This year, the administration has implemented a new form of notifying parents about freshman grades: sending fail letters through the mail to the parents of any freshman who is failing one or more classes. Those letters will be mailed today.
Freshman Principal Dr. Rick Regina said because freshmen are new to high school, acclimating to the new structure could be a challenge for them.
“Getting parents in the loop as quickly as possible — especially coming out of elementary school and in middle school— that their student is struggling and it’s time to figure out some interventions we can put in place,” Dr.Regina said.
In some cases, students may fail multiple classes during their freshman year, which sets them back for the duration of their high school years. This means there is a greater chance of them not graduating on time.
“You need 24 credits to graduate. If you pass every class for four straight years, you’d have 28 credits. So there is a built-in cushion, but there’s not really a built-in cushion if you fail all seven classes your freshman year,” Dr. Regina said.
Seniors will receive similar letters later on in the year to make sure they will graduate on time. However, there are no formal letters such as this for other grade levels.
“I think ideally, down the road, we would submit these letters to any student. Right now it is mandatory to send it to freshmen and seniors, but it’s also recommended to send it to sophomores and juniors as well,” Dr. Regina said.
The deadline for teachers to submit the fail letters was today, so they will be mailed out to parents sometime this week.
Pete Boyer, Freshman Seminar teacher, said the letters are sent out through mail in order to notify freshmen parents who aren’t regularly checking Infinite Campus.
“Hopefully this new format will be positive because if students get home and their parents talk with them about their grades, it gives them a reality check,” Boyer said.
Courtney Biggs, a freshman mom, said this new format is a great idea to gain parent awareness of their childrens’ grades; however, she disagrees with the idea of sending physical letters through the mail.
“I think that an email or text would be a stronger way to communicate information out, such as a failing student,” Biggs said. “By the time you get a letter, it’s probably going to have been a few days after grades have been finalized. Through email, I could instantly get more prepared and more aware.”
Biggs also explained how she preferred the previous progress letters that were sent out because you could not only see if students were failing, but you could see borderline grades such as Cs as well as students’ passing grades.
“Why not reward when students have an A? How come letters are only sent out about students failing?” Biggs said. “I like how progress reports can help me know what my student is doing outside of failing.”
