A note about Labor Day travel
Dear Families,

We would like to begin this letter offering our sincere thanks and appreciation for adopting and complying with the safety protocols we have in place. We appreciate how you and your children work to unload quickly and efficiently in the morning, and pick up your children smoothly in the afternoon. We are starting off well and improving every day, and we thank you for your efforts.

This coming weekend brings the challenge of keeping our community safe during the Labor Day travel window. Consequently, we would like to revisit our travel protocols:

At this time, we are not requiring quarantine for families who travel for the holiday weekend. 

However, we strongly encourage you to have your children receive a PCR test upon your return to San Antonio, particularly if you’re flying, if you will be in locations with a high infection rate, or at large gatherings.  

We are making this request even more strongly if your family is traveling outside the continental United States for the holiday weekend.  

Please let us know if your children test positive for COVID.

In order to best safeguard the health of our community, we are asking families who are traveling to please let us know:

  • Your destination
  • Mode of transportation (car, plane, train, etc.)
  • Conditions of the trip (Ex. Camping and outside with few other families around? Crowded theme park Indoor settings with large numbers of people?)
  • Vaccination status of your children

Please send this information to Nurse Monica Gutierrez (mgutierrez@keystoneschool.org) or Nurse Penny Moyer (pmoyer@keystoneschool.org). It will remain confidential. 

This information will also enable us to determine how to respond if we have positive cases on campus. Thank you for helping us keep your children -- along with all of the students, faculty, and staff in our community -- safe and healthy.

Together, we can protect our community.

With hope,

Penny Moyer, LVN
Monica Gutierrez, RN
School Nurses

Billy Handmaker
Head of School
3rd graders work on building their reading life
Third graders are building great reading habits early in the school year.

Mrs. Steward reports that for the "Building a Reading Life" unit, the students are working to make reading an experience that would rate a perfect 10.
Young readers learning library skills outside
No library space? No problem for our young students.

Students sat on carpet squares in front of Founders Hall, and listened to Librarian Mrs. Vilagi read to them. Kindergarten students in Mrs. Carpenter’s class began their library class by pondering: what kind of book would a bear check out a the library?
Reminder about morning dropoff
For the safety of all our children, please do not drop off your children close to the Shadfan Center for Science & Innovation. Please pull up as close to the La Fonda parking lot as possible, dropping off close to Gate 4 on Craig Place.

The reason we ask this is because dropping off near Shadfan often leads to a line of cars that extends onto McCullough Ave., and this runs the risk of our students getting rear-ended by other drivers who aren't paying attention when they're heading south on McCullough Ave.

We don't want to risk endangering your children -- or any of our students. Please pull forward on Craig as much as you can. This simple action helps keep our community safe.
New green initiative purchase
Check out this sweet new lawn mower. The reason we're highlighting it is that it's all electric and fits with Keystone's green purchasing initiative.

Plus it's quiet, quick, and perfect for our size campus.
Middle School volleyball teams win home openers
Here's a cheer for the Middle School volleyball teams. Both A and B teams opened against KIPP Academy with wins.
Billy's Blog - From our Head of School
“All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits – practical, emotional, and intellectual – systematically organized for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny, whatever the latter may be.” 
– William James”

How would you help Blobby the alien from outer space make it to Keystone? This was the question I observed 6th graders in Ms. Sarah Rardon’s class answering in the first full week of school. Their presentations were interesting, informative, and fun. One group gave Blobby explicit directions for navigating Brackenridge Park; another thoughtfully considered building a freeze chamber of -250 degrees celsius since Blobby is accustomed to the frigid temperatures of Neptune.
College Visits
Here are the visits from college representatives for this week:

Tuesday, Sept 7
6th Period: Drake University (IA) - In-person

Wednesday, Sept 8
6th Period: Vassar College (NY) - Virtual

Thursday, Sept 9
2nd Period: Texas State University - In-person
7th Period: Emerson College (MA) - Virtual
8th Period: Air Force ROTC - In-person 

Friday, Sept 10
6th Period: Univ of Texas, Austin - In-person, Theater
7th Period: St. John’s College (NM) - Virtual

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
How you can help Afghan refugees
Several Keystone families are helping refugees from Afghanistan and school administrators are asking other families who are interested in helping to take items directly to Catholic Charities, at 202 W. French Pl.

New arrivals to this country are in need of items such as family clothing, toys, books, toiletries, HEB gift cards, and the like.

For more information, visit:


Lower School Back to School Night - Sept. 9

A virtual Lower School Back to School Night will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 9. The event for Middle and Upper School parents took place this week, and Little School does not have Back to School Night.

You will receive a Zoom link by email closer to the date.
PTO General Meeting - Sept. 14th

From the Keystone PTO: Parents are invited to attend the PTO General Meeting on Tuesday, September 14th at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. A link will go out closer to the meeting day.

The meeting will include an introduction from Head of School, Billy Handmaker, PTO updates, and guest speaker Dr. Erica Shapiro, Keystone Counselor.

Dr. Shapiro will present “Making the Most of An Opportunity: Society's Mental Health Awakening.” In her talk, she will discuss the importance of the current societal awareness of mental health and self-care through several recent cultural examples/events and encourage normalizing discussions with your children and selves around mental health and wellbeing. 

She will also be discussing the importance of "good stress" and how to differentiate between this and red flags that might signal stress is having a negative effect.The presentation will be followed by Q&A.
NHS walking in Light the Night event
From National Honor Society sponsor Mr. Lindsay:

Keystone’s National Honor Society is walking and fundraising to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night event! The funds we raise are needed to help find better treatments and cures for blood cancers so patients can live better, longer lives. When you support LLS, you not only advance the most pioneering cancer research of our time, you accelerate promising treatments that save lives. 
  
Please consider a donation today. You can visit our personal fundraising page to make a secure, tax-deductible online donation. Please click "Donate Now," when you visit our page: https://pages.lls.org/ltn/stx/SAntonio21/keystone

Cancer impacts all of us, but because of events like Light The Night we can make a difference.  
 
Thank you, in advance, for your donation and support!
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.

To celebrate the grand opening, Follett is offering 25% off T-shirts until Sept. 30.
Alumni News
Madison Carolin '16 begins teaching career at Northside ISD
We're happy to report that alum Madison Carolin '16 has begun her teaching career at Mary Michael Elementary in Northside ISD.

After graduating from Keystone, she went to Trinity University, where she received her bachelor's in Psychology in 2020 and her Master of Art in Teaching earlier this year.

For any Upper Schoolers reading this -- she's happy to visit with you if you're interested in education or special education. Contact our Alumni Office for more information.
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.
Follow Keystone on social media