Spaghetti lunch returns to campus

It's great to see the return of the annual Spaghetti Lunch. This event from Student Council features plates of Mr. Ciaravino's red sauce (or butter sauce), carrots with ranch dressing and garlic bread. Even better, this year's event also included an appearance by the Keystone Cobra.   Check out photos from the day here.

Weather announcement Dear Parents, With the arrival of cooler temperatures, we would like to ask you to remind your children to dress warmly, especially since we will continue spending more time outdoors. As we have since the beginning of the school year, students will hold breaks, lunch and some classes outside. We will move inside in the event of rain or if the wind chill dip below 32 degrees. So please make sure your children dress appropriately.

Upper, Lower School students learn with catapults Two divisions two different lessons, each involving catapults — and a lot of fun. In Mr. Lindsay’s 9th grade Algebra class, teams of students studying quadratic equations put those lessons in action by building their own catapults, collecting measurements and other data and then creating equations to describe how far their machines would launch a ping-pong ball. Then they tested their work on targets that Mr. Lindsay set up in North Hall. Then in 1st and 3rd Grades, students in Mrs. Quintero’s and Mrs. Steward’s classes created catapults that launched candy pumpkins. Read more here

Puppies provide much needed break for seniors On the final day of early college applications, Upper School Head Mr. Spedding arranged to bring in a couple of pups from Almost Famous Dogs to help seniors relax during a stressful time. Click here for a few photos

5h/6th Grade soccer team also undefeated

In last week's roundup of Keystone athletic success, we left out the 5th/6th Grade soccer team, under the direction of Coach Unruh. Like the older middle schoolers, they finished their season undefeated. Go Cobras!

Billy's Blog - From our Head of School

Excellence-the quality of being outstanding or extremely good “Today has been a good day.” I heard parents, coaches, and students say this again and again last Thursday night after our Cobras earned accolades in volleyball and soccer. The 7th and 8th grade soccer team won their tournament championship and finished the season undefeated. Two hours later, the volleyball team of 8th graders and one 7th grader won their league championship. That same evening, the varsity soccer team lost in a hard fought first round game of the State Tournament, and the varsity volleyball team finished their district season as undefeated champions and will now move into postseason play. Also, the 5th/6th grade soccer team finished an undefeated season. We can all take pride in their competing at a high level and playing with sportsmanship and class.  For many decades now, Keystone’s reputation as an academic powerhouse has been undisputed. Read more here.

College Visits

Here are the visits from college representatives this week: Monday, Nov. 8 2nd Period: Hampshire College (MA) - Virtual 6th Period: Hofstra University (NY) - Virtual Thursday, Nov. 11 4th Period: The University of the South - Sewanee (TN) - In-person with Dean of Admission, Alan Ramirez College visits to Keystone are intended for students only. Links for the virtual visits are accessible through Naviance 15 minutes prior to the visit. Please see Ms. Christiansen for assistance.

Important events and notes

Annual Fund Recap

From Mrs. Villafranca: Thank you to all the parents who participated in the Annual Fund parent drive. Because of YOU, we made Annual Fund history at Keystone School! This year, we saw an increase in overall parent participation from 96.27% last year to the highest participation ever at 98.23%. The three remaining classes (8th, 10th, and 11th) achieved their highest participation between 90% and 94%.   Congratulations to the Senior Class for leaving their legacy at 100% parent participation. We have come close in the past, but this year's 12th grade class actually reached that previously unreached goal. A special thank you to Keystone’s amazing Annual Fund Co-Chairs and Captains!! We could not have done this without you! Co-Chairs: Araminta Romero and Abe Martinez Little School PreK 3: Rami and Brian Head; Courtney and Christopher Kridel  Little School PreK 4: Trianna and Robert Johnson Kindergarten: Krystina and David Padilla; Marissa and Pablo Pallan 1st Grade: Heidi and John Muñoz 2nd Grade: Sumiti and Richard Green 3rd Grade: Liz and Marcin Donda 4th Grade: Luz Oliveira Martins; Katie Urbis 5th Grade: Mary Ann Notestine and Jerry Arismendez 6th Grade: Lakshmi Pinnenti and Rajitha Peddulla 7th Grade: Paola Duhem and Alberto Sandoval 8th Grade: Baishakhi and Subrata Debnath 9th Grade: Dritana Marko Serbo and David Gimeno Ruiz de Porras  10th Grade: Anna and Jeffrey Weissman 11th Grade: Nathalie and Andrew Cross 12th Grade: Allison and Eric Stocker; Lisa McClain-Zem and Carlos Zem Go Cobras!!!

Book Fair - Nov. 8-12

The Keystone Book Fair runs November 8-12 in the new K-12 Library. Students in grades K-6 will visit during their class times and students in grades 7-12 may visit during their free periods.  This year's fair includes a few new features: Parent in-person shopping is available by appointment only. The Book Fair will offer a cash-free payment option, along with cash, checks or credit/debit cards. Here's more info. Shopping will take place by division: Lower School Middle and Upper School Click here for a sheet with more info about the event.

Alumni Meet-Up - Nov. 10

From the Keystone Alumni Office: As a graduate of Keystone, you are doing some great things – and we want to hear about them. Please join us on Wednesday, November 10th at 7 pm CT for a virtual meetup with our Head of School, Billy Handmaker. Billy will be sharing with you an update about the school, and then you will have a chance to catch up with your fellow alumni. Invited to this call are alumni of all ages living around the globe. No matter when you graduated, you have a special bond with fellow Cobras, and we want to help connect you with other members of the Keystone community. Reserve your spot today by following the link below and registering for this event. We hope to see you there! Please register here: https://keystone.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkf-qrqzoqH9NlhlgxnM2ogFlEcQPtnVik

Reminder: Current Keystone families have priority admissions for new Little School applicants

From Mrs. Banks: Dear Keystone Families, I hope you are all doing well! I wanted to bring to your attention that applications for the Little School are now open! Please note that we have priority admissions for new Little School applicants only, and we give decisions in December. If you have a child that will turn three years old by August 1, 2022, please submit an application as soon as possible so we can schedule your child for a play date. If you have any questions at all please do let me know! All my best, Andrea Banks Director of Enrollment Management

Keystone online store now open

Snag your Keystone swag at our new online store: KeystoneSchoolStore.com. We are working with Follett, which provides fanwear and other merchandise to colleges, universities and K-12 schools. Place your orders with Follett, and your merchandise will ship directly to your house.

Support Keystone while you shop

If you're getting school supplies or adding to your home office from either Office Max or Office Depot, please mention Keystone. As part of the Give Back to Schools program, the stores give 5% of the purchase price of qualifying school supplies in credits to Keystone for office supplies. Be sure to include the school's ID number when you make your purchase. Keystone's school number is: 70100727.

If you're purchasing items from Amazon, please consider supporting Keystone with your purchases and use AmazonSmile. Just designate Keystone as the beneficiary and a portion of your purchases will go to the school. Make sure to install the Smilematic browser extension. It works with Firefox, Chrome and Safari and automatically redirects users to AmazonSmile when they visit Amazon. Here's the tool: https://couponfollow.com/smilematic.

We want to hear from you! If you have news to share about the students, alumni, faculty or staff at Keystone School, please send it to: etijerina@keystoneschool.org.

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