A note to families who use our standard bus services: next week, bus services on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday may run 30-45 minutes late at the end of the day. |
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Hello Huskies!
It’s officially fall with a tiny bit of a weather change, football, volleyball, cheer, and cross country in full swing and all of our back-to-school events wrapped up. I just love the rhythm of schools from the opening day to graduation. Looking forward, we are going to start thinking more about integrating parents back on campus in ways that are safe. Stay tuned for more information.
We hear you, Husky community! Thank you to those that took the time to fill out our school lunch survey in last Friday’s letter. I also had a group of 38 students and two faculty members present me with a petition to ask that we consider adding another hot lunch option and/or replacing our current option, choicelunch. On a side note, I’m positively amazed that our students feel empowered to organize and make a request of their Head of Schools, I love it! Based on all of this, we are meeting with our current vendor next week with the hope that we can get them to change our agreement to allow us to add a second vendor.
Other happenings around campus this week included a conversation with middle school families about social media facilitated by our Director of Counseling and Wellness, Christina Morse. The link was sent out yesterday and can also be accessed below. Also, Matt Blanchette, our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion coordinator, delivered a workshop on microaggressions to faculty and staff. Lastly, our girls’ volleyball team had several matches, our cross country team ran in its second meet, and we are rounding out the week with a football game with a brand new scoreboard!
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Enjoy your weekend Husky Community.
Go Huskies!
Amy Hollinger
She/Her/Hers
Head of Schools
P.S. I am still trying to choose a book to have a family/HOS book club. More information on this opportunity coming soon.
Pictured Above: Over the summer, many of our talented visual and performing artists coordinated with faculty mentors to create new work and hone their skills in preparation for our annual Visual and Performing Arts Invitational. On September 24 and 25, we were pleased to welcome guests onto our campus to experience the artwork and performances outdoors in a safe environment. Please enjoy a short video highlighting opening night by clicking the button below.
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If you attended today's football game, you may have noticed our brand new scoreboard, courtesy of the Zebrowski family!
This project has been an ongoing effort coordinated by the Zebrowski family and our schools to ensure that we have a functional scoreboard for all future games on our field. The installation team worked day and night to complete the scoreboard in time for today's game.
Thank you to the the Zebrowski Family, Dan Farrell at Scoreboard Solutions, and everyone who worked to make the new board a reality!
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Parent Coffee with Amy
Tuesday, October 5 | 9:30 AM
Hosted Virtually on Zoom
Each Tuesday, our Head of Schools, Amy Hollinger, hosts a recurring parent coffee session to address various topics relating to our schools, programs, and the safety of our students.
No RSVP is required for these parent coffees, but we will provide a question form each week in the Friday Letter to allow families to ask questions in advance. Click the button below to ask questions for next week's session.
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Outdoor Education information is featured in the advisory announcements that are included each week at the bottom of the Friday Letter. To make things easier to access, each grade-specific Outdoor Education document is linked below. |
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Midsummer Night's Dream Field Trip: On Thursday, October 14, all Theatre and Technical Theatre classes, 8th Grade, 7th Grade Ren and select Arts Diploma students along with the RHP/Ren cast and crew of A Midsummer Night's Dream will be going on a field trip to Theatricum Botanicum to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. Please visit our "Announcements and Events Page" for more details regarding field trip attire, timing, and other important information.
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LADPH COVID-19 Resource Page for Parents and Guardians: The LA County Department of Health recently launched a new resources web page for parents and guardians. This resource page includes preventative information and other resources for parents and guardians of school-aged children. You may access the resource page by clicking the button below.
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School Lunch Survey: If your family purchases lunch through choicelunch, please fill out the survey linked below to provide feedback for their services.
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Access Books Volunteer Opportunity: RHP and Renaissance will be volunteering to help refurbish an elementary school library. Students can help to catalog books or paint the library (if you would like to paint make sure to bring appropriate clothing).
The October 9 event is at Park Western Place Elementary, starting at 8:30 AM with an end time between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM.
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Fall Selective College Admissions Night - 10/14: Join Eliza Powers, Senior Assistant Director of Admission at Stanford University and Dara Norwood, Associate Director of Admissions at Yale University for this virtual session. During the event, you will learn more about the holistic admissions process and how to put forward the strongest application for any selective college. Stanford and Yale Reps will also discuss opportunities at their institutions.
Please click the button below to RSVP by Wednesday, October 13th. A zoom link will be sent on the day of the event.
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After School Program - Signups Still Available: RHP students may still sign up for ASP by filling out the form linked below. Your tuition account will be billed for the services.
For Renaissance upper school students, ASP is already included in the tuition. For Renaissance middle school students, there is a separate fee structure, please contact Tanya Henderson at [email protected]
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The first Family Association meeting of the school year will take place Wednesday, October 13 at 5 pm on Zoom. An invite will be sent an hour before the event starts. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Sue Mathews at [email protected].
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Service Learning: While students are not required to complete service-learning hours for the 2021-2022 school year, we still encourage them to participate in activities in which they can help others. Our service-learning webpage will be updated with events as they become available, and students should contact Rachel Rubin ([email protected]) if they find additional events that interest them.
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Weekly advisor letters are taking a different route this year and will be presented in the form of grade-level announcements in the Friday Letter each week. Please click the buttons below to see the general advisory update document and grade level updates. |
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Pierce Blackman
"Just like in everyday life, first impressions mean a lot and can alter how you see a person. Things like how someone dress, walk, talk, and how they carry themselves can tell you a lot."
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Dear Parents and Guardians,
Across the nation, many articles have been written about our children "falling behind” and needing to “catch up”. This has set the tone and created pressure for our children to bounce back after a pandemic as if everything is back to normal. While our gates are open and lessons are prepared, the pandemic is not over and it is important to be mindful that our children have not had a regular school year in over 16 months.
In my role as a counselor within an educational setting, I am able to collaborate with other area mental health counselors and clinicians in independent schools. We have noticed a variety of responses from children as they returned to school this fall. Many are enthused and excited to be surrounded by their school community, much like a second home. Some are hesitant and have a sense of caution socially and emotionally. A few are admittedly needing support along the way and we are here for this very reason. Let’s consider their daily schedule and commitments so we are mindful of the needs of their growing brain and body. The best medicine is preventative self-care with plenty of rest, sleep, healthy food, laughter and play!
Our school community is a magical place with educators that care very much for our students. Whether it is a classroom teacher, advisor, learning specialist, counselor, coach or staff member, we are here to serve your children. Sometimes kids of all ages may show signs of needing support by acting out, and other times children may quietly act inward. It is the children that may be struggling quietly but shows a brave front that we must be mindful of. You know your child best and in a way that is private and personal. Please contact the counseling team if you have any concerns about your child so that we can partner with you this school year. We very much look forward to getting to know you.
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Christina Morse
Director of Counseling and Wellness
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Each year, we release our annual report to highlight our fundraising efforts and acknowledge the generosity of our community from the previous school year.
Appropriately titled Husky Strong, this report recognizes the resiliency of our community throughout a challenging year. As with most independent schools, our tuition does not cover the cost of our programming and the donations from our community help close that gap and ensure our schools' ability to educate radiant minds for years to come.
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Rolling Hills Preparatory and Renaissance School | RollingHillsPrep.org | RenaissanceSAS.org |
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