April 22, 2021

Dear Lower School Families,

I hope you have marked your calendar for All Day 4 CA next week (April 29-30) to join in celebrating and supporting the remarkable accomplishments of our faculty, staff and students this year. I am incredibly proud of how our faculty and staff have worked together to ensure that our students could be 100% in-person with their teachers, run and play with classmates, participate in performing and visual arts, and explore the outdoors all year long. We are grateful for everyone's Annual Fund contributions that are keeping our academic and co-curricular programs running and our students learning and growing throughout this exceptional year. Thursday, April 29th, is a special spiritwear day in celebration of All Day 4 CA. All students, faculty, staff and families are encouraged to go “all in” with spiritwear on top, bottom and even accessories like scarves, hats, socks, temporary tattoos, etc. Maroon or gray items may be worn in lieu of CA logo apparel as long as there isn’t another logo on them, but no jeans or yoga pants please.

Please remember that tomorrow (Friday, April 23rd) is an-all school Professional Development Day for our faculty and staff. There is no school for all Academy students. In addition, our final Lower School Collaborative PD Day is Wednesday, May 5th, when there will be no school for lower-schoolers.

Included in today’s letter is our annual Student Information Form. Please complete and return this form by Friday, April 30th. Teachers will use this information as they work to create class placement lists for the 2021-22 school year. Please note this form is only completed for Explorers-Grade 4. Rising sixth-graders do not complete this form.

This coming week we continue our annual Rising Parent Evenings. These 45-minute meetings are an opportunity for you to see the academic program and highlights of the year your children will be going into next year. There is also an opportunity to ask questions. Homeroom teachers will be sending out Zoom links to you for the event, and we encourage you to join and learn more about next year’s program. All of the following meetings will begin at 7:00 p.m.

  • Wednesday, April 28th: Rising Grade 5 Parent Evening
  • Tuesday, May 4th: Rising Grade 4 Parent Evening
  • Thursday, May 6th: Rising Grade 3 Parent Evening
  • Tuesday, May 11th: Rising Grade 2 Parent Evening
  • Thursday, May 13th: Rising Grade 1 Parent Evening

Carline ends daily by 3:45 p.m. It is very important that all students are picked up by this time. CASE is not available on a drop-in basis this school year.

Celebration of Accomplishments will be held on May 20-21. This is a time for you to meet with classroom teachers to hear from your children their perspective of their various accomplishments and growth throughout the school year. This is a time to celebrate and reflect all the wonderful achievements that they have made. There will be no school for students on Friday, May 21st. A signup schedule for parents will be sent out from homeroom teachers.

We will be conducting our annual ERB standardized tests the week of May 17th with makeup exams on the following Monday (24th) and Tuesday (25th). Please do not schedule any appointments, unless they are an emergency, for students in grades 3-5 during those mornings. Testing starts promptly at 8:20 a.m. and finishes at approximately 10:30 a.m. Fourth-graders will have a slightly modified schedule due to their musical performance. More details will be shared with fourth grade families in the weeks to come.

The Parent Book Club will meet on Tuesday, April 27th, from 7:00-8:00 p.m. to discuss chapters 6-12 (end of book) of Best Friends, Worst Enemies by Dr. Michael Thompson. Please complete this form if interested in joining.

This week’s parenting article – “Want Your Kids to Learn Something New? Sign Yourself Up, Too.” – is from The New York Times and can be found using this link.

Be well,

Head of Lower School