MESSAGE FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT
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Welcome to this issue of The Download, the EPIC family monthly newsletter. Each month, we will be sending you a round-up of news from the school that we believe you will find helpful and valuable in your child’s education at EPIC and in communicating with your teacher.
We want to make sure The Download is responsive to questions you have, too. So if you have suggestions for information or news we should share in the next issue, email us at
communication@epiccharterschools.org
and make the subject of your email Newsletter Information.
One of my favorite speeches is the one that President Theodore Roosevelt gave in 1910, when he challenged people to dare greatly. In the speech he said the people of the world who deserve praise and admiration are not the critics or those who always opt for the safe and easy path; he said he admired the person who “does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
That was the reasoning behind our choice of “Daring Greatly” as one of our central themes for this school year. We have challenged our faculty and staff to strive for greatness daily and to go the extra mile for our students and families. We know that is the same type of aspirational message you are giving your children in making EPIC your school of choice and we look forward to our partnership with you in Daring Greatly to make this the best school year yet!
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NEW FAMILY, RETURNING FAMILY RESOURCES
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This school year we initiated a program to send resource material in direct mail to all of our new families. We also sent a series of emails on topics that our experience in past school years has shown us generates a certain level of confusion among new families.
Returning families may find this information – which ranges from how to use the Learning Fund to explaining what attendance and pacing are – helpful, too. We have posted it on the EPIC website under the Resources tab on a page titled “
Welcome to EPIC.
”
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Have you noticed that the EPIC website now has Live Chat features? It does! If you have a question that is non-instructional in nature (those should be answered by teachers and principals), go to
www.epiccharterschools.org
and a chat box will display. Simply type in your question and we will do our best to immediately answer it or direct you to someone who can. Live Chat is available Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Live Chat questions sent after 4:30 p.m. during the weekday or at any time during the weekend, will be answered the following business day.
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The start of a new school year and the onset of flu season makes it a good time to remind parents about the Health Resources that are on the EPIC website. In particular, families across Oklahoma should be reminded about meningitis. If dealt with quickly, it can be treated successfully. Read more about its causes, symptoms, and treatment, as well as the other valuable health resources at the EPIC website:
https://epiccharterschools.org/health-resources
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This school year EPIC has launched a year-round store so that parents and students have access to EPIC apparel year-round. If you haven’t already done so, visit our T-shirt, sweatshirt and other apparel selections at
www.epiccharterschools.org
under “Store.”
We have partnered with a third party to ensure the merchandise in the store is of good quality and presented to you at a modest cost. EPIC receives no proceeds from the merchandise sales in the store. All proceeds go to the third party, BSN Sports, that is currently overseeing the store for our behalf and which works with other school districts in Oklahoma.
While you can place an order in the store on any day of any month, all orders made between the 1
st
and the 20
th
of each month, begin to be processed and mailed on the 21
st
of each month.
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For various reasons, EPIC parents need to request formal academic records for their child during the school year. Parents do not have to make these requests in person. EPIC provides a simple and expedient online request process that ensures you receive the records you need in a time-sensitive manner. When needing to make a records request, simply do the following:
2. Click on Resources
3. Select Forms
4. Select Records Request for (Transcripts, Report Cards, Proof of Enrollment, and Driver's Permit) and follow the instructions from there to make your request. A direct link to that records request page is:
epiccharterschools.org/records-request
.
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With us now nearly one month into the school year, hopefully you are getting well acquainted with Parent Portal for making your Learning Fund orders and checking your child’s grades and progress in Gradebook. Unless your child teacher tells you there is a better day to check grades because of when he/she enters grades, Mondays are a great day to check grades as EPIC teachers have a weekly deadline for entering grades each week.
You’ll be asked to change your Parent Portal password a few times throughout the school year for security purposes but username will never change, nor can it, the entire time your child is enrolled at EPIC. If you ever forget your username, just go to the home page of the EPIC website and click on Forgot Username. Your username will then be emailed to the official email address listed for your family in Parent Portal. If you forget your username, click on Forgot Password. Once you enter your username, a temporary password will be emailed to the official email address listed for your family in Parent Portal.
Epicenter/Parent Portal is our lifeline with your family, so please make sure the information is always up to date. Should your mailing address, phone number(s) or email change, it is critical you update the information so you do not miss important and official information from us regarding your child’s education.
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IMPORTANT INFO FOR JUNIORS, SENIORS
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College Tours
: We have already had some great college tours occur and many more in the lineup! Please click the below and RSVP to let us know which upcoming tours you are interested in joining
.
College Visit/Tour Survey
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ACT Dates
: If you know you are college bound, it is incredibly important to take the ACT! It is an admission requirement to almost every college. The more effort you put into preparing and studying for the test, the more likely your score will increase. Also, you can take the ACT multiple times. Some experts encourage students to take it early and often. To find dates to the National ACT please
click here
.
Tulsa Achieves:
Juniors and seniors in Tulsa County do not miss this! Tulsa Community College has a program called Tulsa Achieves. Tulsa Achieves provides up to 100 percent of tuition and fees to Tulsa County residents who are high school seniors enrolling at Tulsa Community College the fall after they graduate. The program pays for up to 63 college credit hours or up to three years of college, whichever comes first. Questions? Contact
tulsaachieves@tulsacc.edu
.
Work Study
: Are you working part time or full time? Did you know you can earn high school elective credit just for working? Check with your teacher or Graduation Support Manager for more information on this work study option. And if you aren’t working or in Career Tech or concurrent enrollment, we can provide you an internship for work study credit. The state requirement to earn credit is 60 hours during a semester. Contact the following to learn more:
Nicole.Ellison@epiccharterschools.org
or
Shay.Patterson@epiccharterschools.org
.
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DO NOT UNSUBSCRIBE; CHECK SPAM
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EPIC uses an email distributor to email you information. At the bottom of each email, and the bottom of this newsletter, allows you the ability to unsubscribe. Please do not do that. Unsubscribing prevents us from emailing you any official information about your child’s education and it will make you miss out on news of events, promotions, newsletters, etc.
Many veteran EPIC parents complained to us they did not receive information about the recent Back to School Bash and we discovered many of those parents had, not knowing the impact, unsubscribed to emails from EPIC. In other instances, we found that some of our emails were going to parents SPAM folders. Avoid communication from EPIC ever going to your SPAM folder by simply saving as a favorite the email address
info@epiccharterschools.org
. That’s the email address we use to send our parents emails.
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