This year’s first day of school felt glorious, with students returning in person for classes at the main campus and the Little School. For this special day, parents were allowed to come onto the Main Campus to take photos of their children and mark the occasion.
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Main Campus Drop-off Procedures |
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Now that we have finished our first week at school, we would like to review some aspects of our procedures for Main Campus morning drop-off:
- If you're dropping off your child, please pull your car up as close to the La Fonda parking lot entrance. This helps prevent traffic from backing up onto McCullough Ave.
- Please have your child exit from the passenger side, closest to the curb.
- Lower School students who arrive before 8:15 a.m. will go to Morning Care
- Grades K-1: playground
- Grades 2-4: Theatre Garden
- After 8:15 a.m., Lower School students will go directly to their classrooms.
If you're walking with your children, please drop them off at the gate. In keeping with current Keystone policy, we ask that parents refrain from coming onto campus unless they make prior arrangements.
Middle School students will proceed to the Quad, while Upper School students will go to the area near Stevens Hall.
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Afternoon Pick-up Procedures |
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When picking up your children after school, please observe our pick-up procedures:
- Please pull your car up as close to the La Fonda parking lot entrance.
- Do not pick up your children before Gate 2, the entrance near the Shadfan Science and Creativity Center. We want to prevent backups onto McCullough Ave. and avoid potentially dangerous traffic situations.
- If you have children in multiple divisions, please arrive at the pickup time for your oldest child.
- If you arrive early, please park at the La Fonda parking lot and walk to campus to pick up your child
- Lower School students will be let out at the following times:
- Kindergarten-1st Grade: 3 p.m.
- Grades 2-4: 3:15 p.m.
- Aftercare is free until 4 p.m.
- Students who are not picked up by 4 p.m. will be checked into Aftercare.
- Students in Middle and Upper School will be dismissed at 3:45 p.m.
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Volleyball season starts strong |
Congratulations to the varsity and junior varsity volleyball teams on a strong start to the season.
Both teams opened with victories against Lutheran High School in their openers. Varsity won their match, 3-0, and JV won their match, 2-0.
Then both teams beat St. Mary's Hall in away games. Varsity won their match, 3-0, and JV won their match, 2-0.
Here's to a great season!
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Eighth graders “taste” books |
With soft jazz playing in the background, checkered tablecloths covering the classroom tables, decorations of place settings and displays of a Turkish coffee service in the background, Mrs. Tyroff's "book tasting" this year had the feel of a casual restaurant.
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Middle schoolers return to labs |
After more than a year of virtual experiments, 5th and 6th graders are returning to labs, Mrs. Sobieszczyk reports.
They started by practicing measuring volume and using equipment to create a 'custom color' with dyed water.
Let's go, young scientists!
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7th Grader stacks up the wins |
Seventh-grader Ryan is a gold medal AAU athlete -- in sport stacking.
For the uninitiated, sport stacking (also known as cup stacking or speed stacking) involves stacking 9 or 12 specially designed cups in pre-determined sequences as fast as possible. It tests agility, concentration and quickness.
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Johns Hopkins honors 4th grader |
Congratulations to 4th grader Siyona for earning High Honors from the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.
She scored high on the School and College Assessment, which tests students above their grade level and received her award for her performance.
Way to go!
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Celebrating first Friday with paletas |
Here's a great way to end the week.
To celebrate returning to school, Keystone provided paletas to all of the students on Friday.
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Billy's Blog - From our Head of School |
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“Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.”
Horace
Starting school this week felt incomparably more joyful than a year ago when children and teachers were in Zoom classes and the campus felt like a ghost town. It has been absolutely wonderful having students, faculty, and staff back on campus.
A parent described the mood at Monday’s “Meet the Teacher” as “exuberant” and said, “It felt like going home to see good friends that I hadn’t seen in far too long. It was joyful and fun.” The sounds of children playing, laughing, learning together, and walking from class to class has been music to the ears.
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Important events and notes |
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12th Grade Parent Meeting - Sept. 1
From Ms. Christiansen:
Parents are invited to a 12th Grade Parent College Counseling Meeting on Sept 1 from 12:00-1:00pm. We’ll talk about recent changes to the admissions process, how to submit applications, review important dates/deadlines, and share ideas on how you can support your senior this year.
Zoom details will be shared by email
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A note about Back to School Nights
Dear Parents,
Now that we have children back on campus and classes in full swing, we would like to turn attention to our first school wide event -- Back to School Nights
Middle and Upper School - Sept. 2 5:00 PM
Lower School - Sept. 9 5:30 PM
In light of the current situation with the Delta variant and high case rates and positivity rates, we have decided to hold these events virtually. We do not want to create crowded conditions on campus that could risk transmitting the coronavirus.
You will receive a Zoom link by email closer to the date.
We wish our community could gather together in person, and look forward to the time when we may do so safely and comfortably.
With hope,
Billy
Billy Handmaker
Head of School
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Keystone online store now open |
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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.
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Covert twins '20 work in Uganda |
Jack Covert '20 and Dan Covert '20, who are both students at SMU, report that they spent their summer in Uganda working with human rights advocate and Keystone parent Shannon Sedgewick Davis.
Davis is CEO of the Bridgeway Foundation, which works to prevent and stop mass atrocities around the world.
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Shari Rohet '14 receives diving grant |
Congratulations to Shari Rohret '14, for winning a grant from the Women Divers Hall of Fame to continue her study of underwater caves.
After graduating from Texas A&M-Galveston, she took a summer field course in the Yucatan Peninsula, and became fascinated with underwater caves. She plans to use her Advanced Training Grant to get her full cave certification, allowing her to continue carrying out research in caves for her thesis.
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Support Keystone while you shop |
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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.
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We want to hear from you! |
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Follow Keystone on social media |
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