Update from Catriona: Calendar Change Notification to Faculty and Staff

Catriona Moran | July 22, 2020 | All Schools, General news | No Comments

Dear Faculty and Staff,

I hope you are enjoying this wonderful country during these holidays. I am greatly appreciating my experiences in Hue and Phong Nha and consider myself very fortunate to have the opportunity to enjoy new adventures this summer. Today, I want to inform you that the SLT met recently and made some adjustments to the school calendar.

Currently, we are hopeful that most, if not all, of our new teachers will arrive in the country by the beginning of next week in time to complete the mandatory 14-day quarantine by the first week of school. In order to prepare for a smooth and solid start of the school year, we have decided that it is advisable to move the start of school for students from Tuesday, August 11 to Thursday, August 13.

This change to the startup day for students will allow all teachers more time to prepare for the start of the school year and support the new teachers with all of their adjustment and orientation needs. Faculty in-service will still begin on August 4 and is extended through August 12. A schedule, with ample individual, team, and department time, will be shared before August 4.

To make this change possible, we adjusted the two professional development days, November 13 and January 29, from full-day professional development to early dismissal half-day professional development. November 13 and January 29 are now Early Dismissal Half Day Professional Development.

We also made an additional change to the calendar. We built in a no school day on Monday, November 16 to provide a break for students and teachers. The time from October break to Winter break is long and we recognize the benefit of having a short break in the middle. To accommodate for this day, we added one day at the end of the school year. Thus, November 16 is now a No School day, Thursday, June 10 is the last day of school for students with dismissal at 12:15.

The number of student school days remains 180 and faculty days are 190.

Summary of Changes