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Charter News • August 5, 2020

"All great changes are preceded by chaos." —Deepak Chopra

“Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future” -John F. Kennedy

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly”.  -Richard Buckminster Fuller

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Dear Charter Families,

Welcome to the start of a very unique school year of Learning and Living together. This is certainly not the way that any of us would like to welcome in another wonderful year together.  We won’t have the exciting voices of children in and out of the classroom, warm welcomes at the door and seeing kids with their new school attire, but life has thrown us all into a world of uncertainty and we are all doing our best as we get to carve out a new normal; a time where Learning and Living are truly intermingled. (We will need to keep this important fact in mind as we work through the year together).

I am sorry for the delay in sending this welcome letter but due to the safety constraints this Pandemic has thrown us into, our Charter, as with all schools, is tied more closely to news updates and requirements from the Public Health, the County Office of Education, and thus to our District’s plans. The news that we have received has been constantly changing throughout the summer. The details schools needed to fully plan to start the school year didn’t firm up until just recently. 

Due to the need for Distance Learning, schools can manage the start of school in a way that will best support a strong preparation for this new way of learning for teachers, students, and parents. As a dependent Charter, we are lucky to be connected closely with the SLV District, receiving very important support during these times while at the same time having flexibility in the way that we format our programs. As a Charter school, we can adjust each of our program’s schedules to support the unique aspects and format that our families enroll with us for.

To that end, all Charter programs' schedules and formats will run differently than what was shared in Dr. Bruton’s email. 

The foundational emphasis on building and maintaining relationships is what we will start with and nurture as best we can throughout the year.  Our focus is on teaching students rather than solely teaching content. Relationship and communication between teacher, student, and parent is key.

  • Every program will start with 1-1 conferencing, even Nature Academy.  

  • Many if not all of the homeschool programs 1-1 conferencing will last longer than the two weeks mentioned in Dr. Bruton's letter, given the fact that parents are more of an intimate partner in the learning process with their children.

  • We will start with team building and ensuring social-emotional connections, with Robin, our Mental Health counselor participating as well.

We will also continue to emphasize the importance of each of our programs' foundational aspects as well as their weekly format. 

  • You will be receiving a letter from your student's teacher(s) soon, explaining in further detail what your student's daily/weekly schedule will be. Each program will have parent orientation meetings to start the year. 

  • Training in any of the online programs and/or applications that the programs will use will also be held for parents and students during the first couple of weeks of school.

  • Our homeschool programs will be adhering to our normal paperwork and 1-1 meetings with parents. 

  • Nature Academy will have a similar format to the middle school’s daily/weekly requirements, taking attendance and requiring parents to call our attendance line if their child is sick. 

  • For the first 2-3 weeks of school, each program will have a more simplified instruction in order to support student team building, assessments, and material distributions.

  • Teachers will begin instruction, small group learning opportunities, and/or activities in line with their program’s format by the end of the month.

Changes in staffing:

  • Fall Creek Homeschool: A special welcome to our new teacher, Alex Leovic. Alex is from Denver, Colorado. He has his degree in Biology and Environmental Studies, he loves spending time outdoors and has been involved in a variety of individual and team sports throughout his life.

  • Nature Academy: We also welcome Melissa Stockton back for our 7/8th graders. Rebecca Doty went back to her requested 60% teaching primarily math, with touches of her other passions.

  • Quail Hollow Homeschool and QHIA: Rachel Hager is back with us after a year’s leave and will support both QHIA and Quail Hollow Home School. She is excited to work with the homeschool population and explore new ways to integrate the arts within the online format. 

And we are all grateful that the Charter programs are designed with parent participation already an integral part. We are fortunate that we have such great families who put such effort into working with their children and team alongside the teachers in the programs that they have chosen. While the Pandemic and the need to stay home is wearing us all down, at least we have each other and can trust in the way that we work together.  It is a great boon that our teachers know our students and families for multiple years.  Much of the trust, norms, and foundations of a community are already formed. To those families who are new to us this year, you will be quickly and happily folded into the program’s community, where learning and living together equate to teaching to the whole child, which is a key aspect of the SLV Charter.

What a special and challenging opportunity we have this year! A silver lining is that we get to remember the importance of practicing seeing a glass half full, practicing growth mindset, listening, seeing and observing more deeply, tapping into empathy, and accessing each student’s individual potential at a time when these attributes and skills are most needed.  We get to see what we can do if we work more closely together (with social-distance safety in place of course).  It is important to remember that we are all in this together; ‘Your struggle is my struggle’ is a true statement.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we plan and adjust the beginning of the school year for students and staff. Please feel free to call our office for assistance. 

~Rhonda

STUDENT REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!!

PLEASE NOTE: Students are not considered fully enrolled until their on-line registration has been completed.

If you have received this Newsletter, your student has completed stage one of our enrollment process in our Charter programs.   The final step is to complete our online registration so that we have all of your students' up-to-date information, including emergency contacts and any specific health data.  Many of you have completed the online registration but if you haven’t, please follow the instructions in the email you received from the district or the instructions below.  

Students may not attend class or receive their finalized schedule until the online registration has been completed. If you do not complete the online registration by Monday, August 10th, 2020 we will assume that you are not wanting to be in our Charter program and we will notify those on our waitlist for enrollment.

To complete the online registration, please follow these instructions below, which were also in the email you should have received. 

To get started:

  • Please note you will need to have a unique "SnapCode" for each student to complete their respective registration in the email that was sent out to you. 

What’s a SnapCode?

By clicking on the link in the box in the email, you are automatically entering your child's SnapCode. The SnapCode is like a key to your child’s Student Registration for the upcoming school year.

Do you have a PowerSchool Enrollment Account?

  • YES - I have a PowerSchool Enrollment Account- If you already have used InfoSnap from PowerSchool in the past at another school district or ours, use the same login with the SnapCode provided below to complete the online registration form. (You should use the same account to complete forms for multiple children.)

  • NO - Create an Account for PowerSchool Enrollment - If you’ve never completed an online Student Registration, through InfoSnap, you need to create a PowerSchool Enrollment Account to access the online forms. This allows you to securely save your work and come back at a later time if necessary. You can use your email address or cell phone number. 

Now, begin by clicking on the SnapCode Link in the box that is on your email to access the registration portal and form:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Do I have to answer all the questions?

  • Required fields are marked as "Required".  If you don't have the address for your Emergency Contacts, please put N/A for each related field for Street, City, State, and enter all 00000 for the Zip Code. However, if you are requesting your contact to Receive Duplicate Notification or Mailing, please do not skip their address information.

What if I make a mistake?

  • If you would like to make a change, click on the underlined field or click “< Prev” to return to a previous page. 

I’ve completed the form, now what?

  • When you have finished entering your information, click “Submit.” This will send all of the information you’ve entered to the school. If you cannot click on this button, you will need to make sure that you have answered all the required questions.

 What if I have more than one student in the district? Do I need to do this for each child?

  • Yes, because you’ll need to provide information that is specific for each child. We recommend that you submit one Student Registration and then start another –this will allow you to “snap over” shared family information, which will save you time.  Remember that each student receives his/her own unique SnapCode for completing the online registration for each student individually.

I don’t know what a question is asking.

  • Please reach out to the school Registrar and ask any general questions about the form or the Student Registration process.  SLVUSD Charter School - 831-336-5167 

Help! I’m having technical difficulties.

  • Contact Support by Phone: 1-866-752-6850, Operating Hours: 8 AM - 5 PM E.S.T.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in the upcoming new school year!  

~Janet (Charter Registrar)                                            

CAFETERIA NEWS: Information regarding meal services during distance learning and applications for free and reduced lunch can be found on the SLVUSD Nutrition Webpage at: http://slvusdcafe.com/   

What’s Going on in Our Charter School?  ..little snippets of some of our programs. 

We are excited to have made the first step in the move to our own site at Quail Hollow.  All of our Homeschool programs moved over to the site over the summer, joining QHIA and QHHS. A small silver lining in distance learning is that it allows us more time to unpack what we need and move a little slower with our transition.  We are so looking forward to redefining the site, ‘imprinting’ various locations of the outdoor and natural areas for each program, sharing opportunities between programs when applicable. While we have to wait, it gives us all more time to think about what all stakeholders want to have happen.

The Parent Advisory Committees focus groups on Outdoor and Garden, Library, and Culture have already toured the site (small group using social distance) and are excited to help our teachers and programs with developing this new site for everyone,as best as they can, as soon as they can.

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