YCP Families,

We only have two weeks left in the school year! This is our last full week of online instruction. We will observe the Memorial Day holiday next Monday and will have a shortened week of assignments next week as we wrap up the year. For this Week 8, here are some important updates:

1. Food Distribution will continue this week on Monday from 11:00 to 1:00 either on the campus or through our bus route distribution. The routes are the same as they were in April. Click here for the list of stops and times: https://yellowstoneschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Bus-Routes-Food-Distribution-Program-April-2020.pdf. 
   
   Please note that for the week of May 25^th, we will be doing our distribution on Tuesday, May 26^th in observance of the Monday holiday.

2. At the beginning of this week, you will be hearing from your advisor about your student’s grades through the first five weeks of our online instruction. We are making these calls now so that you can still push your student to finish the year strong and complete all of the work for the last two weeks of the quarter. Please make every effort to connect with your advisor so you are well informed before the quarter ends. Here are a few reminders about our grading policy during this time of online learning:
   1. As a reminder, we round up student grades so that the lowest grade anyone can receive is a 60 as long as your student attempts to complete the work.
   2. The grades for the quarter will be based on averaging the 10 highest grades in math, ELA, Science, and Social Studies, and the five highest grades for their electives. Over the nine weeks of instruction, our students will have over 20 grades in each of these subjects, so there is plenty of opportunity to achieve a high grade for the quarter.
   3. If you are not satisfied with your child’s grade point average for this progress report, please know that if they do their work really well this week and next week, they can make huge gains on their grades because of the way we are calculating the average.

3. Please note that for their report card grades, the fourth quarter grade from our online learning can only HELP them. If their fourth quarter grade lowers their overall average for the year, then we will only count the first three quarters for their final grade. If their fourth quarter grade brings up their overall average for the year, then we will add it. This means that you should really encourage your student to finish the year strong and complete their work to the best of their ability the next two weeks.

4. We have put together a grade placement committee to determine final grades for the year and your student’s grade placement next fall. An administrator will be reaching out to you separately if your student is at risk for having to repeat the grade again because they were not successful the first three quarters.

5. We are continuing to evaluate our plans for next fall and watching closely to see what other districts will be putting in place to address the ongoing health concerns during this crisis. We will let you know as soon as those plans are finalized—in the meantime, be on the lookout for more information about how we will continue our online learning through the summer, as well as other important updates regarding enrollment and our calendar.

Thank you for continuing to partner with us as we near the end of the school year. We are grateful for each one of our families and we look forward to the day we can all be back together again in person to continue our work at Yellowstone. We hope you have a great week!