Home - Nashoba Regional High School

Skip navigation

Integrity is our foundation and we strive to make it a visible part of everything we do when we…
Communicate: with honesty and respect, clarity and purpose, guided by acceptance and open-mindedness
Achieve: through consistent hard work and motivation, striving to realize high standards, to persevere over adversity by fostering the ability to innovate and adapt to change
Relate: as a local and global citizen, practicing empathy and compassion, growing as an individual by finding common ground and appreciating differences
Engage: by taking initiative, participating with passion and enthusiasm, collaborating to create something bigger than each of us

Principal's Message

Dear Families and Students,

We appreciate your patience and flexibility as our nation confronts this time of uncertainty. The district and faculty have been hard at work and have created a Remote Learning Plan to provide students with a structured academic experience for the weeks ahead.

The purpose of remote learning is to provide a sense of continuity during this extraordinary and unsettling time. It remains important to keep in perspective that it is not possible to substitute learning at home for all of the instruction that takes place in a comprehensive high school. The purpose of remote learning in the Nashoba Regional School District will be to engage students in deeper learning with a focus on developing long-term skills.

In accordance with state guidance, Nashoba educators will support students to engage in meaningful and productive learning for approximately half the length of a regular school day [in total]. This learning will take place via a combination of educator-directed learning and student self-directed learning (DESE - Commissioner Riley).

Teachers will implement this remote learning plan by April 6, 2020.

Goals: • Maintain relationships and connections of our learning community.

• Minimize skill and learning regression.

• Connect students to meaningful intellectual engagement of content.

• Attain what progress we are able to facilitate with all students on the most essential learning.

Guiding Principles:

• New content can be covered; the focus will be on essentials needed for subject progression.

• We expect ALL students to participate in learning made accessible to them.

• We will work to provide specialized instructional opportunities and related services to students with disabilities to the greatest extent feasible.

• Teachers will use a variety of tools to keep connections and a sense of community for all of us; if necessary, live chats and virtual meetings will be utilized.

Relationships & Communication:

• Be flexible. Students, families, and faculty are functioning under nonoptimal work and learning environments.

• We will make as much personal connection as we can, but teachers will also need time away from email and work to manage their own family needs.

▪ Teachers will set clear guidelines and times regarding parent and student email and online availability. Please respect these.

• We all need to manage our expectations. Everyone has an individual mental picture of how this should be managed and it will take time to establish our best approaches.

Schedules and Workload:

• According to the district plan, teachers will post a weekly learning plan by Monday morning of each week to allow families to organize their weekly schedules.

• Understand that we will not be able to implement the full content of each course. The essential elements from each course will be established by the specific departments and addressed by the teachers. In accordance with DESE guidance, we anticipate covering about 50% of the content and learning that would normally be accomplished.

• Advanced Placement (AP) classes work to a schedule established by the College Board testing program. This year, in light of disruptions to school based learning, College Board will be administering home-based, shortened exams, which focus on material covered by most schools in the U.S. through early/mid-March. Consequently, during this time of remote learning our teachers may need to provide a greater amount of instruction and curriculum in an AP course in order to ready the students for the standardized exam.

• Families are urged to set up schedules and routines with their children that are predictable. To that end, we have devised a Remote Learning Schedule for the high school teachers and students. However, we are mindful that during this time there will be a need for flexibility and not everyone will work to this schedule at all times.

• See below for Nashoba Remote Learning Weekly Schedule

Grading, Feedback and Expectations:

• Remote learning assignments will not be graded by our traditional letter grade system.

• Instead, teachers can and will provide feedback to guide student learning. This feedback will provide information for the following:

▪ Review and mastery of essential skills

▪ Exposure to, and experience with, content required for successive coursework

▪ Credit / No credit based on effort & engagement

• The final closing grade descriptor for this online time period will be a Semester 2 Pass/Fail.

Report Cards:

• A Quarter 3 report card will not be issued.

• Quarter 3 and Quarter 4 will be combined for a Semester 2 Pass/Fail grade.

• The transcript entry will include Semester 1 grade, Semester 2 grade, and credits.

• This plan supports MIAA athletic eligibility for Spring sports as required.

• This plan will be revisited if our situation changes.

Update on Special Education Guidance:

• Parents will receive weekly contact from both special educators and related service providers.

• Students will receive weekly check-ins from special educators and related service providers.

• Learning Center Google Classroom sites have been established.

• Prescriptive class teachers will provide lessons weekly.

• Special education teachers will be available to provide support to students with their workload and teachers with their lesson development.

• Social workers will check-in with students and parents weekly.

• PACE/Transition teams have been in contact with parents regarding support. These plans will remain the same.

Technology Tools and Responsible Technology Use:

• The Nashoba Regional High School will adhere to district guidance related to technology tools and responsible use. Please see guidance from the Nashoba Regional School District Department of Teaching and Learning, which can be found here.

I want to commend our faculty for their willingness to be creative, to extend beyond their traditional teaching methods, and above all for their commitment to our students. I know the process will not be a perfect one, but we will remain flexible and adjust accordingly.

Above all, please know that we will approach all learning with a sense of flexibility and understanding for individual concerns. Please do not hesitate to reach out and communicate with your teacher(s) and guidance counselor if the outlined plan presents significant difficulty for your child.

Keep your family well and stay strong,

Stephen Cullinane Interim Principal, NRHS

	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
	ODD - Day 7		EVEN- Day 8
9:00 - 9:35	PERIOD	PERIOD	PERIOD	PERIOD	INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME & OFFICE HOURS
AM	A	D	A	D	INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME & OFFICE HOURS
9:45 - 10:20	PERIOD	PERIOD	PERIOD	PERIOD	INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME & OFFICE HOURS
AM	B	E	B	E	INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME & OFFICE HOURS
10:30 - 11:05	PERIOD	PERIOD	PERIOD	PERIOD	INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME & OFFICE HOURS
AM	C	F	C	F	INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME & OFFICE HOURS
11:15 - 11:50	STUDY / REVIEW TIME	PERIOD	STUDY / REVIEW TIME	PERIOD	INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME & OFFICE HOURS
AM		G		G	INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME & OFFICE HOURS
12:00 - 12:45 PM	OFFICE HOURS	OFFICE HOURS	OFFICE HOURS	OFFICE HOURS	INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME & OFFICE HOURS