Arcadia This Week 10/6/2023
Hello, Arcadia families, students, and friends!
Today’s newsletter includes:
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Handbook Update
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Upcoming Travel Opportunities
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Lunch Update
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COVID Reminders
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Upcoming Events
Handbook Update
The Arcadia Board is currently updating the Student and Parent Handbook to reflect changes in MN State Statute and Arcadia’s actual practices. If you would like to add comments, please feel free to take a look (it’s under “Current Families” on the website) and email me your thoughts! I will include them in the Board’s discussion.
Upcoming Travel Opportunities
The Travel Committee has put together a tentative schedule for major trips in the next three years! Here is the plan (descriptions of the trips below):
Washington D.C./Gettysburg, Spring Break 2024
Costa Rica, Spring 2025
Japan, Spring 2026
To express an interest in traveling and be included in communications about the trips, please fill out this form: Arcadia Travel Interest Form
Washington D.C./Gettysburg
The Washington D.C./Gettysburg trip will be through EF Tours. This will be an amazing opportunity to explore places that are both historically and presently significant–with a lot of exciting stops along the way! We will schedule a meeting soon! Learn more about the itinerary here: https://www.efexploreamerica.com/educational-tour/washington-dc-gettysburg-williamsburg
The cost of this trip will likely be around $3500.
Costa Rica
The Costa Rica trip will be a bit different. Laura has worked with EcoLife Tours, a Costa Rican company, for a number of years. We have more input into the trip, and get to do things that a large tour company would never be able to schedule–because we’re mostly visiting friends and family of the tour director. In the past, we have flown into Liberia, Costa Rica, started by driving to a place called La Anita Rainforest Ranch in Alajuela Province, and then adventured our way down through Alajuela and back through the Guanacaste Province in northern Costa Rica, ending at Playa Hermosa on the Pacific coast. In previous trips, we visited with students (the same age) at a local school, played pick-up soccer games, helped with a butterfly research study site for the University of San Jose, cooked food in a traditional Costa Rican kitchen, went horseback riding with views of Arenal (an active volcano) and visited the edge of the 1968 eruption, rafted down a crystal clear river, and played volleyball in the ocean, among other things.
The cost of this trip will depend on the cost of the flight, but we are anticipating it will be around $4500.
Japan
The 2026 Japan Trip will involve a lot of cultural exchange and opportunity for in-depth exploration of Tokyo and Japanese culture! We finally made it to Japan this past June after having scheduled a trip in 2018, and we are very excited to get back to Japan in 2026! This trip will offer a very different experience than the one we had before. See the itinerary here (we are looking at the version with the extension): https://www.eftours.com/educational-tour/tokyo-japan-language-immersion
The cost of this trip will be between $5500 and $6500, depending on which options we choose.
Lunch Update
Thank you to those who filled out the lunch needs survey! We are going to talk to students about their needs/wishes as we continue this process, and then the Lunch Committee will put together the information we’ve gathered to decide what to do next. Anyone is welcome at those meetings! I will send out the date of the next meeting when it is scheduled (early to mid October)--we are going to talk to students first.
We know that we can give students things like mac and cheese cups, or other dry, shelf-stable items that Arcadia staff don’t prepare in any way. Thank you to those who have reached out offering to donate items! We would be able to take dry, shelf-stable items, and have them available for students.
In the meantime, please continue to send lunch with your child!
COVID Reminders
Day 0 = day of the positive test, stay home (note COVID on absence form)
Day 1-5 = stay home and isolated, do not attend school
Day 6-10 = if you feel better, return to school, but wear a mask
Day 11+ = no restrictions
We have plenty of COVID tests and will continue to leave them in the front entryway for students to take, as needed. The original expiration dates have been extended through the end of this year, so you can ignore the expiration date on the box of the test. It’s still good.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our school nurse, Gail Setterstrom, at: gsetterstrom@arcadiacharterschool.org
Upcoming Events
Oct. 6: Midterm (grades will be finalized Oct. 10th and officially sent out Oct. 13th)
Oct. 12: All School Field Trips: HS to Northrup Auditorium for Step Afrika, MS to Children’s Theater for the show Cookin’ and the Minneapolis Institute of Art
Oct. 12, 4:00pm-5:00pm: Arcadia Finance Committee Meeting, online only, view online at: https://meet.google.com/vsb-nrqc-zuj
Oct. 17, 6:30-8:30pm: Arcadia School Board Meeting, in person at Arcadia, or view online: https://meet.google.com/hyf-amke-zsx
Oct. 19 and 20: No School–Fall Break
Nov. 3: End of 1st Quarter
Sincerely,
