Arcadia This Week 6/14/2020
Hello, Arcadia Families,
Summer has begun--and it’s supposed to be particularly hot this week.
Monday, June 15: Building Closed
--Laura out
Tuesday, June 16: Building Closed
--Laura out
Wednesday, June 17: Building Closed
--Laura available by email
Thursday, June 18: Laura available from 10am-1pm at Arcadia if you need to pick up/drop off items! You can also call during these office hours if you want to chat!
Friday, June 19: Building Closed
--Laura available by email
Mission Spotlight
It is the mission of Arcadia Charter School to prepare our students to transition intellectually, emotionally, and ethically to higher education, future employment, and engaged citizenship.
Arcadia Charter School envisions a supportive learning community that, through collaboration and student-driven, project-based learning, encourages and assists students to:
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Express themselves creatively through the visual, literary, and performing arts.
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Use technology with innovation, imagination, and responsibility.
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Develop critical thinking and creative problem solving skills.
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Construct knowledge and meaning for themselves.
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Value, advocate, and strive for the wellness of the whole person.
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Be empowered to act as local citizens within a rapidly changing global community.
One of the important aspects of maintaining a strong school community is building relationships amongst families and school staff. Parents’ voices have helped shape a number of choices that we’ve made this year and throughout the school’s development. (Arcadia was, after all, founded by a group of parents!) Our partnership makes the school stronger.
The State recognizes this, and requires that schools put together a District Advisory Committee to inform something called the “World’s Best Workforce” report. I don’t find that report to be particularly interesting, and merely answering questions for that report may seem like a menial task. So, I would love to have a robust, active District Advisory Committee that did so much more!
For starters, we are researching the development of a bilingual (Spanish-English) program that would allow multilingual students to continue developing proficiency in both of these languages at Arcadia. The District Advisory Committee would be an integral part of that process! We also need to post an official Language Instruction Educational Program plan that codifies our approach to language instruction for all multilingual students.
As I noted in last week’s newsletter, the State will soon be giving us further guidance on what to expect for next year. Right now, there are three possible (and frankly, rather obvious) scenarios: 1) We’re all back in the building. 2) We do a combination of distance learning and in-the-building learning (not all students there at once). 3) We stay in a distance learning model. It would be wonderful to have the District Advisory Committee participate in the development of our official plan once we get word from the State which of these models we will use! (We are supposed to find out between July 15 and 30.)
We are also implementing the PBIS--Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports--framework. This looks at how we view and respond to student behavior across the school. Yet another place it would be great to have feedback from families through the District Advisory Committee!
If you are interested in joining the District Advisory Committee, please fill out this form!
Announcements
Meet with Laura
I am going to hold a Meet this week, on Thursday, 6/18 from 11:00-11:30am. Feel free to stop by if you need anything or have any questions!
Here is the address for the Meet:
To join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/tmk-nfcx-szi
Otherwise, to join by phone, dial +1 513-796-6467 and enter this PIN: 493 475 105#
Chromebooks: If you have a school Chromebook, you are welcome to use it over the summer, or you can return it if you would prefer. Knowing that some form of online instruction may occur in the fall, we decided it would be best to leave the computers with students, but understand that some families may not want to have them over the summer. Either way is fine.
Meals for Children: We will continue to partner with Northfield Public Schools. Here is the information they are currently providing to families:
Beginning Monday, June 8, the Child Nutrition program will serve meals on Mondays and Wednesdays at all current locations. The meals will be bundled for multiple days. Meal bags will have two days of meals on Monday and three days of meals on Wednesday. Beginning July 1, the program will operate at reduced locations based on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) summer food service program guidelines. Please continue to watch our website for further summer meal program information.
In addition...
The Minnesota Department of Human Services is now offering additional funds for the families of children ages 5 to 18 who qualify for free and reduced-price meals. This new program, called Pandemic EBT (P-EBT), will provide $325 per child that families can use to purchase nutritious food for their household. Families with children who received free or reduced-price meals at school, and who were between the ages of 5 and 18 on Sept. 1, 2019, may qualify. Benefits are available to two groups:
Families receiving Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on March 18, 2020. Benefits for these families were issued automatically and appeared on their EBT balance on May 30, 2020.
Families receiving free or reduced-price school meals, but not SNAP or MFIP benefits. These families need to fill out a short application for a P-EBT card. Families can apply here between June 8, 2020, and June 30, 2020. If approved, families will receive a P-EBT card in the mail, which will arrive with the funds preloaded.
Upcoming Events
June 18, 11:00-11:30am, Meet with Laura
To join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/tmk-nfcx-szi
Otherwise, to join by phone, dial +1 513-796-6467 and enter this PIN: 493 475 105#
June 18, 10:00am-1:00pm, Laura at Arcadia, material drop off/pick up available
June 23, 6:30-8:30pm, Arcadia School Board Meeting (online, with no representative at the school due to the pandemic)
To join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/tmk-nfcx-szi
Otherwise, to join by phone, dial +1 513-796-6467 and enter this PIN: 493 475 105#
Sincerely,
