H - O are assigned to Mr. Porter (mporter@lncharter.org)

9th - 12th Graders with Last Name P - Z are assigned to Mrs. Casillas (ccasillas@lncharter.org)

The expectations of our students should always align with the expectations we have for ourselves as educators. This accountability begins with holding myself accountable every day as the leader of our high school. At the same time, we need to recognize the realization that we face:

The fundamental expectation for our faculty, staff, students and parents is to simply be your best, every day.

I hope you continue to enjoy these last few days of summer break as we enthusiastically await the opening of school on August 13. We thank you all in advance for being your best in 2020-2021.

Together, We are LNC.

Yours in education,