News & Announcements

Senior Car Rally: Next Friday, May 21 at 5pm, Downtown Lafayette
Come one, come all and celebrate our Class of 2021 Seniors as they cruise down Mt. Diablo Blvd. The car rally begins at Oakwood and makes a u-turn at the Lafayette Car Wash. Spectators can join the viewing all along Mt. Diablo Boulevard. Make it a night and stay downtown for dinner at one of our amazing local Lafayette restaurants or grab a gift for a grad at a local boutique. Signs of support for our seniors are welcome and encouraged! 

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! 

AHS Volunteer Service Awards!
Congratulations to students who stayed committed to volunteering during this difficult year. Over 100 students volunteered 5,200 hours earning either an Acalanes or President’s Volunteer Service Award! All recipients have been notified of their award by email, and instructed to pick up their Acalanes Award certificate and a celebratory ice cream during lunch on Tuesday, May 18 or Wednesday, May 19 in the quad between the big and small gym. President’s Award recipients come for ice cream; their award certificate will be mailed home. Students unable to pick up their Acalanes certificate can stop by College & Career beginning May 20.

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

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

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion gives us all an opportunity to learn more about our differences and come together in celebration. Throughout May, we continue to recognize our AAPI friends, and June is Pride month. 

We are halfway through May, but there are still plenty of ways to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month:

• Check out our Insta throughout the month of May, as we highlight notable personalities for AAPI Heritage Month. 
• Growing up Asian in our country came with certain challenges for Jaimie Nguyen. Read her reflections in this article. 
• Don’t worry if you missed the fabulous Shaan Dasani last Wednesday… many of us were so struck by his story and personality that we vowed to invite him back in person as soon as possible. Make sure you catch him next time around!

In June we celebrate LGBTQ+ pride. Learn more about Pride month here:

• Did you know the gay rights movement was largely started during and after the Stonewall Riots? Gay rights have come a long way since then, but young LGBTQ+ youth suffer in so many ways. Nearly a third of young gay people have attempted suicide according to research from the Trevor Project. 
• The Born This Way Foundation is supporting five LGBTQ+ non-profits around the country, aiming to fill the kindness gap for youth. Help blanket them with kindness cards! Cards can be dropped off at Bel and Bunna’s Books downtown Lafayette by June 4. 
• Read this inspiring story about high school swimmer Ben Quinn, who has been openly gay for his entire high school career in conservative Indiana, with his mom at his side. Quinn will swim for Oberlin starting in the fall. 

Thank you to all who have participated in DEI events this school year and supported our highly relevant work! We invite you to join more events 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, volunteer for one of our open positions, or email us! 

Be sure to follow us on Instagram @acalanesdei! 

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!

A huge thank you to our volunteers, teachers, principals, district, donors and parents who made this year possible.
You impact our children’s learning experience every day. We are grateful for you and all that you do. Have a great summer!

Laura-Kate Rurka & Jennifer Palmer
Acalanes LPIE School Chairs

www.lpie.org

Follow us on Instagram

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

THIS FRIDAY, May 21 Senior Car Rally!
Don’t miss the Senior Car Rally through downtown Lafayette. Let’s come out and celebrate our town and our seniors. Let’s turn this town BLUE!

• Thursday and Friday at Lunch Cowbell Decorating – Come to Room 314 to decorate cowbells in preparation for the car rally. We have the cowbells – students bring their creativity!

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Don’t miss the final event of this month! 

• Thursday, May 20 at 12:05 pm AAPI Speaker Julie Inouye, Vice-President of Communications & Social for VSCO. Julie has spent the past two decades helping brands to tell their stories and is currently the Vice President of Communications and Social at VSCO. She has worked for global brands, including CNN, Yahoo, PlayStation, LinkedIn — and has worked across communications and marketing disciplines throughout her career. She will talk more about her experience as a Korean woman and engage in dialogue with students. Zoom link sent via Canvas.

It has been a year. And through it all our students have shown incredible resiliency, passion and dedication. As we near the end, I just want to say thank you to our community for all your support, encouragement and love. To the students and parents in the leadership program, you are a dream to work with and spend time with. You created so much for our campus and community this year and make my job a dream come true. 

Katherine Walton, Student Activities Director

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 for us!

Allen Choi, Wellness Coordinator
Casey Sasner, Intake Specialist

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

Seniors

• Going to College? Urgent!  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!
• Thursday, May 20 at 6pm Senior Awards Night – This will be live-streamed, as space will be limited to recipients and presenters only.
• DVC or Community College support is always available in the CCC.

Juniors

• Job Alert – Chipotle in Lafayette is hiring! Free Food is provided! Create a resume with Mrs. Levy, then upload onto Indeed.com
• Stay in the Loop – Please follow the CCC instagram to keep up-to-date with college timeline details.@ahs_college_career.  

Sophomores/Freshman

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

Resources:

• CCC Website 
• How to request a transcript
• College 101
• Internships and Volunteering Ideas
• Scholarships

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. Details about the programs are posted on the district webpage.  Email your counselor for an application.  

Transcripts Semester grades will be updated in Aeries on June 2 and report cards will be mailed on June 3. For graduates, registrar Mrs. Finn will send an official transcript to the college indicated in Naviance by June 15.    

Counselor Appointments We love talking to our students! Email is the best way to reach us. C

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

The May revisions to Governor Newsom’s proposed state budget were released this week. Given the much larger than expected tax revenues from 2020, the news is good for education. Among the highlights are proposals for universal transitional kindergarten, a significant bump in the cost-of-living adjustment for the Local Control Funding Formula, the elimination of deferrals (money owed to school districts by the state), additional funding for low-income districts to provide extended learning opportunities, contributions to the rainy day fund, and more funding to attract and train teachers.  

Questions? Email our APC Legislative Representative.