Dear Upper School Parents/Guardians,
Although there was snow in the forecast for this week, I hope you enjoyed the first lovely (and warm) weekend of April. As we head into the start of the month, I want to offer some important updates and reminders.
Principal Coffee Chats and Spring Update
For parents and guardians to gain a fuller understanding of events, topics, and initiatives that are driving life at the Upper School, we’ve added a series of “Coffee Chats” and a “Spring Update” before the close of the year. We have two events left, and we hope you will join us:- Principal Coffee Chat (in Knowles Hall): Tuesday, April 25, 8:30-9 a.m. (student handbook, new schedule, general Q&A) NOTE NEW TIME
- Spring Update (in Knowles Hall): Thursday, May 11, 5:00-6:30 p.m. (topics: Interim, finals, state of the US, general Q&A)
No Homework Days in April
April is a holy time for many world religions, and many of our students will be observing sacred holidays and celebrations. As such, April will also bring a series of no-homework dates as US families observe Passover, Easter Sunday, Ramadan, and Eid-al-Fitr.
No Homework Days- For Juniors ONLY - no homework due on April 5 (due to Junior College Night)
- For Passover - no homework due on April 6
- For Easter - no homework due on April 10
- For Eid-al-Fitr - no homework due on April 23
Parent Zoom Event: Shafia Zaloom
Our Upper School counseling team has invited Shafia Zaloom, who spoke to Grades 9-12 students on January 24, to host a parent-only Zoom on Wednesday, April 26, at 6:30 p.m. Ms. Zaloom will speak on the topics of consent, love, and connection in the teenage world. Please hold the date now; the counseling team will share a Zoom link as the date approaches.
Upper School Student Handbook Supplement
While the CA Student/Parent Handbook continues to provide the most comprehensive and complete overview of school-wide policies and practices, shortly after the break, we met with all US students to review practices and policies *specific* to the Upper School.
In tandem with this overview, we are pleased to share the new Upper School Student Handbook Supplement. By and large, this supplement does not introduce any new policies; rather, it collects all our current policies and practices into one document. Preceding the creation of this document, policies had been documented across multiple publications or had been communicated to students via email.
I want to thank all the deans, counselors, and students in Community Council for supporting this effort, but especially Grade 10 Dean Emily Pérez, who engaged in the lion’s share of the work.
Attendance Policy
When reviewing Upper School-specific policies and practices with our students, we emphasized our longstanding attendance policy, which can be found on page three, and which we encourage all families to read in its entirety: “Given the amount of content covered in each class, if a student is absent from more than 15 days of a course’s class meetings for a year-long course or 10 for a trimester-long course, the student may not receive credit for the course.”
As we reset from regular week-long or multi-day student absences from COVID, we ask families to please be mindful of how many days students are missing from their classes.
Finals Week
It might seem impossible, but we are already planning for Final Assessment Week here in the Upper School (May 15-19). Below is a quick rundown, but please go here to see what information will be shared with students in the coming weeks. |
