News Items from the Week

3/2/2017

Jon Vogels

Admissions Event

As always, the newly admitted student event held this past Tuesday night was one of the highlights of the year for me. Every year we invite all the students who have just received admission letters to the Upper School, along with our current 8^th graders, to spend an evening mixing and mingling in the Campus Center. Parents and many faculty members also attend so that everyone can meet each other and get answers to any of the questions they might have. Dr. Davis and I deliver short presentations to the crowd, and this year for the first time we added student speeches. Current senior Isabel Chandler and current junior Xander Rodriguez both spoke passionately about their experiences at CA and how they made their decisions to come to CA when they were 8^th graders at other middle schools in the area. Typically, 32-35 new students join our rising group of 9^th graders to make an entering class of around 100. The deadline for admitted students to decide whether or not to come to CA is set for next Tuesday, March 7. We look forward to seeing who will be joining us next fall!

PlatFORUM

For the third consecutive year, a group of intrepid CA students with some gentle assistance from supportive faculty, planned and carried out a day of real-world learning we call PlatFORUM. The topics this year ranged from The Power (and Danger) of Memes to “I have a differently-abled loved one” to What Happened to Service Learning at CA? to Native American team names. The entire series of forums looked like something out of a professional conference. All of them were thought provoking and encouraged full student participation.

Keynote speaker Brian O’Malley got the day off to an inspirational start with a presentation on his ascent of Mt. Everest that also included many words of wisdom in regards to living a full life. Inclusivity director Adrian Green did a great job of helping the students with logistics and served as the primary liaison to the faculty. This event has become a strong CA tradition.

Rock Climbing and Basketball

Congratulations to our highly successful competitive rock climbing team, which completed an amazing season by finishing 2nd in the varsity girls division, 3rd in the JV girls division. Nationally ranked climber Elena Holbert won the entire competition, which was held in Grand Junction.

Meanwhile, our two varsity basketball teams will be playing in the state tournaments on Friday night with hopes of advancing to the round of 16.
And spring sports got underway on Monday . . . luckily, the weather cooperated pretty well this week.

Building Security & Safety

We have decided that all students will be asked to be out of the Upper School building by 4:15 on weekdays. At that time, if they cannot go home and/or need to wait for the late bus, they may go to the library, which is open until 5:45, or the gym. The policy has already been in place that the building is locked at 4:00, but we are going to be more careful about making sure the building is also clear, both for the security of the building and for the general safety of all our students. Any student who needs to stay to work with a teacher or be in some other supervised situation of course may still do so. Please contact me if this new enforcement of policy creates any unforeseen hardships for your family.

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