Weekly News & Announcements

Parent Ed Workshop – Master the Message: The Art of Face to Face Communication

Master the Message: The Art of Face to Face Communication with Matt Crevin on November 18 from 7-8:30pm in the Acalanes Collaboration Center

Lamorinda native and 49ers Football Press Box Announcer Matt Crevin will join APC for a workshop in which he shares tools to help students develop the essential life skill of  face-to-face conversations. While teens excel in connecting with numerous social media platforms, many lack the ability to sustain confident, clear and coherent face-to-face conversations. As a former talk show host, youth coach, sports announcer and parent, Crevins will guide parents in learning how to help your teen add effective face-to-face communications to their growing repertoire of skills. This workshop is similar to those he gives through his company Talk Shop. You can find more details via Talk Shop’s video link. We hope to see you on the 18th. Please register here for this free event.

School Nurse

Think or know your student is vaping?  How can you help? Become An Ex is a free digital resource to help tobacco users quit.

Need some help or feedback?  Get in touch: dcitron@auhsdschools.org

LPIE Update 11/10

The 27th Forma Gym Turkey Trot will take place on Thanksgiving morning, Nov 28 in downtown Walnut Creek. Participate in this beloved East Bay tradition and Forma will donate $10 of your 5k/10k registration fee to LPIE when you use the code LPIE2019 at registration. To register, click here. 

Save the Date! Giving Tuesday on Dec 3  Dine out and help raise money for Lafayette public schools! Participating restaurants will donate a portion of their proceeds to LPIE. Help support LPIE and local Lafayette businesses at the same time!

Double Your Donation Your gift will go even further! Thanks to a generous family, your donation between now and Dec 13 will be matched, increasing the impact of your donation. Contributions at any level are appreciated because every dollar counts!

With gratitude,

Laura-Kate Rurka & Rachel Berkowitz

Acalanes LPIE School Chairs

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

Peer Tutoring Help!

 Has your student been to peer tutoring yet? This invaluable resource is available to all Dons every day during lunch, 7th period, Academy and after school until 4pm.  APC funds the entire program including two professional staffers who manage the selection and training of peer tutors. Their expertise is second to none. Now, with plenty of time before finals, is the perfect time for your student to get some extra help in a tricky subject or just use the study space to get some homework done before heading home. They don’t have to use a tutor if they don’t need help, but there is always a tutor on hand if they do!  (Bonus: They have candy!) 

APC Fall Grants Awarded!

Because of your generosity, the APC was able to fund $10k in grants during the Fall submission period. Our Special Ed department is now able to purchase much needed items for their life skills program. Our school psychologist will be able to further support our students utilizing updated social, emotional learning curriculum. Additionally, our campus will be ordering another water filtration system and we will be purchasing additional tables around the campus to accommodate our students during lunch/brunch times. APC thanks you for your continued support! 

Acalanes Jazz Ensemble Fall Concert: 11/14

Acalanes Jazz Ensemble Fall Concert  Acalanes High School’s Jazz Ensemble, along with the Stanley Jazz Messengers, will be performing in the Acalanes Performing Arts Center (PAC) on Nov 14 at 7 pm.  Attendance is free so come by to enjoy some swingin’ tunes from our renowned musicians!

College & Career

WEDS, OCT. 30
9:35  Ohio Wesleyan
1:25  University of Richmond
1:35  UC Santa Cruz 

THURS, OCT. 31
8:00  Lewis and Clark
9:40  LMU

College & Career

6:30-8:30pm, Acalanes PAC

AHS Junior parents AND students are invited to join our College & Career Center Advisor Wendy Reicher & Counselor Susan Martin to learn more about class selection for senior year, parent roles in the college application process, college visits, ACT/SAT test taking, college search tools and types of tuition aid.  It should be a VERY informative evening!

Register here.

6:30pm   APC Hosted Parent/Student Reception with Wendy Reicher & Susan Martin

7:00-8:00pm College Night Presentation

8-8:30pm Question & Answer Session

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. 

DONS SHOW UP in October!

In an effort to better communicate with students and the community on the big events each month, we have created a Dons Show Up in October calendar (on the homepage of the Acalanes website). This week’s events: 

Tuesday Senior Night, Volleyball
Wednesday DramaDons’ opening night of The Laramie Project
Thursday Senior Night, Tennis  

It’s a great week to be a Don!

Is your student a senior? Make sure to remind them to attend the lunch meeting Monday (tomorrow)  in room 314 to play senior dodgeball. Senior dodgeball, in it’s 2nd year, is a tradition not to be missed. Students form teams of 12 (11 seniors + 1 staff member) and play over 3 days in November. 

Wednesday Unified Sports plays at Heritage High School at Lunch. 

Is your student a freshman? Remind them to come out to capture the flag on Thursday at lunch. New Crew leaders will be out there playing alongside with them. Great way to spend a lunch period.

Ted Talk: Ovrcomoming

High school students are fatigued for a lot of good reasons including too little sleep and a body clock that would prefer to stay up late and sleep in. Another significant factor is psychological fatigue. You know that wiped-out feeling you have after a long day at work? Teenagers get that too. The toll of several features of adolescence-- high intensity emotions, exercising self-control, and high intensity negative thinking is incredibly draining. And on top of all that, their work is demanding. The key to overcoming psychological fatigue is by finding calm and the best way to get calm is by using breathwork. This TED Talk is a great place to explore the connection and find tips to get started.