The month of January was a busy one at the home of the Dons with the second semester kicking off with a flurry of activity. One of the highlights was our annual Open House Course Preview night last week. The Dons community showed up in droves for an excellent event with a kick off address by Principal Bell and followed by three breakout sessions, where students and parents could self-select into offerings of individual interest. Teachers and staff organized and facilitated sessions about course pathways, class curriculum overviews and expectations, and assorted other informational offerings.
Continuing the class selection theme, counselors have spent this week, and will continue next, meeting with all 9th, 10th and 11th graders for individual sessions based around students selecting their classes for next year. With graduation requirements, a huge array of exciting electives and an intriguing peppering of new classes, there are choices aplenty at every level. Our counselors’ expertise, and recommendations from current teachers, is of great value and these individual 5-10 minute meetings have been a great way to clarify those challenging decisions.
Our final mention for this month is to reference the current #QuitLying campaign, orchestrated by our Leadership class in partnership with a nation-wide campaign. The purpose of this initiative is to spark curiosity amongst our youngsters to unearth some of the unethical and morally corrupt lies that big vape and tobacco companies are using to market vaping as a low-risk endeavor. Placards around campus exposing some of the myths, misconceptions and falsehoods, along with a slogan-adorned T-shirt and factual videos distributed by Ms Walton and the Leadership class are all parts of the campaign. This educational, factual approach, along with recent campus-wide policy changes designed to limit opportunities for our students to make bad choices, is all part of our school community;s response to combat the plague of vaping that is an issue on high-school campuses nation-wide.
As always, we want to state what a pleasure it is to work at Acalanes on a daily basis. Our exceptional staff and faculty, our engaging and kind students and our wonderful, supportive community all serve to make us proud and happy Dons.
All the best,
Andrea Powers and Mike Plant
