Following Governor John Bel Edwards’s proclamation closing schools statewide, Brother Martin High School will move to remote learning beginning Monday, March 16, 2020. We will follow our school calendar and anticipate a return to campus following the Easter holiday on Tuesday, April 14, 2020.
As we communicated earlier this week, the leadership and faculty at Brother Martin High School have already begun careful and intentional preparations in order to provide meaningful, skill-based instruction and learning remotely for our students throughout this unfortunate circumstance. We are blessed at Brother Martin to have the professional faculty and staff and the technological capabilities to continue to provide a disciplined, meaningful learning environment even though that environment will now take place outside of our own classrooms. All course work provided by teachers is mandatory and will be reflected in each student’s quarter grade. We understand that this is uncharted territory for all of us; however, please be assured that we will be creative and flexible, and we will work with each of you and your son(s) given this unique situation.
Our campus will be available to you and your son(s) on Saturday, March 14 and Sunday, March 15 from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. so that our students can retrieve any personal course materials they may need to fully participate in remote learning.
Your son’s teachers will provide a reasonable, modified version of our curriculum using their professional expertise and based on the upcoming fourth quarter curriculum, and they will communicate this to each of their classes through Schoology. Our Academic Council and entire faculty and staff are meeting on Saturday and Sunday to finalize our plans for executing our remote learning curriculum. We will use this weekend, Monday, March 16 and Tuesday, March 17 to allow your family to prepare for this important transition. Remote classes will begin on Wednesday, March 18. Required course expectations and attendance procedures for each of your son’s classes will be communicated via Schoology by your son’s individual teachers. It is imperative that students check their Brother Martin school email and Schoology account for communication on a daily basis moving forward.
The Administration and all non-teaching faculty, including Student Formation personnel, Campus Ministers, Guidance counselors, and the like will be available in some capacity throughout the duration of this situation.
The educational tradition of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart provides personal attention and friendly discipline rooted in religious values in a welcoming environment that promotes each individual student’s academic excellence. So while remote learning and instruction are certainly not optimal, it is now our reality as our world continues to change before our eyes. As partners in Mission, I am confident that with courage and trust we will make the best of these circumstances just as we have in the past.
I know that you probably have questions and concerns. We may not have all of the answers as we grapple with the fluidity and ever-changing nature of this particular situation, but we will do all that we can and all that we must in working in partnership with you.
Your partner in Mission,
Ryan Gallagher
