Good Morning Lutz Families,

Over a year ago a suggestion was made at one of our Parent Group Meetings to have a Facebook Group for our students where they could connect and chat in a safe environment. At the time I just made a note to work on it, but with so many other projects in the works, it never came to fruition.  With all the uncertainty in the world at this time, I thought perhaps now was the time to see if there was any interest in this type of forum for current and past students of Lutz.

Every morning Zack comes to me and asks if I’ve heard anything about whether or not school will be opening again. Although I’ve read that the MISD anticipates opening up after Easter break in April, he hears us talking about how some states don’t anticipate opening for the remainder of the school year and others have even said they could potentially be closed until 2021. This is especially devastating for him, as this was his final year at Lutz. Every day that our school is closed, is one less day that our 30 Lutz Completers would have had with their teachers and friends. For them there is no Next Year.

Although no substitute for this lost time, my hope is that other students will join this group so they can post pictures or start conversations about things that interest them and connect with their fellow students. This might not give them a sense of normalcy, but maybe offer some comfort and distraction from the concerns that weigh heavily on us all.

I realize that many students may not have their own Facebook accounts, so I will be allowing parents to join this group on their behalf. Please keep in mind though that this is a group for the students and all content posted should be either by the students, on behalf of the students, or for the students.

At present I am the only moderator. This is a private group, so although the group can be searched on Facebook, no one can see the content or join unless approved. For now, posts will not be moderated, but if I find there are inappropriate posts, or if anyone reports inappropriate content, this will be changed. I want to try to allow the students to connect without having to wait for every comment to be approved. At this moment Zack is working on his intro post. The top post on the page welcomes the students and asks them to introduce themselves. From there, it’s all up to them.

This is definitely going to be a work-in-progress and I am open to suggestions or offers to help moderate, should this actually be a medium that our students want to use. The link to join this group is: Lutz Keep In Touch or just search Lutz Keep In Touch in Facebook and the membership page should come up. If you have any questions or comments, you can respond to this email or email me personally at dukicinclan@gmail.com.

Please remember, the Lutz Keep In Touch Group is specifically for our students. If parents wish to connect, I have set up a Facebook Group for Lutz parents where they can post their own concerns, interests, suggestions, or other information that might be helpful to other parents. The link for this group is: Lutz Parent Group Facebook Group.  Again, this is a private group and subject to membership approval, but content will not be moderated unless there are issues.