On Monday, April 6, the AISD Board held an emergency meeting where they voted and passed resolutions 8.1A, 8.1B,8.2, and 8.3. In order to communicate to the Bowie community how these resolutions will affect our students and staff, Principal Mark Robinson released a Bowie Star Newsletter on April 8 that explains how the resolutions, specifically resolution 8.2, will affect students. 

As stated in the Star Newsletter and resolution 8.2 passed by the Board, there will be no more student grades for the remainder of the Spring semester; however, students are expected to participate as much as possible in continuous learning. In addition, as re-iterated in the Star Newsletter from the Monday Board meeting, the Spring semester of the 2019-2020 school year will not be used in future GPA or rank calculations. 

“I would like to highlight a few decisions and explain their implications for our Bowie students. In doing so, I want to emphasize that these decisions were not easy to make and may not be ideal for every student,” Robinson wrote in the Star Newsletter. “But they do demonstrate equity, respect, and sensitivity for the wide range of circumstances in which our students and families now find themselves. I greatly appreciate the Board’s thoughtful consideration in assessing the best way forward.”

Another major modification discussed in the Star Newsletter is that Bowie and AISD have adopted a system of pass/incomplete for the Spring semester of this year. Although students will not be receiving grades for this semester, their academic performance from Jan. 8 to March 12 and continued progress throughout the year will be used by teachers and administrators to decide whether their semester is labeled as pass or incomplete. If a student receives an incomplete, they will be allowed to attend summer programs to officially pass.

“I hope that this information helps you understand the focus of our teachers’ efforts moving forward, even though there remains more details to work out and some decisions to be made in the days to come,” Robinson wrote in his public address. “Please encourage your student to ask their teachers any specific questions they have related to their spring semester grades or their continuous learning.”

If a student currently has a failing average for the Fall semester, they will be able to work with their individual teachers to create a modified year average that would allow them to earn credit for the class.

“Knowing that the semester was cut short, the Board has also directed teachers to work with their individual students between now and the end of the school year to help them demonstrate mastery of learning,” Robinson wrote in the announcement. “[This would allow students] to improve their grade to a 70 or higher in order to earn a grade of “Pass” and recover Fall semester credit through year-long averaging.”

In order to receive public feedback and questions about AISD’s transition to online learning, the district is hosting a ThoughtExchange that will be open for discussion until Friday, April 10. The public platform allows community members to ask questions, raise concerns, or simply make a statement regarding the transition to remote learning or recent Board resolutions.

“After the exchange closes, we will use the collective knowledge of our AISD community to help us more accurately respond to your questions and meet your needs,” Robinson wrote in the Star Newsletter. “Thank you in advance for your willingness to participate in this exchange in order to ensure we are doing everything possible to keep our staff, students, parents, and wider community engaged, healthy and safe.”