Acalanes Community Always (ACA)

Save the Date! Friday, May 21 at 5pm – Senior Car Rally
Come one, come all and celebrate our Seniors as they cruise down Mt. Diablo Blvd in a few short weeks. Plenty of local businesses are planning specials to celebrate this occasion, so come show your spirit for Lafayette’s AHS graduates and our fantastic town. Stay tuned for more details.

ACA Celebrates the Last 25 Days of the 2020-21 School Year
Encourage your students to check out all the ways they can connect each day before the school year comes to a close. Here’s the link to the 25 Days of ACA. Let’s finish the year ACA Strong! 

Questions, comments, or feedback, email aca@acalanesparentsclub.com.

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General Announcements

HS has issued the following Finals Guidelines. Discuss with your student for more details.

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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)

Encourage your student to participate in these additional events commemorating Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month:

  • Tuesday, May 11 at 12pm Anti-Asian Racism Dialogue Information will be sent via Canvas
  • Wednesday, May 12 at 6pm Evening with Shaan Dasani Los Angeles based actor, performer & speaker Shaan Dasani brings his rap poetry storytelling piece I GOT A STORY TO TELL YA to Acalanes High School, to deliver a powerful message about growing up, self-acceptance and rising above hate. Register for this event here.

Thank you to all who have participated in DEI events this school year! To those of you who are curious but were not able to join us, we invite you to join an event next year! We are constantly working on ideas for book clubs, special guest appearances, workshops and more. Have some great ideas? Consider joining one of our meetings, or email us! 

Volunteer opportunities for Acalanes DEI – get involved! We are looking for new people to join our efforts and get in on the highly relevant work of DEI. Email us! If you believe in the need for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and enjoy writing, are a social media wizard or interested in web content creation, come join us!

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Membership & Fundraising

Buy a Brick, Leave a Legacy
Honor a graduating Senior or favorite teacher, or write a special memory on a brick on the Dons Legacy Wall! On sale now on the Acalanes
webstore, or print a mail-in form. Mail-in forms may also be picked up in the AHS Main Office.

Acalanes Flags
The perfect gift for incoming students, graduating students and students in between, who are enjoying their highschool journey — Acalanes Flags! Flags are available in two sizes on the
Acalanes webstore. They can be enjoyed indoors (think bedroom wall!) as well as outside. Get yours today and share your school spirit. Go Dons!

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From the Activities Director

Three weeks to go! Let’s make the most of our time together Acalanes. 

Mark your calendar!
Friday, May 21st at 5pm is the Senior Car Rally through downtown Lafayette. Let’s turn this town BLUE!

Speaker Series
Each May, we intentionally bring in speakers to speak to our Seniors but open it up to all. We host Jill Schwartz, Executive Vice Chairman of
Global Corporate and Investment Banking at Bank Of America tomorrow at 1pm to talk all things finance for high school students & college. Register here.

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month
There are opportunities to learn, engage in dialogue and celebrate. We are encouraging students to opt in to at least one event. Take a peek at the
calendar of events, with a spotlight on:

  • Wednesday, May 12 at 6pm AAPI Speaker Shaan Dasani – Register here to attend! Los Angeles based actor, performer & speaker Shaan Dasani brings his rap poetry storytelling piece I GOT A STORY TO TELL YA to Acalanes High School to deliver a powerful message about growing up, self-acceptance and rising above hate. As a South-Asian transgender man, Shaan works to blaze trails in the entertainment industry. After the performance, there will be opportunity for questions, conversations and thoughts.

2020-2021 Clubs
Club meetings continue. Check out our 49 clubs! Clubs continue to be one of the best ways for students to connect as we enter the fourth quarter.

If I can ever do anything to help you or your student, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Katherine Walton, Student Activities Director

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Wellness Center

This week, we have a message from some students who were hanging out in wellness on an off period. We asked them what they think parents should know about this point in time. Here’s what they had to say: “The end of the year is always the hardest part. There’s something about the end being in sight yet you still have to keep running to get there even though you’re tired. Remind us to take breaks! When we’re not being positive, be positive for us (but without invalidating us.) Remind us that this is NOT a normal school year and it’s okay to feel out of place, weird, or uncomfortable.” We hope this is as helpful for you to hear as it was to us!

Allen Choi, Wellness Coordinator
Casey Sasner, Intake Specialist

For updates, tips and advice, follow Wellness on Social Media: Instagram @acalaneswellness

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College & Career

Seniors

  • MANDATORY Update Naviance with College Decisions/Exit Survey  – Please 1) log into Naviance 2) Click on About Me 3) Choose Surveys from Your School 4) Click Senior Exit Survey to update the decisions. PARENTS: Your student MUST fill out their survey in order for colleges to receive final scripts!
  • Tuesday & Wednesday, May 18-19 at Lunch “2021 & Beyond Senior Celebration” – All seniors are invited to celebrate their post-high school path. Have your senior drop by for fun activities and a sweet treat! 
  • Thursday, May 20 at 6pm Senior Awards Night – This will be live-streamed, as space will be limited to recipients and presenters only.

Juniors

  • Job Alert – Diablo Country Club has a summer program and is actively looking for counselors. Click here to apply.
  • Stay in the Loop – Please follow the CCC instagram to keep up-to-date with college timeline details.@ahs_college_career.  
  • Resume Support – Please let your student know that Mrs. Levy enjoys helping students build their resumes. 

Sophomores/Freshman

  • Activity Building – Drop by the CCC to learn how to add activities into Naviance.

Resources:

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Counseling

AP Exams
From our testing coordinator: It is EXTREMELY important that students check their College Board AP Classroom account to verify their AP Exam dates/times as some have been changed by the College Board due to schedule conflicts or non payment of exams. Students are either taking Admin 1, Admin 2, or Admin 3. It is the responsibility of each individual student to check their AP Exam dates/times and be prepared for their exam day. Each exam administration has very specific instructions, all students need to review the details of their exams entirely. Exam specific details can be found on the AHS TESTING HOMEPAGE. All exam formats are final.

June 7 through July 15 AUHSD Summer School
Summer school is for students who need to repeat a required course after earning a D or F grade. Email your counselor for an application.   

Counselor Appointments
We love talking to our students! Email is the best way to reach us. Counselors have appointment slots for students and will email them a link for signing up.  

A- Ed  Anne Schonauer
Ee-Kr  Christine Todd
Ku-Ros  Marissa Meadows
Rot-Z  Susan Martin

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Legislative News

Did you attend Advocacy Day 2021? If you missed it, videos of all the panel discussions are on YouTube. This year the legislator panel featured State Senator Steve Glazer and State Assemblyperson Rebecca Bauer-Kahan rapidly running through a wide array of proposed bills, as well as providing a close-up view of how legislators actually got work done this year. The health and equity panels featured “Finding Balance During a Pandemic and Beyond” and “Building Competence for Equity”. Finally, the superintendent panel provided an opportunity for these busy leaders to discuss current education issues in depth.  

Advocacy Day takes a lot of planning and effort by dedicated parents in our community – many thanks to them for an excellent job!  

Questions? Email our APC Legislative Representative.

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School Nurse

Students Are Getting Vaccinated!!!
We’re so glad to hear that students ages 16+ have been getting vaccinated. Click here for an appointment request. We know that the 12 – 15 age group will be opening up very soon and want to encourage everyone who CAN get vaccinated TO get vaccinated! Please let me know if you want more information.

QUARANTINE – What Does It Mean?
Quarantine means you need to stay home for 10 days because of two possible reasons:

  1.  Your student is exhibiting symptoms that fall within possible signs and symptoms of COVID (which is almost everything!).  
    1. Without COVID testing, your student can return to school after 10 days and after the symptoms have been resolved for at least 24 hours (without fever-reducing medication).
    2. With a negative COVID test result, your student can return to school after the symptoms have been resolved for at least 24 hours (without fever-reducing medication).
  2. Your student has been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID.  In this case, your student must stay home for 10 days, even if without symptoms or even with a negative test result.

Please see AUHSD Covid Decision Tree for more details.*

*Information will soon be updated for students who have been fully immunized.

Positive for COVID?
Please contact me as soon as possible.

COVID Resources and Protocols
Available on the
District website and on my site.

Stay healthy and be well,

Dvora Citron, RN, MS
Acalanes School Nurse Google Site
dcitron@auhsdschools.org
IG:  acalanesschoolnurse

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