Important News from Head of School

Dear TCA family,

“Thank you, LORD!” We have heard this expression more in the past few months than ever before. On behalf of Trinity Christian Academy, we want to express our gratitude to all of our families whose commitment and loyalty is unrivaled. Thank you! We have so much to share with you. Please set aside a few minutes to read this information. Survey results are also included in this communication.

Making History

History was made for TCA as the Class of 2020 just experienced the first Senior Commencement Ceremony as a PARADE! 2020 will go down as the year we may want to forget, but never will. The Class of 2020 reunions will forever be a global festival. Looking ahead, we must recognize the impact COVID-19 has had on all of us. Good or bad, right or wrong, we cannot deny, it has had an impact on every human across the globe. Our TCA community has experienced many challenging circumstances. We are doing everything possible to learn from this season, and to plan for the day we can be reunited to engage the minds and hearts of our students. Our Mission remains the same:

We empower students to discover and live out their God-given purpose.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Trinity Christian Academy plans to fully open our doors August 10, 2020.

As many school communities across Florida open campuses, Trinity Christian Academy also will be guided by the protocols provided by CDC specifically for school campuses. We want every family and student to feel comfortable and safe

Our leadership team has been busy preparing for every scenario to protect the health of students, teachers, administrators, and staff. We have adopted detailed procedures for our entire campus and will comply with all state and local authorities to tailor a learning environment that is practical and acceptable to the needs of each family.

Since the beginning of this pandemic, TCA has been providing childcare on the TCA campus for children of First Responders. This has been a valuable experience for us because our awareness and familiarity with compliance was fully tested. We have cared for all these kids without one student illness! Now, as we enter the summer, we continue to successfully meet every requirement and will be opening our campus further to provide another safe and fun option for families. If you would like to join our Conqueror Summer Programs, sign up here for any portion of the 9 weeks running June 1 through July 31.

Before getting to the survey results, let’s answer a few questions about next year.

Will my student need to catch up?

We are fully prepared with a full menu of new and returning programs, classes, sports and activities in store for your students. We are planning for physical, on-campus classroom instruction, and in addition to our full calendar of events we are redesigning our 1st Semester of instruction. Here’s a brief explanation:

The concept of the Summer Slide (what might slip from our kid’s minds over the summer) has been on educational researchers’ radar since at least 1996. The studies showed that kids do not retain portions of reading and math knowledge over every summer break. All schools will experience students returning in the fall with a need to review previous learning. Publishers who design school curriculum like we utilize at TCA, provide built-in review within their scope and sequence. This is standard and is to be expected.

As we all recognize, TCA’s final academic quarter for 2020, with the unprecedented need for emergency remote instruction, will increase the time needed this Fall for reviewing and assessing each student, especially in math and reading. TCA recognizes that the need for review and reinforcement of many learning objectives will be more involved than the normal amount expected. Our teachers, department heads, curriculum director and academic leadership have put together several strategies with a goal to have all TCA students at or above level within the first semester of 2020-21. These supplementary strategies for review and reinforcement will be outlined for you according to division and grade levels.

TCA is ready for the fall of 2020 while preparing for future options

We recognize that the diverse needs amongst our families requires that we find ways to customize a TCA education to match those needs. The model we have in mind for 2020-2021 is what one article simply identified as “Brick to Click.” We are moving forward with 100% Brick and Mortar, physically on campus instruction! That’s what we do best. Meanwhile, we want to be sure we are fully prepared by utilizing our new web-based tools in the event we need to “CLICK” to a virtual model.

An all new Trinity Virtual Academy is in the design phase.

Initially, this will be a system for TCA to have ready and standing by as a one-stop landing spot for a virtual classroom. An LMS (Learning Management System) will be adopted for everyday use that we can pivot to distance learning with great ease.

Looking further down the road, this new platform is being designed for families that want to access a fully accredited education anywhere and anytime. Not only for times of crisis, but more importantly, we want to make a quality Christian education accessible through us online. All of these are great options as more and more families look to us as an education/activity menu:

• Some families will always want the traditional brick and mortar school experience.
• Some families prefer a hybrid of an on-campus experience mixed with a selection of online classes
• Some families will select TCA for the full Virtual Academy, 100% online/home-education route.

Bottom line, TCA wants to provide whatever model matches your family’s educational needs.

As promised, here are the SURVEY RESULTS. Thank you for taking the time to respond to our brief survey. The results affirmed the steps we are taking to prepare the best educational experience for each family.

Please look for a FINAL Parent Satisfaction Survey coming your way in the next week. We are here to meet the educational needs of your family. Thank you for taking time to read this newsletter. Thank you for making TCA your school of choice.

On behalf of TCA Leadership Team,

David Welling
Head of School
Trinity Christian Academy