Co-Presidents’ Message

Co-Associate Principals’ Message

It’s hard to believe we started school on August 13th and the Fall Semester is now coming to a close. As you know, finals are around the corner and then our students are off for what we hope is an enjoyable and relaxing Winter Break. We hope you’ll encourage your students to take advantage of all the finals resources at Acalanes including the upcoming Exam Jam on Wednesday, December 11, from 3-5pm, in the Cafeteria. It provides a terrific way for students to get extra academic support in preparation for finals. We will have teacher representation from each of our departments. 

We would like to extend a special thanks to APC’s Teacher Appreciation Chair Emma Bishopp and her team who once again went above and beyond to provide a delicious staff lunch last week. Our teachers and staff feel well taken care of by our wonderful Dons parent community and we look forward to the APC Cookie Exchange next week. 

We are proud of all our fall sports teams. Check out an overview of their collective success in the Sports section below. We wish all our students good luck in closing out the semester and look forward to connecting with all of you after break in 2020!

Andrea Powers and Mike Plant

 

 

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Co-Presidents’ Message

Acalanes fall sports teams have been dominating this season. Be sure to check out the schedule for upcoming games for Girls and Boys Water Polo, Girls Tennis and Varsity Football. A special shout out to Girls Water Polo with a current 50-0 record. Let’s go Dons!

Thanks to all the parents who showed up to help out in the AHS Football game concessions last Friday. Football concession profits are divided throughout the season among the various classes so your support by volunteering or buying food is greatly appreciated!


The Make Vaping History Parent Education Event has been rescheduled for Wednesday, December 4, at 7pm, in the Performing Arts Center (PAC). This informative evening is put on by Acalanes Parents Club, Acalanes Union High School District and the Contra Costa Office of Education. Students and parents are invited. Learn up-to-date information on e-cigarette/vape pen products, adolescent use rates, impact on young people, prevention strategies, and how to support current users and more. You may want to also check out the APC Parent Ed Workshop with Matt Crevin on November 18 from 7-8:30pm in the Library. Learn how to help your kids with the invaluable skill of face-to-face communication. Refer to the Parent Ed section below to learn more and to sign up for these events.

Dawn Brightbill & Sarah Cusumano

 

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Co-Presidents’ Message

Our message this week is short and sweet. We hope your family has a chance to enjoy the long Veterans Day weekend. Our final APC Dons Dialogue of 2019 will be held this Friday. The forum lead by Principal Bell will focus on Finals Week Prep & Student Support (see details in APC in Action below). We are thrilled with how many parents are joining these informative exchanges and hope to see you on Friday. 

Dawn Brightbill & Sarah Cusumano

 

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Co-Presidents’ Message

What a week! We are hopeful that the worst of the black-outs and fires are behind us for now, and that this newsletter finds your family safe and sound. The plan is to reschedule the APC Parent Education Making Vaping History Event that was cancelled last week. We will let you know when it’s back on the calendar. We could all probably use the tools that will be shared at APC’s Mindfulness & Meditation Workshop put on by AHS Wellness staff this Thursday (see details in the Parent Ed section below).

Be sure to check our new APC website created by APC webmaster Brian Flint with guidance from Kristen Labrosse who runs the APC communications team. Their hard work has really paid off in creating an attractive, user-friendly, informative site that contains content relevant to our parent community. Our website has a link to the AHS and Dons Show Up calendars which include events for almost every activity on campus. We’d love your feedback! 

Just a reminder that there is no school on the 11th as our country’s veterans are honored.

Dawn Brightbill & Sarah Cusumano

 

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Presidents’ Message

Our APC Parent Education Program kicks off the year with two upcoming events: “The Risks of Vaping & Tobacco Use,” a forum co-hosted by APC and the Acalanes Unified High School District, on Tuesday, October 29; and  “Mindfulness for Stress Management,” our first APC Parent Workshop, presented by the AHS Wellness Center, on Thursday, November 7. You can find more details in the Parent Education section below.

We’d like to give a shout out to one of our AHS Support Partners — LPIE! Our students are so fortunate to have such a dedicated funding source and team of volunteers supporting class electives, writing tutors, the AHS Wellness Center, technology and much more. LPIE is in the midst of a push to meet their fundraising goal. If you have not yet had the chance to donate, we hope you will consider doing so here

Thanks to the numerous parents who regularly attend APC’s Dons Dialogue. Friday’s forum provided an opportunity to hear from Principal Bell and key teachers and administrators regarding what’s going on at Acalanes. If you missed it, we will soon have a link to the forum’s video on our APC website

 

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Co-Presidents’ Message

Just a reminder that Monday, October 14, is a Staff Development Day so there will be no school tomorrow. It’s hard to believe the first quarter of the school year has already come and gone. There is a tremendous amount of activity on campus this month with fall sports and performing arts’ events in full swing. We anticipate a tremendous amount of excitement next week too, as Acalanes welcomes the highly-regarded United States Marine Band for a concert on Wednesday. Finally, don’t forget to wear lavender to Friday night’s football game against Campo. Go Dons!

We are looking forward to the upcoming APC Dons Dialogue with Principal Bell on Friday. The agenda is jam-packed with some terrific information so it’s one you won’t want to miss. You’ll find more details in our APC in Action section below. Hope to see you on Friday. 

Dawn Brightbill & Sarah Cusumano

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Co-Associate Principals’ Messsage

Hello Dons Families,

Welcome to October! We have enjoyed the first few months of school with your students.  September was busy with our Club Fair, blood drive, motivational speaker Mike Smith, athletic events, and Homecoming.  

Our Homecoming Week, “Battle of the Bands”, was packed with spirited events including Unified Soccer, hallway decorations, student dodgeball, lunchtime activities, a rally, tailgate, and Friday night football.  The Homecoming community service activity this year was to collect cans and food donations for the Contra Costa Food Bank. We are blown away with the outpouring of support with a donation of over 23,000 items this year!  Thank you to our Leadership class, Mrs. Walton, our parent liaisons, and volunteers for your encouragement and involvement in making this a memorable Homecoming for all Dons. Dons show up!

Be sure to check out our Acalanes website for our calendar of upcoming events and important dates.  Good luck to all of you on 2nd quarter.

Your Associate Principals,

Andrea Powers and Mike Plant

 

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Co-Presidents’ Message

We hope your students enjoyed the past week full of Homecoming activities that led up to the Homecoming Football game & tailgate on Friday night followed by Saturday night’s Homecoming Dance. We can’t thank our APC Class Liaison Team enough for all they did to help support the class officers in making it a special week. The class liaisons, led by Co-Head Liaisons Gayle Burleigh and Traci Reilly, are some of the hardest working volunteers on campus. They work behind the scenes throughout the school year serving as liaisons between the class officers and our parent community. 

APC helps to manage the AHS Volunteer Service Awards program. Now is a great time to encourage you student to help out in the community and be recognized for their efforts at the end of the school year. You can find more information in the APC in Action section of the newsletter. 

Be sure to mark you calendars for upcoming Vaping Education Night as part of the APC Parent Education Speakers Series to be held on Tuesday, October 29, in the PAC. Parents and students are invited to attend. More detail in the Parent Education section. We hope to see you there!

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Co-Presidents’ Message

The APC Campus Clean-Up last Sunday was a huge success! Over sixty students, parents and community members showed up to help trim trees & hedges, pull weeds, landscape the Main Quad garden beds, paint the Small Gym exterior wall, and power wash key areas on campus. The event was a perfect example of #DonsShowUp! (And make sure to check out the Blueprint’s fantastic article about it!) Thank you to ALL the volunteers who made the effort to participate and a special thank you to AHS parents Matt & Jill Perlman for helping to coordinate the clean-up. 

If you missed our second APC Dons Dialogue last Friday, you can find videos of all past Dons Dialogues on the APC website. Notably, Principal Bell gave an informative overview of the new Sandy Hook Promise Anonymous Reporting System along with our school safety protocols. 

Homecoming is around the corner! Encourage your student (#DonsShowUp!) to participate in all the activities. The events kick-off today with Homecoming Hallway Decorating on campus from 10am-3pm. Homecoming activities are often some of the most fun events of the whole year. 

Speaking of Homecoming, it’s not too late to purchase an ASB Card for your student. ASB stands for Associated Student Body, which is the leadership organization on campus that coordinates student activities. These events include student rallies, Class & Teacher/Student Dodgeball, Powderpuff Football, Club activities, discounted tickets to the upcoming Homecoming Dance & other dances, as well as FREE entrance to any non-NCS sporting event on campus. The card can ultimately save you money on school events. 

Dawn Brightbill & Sarah Cusumano

 

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Co-Presidents’ Message

We are looking forward to the APC Campus Clean-Up later today from 1-4pm. Students and parents are still able to drop by for an hour or two to help our campus shine. Meet in the Acalanes Main Quad (bring work gloves & a refillable water bottle) for your volunteer assignment. We hope you all notice a difference on campus this week.

A shout out to our APC Teacher Appreciation team led by veteran volunteer Emma Bishopp & Renee Kerns for kicking off the school year with a fun welcome back lunch for teachers and staff. Special thanks to Acalanes parents Julie & Robert Pancoast for providing a tremendous discount on yummy pizza.

You may be hearing about the new Dons Show Up campaign on campus or from your students. To help explain this messaging, check out the General Announcements below.  We plan to run a Dons Show Up section from time to time in our newsletter, focused on ways that students and parents can “show up” for one another on and off campus. 

We had a TREMENDOUS turn-out at our first APC Dons Dialogue and our next one will be held this Friday, September 20, at 8:45am, in the Collaboration Center. Principal Bell and our associate principals will share information about key programs and activities on campus. Check out more details in the APC in Action section below. We hope you will join us!

Dawn Brightbill & Sarah Cusumano

 

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