LHS students,
We would like to welcome you to a year full of wonder, excitement, rigor and support. We know that the last few months have been challenging and we admire your resilience and willingness to learn how to be a flexible learner. For most of you, the next year will start in a fully-remote environment. This is an opportunity to both connect with your teachers and classmates and complete exciting and engaging activities. Understand that we are here to support you and to ensure you are part of a rigorous and dynamic learning environment.
In order to ensure college readiness and success, Lawrence High School is committed to upholding high standards of excellence. Your success is our success. Your ownership and your drive will be instrumental in our shared vision of you becoming the leaders, advocates and professionals of this community.
As your new Head of School, I want us to be a collaborative community to ensure we create an environment that will be driven by your input, presence, and participation. We need you in our virtual LHS space. The LHS staff looks forward to your engagement, your energy and your contributions. What I hear often from LHS staff is that the best part of their day is when they get to interact with you and when you are in their presence as learners and thought partners. As your new campus Head of School, I crave the opportunity to get to know every single one of you . I want to hear your stories, celebrate your language and your culture, and do my best to support your career aspirations and goals.
Students, we want you to understand that the remote learning from last Spring was the result of an emergency closure due to an unprecedented pandemic. As a result, your teachers, administrators and the rest of the LHS community did the best they could to support you and the situation you faced. In turn, there was a lot of flexibility and leniency in terms of grading, promotion, and attendance. While we are still facing the pandemic, we wholeheartedly understand all the social-emotional and academic challenges you face. This school year, we will implement a balanced approach in which we will be both understanding of your challenges and simultaneously upholding high expectations around academic performance, attendance, engagement, and promotion.
This is a new school year. It is filled with high expectations and opportunities for personal growth. We need all of you to be actively engaged in classroom curriculum and activities. We need you to be proactive by taking advantage of your teacher’s office hours and new pre-AP & AP offerings that will push you to the next level. In addition, we want you to be excited about being challenged as you explore new topics in our new campus-wide project based learning initiative and standards-based curriculum. I, along with your principals and LHS staff, have the highest of expectations. We look forward to a strong start, full of rigor, enthusiasm and active participation.
Sincerely Yours,
Victor Caraballo Anderson
Head of School.
