Roycemore News - August 24, 2021

All School Newsletter I August 24, 2021

Welcome to the 106th year of teaching and learning at Roycemore School!

We are thrilled to have our students back on campus, including sixty new students who are joining us this year. Last week, we had the great pleasure of welcoming many of their parents to Roycemore during our new family orientation where I shared a few thoughts about the uniqueness of our school and the experience of our students.

I shared a story of one of our recent alumni and his experience. Five years ago a young man from a war torn, impoverished country, was on a quest to create a better life for himself. He was a strong student, at the top of his class. However, his teacher was concerned that if he didn’t get out of Afghanistan to continue his education, he would end up another casualty of war. She gave him a print out of 300 schools from China to the U.S. that accepted international students, thereby inspiring him to envision a future abroad for the first time. Iman spent months researching schools before finally whittling down his list to 50--Roycemore being one of them. His teacher in Afghanistan believed in him, and he realized that he had agency to pursue his dreams.

Iman joined us as a member of the junior class in August of 2017 and took advantage of all that Roycemore had to offer including teachers that believed in him. Many parents, teachers, students and community members supported him along the way, becoming an extension of his family. His story is full of twists, turns and miracles, among them, receipt of a full scholarship to Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina--realizing his dream to pursue a high school education and college in America.

Iman had a vision of a better life for himself and then took full advantage of every opportunity available to him to achieve his goal. He possessed the power of intention. This power allowed him to Take Off-- which happens to be our theme for the 2021-2022 school year. While Iman’s story is pretty dramatic in terms of the road blocks he encountered on the way to achieving his goals, the way in which he overcame them is not unlike the path each Roycemore student undertakes on their road to success. I have given much thought to exactly what happens for our students at Roycemore that makes their success possible, and I have focused on four things:

Number 1- They learn to believe in themselves.
Number 2- They recognize that they have agency to create the future they wish to have for themselves-- that they can in fact, create their own reality. They learn that they are engineers of whatever they can imagine-- they are “imagineers.”
Number 3- They learn to accept and love themselves for who they are and that they have people in their lives who want them to be fully themselves.
Number 4- They have support along the way. They learn to seek out people to help them, and they enroll others in their vision.

Our program intentionally fosters experiences for our students to build confidence, self-advocacy, collaboration and many other important skills as part of our Portrait of a Graduate. It is not uncommon for Roycemore alumni and parents of alumni to tell us, “Roycemore saved my life,” or “Roycemore saved my child’s life.” I have thought about this often and what it is about Roycemore that has made such a difference in the lives of young people, and I think it is these four things:

We believe in the innate potential of each child.
We teach young people to self-advocate and that they have so much more ability in themselves than they thought.
We create an environment where it is safe and encouraged to “be yourself.”
and we support them along the way-- providing an environment of psychological safety to be yourself, to take risks and to achieve more.

Our teachers are all LIFESAVERS!! I also believe Roycemore has saved each of us along the way, because our work with your children gives our lives a very special purpose and meaning. There is nothing more rewarding than making a difference in the life of a young person, and our faculty and staff are at Roycemore because they believe in this mission. I hope that is what brought you here and keeps you here. We’re not perfect, but working together, we can make a powerful difference in helping your children reach their full potential.

I am so grateful to every member of this community for all that you are and all that you contribute to making Roycemore the lifesaving, life affirming, and life changing institution that it is. I am excited to partner together as we TAKE OFF for the 2021-22 school year!!

In partnership for the education of your children,

Adrianne Finley Odell

Head of School

Meet with the Head of School Search Consultants this Week!

On Wednesday, August 25th consultants from Educational Directions will be on campus to meet with parents and faculty. There will be a Parent Coffee from 8:45 - 9:30 am in the MPR. There will also be a virtual session at 7:00 pm. A sign-up for the virtual meeting will be sent out soon. Please save the date in your calendars. Your input is extremely valuable in the search for our next Head of School.

In preparation for their visit, Mike Murphy and John Watson have some questions that they would like you to ponder:

As you and your child begin the new school year, what are the three most important things the school can do to add value to the Roycemore experience?
What do you most need from Roycemore administrators?
What is the most important aspect of the Roycemore community that the new head of School needs to understand in order to be successful?
What are the top three challenges that Roycemore faces in the next five years from a parent perspective?

To view the complete update from Anthony Chambers, Head of School Search Committee Vice Chair and Trustee, visit our website.

RSVP here

Have You Submitted Your Back-to-School Forms?

To ensure a safe and healthy return to school, there are several forms that families need to submit to the school. Although not mandatory (yet), if we have proof of an individual’s vaccination status, and there is a close contact to a COVID-19 positive case, the vaccinated individual will not be required to transition to off-campus learning and will not have to quarantine unless they become infected themselves.

Copies of vaccine cards can be sent to forms@roycemoreschool.org, the same place you send other forms. Forms are located on our parent resource page (New Students: https://roycemoreschool.org/course/new-student-forms/ and Returning Students: https://roycemoreschool.org/course/student-re-enrollment/). Also, don’t forget to sign and return the Community Health & Safety Pledge and send it to forms@roycemoreschool.org. This represents our shared commitment to each other.

School Wellness Screener

It is the School’s expectation that all families will adhere to the guidelines published in Roycemore’s Health & Safety Plan to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. On a daily basis, families will be asked to answer the questions below in an app developed for Roycemore by alumnus Effie Zimmerman ‘21, and his company Visionapps, School Wellness Screener to attest to being symptom-free each day. Within an hour prior to coming to school, all must complete the questionnaire on the app.

If the student attests to being symptom-free, they will receive a QR code to show that will allow them entry to school. If an individual cannot attest to being symptom free, their information will be shared with the administration to follow up with the individual. Individuals must be fever-free for 24 hours prior to returning to school. If a student answers YES to one of the symptoms in the screener, they will either need to be symptom free for 24 hours before returning, have a physician’s note to indicate that their symptom is not contagious, have a negative PCR COVID-19 test, or complete a chronic condition form to have on file to indicate that their symptom is not contagious.

PLEASE NOTE: If an unvaccinated individual answers "yes" to the question in the wellness screener regarding travel to hot spots or international locations in the last 14 days, they are required to obtain a negative PCR test before returning to school.

BinaxNow tests will not be accepted. While it is true that antigen tests such as BinaxNow are approved diagnostic tests, they are not as sensitive as the PCR, especially in an asymptomatic person. Our Health and Safety Task Force been very deliberate in our thought process about requiring a PCR. Due to the inability to social distance, air travel, in particular, is considered a high risk activity, especially for someone who is not vaccinated against COVID.

Here are several locations that offer rapid PCR tests:

For more information, please view our Student-Parent Handbook.

COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic

In partnership with the City of Evanston's Health and Human Services Department, Evanston/Skokie School District 65 will be hosting a mass vaccination clinic distributing the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the gymnasium of our Joseph E. Hill Education Center (located at 1500 McDaniel Ave, Evanston, IL) for students ages 12+ on Saturday, August 28 (first dose) and Saturday, September 18 (second dose) from 9:00am-2:00pm on both dates.

These clinics are open to both District 65 and Evanston private or parochial students (ages 12 and older). Individuals under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to both clinics.

Learn More and Register Here

HandCut Foods Lunch Information

Last year, Roycemore families had the option of having their children receive lunch from HandCut foods or receive a commensurate refund in student fees. This year, Roycemore removed lunch service from student fees and entered into an updated partnership with HandCut Foods that is a more streamlined process that allows families to order lunches directly from Handcut and pay only for specific meals. We are very excited about this new arrangement because it gives families more flexibility and will reduce food waste.

Each family has been set up with an account in the HandCut application and you can login at: app.handcutfoods.com. If you would like to participate in the HandCut program, login and follow the instructions to set up the details of your account. Accounts leverage a prepaid/drawdown process in which you will be asked to load a specific amount as a credit on the account. Each time you order, the meal will be charged against your balance. The process will allow you to order/pay for lunches on specific days and to choose to receive no meal on others.

If you have difficulty logging in, you can contact HandCut Food’s help desk at: help@handcutfoods.com.

After School Clubs and Activities

After school clubs will begin meeting in the coming weeks. Please find division specific start dates below:

Upper School- Week of August 30th
Middle School- Week of September 20th
EC&Lower School- Week of September 13th

We are looking for parent volunteers to help facilitate these clubs with talents and interests that may wish to share. For more information, please contact your Division Head.

FACES and Our Cultures: Become a Host Family

Dear Parents and Students,

We are happy to share with you that this fall we will welcome Guatemalan students to campus through the Faces and Our Cultures Program. We would like to invite you to learn more about FACES and the possibility of becoming a Host Family for one of these students for 8 weeks.

Join our FACES State Coordinator, Gaby Padilla, State Coordinator for the Program, in an Informational Zoom Meeting to learn more about this experience. She will be hosting this conversation every day for the next two weeks.

JOIN HERE:

Dates: Monday, August 23rd to Sunday, September 5th (every evening)

Times: 5PM (MST) / 6PM (CST) / 7PM (EST)

Zoom Meeting ID: 828 5815 7555

If you are interested in hosting a student, or would like to set up an individual meeting, you can contact Gaby Padilla at gaby.padilla@facesandcultures.com, or complete the Host Family Form HERE; and she will coordinate with your family to discuss all the details of the program.

Roycemore Grandparents

Fellow Grandparents,

We invite you to come to get to know your grandchild's school on Thursday, September 9th in-person. We are seeking advice and input on the creation of volunteer opportunities, especially for grandparents. Also, plans are beginning for 2021's Grandparents and VIP day. We want you to have a voice and a chance to add your input and expertise. As a bonus, we have lots of exciting news to share. A virtual meeting will be held on September 21st for those who cannot attend in person.

We hope to see you there!

Candace and Linda

RSVP here

Music Programming at Roycemore

Fall/Winter Classes: September 13 - December 16, 2021

Private Lessons Also Available

Intro to Violin

Early Childhood - Thursdays, 2:15pm-3:15pm

Lower School - Thursdays, 3:15pm-4:15pm

Intro to Ukelele

Lower School - Thursdays, 2:15pm-3:15pm

Intro to the Art of Piano and Musicianship

Lower School - Fridays, 3:15-4:15 pm

Middle School - Thursdays, 2:15-3:15 pm

"Chalk Around the Block" Highlights

Thank you to all of our Roycemore families that attended the Back-to-School Griffin Gathering on Friday. A special thank you to our RFA Parent Volunteers that made the event a success!