Letter from our PTSA President:
Greetings Panther Family,
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 52 days since our students were physically in school together and life was normal. With only 17 more days left in our “virtual” school year, and so much still unknown, I thought it was a good time to check in with everyone.
Many of you have reached out to me, your teachers, your school counselors and administration with questions and concerns and I know it is frustrating that so many answers are still unknown. I do want to assure you all that as soon as we have any information, we will put it out through our emails as well as our Facebook and Instagram posts. Please subscribe, follow, and read what we send as we are working very hard to keep you informed and connected!
There have been a lot of questions and concerns about how Palmetto is honoring our Seniors and a lot of comparisons to what other schools, especially the private schools and smaller public schools, are doing for their Seniors. It is heartbreaking for the class of 2020 that they have missed so many events and important milestones in their lives! Our Palmetto administration, activities, and PTSA have been working very hard on coming up with ideas and planning ways to honor our Seniors. We have faced challenges just because we have such a large Senior class (650+) who live all over Miami and we want to celebrate ALL of them!
We don’t have all the specific details and we have not finalized the dates yet, but we DO have something very special planned that will celebrate ALL of our Seniors. We will let you all know as soon as dates have been finalized so keep reading our weekly newsletter and posts.
Our AP teachers have been working hard to get our students ready to take their exams in a way that is completely new to everyone. Our student group, Tutoring For Tomorrow, has offered free webinars for our students to prepare for specific exams as well. College Board has also offered free lectures for each AP subject and has been sending information emails out. Even with all this preparing, there may be glitches during the exams that start this week. We wish all of our students the best and remind everyone to be patient with each other and themselves and know that if problems come up, College Board has a plan to address those (please visit their website for detailed information).
Mr. Nerenberg and our Student Services counselors have also been available and are there for our students who have questions about next year, college, testing, etc. However, please remember that many of the questions don’t have answers yet.
Our teachers and administrators have also been amazing in trying to make sure our students remain engaged in learning- even from a distance. We honored them as best we could this past week during National Teacher Appreciation Week. And will do something special for them all at the beginning of the year.
I know things haven’t been perfect. I know that you may not have received an answer to your question or a response to an email. I know that you and your students are disappointed that this year has turned out the way it has and that we still face uncertainty about next year. But I also know that we are in this together and that everyone wants the best for each other and especially for our students. I ask that we all remain patient with each other and ourselves, remembering that our students may forget to log in one day, or turn in an assignment, a teacher might miss seeing an email, an administrator might not have an answer yet, and you may not see all the hard work going on behind the scenes but we are all committed to the same goal of giving our students the best. We are in this together and we are Panther Strong!
