• College & Career

    March 29, 2020

    The CCC is alive and well, remote!

    Join me:

    • Fridays from 10:15-11am Zoom Academy “Things To Do for Juniors” Check school loop for invitation link.
    • Tuesday, March 31 from 7-7:30p Zoom Naviance Workshop for AHS Parents Check school loop for link.

    Facebook Page for Students
    Have your senior or junior join the College and Career Student FB page to post where they are going to college and share information about the process with each other.

    Scholarships
    This is a great time for seniors to look into scholarship options to support their college educations. Following are some to consider though there are hundreds to review online via a quick google search. 

    Naviance Portal Update
    Senior parents: now that many more decisions have come out, please ask your senior to update all college results on their Naviance Portal so that we can complete the senior survey and juniors can use the data in critical research. 

    Student Support
    I will be available via School Loop or email: Wendy Reicher to support all students.  Seniors and Juniors: meet with me on the phone! To schedule appointments use this Calendly link.  We can discuss application acceptances and rejections for seniors; for juniors, let’s talk about application prep questions, list development, use of Naviance and more.

    Internships
    Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan is seeking summer interns.  Rising juniors and seniors submit a resume and cover letter to RebeccaBauer-Kahan@assembly.ca.gov with “Summer Internship Application” in the subject line of your email.

    Buck Scholars
    Buck Fellows Program for Sophomores, provides two years of mentorship for college, funding for enrichment, test prep and more. Deadline April 1, 2020. 

  • Co-Associate Principals’ Message

    March 29, 2020

    Wonderful Dons Community,

    What a month this has been. We started March excited to plan the Spring and are ending it dealing with something none of us have ever experienced. We know how hard this has been for all of us, especially our students. If you have not already, please follow @ahs_dons on Instagram and our Blueprint Online to help stay connected. We are proud to see what our community is doing right now to take care of one another in these unprecedented times.

    Please take the next week to take care of yourselves, we look forward to connecting after spring break.

    Go Dons,
    Andrea Powers and Mike Plant
    #communitycantbecanceld #DonsShowUp #LoveLafayette

    Also, here’s Principal Bell and Associate Principals Andrea Powers and Mike Plant wishing all Dons students a safe and healthy spring break. Watch their message here.

  • Food Service – For All Students!

    March 29, 2020

    Two school sites in our District, Las Lomas High School and Campolindo High School, will be providing food to all community members Monday through Friday from 11am to 1pm.  Meals can be picked up at the cafeteria windows. 

  • School and District Updates

    March 29, 2020

    We continue to encourage you to check your emails and texts for important information from the school and district about the Coronavirus. You can also find information on the AHS Coronavirus Update & Postponed Events page as well as the AUHSD (District) home page.

  • Wellness Center

    March 29, 2020

    The AUHSD Wellness Centers were designed to provide on-site, school-based mental health, social, and emotional student support. This unprecedented challenge requires a significant shift in how we support students in isolating times, and in turn, requires implementing new technologies, policies and practices, and training. We must do all of these things while still adhering to existing rules and regulations and creating programming that students actually want.  

    Over the past two weeks, we have been: communicating with students via Instagram (@acalaneswellness) to offer mindfulness-based stress management strategies; maintaining continuity-of-care with specific families and students who had been receiving existing Wellness support; and, of course, creating a longer-term, post-spring break Wellness plan with other AUHSD Wellness Centers.

    On April 7th, we will launch a pilot “Virtual Wellness Center” including a resource hub, online support and skill-building groups, and virtual student check-in’s. While this is unchartered territory, we are using this as an opportunity to experiment with new ideas to support our students and community. We look forward to announcing more specifics after Spring Break!

    Please stay safe and sane during the Pandemic Spring Break. If you need support, here is a link to key resources compiled by our district here (CS 3/27@1:38pm)

  • Counseling

    March 29, 2020

    We want to remind you of some valuable community resources: 

    For non-life threatening mental health support: Contra Costa Crisis Center:  call 211 or text HOPE to 20121 available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for mental health needs.  www.211cc.org   can help you reach other community resources. 

    In the event of a mental health emergency, please contact 911.  

    As a reminder, here are the counselor assignments and emails.  Counselors prefer using the auhsdschools.org email but School Loop messages are also fine.

    Student last names

    A- E Anne Schonauer aschonauer@aushdschools.org 

    F-Lar  Christine Todd   ctodd@auhsdschools.org

    Las - Rog Marissa Meadows  mmeadows@auhsdschools.org

    Roh-Z Susan Martin smartin@auhsdschools.org 

    Summer School  will be at Acalanes this year and applications are available.  Summer school is for students who need to repeat a required class because they have a D or F grade for the semester.  Dates, times and more info is available here. Turn in application forms to your student’s counselor.

  • College & Career

    March 24, 2020

    SENIORS 

    UC Application Decisions Be sure to check your UC portal as UC decisions are beginning to roll out.  Please update your Naviance as soon as you get news!

    Scholarships This is a great time for seniors to look into scholarship options to support their college educations. Following are some to consider though there are hundreds to review online via a quick google search. 

    Naviance Portal Update:  Senior parents - please ask your senior to update college decisions on Naviance Portal so that others, especially juniors, can see the results.  It’s critical data for researching colleges.

    JUNIORS & SENIORS

    Student Support I will be available via School Loop or email: Wendy Reicher to support our seniors with application acceptances & rejections and juniors with application prep questions, list development, use of Naviance and more. Just reach out!

    Internships Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan is seeking summer interns.  Rising juniors and seniors submit a resume and cover letter to RebeccaBauer-Kahan@assembly.ca.gov with “Summer Internship Application” in the subject line of your email.

    JUNIORS

    Buck Scholars Buck Fellows Program for Sophomores, provides two years of mentorship for college, funding for enrichment, test prep and more. Deadline April 1, 2020. 

    College 101 Academy for Juniors Sign up in Teachmore under REICHER.  All juniors must attend one session held in the CCC.  Students who have not yet attended will be tagged this month. 

    Freshman College Planning

    Sophomore College Planning

    Junior College Planning

    Senior Checklist

     

  • Co-Presidents’ Message

    March 22, 2020

    First of all, we hope this email finds you all safe and healthy. While our content is limited, we believe communication continues to be one of the most important ways to connect to one another while Shelter in Place keeps students, teachers, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even family members physically apart. A special thank you to our APC Communications co-chairs Kristen Labrosse & Heidi Hambidge who along with editor Sarah Ortman who have worked to make the APC Newsletter such a valuable resource to our parent community now and throughout the school year. 

    Earlier this year, APC paid for teen motivational speaker Mike Smith to host a student assembly for sophomores and juniors along with a working group of students across all grades. The positive feedback was tremendous. Leadership teacher Katherine Walton sent a recent email regarding Mike Smith’s current video Rooted in Love, a call to action for all of us, in this unprecedented time, to find ways to build community, take care of one another, and stay rooted in love. It’s a terrific 5-minute video to sit down and watch together as a family. 

    Finally, in case you missed it, the district sent out an email regarding student wellness by sharing guidance regarding the value of keeping family schedules consistent and highlighting resources for students during this unsettling time. The Wellness Center section of the APC newsletter will continue to provide additional guidance so you may want to check it out each week.

    Please reach out if you have any suggestions for content or other ideas for this newsletter at president@acalanesparentsclub.com. 

    Sending our extended Dons family a large virtual hug!

    Dawn Brightbill and Sarah Cusumano

     

  • COVID-19 Updates

    March 22, 2020

    We continue to encourage you to check your emails and texts for important information from the school and district about the Coronavirus.  You can also find information on the AHS Coronavirus Update & Postponed Events page as well as the AUHSD (district) home page.     

     

  • Wellness Center

    March 22, 2020

    In the spirit of “Community Can’t Be Canceled,” Wellness is using Instagram (@acalaneswellness) to bring wellness-related advice, resources and connection to the school community. We’re working with staff and student organizations like Leadership and Bring Change to Mind (@bringchangetomindacalanes) to provide positive messages and practical guidance for challenging times. If you didn’t catch the launch of our positivity mindset program Three Good Things, you can learn more on Instagram @3goodthings_ahs. We’re trying to increase the reach to these accounts and to @ahs_dons because connection is what we all need the most. You’ll soon see us launch a mindfulness program based on the curriculum of Mindful Schools. We’ll be adapting the lessons for a short form initially and if there’s interest, we may explore the possibility for some live practices. Please tell your students how greatly they are missed and how strongly the entire Dons staff believes in their ability to not only rise to the challenge of the current crisis but to build remarkable resilience along the way. Stay tuned each week for more thoughts and resources. We remain, so grateful to our incredible Parents Club for this platform! (CS - 3/20@2:37pm)  

  • Co-Presidents’ Message

    March 18, 2020

    Now more than ever we feel the need to communicate and stay connected with our Acalanes community as we all make major adjustments to our lives during this uncertain time.

    AUHSD Superintendent Nickerson has emailed parents with updates regarding school closure and guidelines for social distancing. This information is critical as we all figure out how to best handle social interaction during school closures. We expect that the district and Principal Bell will have an update for parents and students early next week regarding how teachers have prepared for AHS Distance Learning.

    The LPIE Power Party unfortunately has been cancelled but the LPIE Auction is still a go. We are hopeful that you’ll consider checking out the hundreds of auction items available for bidding. All donations will allow LPIE to continue to bring tremendous resources to Acalanes. Your students may want to consider using the upcoming downtime to enter Project LPIE’s 2020 student competition. There are seventeen categories in which students can compete, many of which are conducive to working at home. More details in the LPIE section below.

    As parents, we are in this together and welcome your thoughts, resources and advice during this time. Please feel free to email us at president@acalanesparentsclub.com. We will continue to share the latest updates to help keep the AHS parent community informed as information becomes available over the next few weeks.

    Dawn Brightbill and Sarah Cusumano