Dear CJHS Families,

As we embark on a unique journey this year, I want to let you know that I am still very excited to start the 2020-2021 school year!  Although it will look very different from any school year we have had, I know that our staff and students will rise to the occasion and learn at a high level.  Even with the challenges we will face, our goal is to educate the whole child by meeting their academic, social, and emotional needs.  This will continue to be our focus, no matter if we are in distance learning or face-to-face.

One thing that remains steady for our school is the work that we will be doing toward our strategic plan.  We will continue to look at ways to develop the whole person, help our students establish foundational academic skills, create lessons that are student-focused, and provide our students with opportunities to find future pathways that excite them.  With the start of the school year as distance learning, developing relationships will be a focus.  Building relationships is the stepping stone to making connections with our students and learning their whole child needs.  We need to know them to engage them.  We need to know them to be able to meet all of their needs, to be able to support them, to challenge them, and to keep them safe.

School will begin on September 8 with a half day of distance learning.  September 9 will be our first Wellness Wednesday of the school year.  These will occur every Wednesday and will provide teachers, counselors, and administrators time to meet with students in small groups, as well as individually, to check in and help them in a variety of ways.  We will also have Wolf Time on these Wednesdays, typically twice a month.  Our Wolf Time planning team is hard at work developing lessons to help students better navigate the world around them.  A detailed schedule of our distance learning days can be found on our school website.

Again, I would like to extend a welcome to all of our CJHS family members for the 2020-2021 school year.  While this will be a year unlike any other, we will lean on each other to make it a success.  The cooperation between home and school will be of greater importance now more than ever.  We will have hiccups along the way and that is ok.  We will learn from them and we will learn from our parents and students as to what will make this the best experience for everyone.  Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.  You can contact our main office at 248-623-5600 or email me at afkern@clarkston.k12.mi.us, and I will assist you in any way I can.

“We are Clarkston” is on the walls in numerous places in our building.  To me, that means we are a community of people working together to help our students succeed.  We will do this together and we will achieve our goals.  I look forward to your continued support and patience as we begin this school year.

Sincerely,
Adam Kern
Principal