September 15, 2023

There are a couple of big things to make everyone aware of this week, so please bear with me through what probably looks like a dense read.  The enclosed information is important for you and your student, and the new citizenship piece will have an impact on your student’s report card.

Parent-Teacher Conferences:

Conferences will be September 18 and 19 from 4-7pm. Monday, September 18 will be in person at Cyprus Main. This will follow the traditional format of teachers being available in a group setting for you to come meet with them. Conversations should be limited to 3-5 minutes to make sure everyone has an opportunity to meet with the teacher. Parents are welcome to set up a separate appointment if they have a question or concern that is going to take longer than the allotted 5 minutes. Cyprus Main Campus teachers will be in the Main Gym. Brockbank Campus teachers will be available in the Cafeteria/Commons area. Special Education teachers will be in their classrooms. These spaces should make it so teachers are easier for parents to find and make it easier to navigate the conferences.

Tuesday, September 19 will be an online, virtual night of conferences. Teachers will have Zoom meeting links for the evening, and teachers can access the meeting and meet with the teacher virtually. We will not be scheduling appointments for the online night; we will use virtual queues for parents to “line-up” to meet with teachers. Teachers’ Zoom meeting links can be found on the school’s website (http://schools.graniteschools.org/cyprushigh/) under the “Meet the Staff” tab.

Boo to the Flu will also be here for conferences. They will be here both nights beginning at 3pm. This is a great opportunity for you to bring your family and get your seasonal flu shot. Remember to bring your insurance card with you when you come. Cyprus High receives a small kickback for each shot given during the two evenings.

Finally, the Family Engagement Center will have information available for seniors. They will have information about important dates, scholarships, college fieldtrips, and information about your
student’s counselor so you can meet with them if needed. The Family Engagement Center is located near the Commons on Cyprus Main’s campus.

Panorama Survey:

We conducted the first administration of the Panorama Survey with students this week. It was taken by all students in all classes during 2nd period on Wednesday. We currently have 67% completion of the survey, but our school goal is 90%. The survey has been loaded in Canvas for all students, and they can do it from home. We will have teachers working with students at school to get the survey taken, but it would be helpful if you could have your student check their Canvas page and do it this weekend if they haven’t completed it yet.
The surveys the students are taking will give us information about how they feel at and about school and help us identify areas where we need to make improvements. The surveys will give us data that directly ties to one of our school goals from our Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP), which is to increase the sense of belonging for our students. We want them to feel a tie to Cyprus High School and to be proud to be a Pirate.

Students will take the Panorama Survey three times during the school year. Each time only takes around 15-20 minutes, but the information we gather from the surveys will be very helpful for us. We are hoping to see an improvement in how kids are feeling at and about school as the year progresses.

Mr. Bodell is sending out a link to all students who didn’t take the survey as an indicator for them to complete it. So, your student should know if they took it or not, and if they aren’t sure, if they get a link to complete it that will confirm to them to do it.

Graduate of Granite:

Granite has been piloting a new Citizenship Grade program for the last two years. This year, the program is being rolled out in all schools, so we will be doing it at Cyprus High. The idea behind the push is that with the shift to PBL grading, there are some areas of student behaviors and skills where feedback is lacking as it is no longer reflected in the academic grade. The state is also requiring schools to look at characteristics of graduates to make sure there is something there that is reflective of school and career readiness.

This has led to a revamping of our Citizenship Grade. In the past, Citizenship has been mostly reflective of attendance and didn’t have much to do with anything else unless a student was particularly difficult in class. Now, teachers will be looking at five different categories and giving students a grade 1-4 in each of those categories. Students can also earn a 0 in a category if they don’t come to class enough for a teacher to make a different grade determination for them.

The five categories will be:
Responsibility: students are trustworthy, ethical, reliable, and accountable for individual choices and the results produced
Dependability: students are reliable and accountable in their attendance
Respect: students acknowledge differences by looking for the good in everyone, including oneself, and show due regard for feelings, rights, cultures, and traditions
Communication: students communicate effectively to share and understand information in a variety of contexts
Hard Work and Resilience: students set personal goals, apply best efforts to achieve them, and persevere when faced with challenges.

Each student will receive a score in each of these categories for each of their classes, so that’s a total of 40 Citizenship grades if a student has all eight periods. That will look like an overwhelming number of scores, but the plan and intent is to give students and parents a more detailed understanding of performance in these specific areas. Teachers will enter scores for four of the categories, and the computer will automatically enter a score for the Dependability category. Dependability will be completely based on attendance and tardies.

Students will have the opportunity to do a self-evaluation of their citizenship each quarter in each class. It is up to teachers to determine how and when this happens, but it is required to happen. I have suggested to teachers that they not all wait until the last week of the quarter to do this as that will be come tedious for students. Also, because of the time it will take teachers to enter all these scores, they will only be posted to student grades at the end of the quarter, so when you are in your Parent Portal next week looking at your student’s grades, more than likely, there will be no Citizenship Grades posted.

Please talk to your student about the changes to Citizenship. Teachers should have been introducing it to them by now, but it would be helpful to have a conversation at home about it as well.

Counseling Center Update:

To provide easier access to Cyprus counselors we have made the following change:

If you want to schedule an appointment with your student’s counselor, you can now:

• Scan the code on the poster in the counseling center on Main Campus, or in the Brockbank Campus main hallway. This will take you to the appointment scheduling site.
• From the main Cyprus website, select the “Counseling and Career Center” tab. Then select the “Contact/Appointment” tab, then click on the counselor’s picture. From there you can schedule an appointment.
• You can also still email the counselor or call the counseling center at 385-646-6205.

Counselors are starting Senior College and Career Planning meetings. We would love to have parents attend these meetings, if possible. If you want to be present, please reach out to your student’s counselor to confirm the date and time your student is scheduled and to let them know if you would like to reschedule that to a time that works better for you.

Parking Tickets:

The parking lots are being monitored to make sure students are parking in designated areas and with an appropriate parking permit. For the past two weeks, students have received a warning on their car if they are violating either of these. Starting on Monday, September 11, students will receive parking tickets for violation of parking procedures.

If your student needs to purchase a parking permit, they can visit the Bookkeeper’s office by the Counseling Center to take care of it.

Food Pantry Help:

Our improv group, The Improvables, will be hosting an event on September 27 at 6pm in the Brockbank auditorium to help collect items to support the Cyprus Food Pantry. They will be performing a show and will be asking for food donations as payment for a ticket to the show. Please mark your calendars now for the show, and when I have more details about what items they’ll be collecting I will get it sent out.

Picture Make-up Day:

Bell Photography will be here on September 29 from 7:30-11:30am to do student make-up pictures. All students need to have their picture taken, and make-up day is for any students who missed having their picture taken on the first two days of school. It is also the time to get your picture re-taken if your first one didn’t turn out the way you had hoped. These pictures will be used for the yearbook and for student IDs. Students will need their IDs to get into school activities, so it’s important to have your picture taken.

If you would like to purchase your student’s school photo, you can do so at www.bellphoto.com. You’ll use the code “cyprus23hs” to access our bank of photos and then follow the prompts.

Yearbooks:

We sell our yearbooks directly through the publisher. That means that Cyprus High School doesn’t take payments for yearbooks. If you would like a yearbook for your student, you can order one at http://yearbookordercenter.com. The Cyprus code is 7323. The site is up and ready to accept payments. The yearbook will be $45.00 this year.

Class Fees:

School fees have not been added to student accounts yet due to our new program, Focus, not being ready to have them added. This item is included here as a reminder that fees will be coming. I will make sure to notify everyone when they do get loaded.

The bookkeepers did manually add Drive’s Ed. class fees to student accounts because those have to be in the system prior to students being able to drive for the class. So, you can get in and pay Driver’s Ed. class fees now.

Chromebook Changes:

Students need to remember to bring their Chromebook to school each day. They must also make sure their Chromebook is charged.

If a student forgets to bring their Chromebook to school, they will need to go to the Media Center to check one out for the day. This checked-out Chromebook will go on their library account, which will mean the student will be responsible for returning it to the library or the full fine for a Chromebook replacement will be charged to the account.

Please help your student get into the habit of charging their Chromebook and bringing it to school each day.

Attendance:

We have been making a push to make sure kids are at school and attending classes, that will continue to be a focus. Please help us make school a priority for your student. Getting off track in classes happens quickly, and when it happens it can seem like an insurmountable obstacle for kids to get caught back up. We want kids at school, staying on track, and being prepared to graduate so they can enjoy their time in school and not have to stress about digging themselves out of academic holes.

Upcoming Events:

Sept. 18                                   Tennis vs. Kearns High

Sept. 18, 19                             Parent-teacher Conferences (4-7pm)

Sept. 19                                   Golf @ Oquirrh Hills

Sept. 19                                   Soccer @ Hunter

Sept. 19                                   Volleyball vs. Hunter

Sept. 20                                   Tennis Region Championships @ Taylorsville

Sept. 20                                   Sophomore football @ Taylorsville

Sept. 21                                   Tennis Region Championships @ Taylorsville

Sept. 21                                   Volleyball @ West Jordan

Sept. 21                                   Football vs. Taylorsville

Sept. 22                                   NO SCHOOL

Sept. 23                                   Cross Country @ Roy High

Sept. 25                                   Golf @ Fox Hollow

Sept. 25                                   Soccer vs. Kearns High (7pm on the turf)

Sept. 26                                   Volleyball @ Granger

Sept. 27                                   Soccer @ Granger

Sept. 28                                   Volleyball @ Taylorsville

Sept. 28                                   Sophomore football vs. West Jordan

Sept. 29                                   Golf JV @ Copper Club

Sept. 29                                   Football @ West Jordan

Sincerely,

Josh LeRoy, Principal

Aaron Bodell, Assistant Principal

Amy Fishler, Assistant Principal

Kayla MacKay, Assistant Principal

Josh Moore, Assistant Principal