31 October 2020

Le Journal




from the head of school

A Social Contract For A Healthy School Community 

Dear AL Families,
 
As announced on Tuesday, Académie Lafayette will open K-1 on November 2, 9th grade on November 5, and 2nd-3rd grade on November 9. Our objective is to ultimately open all grade levels in a safe and healthy environment. It is exciting to see our buildings come back to life after being dormant for so long. 

Our collective responsibility will determine whether or not we can welcome back all our students and stay open. Our everyday behavior in public can have a direct effect in the functioning of the school. We can choose to let the virus dictate the long-term interruption of the education of our children or work together to create a Covid-free education community that is safe for our students, our teachers, and our staff. 

That is why we would like to invite each and every family, whether you chose online, hybrid or in-person learning, to voluntarily participate in this Healthy Community Social Contract by committing to following recommended measures such as social distancing (including avoiding large crowds, large indoor family gatherings, eating inside restaurants, etc.), mask wearing, handwashing, quarantining, performing daily self-assessments, and immediately communicating with the school in case of exposure or infection. Even though the Covid numbers are rising nationwide, we strongly believe that our community can create an island of relative safety for our children by collectively adhering to those measures.

And speaking of community, the spirit of generosity is always in our community but is especially evident through the money raised through raffle ticket sales this year. Even through the economic and physically distanced challenges of this year, you raised $66,040 for our school, and every class at each campus participated! Our families and students never cease to amaze me. Read more below to see the winners of the overall top-seller prizes. The $10,000 ticket winner will be drawn and revealed tomorrow on our Facebook page! 
 
Thank you for your continued support.

Have a safe and fun Halloween weekend!

Elimane Mbengue
Head of School


from the elementary principals

Welcome Back! 

We are so excited to welcome back our K-1 students in person- November 2 for A group students and November 5 for B group students.

The information from the town halls is shared below so please see those presentations for more details. Our team has been working very hard to get the building and K and 1 classrooms ready for a safe return.

A few important reminders:
  • Make sure to send a water bottle and a mask (plus a spare) with your child- labeled with his/her name
  • Please practice proper mask wearing and hand washing with your child
  • Please look for communication from your child's homeroom teacher with specific schedule information-  especially as online instruction times have changed for our hybrid students
All classrooms at Cherry and Oak will be peanut and tree nut free for the first week of school. If there is an ongoing allergy concern in your child's class your teacher will let you know by next Friday, November 6th. Thank you for helping us create a safe and secure environment for all of our students. 

Cherry students

- School starts at 8:30 am. Doors will open on the Kenwood (east side) for arrival at 8:10 am. Please leave plenty of time for traffic and plan to arrive via Gillham Rd for best access and to avoid construction issues on Cherry.

- The school day ends at 3:30 pm.  Walkers will be dismissed out the Cherry doors. Bus riders and car riders will be dismissed out the Kenwood doors. Car riders should each have their yellow number displayed in the passenger window when you arrive. All students must be picked up by 3:45pm.
Oak students

- School starts at 8:00 am. Doors will open for arrival at 7:45 am. See town hall slides #4 & 5 below for entrance door details. 

- Late arrivals: please stay in your car until 8:20 am and a staff member will help you. After 8:20 am, please walk your child to the door.

- The school day ends at 3:00 pm and we proceed with dismissal right away. All students should be picked up by 3:30 pm.
For more information about dismissal, see town hall presentation slide #7. 

Thank you so much for your support. We can't wait to see our students!

Heather Royce, Cherry Principal
Jean Claude Diatta, Oak Principal



  

In This Edition:


calendar

Upcoming Events

November 4
Development Committee Meeting, 2:30 pm

Finance Committee Meeting, 6 pm

November 16
NO SCHOOL - School Improvement Day

Power of Conversation: Let's Talk about Race, 6 pm

November 5
Diversity Meeting, 5 pm





November 25-27
NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Break
November 9
Board Meeting, 6:30 pm

Access the 2020-21 school calendar by clicking here


from the principals

Town Hall Documentstownhall

Thank you to the many families that took the time to submit questions and virtually attended our town halls this week. You will find below the link to the video and slides for each campus. 

INFO SHARING

Chromebook Annual FundChromefund

Académie Lafayette is currently trying to purchase more Chromebooks to accommodate students on our waiting list. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to the Chromebook fund, click here and choose the first option.

INFO SHARING

PTO Budget Votingvotingpto

All AL families received a digital ballot for the 2020-21 PTO budget earlier this week. Voting takes just a few clicks! Please take a moment to submit your response by 10 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 15.

Not seeing the email? Search your inbox for the sender invitations@mail.electionbuddy.com or the subject "Vote now: Academie Lafayette - 2020 PTSO Budget vote."
Please use the contact form on the PTO website with any questions or feedback. 

INFO SHARING

ALIHS 8th grade Information Sessionalihszoom

Wondering about attending ALIHS next year? Have questions about ALIHS? All 8th grade parents are invited to attend an online information session for Académie Lafayette International High School Thursday, November 12th, 2020 from 6 to 7pm. This is an opportunity to ask questions you may have about ALIHS in the areas of teaching staff, curriculum, student numbers, or extra curricular activities. An invite will be sent to 8th grade parent emails with the zoom link. 

INFO SHARING

Diversity Conversation IIIdiversityconvo3

The Diversity Committee would like to invite any interested parents to our third virtual conversation about race and racism on Nov. 16 from 6:00-7:00 pm facilitated by AL parent, Diversity Consultant and author of "Anchored in Bias, Fired Over White Tears" Lisa Benson Cooper

The first conversation focused on key terms related to diversity, equity, & inclusion (view it here) and the second conversation focused on the first half of the documentary Race- The Power of an Illusion (view it here). For our next conversation, we will be discussing the second half of the documentary (the second half of Episode II and all of Episode III). 

Episode I: The Difference Between Us - Episode II: The Story We Tell - Episode III: The House We Live In

We hope many of you will be able to watch the episodes, but even if you don't have time to watch them, we encourage you to still attend to be part of the conversation. Please RSVP here if you plan to attend so we can plan for the right number of participants. You will be asked for your email address so we can send you the link for the meeting. Reach out to Beth McCarthy at bmccarthy@academielafayette.org with any questions.

INFO SHARING

Second Chance Trash Bag Sale!trashbag

Now through November 9th you can place an order for our famous fundraiser trash bags! More options: in addition to the 15 gal White kitchen sized, Yellow or Pink 39 gal, Blue 55 gal super sized bags and Paper Yard Waste/Leaf bags, you can now order NEW RED 39 gal bags that say "Happy Holidays." These bags are perfect for storing holiday decorations, wrapping odd sized gifts, and more! Order here by November 9th!

Pick up of orders will be Saturday, November 14 from 9-noon at the Armour campus (201 E Armour Boulevard, Kansas City, MO). 

INFO SHARING

Art Materials for Oak & Cherry CampusArt

Oak and Cherry students will be starting projects that will need materials very soon. Could you please make sure that your Oak or Cherry student has the following materials for at home art projects and then for when we transition back to school? We are not allowed to share materials this year. Thank you for your support of the Art program.
  • crayons
  • white construction paper
  • pencil
  • watercolors
  • paintbrush
  • washable markers
  • Elmer's glue bottle
  • eraser
  • permanent marker
  • colored construction paper
  • ruler ( not necessary for K&1)

INFO SHARING

Social Work and Counseling CornerSocialCorner

Dear middle and high school parents, Children's Mercy is holding a virtual information session called "Prepped and Ready: Parenting into the Teen Years". This presentation includes information on eating disorder prevention, home safety, screen time, self-care, substance abuse (including vaping) and suicide prevention. Click on this link  to access the list of times and dates that this session will be held and the registration information.  

Food pick up is on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12 to 1:30pm. The location is the east door of the Armour campus on McGee Street. Deliveries will also take place on that day. Please contact your school counselor or social worker if you need deliveries. This is available to all families. We want to say a special thank you to our community volunteers for helping us with deliveries.

Sincerely,
Check out our AL Counseling and Social Services Department website!



INFO SHARING

Technology Needs surveytechneeds

If you did not fill out a technology needs survey to indicate your needs please use this waiting list survey. Click here. You will be automatically entered into a waiting list and will be contacted as we are receiving our devices.

INFO SHARING

Tips & Tricks for Online LearningTiptrickonlinelearning

If you are wondering "How can I find out what my student did this week?" or "What are they missing?", please click here. It will tell you step by step how to set up a guardian summary that can send you a summary each week of what your student/students did or are still missing during their week of online school.

INFO SHARING

$10,000 Cash Raffle UpdatesTendollar

Our daily winners this week were June Fishman ($25 GameStop gift card), Chloe Stauffer (Chiefs t-shirt), Emily Markham ($25 Rally House gift card), Cari Crawford ($25 Amazon gift card), and Tegegne Jones ($25 Target gift card)! Congratulations! 
 
Top Overall Sellers:
First Place (winner of iPad Air) - Ryder Clay, 356 tickets sold
Second Place (winner of Apple Watch) - Gideon McMillen, 267 tickets sold
Third Place (winner of AirPods) - Leah Kaufmann, 263 tickets sold 
 
Top Sellers per Grade (winner of $100 Visa gift card each):
Kindergarten - James Witcher, 84 tickets sold
1st Grade - Aurea McMillen, 253 tickets sold
2nd Grade - Addison Jones, 164 tickets sold
3rd Grade - Emily Markham, 132 tickets sold 
4th Grade - Emma Manese, 125 tickets sold 
5th Grade - Sabine Federlein, 105 tickets sold
6th Grade - Caroline Irene Dye, 170 tickets sold
7th Grade - Camaya Manese, 125 tickets sold
No eligible winners in 8th or 9th grade
 
Top Classes per Campus (prize tbd):
Oak Campus - Fontcha, 564 tickets sold
Cherry Campus - Kuevi, 504 tickets sold
Armour Campus - Ndiaye, 441 tickets sold

Thank you so much to our Académie Lafayette community for raising $66,040 in the last two months. With so many changes this year, we were still able to join together to raise money to better our school. The $10,000 raffler winner will be announced on our Facebook page tomorrow! 

Please look out for any emails this evening from devintern@academielafayette.org in regards to incomplete ticket sales or last minute clarifications to ensure that everything is ready for the announcement tomorrow! 

INFO SHARING

Drive-up Testing for ChildrenDriveuptest 

Children's Mercy has some exciting news to share: Drive-up COVID-19 Testing available for symptomatic children at the following Urgent Care sites: Children's Mercy Blue Valley in Overland Park, KS, Children's Mercy East in Independence, MO, Children's Mercy Northland in Kansas City, MO. Testing is by appointment only: Monday- Friday 12 pm- 6 pm. For more information on scheduling and criteria please click here

INFO SHARING

Kinsa FLUency program for K-5NurseFlu

If you are a K-5 family, it is time to order your free thermometer! Please review the attached flyer and follow the directions to order your free thermometer. Unfortunately, this program is only available for Cherry and Oak families, as it is exclusive to elementary schools. FLYER HERE

INFO SHARING

Community Outreach CornerOutreach


INFO SHARING

Parents & Caregivers Forumparentforum


INFO SHARING

Technology and EquipmentTech


INFO SHARING

CommunicationCommunication

  • To help answer your questions, we have created our distance learning page. If, at any time, you have a question, concern or information to share, please do not hesitate to reach out to your child's teachers, counselors, principals or Mr. Mbengue.
  • Looking to build your community? Get going today by joining our private Facebook group here. You will need to answer the three security questions.

INFO SHARING

Advertisementadvertisemen

Young Rembrandts is offering Online LIVE art classes and our new sessions are starting in November. These are FUN and Interactive. Sign up with your friends and you can draw together-virtually! Click here to read the flyer. 


In addition to the new class sessions, we are having an ARTastic Halloween Party online LIVE event on Saturday, October 31. It's fun for the whole family. Dancing, games, and yes, we will draw too. Click here to read the flyer. 

Details are on the flyers, or visit our website www.youngrembrandts.com/kcmo.
For scholarship inquiries, contact Sarah Hirtzel at (816)944-9064 or sarah.hirtzel@youngrembrandts.com.

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Oak Street Campus
6903 Oak Street
Kansas City, MO 64113
816-361-7735
Armour Campus,
201 E. Armour Blvd, 
Kansas City, MO 64111 
816-800-8771 

Cherry Street Campus
3421 Cherry Street
Kansas City, MO 64109
816-888-7400
www.academielafayette.org