Gloversville Middle School Parents/Guardians:
GMS Administrators, in conjunction with our School Counselors, are working diligently to finish a master schedule that allows us to; meet the health and safety protocols established at both the state and county levels, ensure that all our students are receiving the courses and coursework required to meet the educational requirements for students in grades 6 - 8, as established by the New York State Department of Education, and honor both student course selections and parental schedule requests to the extent possible.
To these ends, we’ve built a schedule that allows students to remain in one cohort and in one socially distanced classroom for the duration of the school day with core content and special area teachers rotating into those respective rooms, insofar as possible. To ensure equity and fairness in each cohort, we can’t just divide the number of students in a given grade by the number of cohorts needed and then divide each cohort in two to determine who will be a Dragon, attending school in person on Mondays, Wednesdays, and every other Friday, and who will be a Husky, attending school in person on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and alternate Fridays. These cohorts, or groups, need to be balanced using a number of factors - academic ability, behavioral need, reading-level, and special education services just to name a few - and built in a way that makes sure each group as a whole, and each student as an individual, receives all required courses and necessary services in addition to any requested courses to the extent possible. From there we need to, again, apply numerous factors to equitably divide each cohort into Dragons and Huskies while also accounting for team requests, so GMS students can be aligned with, or separated from, siblings in other buildings, based on parent/guardian need.
We are working our way through the teaming and hope to notify parents/guardians and students via letter by the end of this week or early next week. Thank you for your continued cooperation and support. If you have any questions, please contact me via phone at: 518-775-5720 ext. 2052 or email: ajablonski@gesdk12.org
Sincerely
Andrew Jablonski
Assistant Principal - GMS