Weekly Update 9/19/20
IMPORTANT DATES
September 22 - Korean Speaking/Spanish Speaking Office Hours with the Co- Principals | 11:00 -12:00 pm
September 23 - Morning Sing I 9:15 am, ZOOM
September 23 - Lunch Service at Hollygrove | 11 - 1 pm
September 24 - LCS HG Diversity & Inclusion Meeting | 3:00 -4:00 PM
September 28 - Non School Day (Yom Kippur)
September 29 - Finance Committee Meeting | 7 - 9 pm
October 6 - LCS Board Meeting | 6:30 pm
November 4 - NO SCHOOL (Staff Development Day)
November 11 - NO SCHOOL (Veteran's Day)
You can also subscribe to iCal HERE and have dates imported to your iCal. ALL DATES are available on our online calendar
LARCHMONT SCHOOL ONLINE CALENDAR
Let's use our reading powers! (1st Grade)
FROM YOUR SCHOOL LEADERS
Dear Hollygrove Families:
It's been another busy week at Hollygrove in and out of the classroom. Our students are doing a fantastic job focusing online while continuing to learn and grow. And, our teachers and support staff are holding the whole school together with thoughtful lessons and daily community building consistency. Also, we are proud to share that we distributed over 180 FREE lunch packages this Wednesday to all those families who came through our carpool gate. Please continue visiting Hollygrove to pick up your weekly lunches on Wednesdays between 11:00am -1:00pm.
Next, we want to THANK all of those parents who have jumped right into volunteering and supporting our site based efforts. First, we want to acknowledge all of you who have stepped into the very important role of Room Parent. For those of you who are new to our community, you will come to rely on the communication and support that comes from your class Room Parents! Thank you to Stacey Widger and Eyde Belasco for taking on the Head Room Parent roles again this year. Also, this week we held our first Hollygrove Site Council meeting of the year as well as our first LOOP (Larchmont Organization Of Parents) meeting. We saw many new and familiar faces in these meetings. Please see the list below for your school and grade level site council representatives. We know times are not easy right now and we are grateful for the tremendous community enthusiasm and participation. Also, thank you to Jason Daley Kennedy and Jessica Hooper for leading LOOP at Hollygrove this year. We will have notes/updates out soon for both LOOP and Site Council. In the meantime, we encourage you to get involved at Hollygrove by leaning in to all of our parent groups and parent gatherings. As the year progresses, we'll continue on this virtual journey of making connections and building community!
LCS Hollygrove Site Council Members:
Sarah McElroy- Kindergarten Teacher Representative
Cassey Jenkins- 1st Grade Teacher Representative
Rend Al-Kassir- 2nd Grade Teacher Representative
Domi Miyamoto- 3rd Grade Teacher Representative
Allison Pratt- 4th Grade Teacher Representative
Radhika Delfosse- Kindergarten Parent Representative
Leemore Kushner- Kindergarten Parent Representative
Amy Kaemon- Kindergarten Parent Representative
Carolyn Mohr- 1st Grade Parent Representative
Jennifer Mann- 1st Grade Parent Representative
Christine Safriet- 2nd Grade Parent Representative
Eleanor Hong- 3rd Grade Parent Representative
Scott Glassgold- 3rd grade Parent Representative
Alice Park-4 th Grade parent Representative
Jennifer Rothman- 4th Grade Parent Representative
Alissa Chariton- Co-Principal
Eva Orozco- Co Principal
Finally, we had a small group at our Friday morning coffee, but the topic and presentation by our Improv teacher, Maja Watkins, was meaningful and useful. Maja works at LCS at Hollygrove, Fairfax and Selma as the Social and Emotional Learning Specialist. She uses improv games to teach social skills and connections! Maja focused her talk on teaching parents ways to engage and connect with their kids at home using play. For those of you who were not able to attend, we did want to share this recorded training that Maja recently held for a small group of teachers and therapists. She covered the same material in this presentation that she did during yesterday's coffee. We encourage you to watch this video -- we promise that you'll be glad you did!
We wish you a wonderful weekend, and to our families celebrating Rosh Hashanah, a very happy and healthy new year.
We'll see you back at school on Monday!
Alissa & Eva
hgrprincipal@larchmontcharter.org
Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Meets virtually once a month on Thursdays at 3:00 pm
First meeting September 24th
Has 12 Parent Representatives, would like 3 more
No nomination form, just email hgrprincipal@larchmontcharter.org if interested.
Description: This will be our first time holding a separate LCS Hollygrove council dedicated to LCS Hollygrove’s diversity and inclusion efforts. This group will be made up of parents and staff, including a teacher leader who is taking on Diversity & Inclusion Coordinator this year. Our hope is that this group will hold a space for our Hollygrove community to become more aware of the experiences of others in our diverse community and that collectively we can make our space more inclusive and welcoming. The format that we will try out for these meetings is to start off with a council (One of our school’s regular SEL practices) for the first half of the meeting- sharing real experiences that come from us, our children, and our staff. This will be followed by a short discussion. After this meeting, the co-principals and the Diversity & Inclusion Coordinator (Sarah Minaise) will come up with a related lesson plan to share with the teachers for the students. At the following meeting, we will share some of the learning activities that stemmed from this initial conversation, before we move into another council and discussion. These meetings will also be a hub for other outreach and welcoming efforts. We have had parents supporting us during the lottery season before by doing outreach to preschools and community centers, as well as leading tours for prospective families.
HOLLYGROVE ATTENDANCE REMINDERS
Teachers will be taking attendance every day in their live Zoom classes. On Wednesdays, the completed independent work will indicate that your child is present asynchronously and your child will be marked present accordingly. If your child is going to be absent (both synchronously and asynchronously) for any reason, please email your teacher and attendancehgr@larchmontcharter.org. To receive credit for attending asynchronously (not live/zoom) students/parents must both:
Log into Seesaw or view the teacher's assignments via their websites to access and complete assignments AND
Complete the Distance Learning Attendance Certification Form.
Please notify your teacher & email attendancehgr@larchmontcharter.org when you know your student cannot attend synchronously or asynchronously.
Questions about attendance? Email our office manager, Solace, at solace@larchmontcharter.org.
HOLLYGROVE FRIDAY PARENT COFFEE
Please join the Co-Principals this coming Friday, September 25th, 10:00 to 11:00 AM for our next Hollygrove Parent Coffee. So, grab a cup of coffee and join us on zoom for for some learning and adult connection. Check the online calendar for the correct link!
This week we will be hosting a distance learning training session for parent volunteers. Remember that all the same levels of clearance are still required! We will go over these requirements, as well as share best practices for hosting a Zoom session with students. We will be sharing what we have learned about managing distance learning over the past several months, and hoping that any parents that are hoping to volunteer virtually will join us. Even if you are not able to volunteer during this time, it should be a useful session to learn more about managing Zoom with your kids!
HOLLYGROVE LUNCH PICK UP
We are excited to be able to offer all of our LCS students free meals through December 18, 2020! Since this unexpected news from the USDA arrived after our pre-order window had closed, we welcome all of our LCS families to come pick up lunches for their students tomorrow, Wed, 11am-1pm at the Hollygrove campus whether they pre-ordered or not. Please remember to bring a piece of paper with your child or children's first and last name and grade level written in large clear letters. This will be shown to our staff through your car window. Please remain in your vehicle and wear a face covering at all times while on campus. Thanks and see you at lunch!