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Charter News•December 9, 2022

Dear Charter Families,

What a terrific Winter Craft Fair we had!  It was the first time that we had students from every program participate.  Having our Nature Academy program participate expanded the event, bringing over 75 students into the mix of vendors, buyers, and browsers. We had over 40 students/families selling items. I admit that I spent a significant amount of money on the creative and amazing items our students created. It was great to watch the camaraderie, sales pitches, supportive language, and bartering that the event brings out.  Students could choose how to use the money they made. I heard plans for Boy Scouts trips, gifts for families, some funds went to our library, some profits went to program events including CRMS’s marketing business of diecast cars.  A big shout out to teacher Katie Parmenter for organizing this event for all of us.

Thank you, and thank you again to the participating parents and your wonderful efforts in making our first All-Charter Winter Craft sale such a success.  We know that we can only make it better next year.  I’ve received feedback from participating parents, and the staff already have ideas to make it even smoother for next year.

I hope you are all enjoying the rainy weekend and let’s all hope that we don’t have any large road closures or power outages.

Please read on to learn more about/from:

- Jen Sims, our mental health counselor (P.S: Take a look at her Charter Virtual Wellness Center)

- an update on our WASC report  

- Our current all Charter SEL and academic focus

- updates from our various programs, 

- reminders about the play, PAC meeting date, a special hockey ticket opportunity, etc.

Thank you for allowing us to work with you and your students.

~Rhonda

WASC committee visit update: I am very proud to report that the WASC committee shared their finding with us and it was full of praise for our Charter and various programs.  Their recommendations to continue our growth in all areas came directly from our current action plan; many actions are already in motion this year. Here are words from our WASC committee presentation: 

Schoolwide Successes: SLVUSD Charter School is AMAZING

  • Students are engaged and enthusiastic learners.

  • Parents are involved and supportive.

  • All staff are highly qualified professionals and compassionate towards students and families.

  • School is an important part of the community and meets a specific need.

Continue the great things you do. 

  • Keep creating engaging learning experiences for all learners.

  • Strengthen your relationship with parents and the community through clear communication.

  • Provide and invite others to participate in ongoing professional development for SEL. You are doing a great job at this.  Keep it up.

I will be presenting our WASC committee report at this week’s board meeting.

From our Superintendent’ parent report: 

What is WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges)?: WASC Accreditation is a process schools use to monitor student learning and set school improvement goals. WASC accreditation is an ongoing cycle of quality. Schools assess their program and the impact on student learning with respect to the WASC criteria and other accreditation factors.

What does WASC accreditation mean for a school?: WASC accreditation means a school is focused on setting a mission and goals for its learners. The school is student-oriented and examines student performance continuously, accepting objective evaluation from a team of outside peer professionals trained by Accrediting Commission for Schools (ACS) WASC.

What is the purpose of accreditation and why is it important?: The goal of accreditation is to ensure that institutions of higher education meet acceptable levels of quality. Accreditation in the United States involves non-governmental entities (accrediting organizations), as well as federal and state government agencies. _______________________________________________________

Our Focus on SLV’s District-wide Social Emotional Learning:

The Charter programs may work differently from the rest of the District schools but we still focus on the SEL themes from the district’s collective Graduate Profile that was collectively determined. SLV Staff's Most Frequent Graduate Portrait Traits include: • Empathy • Collaboration 

• Compassion • Communication Skills -Active Listening • Confidence • Critical Thinking  • Engagement • Growth Mindset • Kindness • Life-long Learner • Problem-Solving Skills • Resilience • Responsibility • Self Advocacy •Understand Cause and Effect  

We will continue with developing and supporting Empathy as we move into focusing more on Active Listening and Communication. One thing that we have noticed is how student’s attention span has lessened over the past several years.  

As we focus on active listening please help us by helping to model how to use active listening skills at home: 

  • Ask open-ended questions to learn more.

  • Paraphrase and summarize what the other person is saying to make sure you fully understand.

  • Practice non-judgmental listening by setting aside your own biases or points of view.

  • Demonstrate patience by focusing on the other person, instead of your own thoughts.

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Parent Advisory Committee meeting; Tuesday, December 13 at 9:30.  We will meet in the Library or on Zoom.  For those who cannot meet in person, you can connect via Zoom https://slvusd-org.zoom.us/j/81129783846  

 

This meeting will be focused on Reviewing our work with our LCAP goals, supporting the larger all Charter events  and other various ways to further unite the various programs: academic, social-emotional, and general school activities.

 

These meetings are designed to ensure we have parent input into critical documents  that are the backbone of the Charter, as well as supporting the growth and development of the campus activities and culture of the Charter as a whole.  Yearly this committee gives input to our Local Control Accountability Plan (includes our school goals and funding) School Safety Plan, Annual Parent Survey, and our 5 year Charter Petition Renewal and Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accreditation review.

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San Jose Barracuda Game: Sunday, January 15, 2023 at 1pm

Charter families have a great opportunity to go to the San Jose Barracuda game coming up on Sunday, January 15, 2023 at 1pm. We have 3 reserved sections for our families. Tickets can be purchased for $21.00 per ticket through this link: https://fevo.me/slvusd

 

It's also Super Hero night, so you are encouraged to wear costumes! The more tickets we purchase, the greater the chance for us to be invited on the ice after the game for a group picture!

 

If you have any questions regarding this event please contact: Alex Leovic, Fall Creek Homeschool teacher at [email protected].

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Pick-up and Drop-off Safety: Safety Expectations and Warning of Accidents.

As we increase activities at our site, we are having more and more drivers dropping and picking up their students at various times in the mornings and afternoons.   We have seen a concerning downturn in the safely awareness, also seeing parents pick their children up in precarious locations. 

 

For any K-8 pick-up or drop-off. Please drive down and either park in front of the District Office building, or drive around back of the building to drop off your middle school student or wait in your car for your student to come to you during pick-up times. 

Please drive slowly when going around the District Office building. Please show some patience and wait in line for students to fully get in the cars. I have been supervising students waiting for their parents, and seen some parents become impatient and zip past  cars in front of them to speed by.  I had to try to slow down those passing by in order to allow the car to finally continue on.
If you plan to wait an extended period of time for your child to get their things ready, please pull over to the far right side while you wait.

 

For CRHS families: The Coast Redwood High School parking lot is only large enough for Charter staff.  To help ensure safety, we are requesting that parents drop off and pick up their students outside of the CRHS gates and not to utilize the staff parking lot as a turnout. 

Parents and student drivers are encouraged to utilize the lower campus parking lot to park their cars and to walk up the stairs to CRHS.  Your student may also meet you down at the lower parking lot, descending from the stairs from CRHS to the lower campus. Or if space, park off the road, along the wooden fence on Marion along the side of the CRHS  building,  outside of our gates. Please do not use the top of the drive down, or the small CRHS parking lot to make a U-turn.  There have been a few close calls between students, bicycle riders, skateboarders, and vehicle drivers navigating in and out of the staff parking lot. And recently there have been some actual fenders benders,

High school students are directed to wait for their rides at the bus stop or along the wooden fence outside of the CRHS gates, or at the lower campus parking lot.  

Please do not park in front of the school bus stop. (at the top of the drive down, adjacent to the weed benches and signage.) Our wonderful bus drivers pull out of the district office driveway and turn right into their first bus stop at 12:00 and again at 1:15 or 2:10, based on the day. 

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What’s growing in the Gardens: Our fourth week of temperatures in the 30's and it's not even Winter yet!  All of the frost intolerant plants have gone to mush while our hardy native yarrow is still pushing out blooms and our Fall/Winter crops are chugging along.  The weather forecast isn't looking any better for the next two weeks with more rain, low's in the 30's, and high's of only 55 degrees. I will be shocked if we don't have a few damaged or dead plants after this.  I'm curious to see what happens and will be keeping an eye on our gardens.  This week is our last week with our UCSC intern.  It has been great to have her learn and work with us this quarter.

 

FC & QHHS 2nd/3rd - Students are continuing studies on insects in the garden this week and learned about solitary bees like the carpenter, leaf cutter, and mason bees.  We discussed their life cycles, how they make their own nest, gather and store their own nectar and pollen, and lay their own eggs.  Students spent some time in their garden removing leaves from their planters so they had room to plant some violas.

CRHS -  Students each harvested a handful of radishes and some rosemary from the garden to make a roasted radishes recipe. While the radishes were cooking and since it was a rainy day we discussed inside what we would be doing next week (planting leafy greens if it's a dry day) and decided on what our yearly project would be (making a terrarium). 

QHIA 6th and CRMS 6th/7th-  Students continued their studies on water conservation in the garden.  This week we talked about what mulching is, the various types of mulch that can be used in the garden, and the 6 reasons we should mulch in the garden.   On a rainy day students sorted and packaged seeds collected from our gardens to donate to our seed library.  They took a few packets home with them too!  Students layed down a bail of rice straw which is our favorite mulch because it 

grows mycelium quite quickly and attracts all the worms to the soil surface right where we want them to poop! They also planted some violas around the garden and pulled some mint out of their garden bed. _______________________________________________________

All Charter Play Information: Peter Pan: Somebody to Love

Rehearsals: 2:45-5:15pm, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, *beginning Nov. 15 All auditions and rehearsals through December are held in the library and multipurpose room on the Quail Hollow Campus. Please email Amber directly with any questions at [email protected].

  • All January Rehearsals, beginning Tuesday, Jan. 10, are mandatory.
  • Performance Week: January 30-February 5

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Free online live tutoring now available. 

Students can now have 24-hour access to various resources, including live 1:1 tutors. This is a fantastic resource for our students and families. Here is the link to check it out:
https://www.brainfuse.com/highed/helpNow.asp?a_id=6BE9380D&ss=&r=

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Charter Program happenings:

Coast Redwood High School: We had several of our students participate in in the All Charter Winter Craft Fair. We had a large number of students attend the Get to Know Cabrillo presentation for students interested in continuing on to Cabrillo College. 

Coast Redwood Middle School: Thank you to those who participated in the All-Charter Craft Faire!  We had great student participation this year, and as always it was fun to see most of the students’ proceeds get turned right around for purchases from other students so that the whole community could feel appreciated and supported. Our Christmas car project will continue with sales on Mercari and the Capitola Mall.

Quail Hollow Homeschool: Last week we participated in a lovely Winter Poetry Tea party, graciously hosted by parents.  Students practiced holding their tea cups properly, saying please and thank you, and trying new flavors of tea, finger sandwiches, and desserts.  Students recited poetry, including many by Shell Silverstein, and a few original poems.  

Quail Hollow Integrated Arts: What a great week! Students have been doing great with Hour of Code; many even moving beyond block coding and learning some Python. All students have been working on writing their persuasive letters to various recipients on various topics. 7th/8th graders have been enjoying their time traveling through history. They certainly choose creative things to try to gather resources and interact with the famous people in their travels.

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GENERAL COVID NOTIFICATION: 2022-2023  COVID-19 GENERAL NOTIFICATION

This notice is to inform you that Santa Cruz County has dropped to a lower status as it relates to COVID-19. While the County COVID rates may go up and down there is still a higher exposure potential in a school setting. Due to the potential of being exposed to someone with COVID-19 (both in and out of school), we encourage ALL students to follow the actions below to protect one another:  

 

  • CDPH recommends that students wear a mask while in indoor settings to protect themselves and to prevent the spread of COVID-19. High-quality masks with a good fit and filtration provide the best protection.  
  • If you develop symptoms of COVID-19, stay home, email your school site’s Health Office and get tested. You may pick up home test kits from any school site or the District Office. In addition, students can be tested at one of our Inspire testing locations.  
  • If you test positive for COVID-19, isolate at home and notify your students’ school site Health Office right away. 

 

This general notification will be sent each week in this Charter News in lieu of providing individual exposure notifications for COVID-19. Note that infections diagnosed in students and school staff are not necessarily the result of exposure at school, and when safety protocols are followed in schools, COVID-19 transmission remains more likely to occur outside of school settings. 

 

Thank you for considering this important information. We consider the health and wellbeing of our community a priority. Additional information can be found at 2022-2023 SLVUSD Students: General Protocol for Symptoms and Positive Test Results. 

 

Health Office Contact Information  Charter – [email protected] 

 

Sincerely,    

San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District

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Student Nutrition Services: FREE BREAKFAST AND LUNCH

  • All SLVUSD students are eligible to receive a free breakfast and lunch through the cafeteria.
  • Complete the Free/Reduced Lunch Application at https://family.titank12.com/
  • Although a meal application is not necessary to receive free meals during the 2022-2023 school year, households are encouraged to complete a meal application to ensure that your school receives accurate funding. As well, your child’s eligibility for free or reduced lunch could qualify you for additional outside services or benefits including Free/Reduced Bus passes, student fee waivers, P-EBT, discounted utilities, and more.
  • Meals will be served from our Multi-use Room in the central area of the campus. 
    • Breakfast will be available in the mornings from 8:00-8:30
    • Lunch will be served as followed:
      • Mondays: 11:45-12:15 
      • Tuesdays, Thursdays and a few Mondays  12:10 - 12:40
      • Wednesdays: 12:00-12:30
      • Fridays: 11:50-12:20
    • CRHS students can order lunch and they can pick it up from the Charter multi-use room.
    • More details are coming from our Student Nutrition department. SLV Student Nutrition Services.

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Student Absences: REMINDER

For Nature Academy families, everyday that your child is absent from school you need to call our attendance line at 831-336-8527 to report their absence. Please leave your child's name, your name, and the reason for the absence.

For Homeschool families if your child will be absent from enrichment classes please contact your teacher of record to report their absence.

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Dates to Remember: (Please refer to your program’s newsletter for greater detail regarding dates and details specific to your program’s Field Trips and class events.)

  • Friday, December 23, 2022 - Friday, January 6, 2023: Winter Break
  • Monday, January 9, 2023: No School-Teacher Professional Development Days
  • Monday, February 13, 2023: District Holiday
  • Monday, February 20, 2023: District Holiday
  • Friday, March 17, 2023: No School-Teacher Professional Development Day
  • Monday, April 3 - Friday, April 7, 2023: Spring Break

 

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