Buy a Brick, Leave a Legacy…
There’s no better way to honor a Don than with a customized 2023 Legacy Brick on our Dons Legacy Wall! Prominently displayed in the Main Quad, our Dons Legacy Wall provides families a lasting way to recognize their special student, teacher, coach, team, performance group, club, and more. Purchase your brick through the Acalanes Web Store for $250. Contact Legacy Brick Coordinator Leanne Zimmerman with any questions.
APC Membership & Fundraising
Acalanes Community Always (ACA)
AHS Garden Update – We’ve been busy!!
We planted most of our summer crops last Sunday in the farm (the garden space across from the autoshop). We received donations from the Moraga Gardens Nursery and have a few more crops still to plant. Our hope is to have summer crops for staff and families to pick up over the summer. Stay tuned for more details about this.
We have one more major workday and can use your help! Sunday Apr 30 from 9-12pm we will be adding mulch to the planted area in the meditation garden. After this work day, the meditation garden should be done (except for the ongoing weeding/maintenance). If you can come, please complete the form here below.
Any questions, please feel free to contact Lori Tewksbury – LTewksbury@auhsdschools.org
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI)
April is Autism Awareness Month honoring and recognizing our fellow community members on the autism spectrum. Have you heard people talk about neurodiversity? Harvard Health explains the origin of the term and application here.
DEI’s 2023-2024 planning is underway. Please share any thoughts or ideas you have with us here. This is a collaborative process; we encourage participation. It is important that a plethora of voices and ideas are heard. We are also looking for parents to help out with events and communications next year. We have several active members aging out or retiring. Specifically, we would like to find people interested in re-posting items to our social media, maintaining an announcements calendar, and supporting a few annual events. Not a lot of hours involved, but definitely rewarding work. If you are interested, please reachout.
Student Activities
Junior and Senior Prom Saturday, May 13 at SF City Hall! It is going to be a wonderful, fun evening with dinner, photos and various activities for students to enjoy. Tickets are on sale via the Acalanes webstore and prices are $95 for Acalanes juniors/seniors and $135 for outside guests or 9th or 10th graders. All students must turn in a filled out permissionform when getting a bus assignment. Bus assignments start this WEDNESDAY in the front quad. Questions? Email Katherine Walton.
Class Cup Kickball is all week at lunch. Encourage your student to play or come out and watch!
There will be a Student Forum to discuss our mascot on Wednesday in room 314 during lunch. Students engaged in really great dialogue sharing various perspectives at the previous two. Encourage your student to attend!
Looking to stay informed? Follow us on Instagram for the latest on student activities and class happenings.
Katherine Walton, Leadership Teacher
College & Career
SENIORS
Senior Exit Survey: Important! If your student knows their post high school plan, please update Naviance. In order for final transcripts to be sent, students MUST go to “About Me” and “Surveys from Your School” and fill out “2023 Senior Exit Survey.” This is the only way transcripts are sent to colleges.
JUNIORS
Parent Naviance Training: The College and Career team will host a Naviance training session on Monday, Apr 24 from 6:30-7:30pm in the library to help parents learn how to navigate the college process with their students. Bring a laptop and your students’ password. Parents and students login into Naviance the same way using the students’ Acalanes email address and their district password. Instructions for how to login:
1:1 appointments: If you’d like your child to start exploring career interests and begin looking at Naviance, please have them schedule an appointment here.
SOPHOMORES/FROSH
What is your Sophomore doing this summer? This is the time to think about a meaningful summer experience- volunteer, work, community class or summer program. Please have your student stop by if they need help with summer ideas.
Interested in Marine Biology? – On Saturday, Apr 29 your student can learn about the terrestrial and aquatic animals that the Marine Mammal Center and Lindsay Wildlife Experience care for! They will have the opportunity to meet and learn about marine and terrestrial animals, watch and practice mock intubation, learn about wildlife, ecology and biology career paths, and more. Hopefully they will leave this event with an increased passion for all land and sea animals and use that passion to help advocate for the protection of our environment. For more information, click here.
Volunteer Ideas: Have your student come by the CCC so I can learn about their interests. Check out this website for ideas too! It’s best to set a search filter for teens.
Please visit our College & Career Counseling website any time for additional information and support.
Counseling
Counselor assignments are by last name:
A-Em Anne Schonauer
En-Kr Christine Todd / Christina Castillo–Gallardo during Spring 2023
Ku-Rog Marissa Meadows
Roh-Z Susan Martin
Summer School Information: The summer school website is up and running! Please use the link to get information about summer school offerings/dates. It will be at AHS this year! Please have your student see their counselor to sign up, get forms, and figure out which classes to take.
Geometry for Advancement: AUHSD does offer one course for advancement in summer – Geometry. This is an accelerated class designed for strong Algebra students (who have an A test average) to accelerate in math. Students may be placed in Algebra 2 or Algebra 2 Advanced upon completion of this class. Please have your student see their counselor for more information. This class also requires a teacher recommendation.
Course Selection Changes: If your student wants to make any changes to their class requests for next year, please have them see their counselor to discuss.
School Nurse
ALCOHOL: Please take a look at this site. There is so much that is “normalized” about alcohol use, but I encourage you to send a strong message discouraging our underage students from using. Parents, please discuss with other parents how you can support creating opportunities for your kids to have fun without the dangers of alcohol use.
Visiting college campuses? Check out their Student Health & Wellness Centers. It’s a great idea to know where it is BEFORE your student may need it. These health centers are specialized in care for the college age population and have many expanded programs to support students and are especially helpful when being away from home and parents for the first time. I always recommend that students go there in the fall to get their flu shots. Can’t visit physically? Check out their websites!
A new nutrition infographic on my website: 5 Ways to Use Chickpeas
Dvora Citron, RN, MS
dcitron@auhsdschools.org
925-280-2970 x7128
IG: acalanesschoolnurse
Wellness Center
We’re in the home stretch of the school year! As it wraps up, it is just as important now as in the beginning of the year to prioritize mental health. An easy way to boost mental health is to get outside! Encourage your students to spend some time in the sun soaking up some mood boosting vitamin D or moving their bodies in a way that works for them. Being outside, specifically around water and lush greenery, taps into our natural state and promotes quicker stress relief. Take advantage of our break from the rain by spending some time outdoors as a family!
Performing & Visual Arts
5th Annual AP Art and Independent Art Exhibition
Acalanes students, teachers and the community are cordially invited to the 5th Annual Acalanes Art Show exhibiting our AP Art and Independent Art students’ artwork!This show culminates 3-4 years of hard work and dedication.
Please celebrate the accomplishments of these young artists by joining us on Friday, Apr 28 from 6:30 – 8:30pm at the ArtRoom (91 Lafayette Cir, Lafayette). There will be live music and food/drink. Admission is free! We’d love your support! It will be a great show of spectacular work and a lot of fun.
Robert Porter and the AP and Independent Art students
The First Ever DramaDons’ Short Play Festival
The DramaDons are excited to announce our first ever DramaDons’ Short Play Festival! The 5th period DramaDon’s will be presenting four student directed short plays, two of which were written by Advanced Drama Honors students Natalie Costales and Anie Heffernan.
The DramaDons’ Short Play Festival runs on Thursday, Apr 27 and Saturday, Apr 29 at 7pm in the AHS Little Theatre. Admission is free!
LPIE
One Day Challenge Apr 24!
Our schools are amazing because of families, like yours, that give what they can to support our students. This year, LPIE committed to raise $4.1 million to support our Lafayette Schools. We have made great strides toward achieving this goal, but we aren’t there yet. We need your help!
Our challenge to you is to donate $100 to LPIE tomorrow, Apr 24. If every family who hasn’t given yet, donates just $100, we will not only reach our 2022-23 fundraising goals, but we will also achieve something truly extraordinary — 100% participation from our enrolled families!
Donate Here or Venmo @lpiek12
We cannot do this without YOU!
CONGRATULATIONS to all the Project LPIE Winners!
On Friday, we celebrated all of the 155 entries to Project LPIE. Winners were announced in each of the 14 categories. Please click here for the slide show of Project LPIE winners.
