Glendale Secondary School Community Message – February 2nd, 2022
Hello Glendale Bears and Families,
I hope this message finds you well. I also hope that you or your student had a successful fall and winter term as the school moved through quadmester 1 and 2.
As Glendale’s new Principal, I would like to introduce myself to the school community. My name is Dave Schroeder and I am very excited to be a Bear again. I grew up in east Hamilton, went to Glendale, did a portion of my teacher’s education program here, and just a few years ago did a stint as one of the Vice-Principals. I love this school and I am thrilled to serve this community as their Principal.
Here is some information I would like to share with our students and families as we close the books on the quadmester model, and move into semester 2. We recognize that many of our students are not familiar with the structure and pace of the semester. Please know the school team is excited to welcome students back, and will be sensitive to the students’ learning curve as they get into the rhythm of the semester system.
Tomorrow (Thursday, February 3rd) is the start of semester 2. First-period classes start at 8:30 am and our school day ends at 2:45 pm. Please find Glendale’s bell schedule below with our internal bell times for period start and ending times. Classes are 75 minutes in length and students have a one-hour lunch. There is travel-time between students’ morning and afternoon classes.
| Glendale Secondary School Bell Times | |
| Period 1 | 8:30 am– 9:45 am |
| Break | 9:45 am – 9:55 am |
| Period 2 | 9:55 am – 11:10 am |
| Lunch | 11:10 am – 12:10 pm |
| Period 3 | 12:10 pm – 1:25 pm |
| Break | 1:25 pm – 1:30 pm |
| Period 4 | 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm |
Our school cafeteria is available for students as a location to eat their lunch. When using the cafeteria, students need to sit in cohorts by grade. Signage will be posted. Students may remove their masks when eating but need to put the mask back on when done. We continue to encourage students to go outside during the common lunch period and get some fresh air and vitamin D.
As a reminder, students need to complete the daily screener, attesting to being COVID and symptom-free before entering the building.
Students have already received their semester 2 schedules. Students received paper copies and an email to their HWDSB account with a link to their schedule. Students arriving tomorrow with questions about their schedule should go to the main office and staff will help them out.
Quadmester 2 final marks and reports cards are being finalized. Final quadmester 2 marks and reports cards will be available on Parent Portal by the end of next week. An email will be sent with a link allowing families and student to access final marks and report cards.
For student absences, we continue to encourage parents to use School Messenger (https://go.schoolmessenger.com/#/home). For late arrivals or early dismissals parents can continue to call our attendance desk.
As a reminder to students, personal electronic devices should only be out during instructional time when invited by the classroom teacher. This aligns with the HWDSB policy (attached) and failure to follow this can result in discipline. I am happy to discuss this with students and parents.
As the semester begins, I would like to remind families with questions about classroom programming to reach out directly to their child’s educator via phone or email. Classroom teachers are the course experts and knowledgeable in that subject area, positioning them to be the best resource for answering your questions.
Last, I want to express my gratitude to all educational workers at Glendale for their hard work wrapping up quadmester 2 and getting the school ready for semester 2. Thank you to classroom staff (teachers and EAs) for meeting timelines with assessments and mark submission, but also for having a professional lens that all students can be successful. Thank you to our caretaking team for shuffling furniture and equipment around the building while ensuring the school looks fabulous for students. Thank you to our office team, for their often unseen but always appreciated work in the background printing schedules, answering phones and generally making the school run smoothly. Thank you to Randy Gallant and John Whitwell for their leadership over the past few months. Thank you to our school’s Vice-Principal team of Kim Collier and Sirio Vacca for their steady leadership of the school, keeping Glendale a safe and positive place for students to learn.
In Ojibwe culture, The Bear (Ojibwe – Mawka) represents courage/bravery (Objiwe – Aakdehewin). As we start the semester, I encourage all Glendale Bears to be courageous in their school lives; in the classroom, on the stage, on the field. Have a wonderful semester 2.
Sincerely,
Dave
David Schroeder, M.Ed
Principal – Glendale Secondary School
Phone: 905-560-7343 Fax: 905-578-5538
Email: [email protected] Website – www.hwdsb.on.ca/glendale/
Twitter – @Glendale_HWDSB
#HWDSB – Curiosity – Creativity – Possibility
Updated on Wednesday, February 02, 2022.