Families,
We are so excited that Arete Charter Academy will be part of your family’s educational journey for the 2024-2025 school year. We are thrilled to be planning for next year and all of the new adventures we will be having including adding a music teacher, new field trips, enrichment instructors, and classes. We are even looking at possibly adding some three hour morning enrichment classes. We are gathering lots of information about what you would like your child's school year to look like this year including the Resource Center, the Parent Action Committee, off campus activities, and special events throughout the year. Thanks for taking the time to share your plans and dreams with us! Arete Planning for the 2024-2025 School Year
We are super excited to announce that we are planning to extend our three day a week Blended Middle Schools to 5th graders next year. Click here to learn more. Arete Charter Academy Blended Middle School 24/25
We also will be updating a few of our policies to ensure that we are showing growth in teaching our students how to read and do math. These are all outlined in the Master Agreement and Parent Handbook that you will be signing in June or August. All documents for next year are attached to this email for your perusal. Changes to the Master Agreement are in bold.
Terms of the Master Agreement: Parents must agree and sign the Home School Master Agreement each year as a condition of admission and continued enrollment at Arete Charter Academy. Please initial each statement. If you do not feel comfortable initialing a section, you might consider attending a different school as each statement is mandatory. All updates to the Master Agreement for the 2024-2025 school year are in bold text. The Master Agreement has the following requirements of parents:
- A one year commitment to Arete. If you leave before that, you may be prohibited from returning.
- Meet on a scheduled basis with their assigned Education Advisor no less than once every 20 school days at the Arete Resource Center. If you are going to be more than 15 minutes late, you must contact Arete as soon as possible. If you need to reschedule, please do so via email at least 24 hours in advance. It is your responsibility to attend these meetings and ensure all required documents are turned in every 20 days. If three meetings are missed or canceled with less than 24 hours notice, students will be removed from Arete Charter Academy. The Arete Educational Advisor may not meet alone with any student, a parent/guardian must be in attendance at all 20 day meetings. If three meetings are held after the 20 day deadline or logs and samples are turned in after the 20 day deadline, students will be removed from Arete Charter Academy. An advanced schedule of 20 Day Meeting dates is posted on the Arete website so you can plan in advance and be prepared.
*Once you have met with your Educational Advisor three consecutive times, all items were turned in on time, and your Educational Advisor deems your student is meeting educational standards; your Educational Advisor has the discretion to allow the option of meeting via Zoom or over the phone.
- Monitor and record weekly physical education minutes on the PE Attendance Log, Monitor and record academic attendance on the Attendance and Assignment Completion Log. All required logs must be submitted at each 20-day meeting with the Arete Educational Advisor.
- Allow students to participate in on campus CAASPP State mandated assessments and other school mandated tests, so that we may monitor progress as a school and for each individual student to ensure we are meeting their specific needs. The school is monitored on the participation rate and level of growth of our students participating in CAASPP and local assessments. If students do not participate in testing, their funds will be frozen for the current year and they will not be invited to return to Arete for the following school year.
*Agree that their children will be evaluated by regularly scheduled on campus Dibels and Phonemic Screener for Intervention (PSI), Accelerated Reader (AR) tests, Northwest Evaluation System (NWEA) Math and other assessments built into the curriculum chosen by the Parent-Teacher-Student Triad.
- Students with Individualized Educational Plans will receive in person Speech and Specialized Academic Instruction services. In the event of a State of Emergency of more than 10 days, student IEP services will be provided to the extent practicable, taking into consideration Student’s unique circumstances, the specific emergency circumstance(s), District policy, and federal, state and local orders.
- Understand that starting in first grade, students who are performing below grade level in reading in first-fifth grade will need to reserve $300 of Enrichment Funds per trimester toward tutoring, intervention, or small group intervention instruction (five or less students) with Arete Educational Advisors or approved Independent Contractors using an Arete approved curriculum until their students have made three months of growth over three months of time and met the next benchmark as stated below.
- Agree that students who are below grade level in reading in first-third grade will need to use Curriculum Funds to purchase and utilize the following Arete approved Phonics programs for the school year. Foundations
*Whether or not students are below grade will be determined by a combination of Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Assessments (Dibels) and Phonemic Screener for Intervention (PSI) for First-Fifth Grade students and STAR Accelerated Reader for Second-Fifth Grade students.
First Grade students should know…
Second Grade students should know…
Third Grade students should know…
Fourth Grade students should know…
Fifth Grade students should know…
- New families must attend a mandatory orientation meeting to learn how to navigate the Arete program. Instructional Funds may not be released for dispersal until this requirement has been met. Daytime and evening meetings will be offered.
- Complete and return all required digital or paper forms, questionnaires, and other requests for information.
- Ensure the completion of all assignments.
- Read, review and sign to acknowledge compliance with all policies and procedures listed in 2024-2025 Arete Charter Academy Parent and Student Handbook.
- Exercise respect in all forms of communication with all Arete Charter Academy community members including teachers, administrators, staff, and other parents.
- Use the school’s dispute resolution process to settle complaints, conflicts, and disputes that may involve the school and/or its various stakeholders, including administrators, teachers, staff, students, and other parents.
- Understand that Arete Charter Academy may provide my child with textbooks and other instructional materials in class and/or to keep at home during the school year. Families agree to reimburse out of their own pocket to Arete Charter Academy for textbooks, Chromebook chargers and other instructional materials damaged or lost by their child. In this regard, families recognize that Arete Charter Academy may withhold their child’s report cards or take other appropriate actions if they fail to pay any outstanding balance owed to the school.
- Understand that students must meet proficiency standards to allow passage to the next grade level. Eighth Grade students must pass all classes with a minimum of 70% in progress and academic achievement to participate in the Promotion Ceremony and associated activities.
This may sound like a lot of changes at first, but please remember that everyone at Arete is on your kiddos’ team, and your Educational Advisor will be there to support your family and that EA’s will work with families as a team to assist with these requirements.
Here are some reminders of what our current practices are and will be for next year.
*All district and state testing will be in person only and is still required if your child attends Arete.
*There are requirements from our audit by the state that we need to show we are meeting. This is what we have been requesting this year and will be requiring for the 2024-2025 school year.
-Please bring all student work from the 20 days of instruction to showcase, and the Educational Advisor will choose two samples for each subject from what is provided.This way the team has a real picture of the progress your child is making.
-All samples must have one sentence per grade level. K students can label with letters and words or dictate to parents. 8th grade must have EIGHT sentences, etc.
-Math samples should have at least eight problems or more (we understand this will look different from kinder than 8th grade).
-Samples should be two separate samples and not a second page of the same sample.
-First grade on up should be in the kiddos own writing, unless they have an IEP in which case, start expecting that by 3rd-4th grade.
*There have been some changes to our approved curriculum, based on data from student growth that we are/ are not seeing. Arete Approved Curriculum 2024-2025
*Assignment Completion Log- Must be filled out in detail with specific lessons/topics of study or percentages (online curriculum only).
We believe that we need to have these practices in place to ensure the appropriate amount of growth for all students. We also acknowledge that these options might not feel like the right fit for your family. We would be very sad to lose any of our families, but know that we are so lucky in our county to have so many wonderful school choices. If you do not feel that you can agree to these changes, please email me at [email protected] to let me know that your child will be attending a different school. If you feel that these are changes that your family can comply with, please log in to your PowerSchool account here and complete or update enrollment forms A-L. (A few of you may have already completed these.) New families should have received an email from Power School with instructions for creating your accounts. You will then need to log back in and complete all enrollment forms. We need all families to complete forms ASAP as we are assigning Educational Advisors. These forms are required in order for your child’s enrollment to be processed for next year. If you need PowerSchool assistance, please [email protected].
New families to Arete must provide proof of residency in two areas before their child is considered a student at Arete and anything may be purchased.
All new enrollees’ need to provide one document from each of the categories below:
Category l - One Proof Required: At least one of the following documents showing the name and residence address of the parent/guardian or caregiver within the district: (Education Code 48204.1)
- A copy of the deed
- A copy of the most recent mortgage statement
- Property tax bill/payment receipt dated within the past year
- A copy of the fully executed lease/rental agreement. The lease/rental agreement must show the rental address and include the lessor/lessee names and signatures
- Pay Stub
- Voter Registration
- Correspondence from a government agency
- Declaration of Residency executed by the student's parent/legal guardian
Returning Students
Category ll - One Proof Required: At least one utility service statement or payment receipt dated within the last forty-five (45) days showing the name and service address of the parent/guardian or caregiver within the district. On-line documentation is accepted as long as it fulfills the requirement of a complete statement (all pages). Utility set-up and 15 day notice letters are acceptable proofs of residency if statement or payment receipt is submitted within 30 days of residency verification.
Acceptable utility services include: (Education Code 48204.1)
- PG&E
- Nevada Irrigation District (NID)
- Waste Management
- Residential cable/internet/satellite
- Landline telephone (cell and long-distance service not accepted).
If the student is an unaccompanied youth as defined in 42 USC 11434A, a declaration of residency executed by the student will be required.
If the student is residing in the home of a caregiving adult within district boundaries, an affidavit executed by the caregiving adult in accordance with Family Code 6552 will be required.
We are so EXCITED for the adventure of a new school year and hope you have an amazing summer!