Weekly News & Announcements

General Announcements

APC Newsletter Schedule
This is the last issue of the year. Our next edition will publish on Sunday, January 3, just before students head back to class. Happy New Year!

Acalanes Community Always (ACA)

Shop Local For Take-Out/Delivery Meals & Gifts During the Holidays
Help our awesome Lafayette business community and restaurant owners during this challenging economic time by shopping local and getting take-out/delivery from Lafayette restaurants! Many of these businesses regularly give back to our ACA community! A bonus is that sales tax from your purchases will be funneled back into our local economy. Visit here for more ways to support Lafayette businesses.  

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

LPIE

As this challenging calendar year comes to a close, LPIE expresses our sincere gratitude to the valued Business Partners who have partnered with LPIE to support our local public schools in 2020. When businesses invest in schools, they are making a commitment to better the community for everyone. You have been our champion. For this - LPIE thanks you!

Special thanks to: Erin & Darrick Martin Martin Homes, Compass - Cobain Orthodontics - Dana Green Team, Compass - Dudum Real Estate Group: Julie Del Santo & Tina Frechman - Douglah Designs/Luxe Home - fLO Content Marketing - Koopah & Koopah, DDS - Lafayette Chamber of Commerce - Law Office of Daniel Horowitz - Lewis Asset Management - Minuteman Press - Nicole Tamayo Homes, Compass - Diablo Foods - Brydon & Ives Team, Compass - Matthew C. Keyser, DDS - Sue Layng & Ann Ward, Village Associates Real Estate - Village Associates Real Estate.

Tell them LPIE sent you! Shop Honey Bear Trees across from Acalanes if you are in the market for a Christmas tree and holiday decor! Bring this flyer, and Honey Bear will donate 20% of your purchase price back to LPIE.

Thanks to the generosity of two anonymous families, there is a dollar-for-dollar $60,000 match for all donations made in December. LPIE recognizes the sacrifices families are facing, and knows that the ask to donate is a big one. Therefore, we hope this matching gift opportunity encourages you to support at the level that is meaningful to you. Participate here.

Laura-Kate Rurka & Jennifer Palmer
Acalanes LPIE School Chairs

www.lpie.org

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)

Week SIXTEEN in the Challenge to Build Habits Supporting Racial Equity
Lamorinda is once again reeling from the news of what appears to be a hate crime. On Monday, new Campolindo Associate Principal Vanessa Knight, who is African American, had her car tire slashed in the school parking lot while she worked on campus. Moraga police are investigating.

Ms. Knight spoke at the Moraga Town Council meeting last week after the incident. She recited an excerpt from a poem by Luís Valdez, which celebrates our collective human being:

IN LAK’ECH
Tú eres mi otro yo.
You are my other me.
Si te hago daño a ti,
If I do harm to you,
Me hago daño a mi mismo.
I do harm to myself.
Si te amo y respeto,
If I love and respect you,
Me amo y respeto yo.
I love and respect myself.

We ask you to take a moment of reflection and encourage you to decide what sort of positive anti-racist changes you can affect in all our lives.  

With a Perspective: Hanukkah is Here!
For many Jewish American families, Hanukkah has taken on the gift-giving phenomenon associated with Christmas. Jewish leaders have often expressed that the commercialization of Hanukkah is missing the relevance of the holiday. There is irony in the fact that Hanukkah teaches about the Jewish people standing up in the face of oppression and refusing to assimilate, yet recent traditions of gift-giving has assimilated the surrounding Christian culture into Jewish rituals. Of course no one denies the fun and excitement of gift-giving and receiving, and the power of celebrating light in the darkness! Read more of this perspective from an AHS parent.

Thursday, Feb 4 at 6:30pm District Book Club
Consider buying, gifting and reading “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates over winter break. This is the selection for the next district-wide book group discussion. Order your copy from Orinda Books. A brilliant and moving adaptation is available on HBO until Sunday Dec 27. Sign up to attend book club here! 

Email us your traditional holiday recipes so we can share with this group! 

More information or questions?
Email us! Stay current by visiting our webpage, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. 

Membership & Fundraising

Acalanes Flags
‘Tis the season for giving - and receiving - the perfect gift: Acalanes Flags! Flags are available in two sizes on the Acalanes webstore. Get yours today and share your school spirit. Go Dons!

If you have any questions, please contact VP Fundraising Kelly Daggs.

From the Activities Director

Dec 17 and 18 Spirit Wear Pick-Up
If you ordered spirit wear in November, we will have pick up days on December 17th from 2:30-3:30p and December 18th from 7:30-8:45a in the front of school.

Adopt-a-Family Thank You!
Another thank you to Acalanes families and our community for supporting 26 adopted families this holiday season! We appreciate your support of this program.

2020-2021 Clubs
Club meetings continue. Check out our 45 clubs!

Thank You
We will be taking a much needed and deserved break but will be back to gear up for January 2021 and beyond. I would be remiss if I didn’t publicly thank all of the resilient and determined student leaders who worked tirelessly to re-envision student programming this first semester. Each one of them (and there are SO MANY) remained hopeful, supportive, and determined to show up for one another and for our community. I am grateful and inspired by every single one of them and am so lucky to work alongside them. I also know our amazing community is supported by our incredible parents. Thank you for your unwavering support of student activities! See you in 2021!

If I can ever do anything to help you or your student, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Katherine Walton, Student Activities Director