May 1, 2020
Dear Students, Parents, Staff, and Community Members:
I trust this letter finds you all healthy and doing all you can to stay safe during this unfortunate pandemic. Thank you all for the hard work in helping make our distance learning possible. We are just completing the second “official” week of online instruction and I’ve received very positive feedback from parents and teachers. We all realize that the best scenario to provide instruction is to bring students into school each day so that we may educate them face-to-face. That being said, I want to extend a huge thank you to our teachers, support staff, support services, administrators and technology department for doing all they can to connect with students over the last several weeks. Thank you also to parents for helping students connect with teachers and assisting them with their learning. Thank you to our food service employees, support staff, bus drivers and custodians for making sure meals are delivered and buildings are clean. I appreciate how everyone has worked together to make the best of this unfortunate situation.
Much of this letter is focused on high school and more specifically our seniors. As you may already know, we began last Friday by lighting up our stadium and scoreboard in honor of our graduating seniors. We will continue that on May 1st and 8th. Lights come on at 8:20 for 20 minutes and 20 seconds. We ask again that those viewing in person remain in their vehicles and honor safe social distancing practices. It is very possible that after Friday, May 8th, we will be officially taking down our light poles and replacing them as part of our scheduled 2020 bond construction. We will notify you all if we are able to continue with this opportunity beyond May 8th to honor our seniors. Those viewing from home may do so through live stream on YouTube. The link is provided on our district website.
Jostens, the company that provides graduation supplies to our seniors, is able to deliver graduation orders to our high school on May 4th. Students that have paid their order in full may pick up orders at the high school on Monday, May 4th, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. or 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Those that haven’t yet paid their order in full may do so by going to the Jostens website atwww.jostens.com. Pick up will take place in front of the auxiliary gym during the designated times. We ask that you stay in your vehicle and someone will be there to assist you. Students/parents may only collect items that are theirs and the order must be paid in full. Anyone unable to collect their order on May 4th may schedule a pick up time with Mr. Gorsuch by emailing him at gorsucht@bcreek.org.
The closure of face-to-face instruction is unfortunate and we have had to cancel many wonderful events including spring sports, awards ceremonies, dances, field trips, field days….just to name a few. Most of these events cannot be rescheduled for the 2019-20 school year. We now need to look to the future for similar opportunities in the next grade level. There are a few events that impact our seniors. We would like to set tentativedates for this summer in an effort to provide them an opportunity to participate.
We are setting a tentative Prom date of Wednesday, August 5, 2020. There will not be a back up date scheduled. We will plan to host prom at the high school and dinner will be the responsibility of the each person attending. There will be no charge for students to attend. Mr. Gorsuch will provide additional details in the coming weeks.
Thursday, August 6th at 10 a.m. we are scheduling a tentative graduation rehearsal and steak fry for our seniors. Friday, August 7th at 7 p.m. we are tentatively scheduling our graduation ceremony. At this point, we are limiting the number of guests attending to 2 per graduate. We will live stream the ceremony for all wishing to view that are unable to attend. Again, this is tentative and may change depending upon the progress of COVID- 19. If we are able to open attendance up to a greater number, we will announce that at a later date.
I know that I’ve said this many times but it’s worth saying again. The most ideal situation is to place our amazing students in front of our high quality teachers for the remainder of the school year. Unfortunately that cannot happen. We all have to adapt and make the best of the circumstances we have. I am extremely proud of our Bullock Creek staff for their hard work and care for our students. Bullock Creek Community, we will get through this and we’re going to do it well. Thank you for supporting our students and teachers. It’s always a great day to be a Lancer and challenging times like this, once again, confirms that the Creek is the right place to be.
Sincerely,
Shawn J. Hale
Superintendent