Greetings Super Spruce!

I just wanted to let everyone know how appreciative I am of our very special staff. I feel it every day I am on Zoom meetings, seeing people periodically at school, via our Group Team text, the quality and focus of our conversations on best outcome for scholars and staff. When we hit a bump in the road we address it and adjust and everyone is being flexible as we all continue to navigate and get better after each passing day.

I know that COVID-19 is testing and dictating a way of being that we are not accustom. At the same time, it is also revealing our Joy. our Hope. and our Resilience. Spruce is special because those of us that make this our School Home, know, feel, and demonstrate that on a daily basis. Words do not seem to do it justice, but I will say again~ Thank you and know you ALL, every single one of you is appreciated!

Take your breaks, pace yourself, be prepared, remain empathetic, infuse levity daily. We are only as good as ALL OF OUR LINKS. (take a moment to check out the podcasts great stuff)

We Can!

We Will!

We Must!

ABSOLUTELY THE PROUDEST PRINCIPAL IN DISD!

F. Taylor

H. Grady Spruce High School

Take what you want, use what you can, to inspire, laugh,reflect as we take one day at a time.

Every week, please take a moment to review the following section in which updates, reminders, or new information in the areas of Operation and/or Culture are shared weekly. This section allows us to demonstrate the actions that support SUPER SPRUCE!

The district recently extended the transfer period to May 9th.

Due to our current circumstances, I will not approve any inter-district transfers past this date. In past years as a campus principal I have been understanding and in light of our present conditions, I must ensure that we are fully staffed at the start of the school year.

Super Spruce Family!

As we prepare for next year we are on the look out for stellar, positive, solution-oriented, coachable, teamplayers to join our Spruce Family. This is the height of recommendation/hiring season and we want to ge the word out with who better than our current staff!

If you know of a strong and interested candidate for the following positions please contact the administrator listed in parenthesis:

• Special Education Teaching Assistant (Mrs. Lewis)
• Special Education Unit Teacher (Mrs. Lewis)
• Social Studies (Mrs. Lewis)
• AP Biology / Health (Mr. Daniels)
• Auto Collision (Mr. Varney)
• Art (Ms. Taylor)

• Senior Check out Process will be held May 19 - 27th.
• Senior Check out Committee has been formed as of today, Friday - May 24th
• Committee leads will be reaching out to senior teachers to ask for assistance.
• Key scholar information will be communicated via our campus IG accounts, Spruce HS Website, Spruce Online Learning Senior Page, Mrs. Torres - College Access Partner.
• More information to come

• Ms. Cameron and Senior Sponsors (Gladney, C. Baker, and S. Montgomery) are coordinating efforts for an Adopt - a - Senior Campaign.
• Ms. Cameron will communicate criteria and key information to staff week of 4/27.
• Campaign is open to any Spruce Staff member to support and celebrate our senior class of 2020.

We had a schedule for the next four weeks on Thursdays. THAT IS NO LONGER THE PLAN DUE TO THE CHANGE IN CUSTODIAL TEAM NEED TO START SUMMER CLEANING.

1. SUNDAY 4/26: MRS. FISHER EMAILS OUT SCHEDULE FOR STAFF CHECK OUT / CLEAN OUT FOR MONDAY 4/27- FRIDAY 5/1

2. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU FOLLOW THE SCHEDULE

3. IF YOU CANNOT MAKE YOUR SCHEDULED TIME EMAIL MRS. FISHER IMMEDIATELY.

4. 3RD FLOOR ONLY HAS A SCHEDULE THAT WAS EMAILED OUT, SEE INFO BELOW.

CHECK OUT - AGAIN 3rd FLOOR ONLY!

Mrs. Fisher sent email out on 4/23 for specific teachers to clean out their rooms on either:

Saturday: 11 – 2

Sunday: 11 – 2

1. Park in the front of the school.
2. Check in and out with Ms. Taylor at front entrance.
3. You must wear mask and gloves
4. You will have 45 minutes to gather your belongings before the next wave of staff come in. It is in your best interest, as well as other staff, that you stick to that time frame.
5. There will be NO MORE THAN 5 persons on a floor. This list is strategically put together to ensure the safety of all.
6. You must turn in keys when you check out to Ms. Taylor at front entrance.

Please review the list sent out by Mrs. Fisher on 4/23 with the current list of scholars who have picked up their hotspots. If you see a scholar of yours on the list please reach out to them and welcome them and encourage them to reach out to you to make sure they are clear on what to do.

Scholars can pick up hot spots from Ms. Taylor:

Saturday: 11 – 2

Sunday: 11 – 2

ITS FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC

Please submit a picture of ONE of your favorite bands, singer, group, etc. I will make a massive Super Spruce collage with everyone's entries. (I know this may be hard to narrow our focus but please only one :-).

Send pictures to Ms. Taylor - please put Wacky Wednesday in subject by 4:30.

Each week the instructional leadership team will highlight the growth and demonstration of instructional practices that promote student success and a thriving teaching and learning environment at Spruce!

It is important that we recognize ALL the Excellence in Teaching occurring in all of areas of our academic programs. The highlights are on a weekly rotation throughout the year. Each content/department will be highlighted on a weekly basis.

Mr. Will Hastings has always been a teacher with the focus of serving students within a rigorous environment. That has not changed since we entered the reality of virtual Learning. Mr. Hastings has adapted to the new district initiatives while supporting his students and providing a weekly assignment that will help prepare them to be successful in Algebra II as well as college mathematics. This is just another example on how amazing the Spruce staff is in supporting our students in this new environment.

Below is a link to the instructional video Mrs. Sausameda made so students would know how to make a program. Scholar, Stephanie Garcia earned a 95% for her excellent work! Way to go Mrs. S, for creating the step by step video as a resource and it paid off!!

Click HERE for Mrs. S, instructional video

Click HERE for Stephanie Garcia's Program

Mrs. Sausameda's students are using Flipgrid as an online tool to record and submit their monologue assignments. Take a look at her first practice of monologue using Flipgrid.

Click HERE for Kartiana Whitaker's Flipgrid (some words around parenting)

https://youtu.be/0R54t4vov_k

Each week PE has been challenging students to get physical and discuss the ways they have been active in their every day life. The weekly assignment challenges students to complete a set amount of push-ups and upload the video. Please see the video below for one of our favorite student's push-up video-in his slides with a break after about 10 push-ups. BUT this video came after weeks of trying and lots of coaching from Coach Alexander until finally he got his video uploaded!

LTC Smith writes:

This is CSM Watts working hard for our cadets, You have to see it.

He does a video every week for our cadet's to see what right looks like and keep the cadet's spirits up.

I would like to get him recognized in the scoop for all his hard work.

PLEASE CLICK on the Link below to See CSM in action!

Ms. Hogan writes:

THANK YOU for being so dedicated, friendly, and consistent. Our geometry students are benefiting greatly from your time and energy. Thank you for your diligent email and calling campaigns. It shows our students that you care.

Ms. Taylor writes:

I want to say an AROUND THE MOON AND BACK THANK YOU to these two phenomenal people. They are there to problem solves, always with smiles and we always manage to laugh our way through the ever changing information. They are working to ensure that systems and process run smoothly and coordinating many things behind the scenes. They are up at the school right long side, masked and gloved up supporting our scholars and staff. Truly they have been so incredible with their help and hearts~ tremendous THANK YOU!!

Ms. Cameron writes:

I am constantly WOWED by JROTC's "battle rhythm" (established daily routine). This group meets EVERYDAY, produces their own conditioning videos, and creates opportunities to praise and interact with all students in the program. I will definitely be using their videos to help me on my journey to physical fitness.

Ms. Cameron writes:

Ms. Tamez is such a huge advocate for students and helps students to balance the emotional aspect of both the language barrier and the workload as a high school student. She goes above and beyond to find solutions and understanding to serve as both a liaison and an advocate for students.

Ms. Taylor writes:

Our tummies thanked you for your wonderful lunch you dropped off this week! Truly appreciated the gesture and the food coma that quickly followed was a welcome state of being :-). Again, we loved it!

Mr. Sharp writes:

I would like to nominate Mrs. Lewis for the Super Spruce Spotlight. She has been an awesome leader of the U.S. history team. She trusts us to challenge and engage our students even in spite of the distance learning. She always has exciting ideas and extension activities to help us grow and improve our lessons with our students.

So, it is for these reasons, I nominate her for the Super Spruce Spotlight!

Mr. Powers writes:

I would like to submit a spotlight on Ms. Fisher and Ms. Walker- Reed. They are so positive throughout this whole situation and still available to ask questions of help us out. They are amazing!

AOE Coordinators master schedule meeting with Ms. Lewis

SMILES ALL AROUND!

Mrs. Sausemeda writes:

I would like to nominate the cafeteria staff for Spotlight because they are working tirelessly to take care of our whole community at a risk to themselves.

I will add that our Custodial Lead and our visiting custodians are a part of the distribution team!!! They have been working behind the scenes every week to pack and prep all the food to serve thousands of meals each week. (Taylor)

My apologies I overlooked these in my email from Smith, Wright, and Watts. Thank you for always participating with excellence!!

As we celebrate National Librarians Week let us all take the time to celebrate our Great Staff at Spruce. As we navigate through uncharted waters and miss the opportunity to shower our library staff with hugs, gifts, flowers, and treats I want to publicly thank them for everything they do for us, the students, and the community. The hugs, gifts, flowers, and treats can wait, the love and gratitude will always be there. WE LOVE YOU

To ensure all scholars staying after school are supervised, please ensure you are following our end-of-day procedures:

• At dismissal, walk all of your students to the A or C stairwell or Early College exit (see below)
• All students must exit the building and re-enter through the auditorium door
• If you are leading an after school activity, please pick up your students by 4:45 in the auditorium
• Teachers on dismissal duty will ensure all students leave the auditorium WITH a staff member
• A staff member will remain in the auditorium until 6:00pm with students who are waiting lengthy times for their ride to arrive.
  

Please review the behavior cheat sheet as some updates have been made. This cheat sheet is a reminder of what to do when:

• a student won't go to their class
• you smell a prohibited substance
• students are on your floor with the wrong colored hall pass
• a student is out of dress code
• students are in the building before/after school (updated)

Rear Entrance - ALL DAYS (9:00 am to 9:20 am)

• Our late door entrance, rear of campus/upperclassmen entrance, is open from 9:00 to 9:20 am.
• Scholars will be given a colored tardy pass (see picture ABOVE) with the time/date written on it by late door check in monitors (Rubio/McWhorter/Espinoza). We need this process to be fast and will only involve the monitor putting the time/date on the slip and sending scholars off to class. Students may pick up breakfast but they have the time/date stamped on their pass and are to move quickly to class (5-7 minutes).

• The late door (upperclassmen entrance) is closed at 9:20 am.

Front Door Entrance - A/B DAYS (9:21 am to 9:40 am)

• Scholars that arrive after 9:20 am enter through the front of the building and check in with Ms. Edison.
• Between 9:21 am and 9:40 am scholars will receive the colored tardy pass from Ms. Edison or designated staff member when she is absent.
• If a scholar arrives after 9:40 am they will sign into the Late to School Log and be escorted to ISS for the remainder of the period.

Front Door Entrance - C DAYS (9:21 am to 9:48 am)

• Scholars that arrive after 9:20 am enter through the front of the building and check in with Ms. Edison.
• Between 9:21 am and 9:48 am scholars will sign into the Late to School Log and be escorted to ISS for the remainder of the period.

Teacher Moves:

1. Every student that has arrived late should be allowed into class and still be marked tardy in attendance by you the teacher.
2. Every* student should have a pass and show their teacher their pass upon entrance into class. ( * See exception below)
3. Teachers should check the time on the pass against the time the student arrives in class to make sure it is reasonable. If not, teacher should follow-up accordingly with appropriate student interventions such as student conference, parent contact, etc.
4. No teacher hallway passes allowed before 9:45 am. There are some scholars in the halls with hallway passes, please let's NOT slip on this expectation.

​* exception - ​Keep in mind tardy passes will not begin being issued until 9 am. That means students arriving just minutes before 9 am will not be getting a pass yet will probably still be tardy to class. Please allow some leeway with students within the first 5 - 10 minutes of class time each day for not having a pass depending on what time they actually come through the metal detectors. This is a great opportunity to have a conversation with your student about not arriving at the last minute to school and being caught in this awkward situation of being asked for a pass and not having one.

BEFORE THE DRILL:

· Review the e-mailed evacuation map for your floor;

· Review the e-mailed color-coded buddy system and find your buddy teacher/staff member; and

· Print a copy of the attendance rosters.

DURING THE DRILL:

· Use the proper stairway/exit,

· Exit the building quickly and orderly with students,

· Take attendance and ensure that all students are present once outside,

· Communicate to your buddy and person in charge of your stairwell if a student is missing, and

· Wait for the bell to ring before re-entering the building.

AFTER THE DRILL:

· Use the proper stairway/re-entry point,

· Enter the building quickly and orderly with class,

· Report DIRECTLY back to class with students,

· Take attendance and ensure that all your students returned to class, and

· Reset class and resume teaching and learning.

Located in the heart of the Pleasant Grove region of Dallas, Texas, H. Grady Spruce High School serves a diverse population of students and their families. Our neighborhood maintains a strong tradition of community, hard work, and pride. Families have made Pleasant Grove their home for generations, and many of our students can claim a legacy of Spruce alumnae that go back to the founding of the school.

H. Grady Spruce High School was built in 1963, replacing Rylie High School. The school is named for Henry Grady Spruce, a native of Omen, Texas, who earned degrees from Southern Methodist University and the University of Chicago. He devoted much of his 35-year YMCA career to youth, including 25 years as director of the Dallas YMCA's Camp Crockett near Granbury.

Email: frataylor@dallasisd.org
Website: https://www.dallasisd.org/spruce
Location: 9733 Old Seagoville Road, Dallas, TX, USA
Phone: 972-892-5500