3 Seniors named National Merit Semifinalists

Congratulations to seniors Yousuf, Matthew, and Zofia. They are Keystone's National Merit Semifinalists this year. They are among the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists from around the country in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. They have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million that will be offered next spring. Semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their earlier performance on the qualifying test. The Semifinalists will find out in February whether they advance to become National Merit Finalists.

A note about COVID notifications

Dear Parents, We would like to take a moment to let you know about a change in our COVID-related communications. In consultation with the Keystone Medical Advisory Committee, we have reviewed our protocols and decided to make alterations. At the beginning of the school year, we had decided to notify parents of positive COVID cases. Moving forward, we will also notify you when an unvaccinated student or faculty member has had a primary exposure. This is defined as spending 15 minutes consecutively or over a 24-hour period, within 6 feet of someone who has tested positive for COVID. Because of this new procedure, we would also like to ask for your assistance. If you test positive or have been exposed to someone who has tested positive, please let us know. We cannot report exposures if we don’t know about them, so the potential well-being of our community depends on all of us sharing information. We will maintain confidentiality. If an unvaccinated student or faculty member is exposed to COVID, that person most likely will go into quarantine, pending the results of a COVID test. In accordance with guidance from the CDC, a vaccinated person who is exposed to the coronavirus would not need to quarantine, but should watch for symptoms and be tested within 3-5 days. We would also like to restate our policy that because students are wearing masks indoors, a positive case in a class would not necessarily require all classmates to quarantine. Only the person who tests positive would have to isolate while recovering. However, we would recommend testing, particularly if a child begins to experience COVID symptoms. As with all the policies and procedures we have developed in response to the pandemic, our focus is maintaining the health and well-being of our entire community. We are committed to having every child here in person, while keeping everybody safe. As of now, we are not offering distance learning, nor concurrent learning, and are not planning on resuming those options. Our goal remains to keep students on campus. We are following the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which strongly recommends that young people attend school in person. We are doing everything we can to make sure our students are safe on campus and that they can gain the academic, social, and psychological benefits of being with their peers and teachers in person. With hope, Billy Handmaker Head of School Penny Moyer, LVN Monica Gutierrez, RN School Nurses

2nd graders navigate scavenger hunt with compasses Second graders this week spent a morning on a scavenger hunt finding a series of items around campus -- with only compasses, a map and simple directions to show them the way. The exercise, which Innovation Specialists Ms. Antuna and Ms. Troche ran, aimed to show the students how to use compasses to follow directions. In this case, the students used the compass apps on their iPads. Click here for some photos from the activity

4th graders visit Confluence Park Fourth graders this week took a field trip to Confluence Park for a day of learning more about conserving and protecting the San Antonio River. The San Antonio River Authority Education Outreach Team hosted the Keystone students for a series of hands-on activities. Read more here

Billy's Blog - From our Head of School

"Into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul." --John Muir Next week will mark a milestone in Keystone’s move toward a new normal in our programming. After a year’s hiatus, we are bringing back the school’s long-standing and beloved Outdoor Education program.  However, like almost every other element of school life in today’s pandemic-influenced world, the Outdoor Ed trips will retain elements of the past while recognizing the exigencies of COVID. Everyone going on these trips must provide proof of vaccination, and undergo a COVID test, which will be administered at school before the trip. Anyone receiving a positive test result will not be allowed to travel.  These excursions will enable students to learn science and history on site; in addition, they offer students and faculty/staff opportunities to be together and enjoy one another’s company in a different environment. Cooking together and living with one another for an extended period of time can solidify already established friendships and create new bonds among people who may not know each other already.  Read more here.

College Visits

There are no college visits scheduled for the week of Sept. 20-24, because juniors and seniors are off campus on Outdoor Education trips.

Important events and notes

Alumni -- you're getting a survey soon

Calling all Keystone Alumni! Keep an eye on your inboxes next week – our alumni office will be sending out a comprehensive survey via email to all graduates on September 20th. The survey will include questions about your life post Keystone, and how you would like to stay in touch with us. Make sure to add alumnioffice@keystoneschool.org to your address books, and check your spam folder so you don’t miss it!

Author, psychologist Michael Thompson presenting virtual lecture on Sept. 21

One of our fellow independent schools, Seven Hills in the Bay Area, is bringing psychologist and author Michael Thompson on Sept. 21 to deliver a talk, "The Pressured Child in the COVID Era." The lecture is free. Register here.

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: https://sarefugees.org https://ccaosa.org/afghan-humanitarian-support

NHS walking in Light the Night event Oct. 9

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. The event takes place Oct. 9.   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

Michael Watkins '79 leaves Jet Propulsion Laboratory for Caltech Michael Watkins '79 moves to the California Institute of Technology as professor of aerospace and geophysics after five years leading the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “There is no place in the world like JPL. It has truly been the great joy of my life to dedicate almost three decades to JPL, and to spend the last five years leading the Lab is the highest honor,” Watkins said in a statement. “I treasure above all my interactions with the incredible people who make JPL what it is and who dedicate lifetimes to mission success after mission success.” Read the NASA/JPL news release here.

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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