Arcadia This Week 11/1/2020

Hello, everyone!

Here’s what’s up at Arcadia this week, the last week of the quarter! I hope you all enjoyed an extra hour of sleep this morning!

MS students are in-building for the hybrid. HS is distance learning.

Monday, 11/2: Day 4--Picture Day #1! All students in the building for the hybrid will have their picture taken between 8am and 9am. If you would like to bring your child in to have their picture taken on either date (Nov. 2 or Nov. 12), sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/805084DA5AD2DA7F58-picture 

Tuesday, 11/3: Day 5--Check grades on JMC at 8:00am for the most up-to-date information! Students, if you have any missing work, please make sure you’re getting it done before Friday!

Wednesday, 11/4: Day 6

Thursday, 11/5: Day 1

Friday, 11/6: Day 2--Last day of 1st Quarter!

 

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:

  • Express themselves creatively through the visual, literary, and performing arts.

  • Use technology with innovation, imagination, and responsibility.

  • Develop critical thinking and creative problem solving skills.

  • Construct knowledge and meaning for themselves.

  • Value, advocate, and strive for the wellness of the whole person.

  • Be empowered to act as local citizens within a rapidly changing global community.

Good news...for school, anyway. The latest COVID numbers are still below 30 and went up only .1 to 26.6 in the newest calculation for Rice County. While that is not a great number, it is below the threshold for moving us to distance learning! We are grateful that we will be able to keep hybrid students in the building as we transition into the second quarter.

We intend to leave the plan for breaks intact, unless the case rate drops precipitously and stays low. To recap the plan, for the Thanksgiving and Winter Breaks, we are going to move to distance learning the first two days of the week (before the break), and have one week of distance learning after the break before continuing in the hybrid. While that is not the full 14 day quarantine period for COVID, and would not catch all of the potential cases, it would give us a bit of a buffer. It will still be important to be careful over the breaks. 

This also allows us to have one week of HS and one week of MS hybrid students in the building in December--we did not want to go over a month without having students in the building. 

The dates will look like this:

November 23-24: Distance learning

November 25-27: Thanksgiving Break

November 30-December 4: Distance learning

December 7-11: HS in the building for the hybrid

December 14-18: MS in the building for the hybrid

December 21-22: Distance learning

December 23-January 1: Winter Break

January 4-8: Distance learning

January 11: MS in the building for the hybrid (hybrid resumes)

 

Announcements

Picture Days: November 2nd and November 12

Lifetouch has been sending out updates, but just officially confirmed with us a couple of days ago--these are the dates! Here is a link to the signup if you would like your child to have their picture taken at school, but they are currently distance learning: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/805084DA5AD2DA7F58-picture 

Any student can attend either date. They will enter and exit through the front door. Please come at your chosen time (not early). 

You are not required to have your child’s picture taken. Without a picture, your child will not receive a school ID, but that is the only impact. We can add a non-school picture of your child into the yearbook, so they will be included there whether or not they have a school picture.

Give to the Max Day

Early giving is open for Give to the Max Day! Give to the Max is a statewide, annual fundraising event available to all Minnesota non-profit organizations. Arcadia will be participating in this event, which officially takes place on Thursday, November 19th. If you are familiar with Give to the Max, you likely know about the giving incentives, including a variety of prize grants that organizations can win when people choose to give to those organizations.

Note that our odds of winning prize grants go up based on the NUMBER of donations, not on the amount of the donations! The more individual donations, the better our chances of winning are. Small one-time, or small and frequent donations are welcome and appreciated! :)

Here is the link to donate to Arcadia: https://www.givemn.org/donate/Artech

 

If you would like to donate to a specific cause, you can give to the Arts at Arcadia fundraiser, supporting residencies, field trips, and materials/supplies! https://www.givemn.org/story/2ixh6g 

We will be participating in virtual field trips throughout this year through organizations like the Ordway and Guthrie theaters, and are looking forward to getting back to our regularly scheduled program of frequent arts residencies and field trips in the future.

Note: The fee for credit card donations through Give to the Max is higher than it is for our school’s PayPal account. If you would prefer, or if you are planning to give a larger amount and want to avoid the higher fee, you can always donate money through our website, instead: https://arcadiacharterschool.org/online-payments

While funding does help us support students and the programming that makes us unique, we are grateful for the many ways you all support Arcadia every day with kind words, volunteer hours, and support for your child, not just financial support. Thank you all for being a part of the Arcadia community!!

Operation Joy 

Operation Joy is a community-wide gift sharing program of the Community Action Center (CAC). Through the generosity of hundreds of community members, approximately 850 Northfield area children will receive gifts through Operation Joy this year. 

While this year may look a little different due to the pandemic, our goal remains the same: to provide a joyful holiday experience for all children in our community. To learn more, to give to Operation Joy, or to receive support this holiday season, please visit communityactioncenter.org/operation-joy. 

If you have questions, contact Lisa Percy (507) 573-2610 or email percy.lisa@communityactioncenter.org.

Attendance Form

Please report attendance-related information (appointments, illness) through our website! Go to “Current Families” and then “ Report an Absence.” You can fill out as much as is relevant. If your child is staying home ill, please make sure to report symptoms, as we are required to track a lot of information on illness this year! If you’d rather just save a link to the form somewhere accessible to you, here is a link to the form.

Upcoming Events

Nov. 6: End of Quarter 1

Nov. 2 and Nov. 12: Picture Days

Nov. 9: No School, Teacher Prep Day

Nov. 10: Beginning of Quarter 2

Nov. 17, 6:30pm: Arcadia Board Meeting (online), to join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/buw-nxop-qmd 

Otherwise, to join by phone, dial +1 321-465-5002 and enter this PIN: 929 499 461#

 

Sincerely,