Arcadia This Week 9/25/2023
Hello, Arcadia families, students, and friends!
Today’s newsletter includes:
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Attendance Information
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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
Attendance Information
Reporting an Absence
This seems to be going well, overall, but just in case, here is how to report an absence. Don’t forget to complete this form every day that your child is out, even if it’s for the same reason. Please send it as soon as you know your child will be absent.
Go to the Arcadia website, and click on “Current Families.” The third link down in the menu is “Report an Absence,” which brings you to the form. Fill out the form, and you’re good to go!
Here is a direct link to the form, if you’d like to bookmark it:
Jennifer Wolff, our wonderful new administrative assistant, is taking care of attendance this year. If there is additional information you would like her to know, you can email it to her at jewolff@arcadiacharterschool.org.
If a student is absent, and we haven’t received a form, Jennifer will send an email before noon reminding the student’s guardians to fill out the form. (This may seem late, but keep in mind that there is a lot happening all at once in the morning, so emails go out after we’ve gone through all of the forms, and that takes a bit of time.)
Attendance Letters and Policy
Our student information system, JMC, is set up to send out letters after any three absences (excused or unexcused), five absences (excused or unexcused), and seven absences (excused or unexcused). After seven excused absences, a doctor’s note is required. After seven unexcused absences, a student may be referred to truancy in their county of residence.
The Student/Parent Handbook is currently being reviewed and heavily revised, but the attendance section was updated in the last year to reflect MN State Statute. While it may receive some further revision, the policy in its current form is accurate. Here is the policy:
School Attendance Policy, Procedures, and Truancy Information
Attendance at school is an important part of ensuring a child’s access to education and a shared responsibility between the individual student, their parents or guardians, and the school. State law stipulates that it is the parent/guardian’s responsibility to ensure that their child attends school. The expectation is for parents/guardians to provide an honest reason for absence or tardiness, and the school makes the final determination whether a student’s absence/tardiness is excused or unexcused.
Absence Procedure
If a student must be absent from class or arrive late to school, the student’s parent/guardian must fill out the absence form (available under the “Current Families” tab on Arcadia’s website) the day of the absence or earlier. Absences must be excused within 24 hours or the absence may remain unexcused. Additional attendance information may be emailed to Jennifer Wolff, jewolff@arcadiacharterschool.org.
Students must attend class for at least 30 minutes to be considered present. Missing more than 20 minutes of a class will result in an absence being recorded.
All students who become ill during the school day are required to check out with the health office prior to leaving the building. Check out must include contact between a school representative and parents/guardians prior to leaving the building. Failure to properly check out with the health office will cause the student to be unexcused and consequences may be assigned.
Any student who leaves the building for any reason without checking out is considered unexcused. Checking out means contact between the parent/guardian and a school representative before the student leaves the building.
Excused Absences:
To be considered an excused absence, the student’s parent or legal guardian may be asked to verify, in writing, the reason for the student’s absence from school. A note from a physician or a licensed mental health professional stating that the student cannot attend school is a valid excuse.
The following reasons shall be sufficient to constitute excused absences:
(1) Illness (a doctor’s note may be requested after three consecutive days or more than seven total days).
(2) Serious illness in the student’s immediate family.
(3) A death or funeral in the student’s immediate family or of a close friend or relative.
(4) Medical, dental, or orthodontic treatment, or a counseling appointment.
(5) Court appearances occasioned by family or personal action.
(6) Religious release.
(7) Physical emergency conditions such as fire, flood, storm, etc.
(8) Official school field trip or other school-sponsored outing, or a Director-approved absence.
(9) Removal of a student pursuant to a suspension. Suspensions are to be handled as excused absences and students will be permitted to complete make-up work.
(10) Family emergencies.
(11) Active duty in any military branch of the United States.
(12) A student’s condition that requires ongoing treatment for a mental health diagnosis.
Unexcused Absences:
An unexcused absence is any absence that does not meet the definition of an excused absence.
The following are examples of absences which will not be excused:
(1) Truancy. An absence by a student which was not approved by the parent and/or the school.
(2) Any absence in which the student failed to comply with any reporting requirements of the school’s attendance procedures.
(3) Work at home, including child care.
(4) Work at a business that is not a part of the student’s academic plan or project.
(5) Missed bus.
(6) Overslept.
(7) Non-prearranged family vacation.
(8) Absences resulting from accumulated unexcused tardies (three tardies equal one unexcused absence).
(9) Any other absence not included under the attendance procedures set out in this policy.
Truancy Information:
A child is considered “continuing truant” if he/she/they is 16 years of age or younger and is absent from attendance at school without lawful excuse for 3 or more class periods on 3 school days. A student who misses 20 minutes or more of a class period will be considered absent for that class period. Three unexcused tardies shall constitute an unexcused absence. Children age 17 will be considered continuing truant according to these definitions if they have not lawfully withdrawn from school with their parents’ permission (see MN Statutes 120A.22, Sub. 8).
"Habitual truant" means a child under the age of 17 years who is absent from attendance at school without lawful excuse for seven school days per school year, or for one or more class periods on seven school days per school year, if the child is in middle school, junior high school, or high school; or a child who is 17 years of age who is absent from attendance at school without lawful excuse for one or more class periods on seven school days per school year and who has not lawfully withdrawn from school under section 120A.22, Sub. 8 (see MN Statutes 260C.007, Sub. 19).
Truancy intervention steps will be determined on a case by case basis. However, a letter will be sent to parents after 3 unexcused absences, and a referral to the child’s county of residence may be made after 7 unexcused absences.
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,
