If you are a parent or guardian who has a student attending First Baptist School, we have tried to get some information to you regarding the Headmaster software that we are now using for the 2010-2011 school year.

This is the first email sent on Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 1:11 p.m.

Dear Parent or Guardian,

We trust that your summer has been a great one! Time sure does fly! We are looking forward to opening the doors of First Baptist School for our 40th year starting, Monday, August 30 (for 1st through 12th grade), and Wednesday, September 1 (for K4 & K5).

Please be aware of several items:

1) Last year I sent a weekly email off of a secondary (6th-12th grades) mailing list I had kept. I have added the elementary emails to that list IN ORDER to get some important information to you.

2) Since I have put the list together today, I need your help in making sure of the following items, so please let me know of any of these changes:
- Please be sure I have your name and information correct
- If you are receiving this email in error (I have built this year’s email off of last year)
- If there are names, etc. that are mispelled
- If you would like email sent to a different email address or even add an email address

3) FBS recently purchased a program entitled Headmaster Online. One of its biggest features is the ability for parents to track tardies, absences, homework, grades, schedules, and financial data. The main reason for updating an all-school list for the moment is to give you important information about this program. THIS INFORMATION WILL COME IN A SEPARATE EMAIL TO YOU!

4) We are currently working out the schedules for each student in the 6th through 12th grade. The middle school students have set schedules unless they are in band. The 9th & 10th grade schedules are set pretty tightly as well. The juniors and seniors have a “little wiggle” room for some options with their classes. This coincides with their requirements for graduation. Once you receive information about how to log in, you will be able to check your child’s schedule against the secondary PDF file, and we can make any necessary changes from there. Feel free to email me.

5) The secondary schedule and the FBS yearly schedule are attached as a PDF document in this email. IF YOU RECEIVED A YEARLY SCHOOL CALENDAR IN THE MAIL, PLEASE DISREGARD THAT CALENDAR. We had an error pertaining to the Teachers’ Convention in October, and I just found out today that the MACS Music & Arts Festival has been changed to Friday, April 8, 2011 (April 1 was the old date). The attached schedule corrects both of these errors. The most recent schedule will have an “Updated 8/12/10″ on the bottom right of the first page.

More emails will be forthcoming! Thank you for your patience as we implement quite a large piece of software, yet one we believe will be a real asset for you as parents and guardians.

Sincerely,

Mr. Charlie Graves
Secondary Administrator

The next email was sent on Thursday, August 12 at 3:09 p.m.

Dear Parent or Guardian,

This email gives information about how a parent or guardian can sign in (via the internet) to view important information for their children of if you have guardianship over a student. Please note the following important information:

1) It will be our desire, as much possible, to provide you with information via our Headmaster Online Program. This may include, but not be limited too, announcements, daily information, etc. With any new environment, this may take some getting use too. We want to take advantage of what we have purchased, and use the tools to our fullest extent. A most important part of this is eliminating the need for paper copies of progress reports and report cards since you will be able to view and print them at your leisure anytime.

2) If you have not fully re-enrolled or are not officially registered and considered an active family for the upcoming 2010-2011 school year, you will not be able to access information. Contact the school office at 651-423-2272 if you have any questions.

3) If for some reason there happens to be a grade/average for one of the students when yo usign in, could you please let me know. This would have been due to my testing our software and the OnDemand environment I was using. Thanks for your patience. And my further apologies if it was a failing grade! (I was just entering information to test how it was handled by the program.)

4) YOU WILL RECEIVE another email shortly if you are an active registered family for 2010-2011 giving you a username and password. If you have not received one, please be sure to email me.

5) Once you sign in, I would simply encourage you to check all all of the links and tabs. You will find the interface very informative. Of course, once school starts, the important data will be streamlined to you.

6) When you are able to sign in, please be aware of the following:
a. The school announcements area will be an important part of the front screen. We want to use this to communicate to you. Please check this often.
b. We will be uploading data a few times each day. Information is NOT immediate when teachers enter their grades. We will most likely be updating in the mid morning, and after school is out. This takes information the teachers have input from a “hold” status and will send it to the servers to update; then you will see the most recent information. We will do our best to deliver information quickly!
c. Mrs. Foster is currently working on posting payments. She is almost done and if your last name begins with an “S” that is where she is at for the time of this email. She hopes to finish today, therefore reflecting accurate amounts that you owe.
d. You will notice that each student has a charge. We bill by student, and when a payment is made, the computer handles the payment as splitting it between students. The family balance will still be accurate and show the amount CURRENTLY due.
e. You will be invoiced on the first of each month. If the first falls on a weekend, we will invoice on the last day of the previous month. We have invoiced for the August payment and the registration fees. By the way, we do offer a credit card payment option here at the school in case you did not know that.
f. Parents and guardians of secondary students, you can check out your student’s schedule and compare it to the PDF schedule. If you have any questions, let me know. You’re welcome to email any questions or concerns as we work through the schedules of each student.
g. For secondary, the Behavior area, will be the demerit record. We will say more about that at a later time.
h. Don’t forget to check all of the links across the top of your page when you get access.
i. There ARE student usernames and passwords available for each of your students. You can request those if you would like, but I am guessing most of you will simply want access as parents and guardians. When students sign in, they only see their grades and homework. They cannot view the financial part of the program.

Thank you for your patience! This has been an extremely long time coming! I’m thankful we’re able to provide this for you! From a secondary standpoint, I believe it is always a neat thing to be able to keep on top of your teenagers in near-real time regarding their tests, quizzes, homework, and so forth! They may be quite surprised how much you will know of them this year. And that’s the way we like it!

God bless you! Any questions, I’m here to help!

Mr. Graves
Secondary Administrator

FBS Class Schedule 2010-2011 Master