Letter to parents, sent home: Sept. 30, 2011
Dear Parents,
We are beginning registration for the AP and Enrichment Course program for our gifted and talented students. Students 9th grade and up, with a 3.0 average are eligible to register. This program is designed to challenge advanced students and also give good students the option of enhancing their transcripts with extra courses. This program is also presently serving some of our transfer students who need certain credits or who are “out of sequence” in a core subject area. We are also using this program for our distance-learning students. Students successfully used the program for our summer enrichment and credit recovery program this past summer.
These courses exist in our distance program. Your child would do the work at home daily via the distance learning website. The course list is extensive. This list may be found here.
On that page there is also a link for detailed course descriptions. There are many language offerings beyond Spanish, many enrichment science courses, to name just a few. All courses have an Honors option. There are many AP courses offered as well.
These courses are offered in half semester increments. Once one semester is completed you can sign up for the second semester of that course. A full nine months from now is the deadline for course completion. There is ample time, just doing a lesson per weekday for these courses to be completed. The teachers for these courses are certified, and the program is accredited. Your child will attend a live webinar to learn how to use the course interface system. Your child’s work in these courses will be hand graded, and you will receive progress reports from these teachers and us. Furthermore, if for some reason your child find the course too much of a burden, we can let him or her drop the course with no grade penalty.
How this works… (see the Distance education tab, how it works on our website)
If your child has questions, he or she emails the teacher. If there is a conceptual block while progressing through a lesson or unit of study, then the teacher and student schedule live one on one instruction time via Skype or on the phone. Teachers here will also be happy to assist students with subject matter questions.
The extra courses cost $300 each for both semesters. It’s a bit more than half that for individual semesters. AP Courses have a $50 fee, and that does not include the registration or Fees for the AP test itself. Some biology courses have a wet-lab kit fee. There are no books to buy except novels from some of the Literature courses. The only restriction is that you must pay a $20 Registration fee, and the course fee of $300, spaced out over the next 10 months (you would add $30 to your child’s tuition check per month and then pay the balance during the summer months). You may also pay for the class fee up front. This is the cost for St. Joseph’s, and once your child logs in, the fees for that semester are non-refundable. These courses may also be audited for the same cost if a child would just like to explore and learn without pressure.
Depending on student enrollment and interest numbers, your child could often use study hall, or before school time to work in the computer lab on these courses.
If you are interested, please come by the office and fill out a registration sheet. If you have questions, please email Mrs. Harrison, program director, at s.harrison@sjcpinebluff.com . We must have your completed registration form and fee in hand by Thursday October 14th at the very latest. Click here to download and print the Enrichment Course registration form.
God Bless,
Brenda Costello
Principal