Friday, August 7, 2020

SWGHS Principal's weekly message for August 10th...

Good evening Southwest!

Before I begin my message, it is important to know that if you do not want to listen to my long detailed messages, you can simply hangup and go to the SWGHS website and click on Principal's Weekly Messages. The written blog at times may have a little more detailed information along with any pertinent links. Additionally, SWGHS is connected to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. As we begin the school year, please know we will continue to update or clarify any issues while we navigate. I will put any of those related messages in my blog as well for quick referencing. Thank you for understanding and staying in the loop. 


From the Counseling corner:
  • Schedules will be mailed Monday afternoon. There will be an enclosed letter from me with your student's schedule as well. Please understand that schedules are subject to change as counselors get new information from the school and district that affects scheduling 
  • We will offer schedules changes for 5 days. The first two days August 17th - August 18th. Priority will go to holes, new students, and repeated classes, GTCC, Virtual enrolled students.  The following 3 days, August 19th - 21st will focus on any remaining request that are valid. 
  • If you enrolled in complete virtual, counselors will begin reaching out to you to create your new/revised schedule. 
  • If you are wishing to remove your student from the self paced virtual enrollment, please Click on the unenrollment process link within this blog. Students can not unenroll mid semester. Only at the end of the semester or the end of the year?
  • Counselors are currently working remote so please allow time to reply back to emails and calls. Our contact information is listed on the website, email is preferred for faster response.
  • Counselors' caseloads are as followed: Ms.Graves A-D 10th-12th, Ms.Campbell E-L 10th - 12th, Ms. Graham M-R 10th - 12th, Mrs. Hudgens S-Z 10th - 12th, Ms.Compton 9th grade counselor. 

If your child is in need of a laptop, please complete the Google form on the website under the Student tab or contact the media specialist Mrs. Virginia Hunt at huntv@gcsnc.com. As we begin the distribution process, we will contact parents to fill requests to inform them of the date, time, and pick up location. As we start to receive the laptops, we will distribute the current ones we have based on priority needs. We do plan on having devices for the entire district within 120 days. That's pretty impressive considering the high demand of electronic devices at this time.  Thank you for your patience as we prepare for our school year and remote learning. 

We will not have our traditional Freshman Orientation. The great thing is, that we've been able to be a lot more creative in our approach. For that reason, we will have a virtual Freshman orientation, catered specifically to Remote Learning. This orientation video will be posted and shared on Thursday Morning. 8/13 and be able to be referenced anytime through the year.  Additionally, we believe this will be a great resource for any new students to Southwest regardless of their age. This will give parents and students a chance to meet the Freshmen Core Teachers, and have much of the information given and questions answered. If you have any questions in the meantime. Please Contact Mr. Miller (millerj3@gcsnc.com) and/ or Anna Compton (comptoa@gcsnc.com

Please help us in welcoming our new Social Worker, Emily Wright. Please do not hesitate to contact Ms. Wright if you need assistance with basic needs by calling her at 336-709-9537.  Currently, GCS continues to provide lunch and breakfast to students at Southwest Middle School 11-12 each weekday until the end of August.  They also have a food pantry you may use.  The Out of the Garden Program has a fresh mobile markets at various locations where you can find fresh meat, vegetables, bread and other items.  There is a mobile market on the fourth Saturday of each month at Penn-Griffin.  If you need to find out about other resources, please do not hesitate to contact her. 

Teachers are diligently working on each of their courses and will publish them on Monday, August 17th. This means that students will have access to curriculum and content on the first day of the 2020-2021 academic school year. Your student will be oriented to each course individually. Orientation to the course includes; Meet the Teacher, Getting Started, Live Teaching Time, and how grading and attendance will work. Please help us in communicating to your student that how we operate this fall will be very different than the spring.  

Please know much more information is forthcoming. We are excited. We are up for the challenge.

From the desk of Coach Christman:

As we all heard from Governor Cooper, we will continue to stay in Phase 2 until at least Sept. 11. This disappointing decision has delayed the potential start date of Sept. 1 by the NCHSAA.  With that said, we do know that the NCHSAA Board of Directors and executive director along with her staff are continuing to work diligently to come up with a plan to play all sports this school year when it is safe for all.  Please continue to stay positive, find ways to continue to work out, do fundamentals of your sport, practice with our coaching staff that have Zoom work outs, and reach out to our coaching staff and administration if you have questions or need some help!

 Juniors and Seniors Eligibility information:

All Juniors and Seniors need to be registered for a minimum of 3 classes this fall.  I would strongly recommend that you all take 4 courses.  Those courses can be Career and College Promise classes at GTCC, GCS Virtual School, or SWGHS remote learning courses.  Pending when we start Fall sports, this could have a big impact on your eligibility especially if all sports get moved to 2nd semester.  Seniors 2nd semester are required to take a minimum of 2 courses to be eligible 2nd semester.  All Juniors MUST take a minimum of 3 courses, but it is strongly recommended that they are enrolled in 4.  Juniors that only take 3 courses MUST pass all 3 courses 1st semester and will required to have a 2.0 GPA to eligible 2nd semester.

Freshman and Sophomores:

Our GCS 2.0 GPA will be waived from 2nd semester of last school year.  With that being said, all students this fall MUST have a 2.0 GPA at the end of 1st semester to be eligible 2nd semester.  Freshman and Sophomores must take 4 courses this fall.  Those courses can be GCS Virtual Academy or from remote learning at SWGHS. 

If you have athletic eligibility questions, please email Brindon Christman at Christb2@gcsnc.com .

If you are a fall athlete and you haven’t turned in your Return to Play Covid-19 paperwork, you can still do so.  Those forms can be found on the front page of our website at www.cowboysports.org or in the box outside of the gym doors.  You can return those forms by email or drop them off in on envelope outside the gym doors.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at christb2@gcsnc.com . Feel free to also navigate the Athletics website for a wide selection of spirit wear within the school Spirit Store

Southwest, we got this!

Stay well!

Mr. Hettenbach


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