August 16 is the first day of instruction for the 2022-2023 school year and Arete is so excited to offer a Family Orientation with a variety of educational and fun options on that day. Read carefully through the descriptions and sign up for the ones that best fit your families’ needs. Children are invited and we will have staff to supervise school aged children in a classroom or on the playground when they are not needed in a training. Children under four should be kept with you. 

We are asking that all new families attend one of these orientations and many of you came last week. Thanks for that! The last one is…

August 16 from 8-8:30 Coffee Talk with Director (Zoom and In Person in the Arete Library)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://prsd-us.zoom.us/j/4817950151?pwd=U2JJY29rZlRQblczTmozV1cwZmp3dz09

Meeting ID: 481 795 0151

Passcode: GoAreteGo

We are hoping all families will attend Education Through Music (ETM) training from 10:25-11:25. Several of our staff have gone through these training sessions and we implement these practices in Resource Center Classes weekly. ETM trains teachers all around the United States to bring music to the classroom and PRSD is paying them to come to Arete!  At Education Through Music, we believe that every child, at every school, deserves access to high-quality music education. It is part of a well-rounded education, essential for students’ social and emotional well-being, and a critical tool for establishing equity and access.   

9:00-10:00 Middle School Families

*Parent Orientation for Bright Thinker Room 9 Any parent whose child uses Bright Thinker (whether they are in the Blended Middle School (BMS) or not) should attend this useful training. Amy Ford is such an experienced teacher that we can't list all of the things here).

*New Student Orientation to Bright Thinker Room 8  Any child who uses Bright Thinker (whether they are in the Blended Middle School or not) should attend this useful training. Aaron Codiga is an experienced classroom and homeschool teacher.

*Returning BMS Student Activity- Room 10 All BMS students who are returning to Arete this year will do some fun school projects. Amanda Tamo is an experienced classroom and homeschool teacher and homeschool parent.

9-9:30 Session #1

*Forms 101- Arete Library How to complete and turn in all Forms- budgets and ordering, reimbursement, etc. How and who to turn them in Email/in person). Timelines for turning them in. How to use funds toward approved vendors. How to access Arete resources- library/Parent Resource Center, how to correctly complete a 20 day binder. Sarah is the founding Director at Arete and Andrea is the secretary who handles funding, vendors, enrichments, and reimbursements.

*Homeschool Best Practices Workshop- Room 6 This is the place for new or struggling homeschool families. You will learn how to prioritize what your children need and learn how to not feel overwhelmed by the homeschool process. Everyone will go home with a helpful handbook. Marina Codiga is an experienced classroom teacher who has worked at two homeschools. Leah Veblen is an experienced homeschool teacher and has been a homeschool parent.

*Strategies for Students Who Struggle With Motivation, Attention, and Focus. Room1  This helpful training will include examples of different kinds of schedules to try, tips for motivating students, and strategies on how to build and retain focus.  Cassie Main is an experienced Special Education and homeschool teacher. Meredith Doerr is an experienced home school teacher who loves a challenge!

9:35-9:45 Break

9:45-10:15 Session #2

*Forms 101- Arete Library How to complete and turn in all Forms- budgets and ordering, reimbursement, etc. How and who to turn them in Email/in person). Timelines for turning them in. How to use funds toward approved vendors. How to access Arete resources- library/Parent Resource Center, how to correctly complete a 20 day binder. Sarah is the founding Director at Arete and Andrea is the secretary who handles funding, vendors, enrichments, and reimbursements.

*Stride (formerly PEAK) Training- Room 6  This training is a fabulous option for new and experienced families both as Peak has been retired and Stride has an updated platform and all new materials. Come learn how to use the new platform including modifying the calendar, monitoring progress and modifying curriculum. Please bring your child’s Arete issued Chromebook and password sheets. Leah Veblen is an experienced homeschool teacher and has been a homeschool parent. Cassie Main is an experienced Special Education and homeschool teacher. 

*How to Make Homeschool Science/Social Studies Engaging- Room 2 Fun and free resources-This is the best place to learn how to take your child’s interests and bring them into their education in a fun and hands on way! Meredith Doerr is an experienced home school teacher who loves interactive learning!

*How to Read/Analyze California State Standards to Ensure Your Teaching is Addressing Those Benchmarks- Room 6 Arete has created check lists with the state reading, writing, and math standards by grade level for K-5 students. Learn how to integrate the standards into your day and ensure your children are making appropriate progress. Cassie MacAlister is a veteran homeschool teacher of two schools. Marina Codiga is an experienced classroom teacher who has worked at two homeschools.

10:15-10:25 Break
10:25-11:25 Session #3

*Social Emotional Learning- ETM   Arete MPR Education Through Music (ETM) partners with schools to provide music as a core subject for all children, and utilizes music education as a catalyst to improve overall achievement, motivation for school, and self-confidence. Arete has been implementing this program weekly in classrooms for the past two years and are so excited to be hosting the ETM trainers at our little ole school!  We are hoping that new and experienced families of children of all grade levels attend. Let’s pack the house! Children should attend with their parents for the first 15 minutes or so and then school staff will watch school aged children on the playground.

11:30 (Bring your picnic lunch if you want)

Parent Meet Up- White picnic table near the swings for new parents to meet and connect with returning parents. Lori, Ashley, and Kalea are experienced homeschool moms who love Arete and welcoming new people to our school!

We are so excited that Arete Charter Academy will be part of your family’s educational journey for the 2022-2023 school year. 

*The garden will be open this Wednesday, July 6th at 8:30am. We are looking for donations of landscape fabric to help us keep the weeds in our walkways at bay. We will also need it for our new orchard area once we’ve built the fence. If anyone has fence experience or connections for purchasing supplies, please let us know!

*The Arete Library will be open to families on July 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, and 21  from 8:30am-11:30am. Mary might be working back in the library so come in and call out "Hello!" All currently enrolled students in good standing (nothing overdue or owed to the library or Arete) may check out books. Unfortunately, we cannot check out books to new families who have not signed contracts yet, but you are welcome to hang out here and look at books!

*Arete Planning for the 2022-2023 School Year- Thank you for choosing Arete Charter Academy as your children's school. We are so happy to have you! Please complete a separate form for EACH child. Please complete this form so we know you received it and have made a decision. Otherwise we do not know if you received it and we want to prepare teachers and staff for the school year. Thanks so much! 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1D394LwK4-GjP7KlYzHi_rM12OidNCR8BycmB9hATnzw/edit?fbclid=IwAR14BhraIW78Qr6hhmXfcUVONEtN-_OOF1MoLmkmrPRRhljA_EqT_E_Tt2E

We are so excited to be planning for next year and all of the new adventures we will be having including new field trips and enrichment instructors and classes. We also will be building a new fence and planting an orchard. We also will be returning to many of our educational practices that Arete had before Covid as all mandates have been lifted. These are all outlined in the Master Agreement and Parent Handbook that you will be signing in August. Here are some updates/reminders of what those practices are.

*All district and state testing will be in person. We did not have distance testing before Covid and the state and district are finding that results are much more accurate when testing is completed on campus. The district and state returned to this for the past school year and Arete will be implementing this for the coming school year.

*All district and state testing is still required if your child attends Arete. Opt out options are for students who attend the school in their district of residence. Arete is a school of choice and our charter renewal is dependent on all of our students testing and showing growth towards grade level standards. The state is clamping down on those requirements more and more every year and charter and home schools are being especially closely watched. Arete’s goal is to provide students with the most individualized and comprehensive education we can, and we can only do that if our charter is renewed and we get to stay open. (We have different requirements than public schools).

*All speech and specialized academic services for students with IEPs will be returned to in person only.

*Enrollment meetings and 20 Day Meetings will be in person. We are updating and streamlining our Assignment and PE logs and this will be a great time for Educational Advisors to review and support families with these. There may be an opportunity for families who hold their meetings on time with their Educational Advisor and turn in all logs and work samples on the day of their meeting, to move to Zoom meetings after the first trimester if it is effective for both the family and the Educational Advisor. If the Educational Advisor, student, parent team is approved to move to Zoom meetings, the parent and student will need to be present in the meeting and all documents and logs will need to be scanned to the Educational Advisor at least 24 hours before the meeting.

*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 2022-2023 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.

*Assignment Completion Log- Must be filled out in detail with specific lessons/topics of study or percentages (online curriculum only). 

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. 

Dates for the 2022-2023 School Year

*Enrollment Meetings August 3-9 

*Ice Cream Social- Monday, August 15- 5:30pm

*Family Training- August 16 & 17

*Office Hours- August 18-26

*Start Blended Resource Center- August 16

*Start Resource Center- Aug 31- 4th-8th

and Sept 1- TK-3rd

*September 21- 5:30 Family Reading Game Night

*October 26- 5:30 Family Math Game Night

*December 7- Arete Christmas Party- 5:30

*May 31- 4-8th Field Day

*May 30 or June 1- TK-3 Field Day (Depends if we use Emergency day or not)

*June 7- 5:30pm 8th Grade Promotion

Also, we are so excited to bring chickens on our campus that we are starting the planning now. Please complete this brief survey so we can gauge people's interest. https://forms.gle/hdgVTdLvN38k2tGU7

If you received this email, you are registered on our website, Edlio, to receive all Arete updates. You can also request to be in our private Facebook page titled Arete Charter Academy Family Group.

We are so EXCITED for the adventure of a new school and hope you have an amazing summer!