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News & Notes - October 5, 2018
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What's Happening at The Academies?
Oct 8 -- Staff Development *
NO SCHOOL*
Oct 10 --
BOA Picture Day
Oct 17 -- BOA Makeup Picture Day
Oct 18-19 -- SVA Picture Days
Oct Oct 26 -- Fall Festival
Nov 8-9 -- Conferences *NO SCHOOL*
Nov 12 -- Holiday *NO SCHOOL*
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A Message from Superintendent Dutton
You're invited to contribute!
Every year, our staff tackles new improvement projects to help our program remain strong and effective.
With the dust settled on the launch of Blue Oak Academy, 2018-19 offers a chance to strengthen our organization in three key areas:
1- Outreach for Diversity
This long-standing committee has been in existence since 2012, when SVA first opened. As schools of choice, we have always been aware that it is our team's job to reach out to the margins of our community to spread awareness of our excellent public school options. The primary thrust of this committee's work thus far has been aimed at affecting our student applicant pool each Admissions Window (Dec-Feb), so our student enrollment over time would become a proportional reflection of the demographics of our community. We are excited to build from our progress! SVA's student demographics now match the racial/ethnic make up of its zip code (93277), and BOA's student demographics show we are serving
more students of racial and ethnic minority groups than its zip code (93292)!
This year, the committee's work will focus on maintaining and continuing those practices that have proven effective, and we will also identify ways we can make our schools more welcoming to all members of our diverse community after students are enrolled and attending.
2- Strategic Planning Committee
In January of 2016, our Board passed a robust
Strategic Plan for SVA that has set our course since then. One key strategy in that plan was opening Blue Oak Academy in order to achieve our Strategic Plan goal of serving a more diverse student population! As this example demonstrates, a Strategic Plan is a defining document that identifies the organization's most pressing goals for the next 3-5 years as well as its most efficient strategies to achieve these. Goals and strategies can range from very substantial (like the example of BOA's launch) to more subtle supports and initiatives that aren't so visible to those outside our staff, but that strengthen us nonetheless. In 2019, we hope to adopt an updated Strategic Plan to define our next horizon and increase our impact in the community!
3- Staff-Friendly Policies Committee
After our organization's policies go through a review with the help of risk management partner, BBSI, and our attorneys at Young, Minney, and Corr, we will convene a group of stakeholders to review these with us to identify areas where ancillary supports (such as process maps, templates, or administrative guidance) might be helpful to implementation. The primary purpose of this committee will be to ensure the organization's policies are understandable and easy to follow for staff.
If you believe you have something to contribute to these efforts, we are inviting you to
indicate this interest by completing our simple form linked here! The form will also provide you more information regarding the activities of each committee, the duration of time it will meet and do its work, as well as the commitment level required of those who volunteer this service, so you can gauge how this might fit in your schedule.
Please complete this survey by Friday, October 12. All who complete the survey will receive a follow up email with more information by
November 5.
One of the things I have always loved about The Academies is the true sense of community we enjoy here and the amazing involvement of our supportive families. If you have expertise or passion to share with us, please take a moment to consider these chances to serve alongside TACMO staff to strengthen our schools for the long-term!
With thanks,
Ruth
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Blue Oak Staff Sending Love for
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
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SVA's Annual Kindergarten Apple Festival was held last week. Much fun was had by students and parents alike!
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Blue Oak Beautification Day
Thank you, volunteer teachers, parents, staff, and students! You made Blue Oak's Beautification Day a huge success! Together, you made many improvements to our campus home:
- 100 shrubs and trees planted
- 12 cubic yards of mulch installed
- Mural painted in girls restroom
- Paint improvement boys restrooms (mural coming soon!)
- Bulletin board display case hung
- Sign holders installed'
- Numerous things cleaned, spruced, and spiffed up!
A very special shout out goes to Gina Ananian who organized volunteers, refreshments, and more! Thank you so much for giving so much energy to our school!
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SVA Art is on Instagram!
Follow
growing_creativity to see what our young artists are up to!
Thank you, Mrs. B for hooking us up with cool pics of kid art!
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Celebrating Our IMPACT!
Mrs. Wright read a really cool book to her 3/4 math class (
What Do You Do with an Idea?
) and Taylor P. had amazing insights to share. He referred to the Icons of Depth and Complexity - specifically,
Impact
. He talked about the
impact
the actions of the main character had on the outcome of the story.
When asked where he learned to exercise his brain that way. He said, "Mrs. Rasner taught me!"
So thank you, Mrs. Rasner! You made an
IMPACT on one this little one!
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Attention SVA Bus Riders - Crestwood Stop Info
Please follow these guidelines to ensure safety and courtesy at our Crestwood bus stop.
- Try to park south of the the bus stop on County Center
- Avoid parking in the small lot north of the crosswalk
- Obey traffic laws (no U-turns mid-block and in a school zone)
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SVA Spelling Bee Info
Practice: Thursdays, 3:40-4:15
School wide Spelling Bee: TBA
Tulare County Spelling Bee: February 20th, Visalia Convention Center
If you are interested in the
spelling
bee
, see this attachment and find the
spelling
errors in it.
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Conference Care
There will be no school on conference days, November 8-9. Our After School Program is offering
care from 7:30AM-4:30PM.
The days will include special activities, crafts, and fun!
Meals and snacks will NOT be served, so please be sure to send food for the day with your child.
Sign up using the form linked on the After School page of our websites.
Half Day: $12.50 each 4.5 hour session (7:30AM-12:00PM
OR 12:00-4:30PM)
Full Day: $25 (7:30-4:30)
ATTENTION: You
WILL be charged the half day rate if you leave your child in Conference Care only during your scheduled conference time.
Families who purchased the Unlimited Flat Rate Plan for after school care incur no additional charge for these days, but please do complete the sign up form if you plan for your child to attend so that we can plan staffing accordingly.
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Operation Chromebook
The 5th & 6th Grade teaching team has been hard at work pounding the pavement to raise money for the purchase of Chromebooks for their students. So far, they are over halfway to their goal of $23,000!
A HUGE thank you goes out to the donors who have already put a whole class set of Chromebooks into the hands of our kids:
SVA PTO
Ruiz 4 Kids (Ruiz Foods)
Erin Andersen
Toby Maitland-Lewis
Harold Rollin
Ruth Dutton
Jaime Baeza
Operation Chromebook will be up and running until the goal of acquiring two full class sets is met. If you would like to contribute to this cause, please contact Claudia Van Groningen or Erika Chan.
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Our schools offer a convenient option for student breakfast and lunch. Meals are provided by through contract with Visalia Unified School District's Nutritional Services Division and are delivered daily to our cafeterias.
Breakfast - $ 1.25 per day Lunch - $2.00 per day Milk - $0.35 per carton
You can pay for lunches at school with cash or check,
or pay
online with the myschoolbucks.com
service
. An app is available so you can easily use this service on your smartphone. If you have not already done so, you will need
to register, create an account and
provide an ID number for each student
.
Contact the front office of your school to obtain your child's student ID number.
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Mixed Bag Update
The Mixed Bags fundraiser has officially closed. The SVA PTO is excited to report a profit of just over $8,000. BOA PTO reports just over $3000 profit!
Thank you for your continued support of our students! If you missed out, or if you know someone who would still like to order, the ONLINE part of our fundraiser continues all year long.
Please keep sharing our website with friends and family:
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Fall Festival
The
Fall
Festival
is rapidly approaching! This is a wonderful family event put on by the both SVA PTO and BOA PTO. It will be held on
Friday, October 26, 5:00-8:30PM
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Thank you in advance!
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Next SVA PTO Meeting
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Next BOA PTO Meeting
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| Monday, October 8 |
Tuesday, October 9 |
| 6:00PM |
6:00PM |
| Round Table Pizza |
Round Table Pizza
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| Packwood Creek Center |
Mary's Vineyard Center |
4035 S. Mooney Blvd.
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1691 E. Noble Ave.
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If you would like to share any ideas or add an agenda item for discussion at the
PTO
meeting please
email
it to [email protected] at least one week prior to the meeting.
Spanish translation available at meetings.
¡Estamos muy contentos de compartir que ofrecemos traducción en español en nuestras reuniones! ¡Hay que trabajar juntos!
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Attention, SVA and BOA parents!
You're invited to join us for a one-hour parenting class with Fresno Pacific University's Director of Restorative Strategies, Cynthia Kaitfors-Smith, M.S.
Deepen your understanding of The Academies' approach to discipline and leave with practical parenting tools to help you support your scholar!
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Know of a community event you'd like to share? Email information and images to Claudia Van Groningen
[email protected]
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The Academies CMO| 559.622-3236 | theacademiescharters.org
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