Dear Henley Families,
I have had a chance to talk with parents and students very informally over the past few days. Wednesday’s tragic events weigh heavily on our minds and hearts. I wanted to share with all of you that I take our school’s responsibility to keep every child safe very seriously. I assure you it is our first priority.
We will spend time over the next several days and weeks reviewing our Crisis Management Plan. We will work with ACPD and our School Resource Officer to improve our security measures. We have been interviewing for a School Security Assistant who will maintain a strong presence in our school and help visitors entering our building. This person will stay in place until our security addition is complete.
While we do secure the building and maintain a watchful eye, we recognize that another effective strategy is our relationships with students and our creation of a culture where students report things that do not seem right. To that end, we are increasing our efforts to share this message and strategy with students.
We will continue to use the advisory period as a platform to know all students and to make them feel safe and welcome in our environment. Our teachers have dedicated a significant amount of time to establish a positive climate in their classes and we believe that we can use the power of our relationships to keep each other safe. Please help us reinforce that message at home. Henley is a safe school and we continue to work every day to keep it a safe place.
A couple of other items for you:
- Monday’s advisory reminds students that if they See Something, Say Something. If you would like to see the lesson, I have provided the link HERE.
- On Thursday, we will conduct a lockdown drill. Wednesday’s advisory lesson will be around reviewing procedures with students and helping them prepare.
- Tomorrow’s Snow Make-Up Day is a Blue 1234. Tuesday is also a Blue 1234. Our snow days have almost all been Blue days, so we are trying to catch up!
- We hope you will join us for Thursday’s forum: Conversations in our Community: Social Media in a Teenager’s World. The social media conversation begins at 6:30, but if you are interested, ACPS is hosting a Learning Technology Expo in the Western Albemarle High School media center (2nd floor) beginning at 6:00 pm. Come see what students and teachers from all over the county are doing with technology.
- We had a great weekend of student activities-basketball, Destination Imagination, and District Jazz Band. Follow @henleyhornets on Twitter for celebrations, learning opportunities, and other important information.
Thank you for your partnership and for trusting us with your child(ren). We value your input and look forward to hearing from you if you have any feedback or ideas to make Henley an even better learning place for all kids.
Best,
Beth Costa, principal