Arts Magnet Weekly News

Dear Altadena Eliot Arts Magnet Families,

We had a wonderful week on both campuses with lots to enjoy! And we have even more fun coming up this week! Thanks to the almost 40 parents who joined me at Cafe con Scheckel this last week. I really enjoy connecting with each of you!

PEN Poker Tournament! Let's have AAM and Eliot tables! Please see the flyer below for more information.

Sibling & Priority Registration for Fall 2022 begins Monday, October 25th at 9AM.

All sibling/priority applications will be online on https://schoolchoicepusd.com/ and an application button will also be placed on our website pusd.us/enrollment.

Dates: October 25, 2021, 9AM - November 15, 2021, 4PM

The Office of Family and Community Engagement will offer a series of workshops for Parents, on Welcoming Schools. Our goal is to provide knowledge and tools for families to rebuild/restore trusting relationships, and how to collaborate with schools and work as equal partners. Dates & times: November 2, 2021, 6:00 - 7:30 PM and February 15, 2022, 6:00 - 7:30 PM Reflective Wrap-up Session: April 27, 2022, 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Here is the link for details and registration information. https://www.smore.com/v2dkr-welcoming-schools-training

Red Ribbon Week starts on Monday at both campuses. Please read flyers below for what each campus is doing so your child is prepared.

Community ESSR Meeting Tuesday evening at 5pm Please join me for a community briefing on ESSR funds for our elementary and middle school communities. The link to join is http://meet.google.com/btu-armd-kcx

Middle School Fall Play is Thursday at 7pm. Tickets are $5 and the Calaveras gate will open at 6:30 pm. Please dress warmly and bring your own chair for this outdoor play presented by the Eliot Arts Drama Department!

Halloween Activities on both campuses! On Friday both campuses will celebrate the fun of the season. Elementary students participate in Book-O-Ween. Students are encouraged to dress up as a book character. We will have our costume parade on the playground during Run Club at 7:50-8am. Middle school students are invited to dress up as well. We will enjoy a lunch time costume contest and fun activities provided by our Eliot ASB!

Guidelines for Participation for K-8 Students

• No face masks other than our regular COVID safety masks
• No blood/gore
• No fake weapons of any kind

We expect the day to be fun for all, but we will send students home, who do not follow the 3 guidelines listed above.

Our friends at MonteCedro have provided 1000 bags of candy that will be distributed at the end of the day. We do have nut free bags for our students with nut allergies.

Save the Date! Our K-8 holiday show will be on Thursday, December 16 at 6pm at Eliot!

Middle School Families, please assist us by reminding students about our protocols.

• No cell phone use while on campus
• No crop tops or ripped jeans
• No backless shoes (Crocs without the strap)
• Masks over the nose and mouth at all times unless eating and drinking

Thank you for your cooperation in keeping our students happy, healthy and safe.

It's a great year to be an Altadena Cougar and Husky!

Yours in Service,

Dr. Scheckel, Principal

For our elementary students in K-5, we have 8 team members who work daily to support your children. You see these exemplary individuals at morning and afternoon valet and they supervise and support students during recess and lunch. When they are not outside on the yard, they are supporting teachers in classrooms, and working in our game room. We are so lucky to have these humans on our team! (Not pictured, Ms. Olga Sainz, fifth grade support at Eliot. We'll add her photo next week!)

Join us for our fall play! Bring your own chair or blanket, wear a mask and bundle up! We will be outside for a spooky evening of vignettes. Enter on Calaveras. Gates open at 6:30pm. Don't miss out! Proceeds go to support Eliot Arts Drama department.

Yvonne Garcia was born and raised not far from the gates of Eliot Arts Magnet. She attended PUSD schools and graduated from Pasadena High School. She graduated from Pasadena City College with an Associates in American Sign Language and is currently working on a Bachelors degree in Deaf Studies at Cal State Northridge. Ms. Garcia comes from a die-hard baseball loving family...GO DODGERS! She says, "I am so excited to join the Eliot Arts Family and most excited for all the wonderful things to come this year!" Welcome to the family Ms. Garcia!!!

Hello Eliot Arts Family!
We have one more week to accept Reflection entries from our Eliot students. Please share this information with any interested students and I'm happy to answer or find the answer to any Reflections related questions you may have.
Cheers!
Carin Leffler
Eliot Arts PTSA Reflections Chair

Our 8th grade ASB Board had the opportunity to work with professional makeup artist, John Goodwin https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0329491/ who created expertly scary moulage makeup for our students who were then hidden around campus to pressure test our search and rescue procedures.

Wondering where to send your student to high school? Please join our College and Careers department for this virtual event where you will have the opportunity to hear from each of our high school principals and learn more about our academies across PUSD.

See https://lgbthistorymonth.com/background for resources. At Eliot we are working on our LGBTQ Club for students and creating a gender neutral restroom. At Eliot Arts all students are welcome and safe regardless of their gender identification.

Heartbeat will provide your student with a more in-depth language and knowledge-base for introspection, Heartbeat™ equips students with essential tools for success in school and beyond. Studies have shown that students who develop skills for self-reflection and awareness have more success coping with stress and managing difficult emotions. Recent research in neuroscience, for instance, shows that simply having a more effective vocabulary for identifying and translating emotions into words reduces stress and enables students to understand their feelings in intrinsically more empowering terms. Heartbeat™ goes even further: By providing students with new and healthier ways to frame perceived challenges as potential superpowers, Heartbeat™insights are designed to actively prevent against the potentially harmful tendency to personalize and internalize challenges as fixed “character flaws” or inherent weaknesses. Students who develop greater self-awareness are also better able to communicate their needs and self-advocate for support. And by facilitating self-reflection as a regular practice, Heartbeat™ helps students develop cognitive skills that support deeper, more reflective learning.

OVERVIEW

We are proud to offer The Shmoop Heartbeat™, a simple, non-intrusive student engagement solution that addresses the mental health, social emotional learning (SEL), and cognitive insights of students at scale. This research-based classroom technology is designed to tie a student’s emotional health, cognitive position, and background to their ability to achieve academically. The technology was built in conjunction with teachers, counselors, education technology experts, child psychologists, child psychometric experts, technology developers, and Digital Promise (a nonprofit national center for research in advanced information and digital technologies originated by the U.S. Congress as part of the 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Opportunity Act).

HOW DOES IT WORK?

While implementation can look different at every campus, the functionality of the Shmoop Heartbeat™ is simplistic and non-intrusive to the school day.

● Students spend 5-10 minutes, 2-3 times a week engaging on the Heartbeat board.

● Insights across 2,000 factors are securely collected

● Teachers and students use actionable recommendations to improve individualized learning.

● (Optional) Students and teachers leverage the “Handraise” feature to close the feedback loop and drive conversation around a students’ individual recommendations.

FEATURES

The Board:

Heartbeat™ is designed to be a familiar and comfortable environment that students will be willing to engage with in order to provide important responses at scale. The experience is completely customizable by students. They can adjust the background, colors, animation, shapes, and contrast.

Students engage in questions and interactions designed by child psychologists and psychometric experts around their academic, emotional, cognitive, and personal background. The amount of time students & teachers spend in the platform is completely flexible. Shmoop recommends students spend 5-10 minutes, 2-3 times/week & teacher/counselor time dependent on advisory periods and available time dedicated to support SEL & whole-child programs. The responses are analyzed real time in the tool. On average, a student who completes 50+ interactions in a week results in hundreds of counseling & teacher cognitive processing hours saved on a monthly basis.

The Pulse:

Heartbeat™ evaluates over 50 factors to provide insights into capability, mental health, social skills, emotional skills, literacy skills, cognitive skills, and student backgrounds that produce over 120 unique student dimensions inside their “Pulse”.

Student responses are assembled into a graphical environment tailored to either students or teachers, which makes results easy to digest and take action on. Students are driven to explore the “Pulse” as it’s applicable to their individual growth while teachers can view the “Pulses” that are having the most impact on their groups of students.

Within each “Pulse” are specific Actions and Insights. Teachers can customize their “Pulse” dashboard to view specific groups of students, filter by specific competencies and trends, or hone in on individual students.

These Insights are provided directly to the students in the form of “I feel” statements, recommendations on what behaviors to stop/start, and relational commentary expertly designed to create “lightbulb moments”.

Participants or their parents/guardians can register one of two ways:

1. Using their own device
• Email registration links to students (and parent/guardians) and staff so they can register at home before testing.
• Turn registrations links into QR codes to print and post at the collection site. To create a QR code, head to qrcode-monkey.com, enter your URL, click “Generate QR Code”, then “Download PNG”
2. With assistance
• For participants or parent/guardians without access to technology or who need additional assistance, set up a device on site on testing days.

Here's the registration links for Altadena Elementary:

1. Staff URL
2. Student URL

Here's the registration links for Charles W. Eliot Middle:

1. Staff URL
2. Student URL

Questions?

• Walk through the site setup process at www.color.com/cdph-site-setup
• Join Zoom office hours Wednesday and Friday at 10:00am PT
• Fill out the form at the bottom of this page to reach Support

We have lots of fun events happening this month, but our biggest is in thanks to our fabulous community partner, MonteCedro who has just finished preparing 1000 candy bags for our students at both campuses. MonteCedro also donates $1000 to each campus garden program! Please read above for how we are celebrating and enjoy the photos! We <3 you MC!

The Great Kindness Challenge for 2021-2022 has arrived! This year both campuses will participate. Please visit https://thegreatkindnesschallenge.com/ for more information.

Dear Families,

Now, more than ever, attending school on time, daily is a must! Students have lost so much time in school, they really need to be here every day. We understand students may be quarantined due to COVID exposure, but that's not what this is referring to. Please acquaint yourself with this program so you know what it is when you receive notifications. Thank you!

The holidays are quickly approaching, and before you know it, Christmas is here! Despite the hardships of the pandemic on students and families, one of our local community partners, the Salvation Army, in collaboration with the PUSD Families in Transition, has come alongside many of our families with food boxes and other basic necessities. For the holidays, the Salvation Army is opening its annual Christmas Gift registration program available to PUSD families. This is an opportunity for parents/guardians to make an appointment to pick out a Christmas gift for their children, ages 0-12, at the Salvation Army - Pasadena Tabernacle during the week of December 13th through December 17th. The Salvation Army has four (4) registration partners in the greater Pasadena community including PUSD Families in Transition at the Center for Student & Family Services. All parents or guardians need to do is call PUSD Families in Transition at (626) 396-5782 or one of the other agency numbers on the accompanying flyer to register. All registrations go into one database so repeat registrations will be voided. If you have any questions, please call PUSD Families in Transition or the Salvation Army directly. 'Tis the season for family and giving so let's make this holiday season better than ever!

Dear Families,

We have a strict mask mandate on both our campuses to keep all students, staff and families safe from infection with COVID-19. We understand the masks can be uncomfortable for students to wear all day long, but they are necessary. We will follow the process below for students who do not/can not wear a mask over their nose, mouth and chin:

1. First time, Verbal warning to wear their mask
2. Second time, Phone call home
3. Third time, Recommendation for PUSD Independent Study for 3 days

Student will be placed on our regular independent study program for 3 days. This program keeps the student enrolled at their present school with work delivered on Canvas. After 3 days the student returns to their home school and the process starts all over. Each time we get to step three, we add an additional day of independent study until we reach the maximum which is 15 days. After that, student will be referred to our district's CIS program for the rest of the school year.

If you have any questions about this policy, please reach out to principal Scheckel.

We are excited to kick off our annual fund activities and goals at both campuses and to share the vision as we move forward as one school, two campuses!

For this year, both annual funds will remain separate, but both school communities will have the opportunity to support each other, knowing that each fund will support all our children in arts and French!

Elementary Annual Fund

Our Annual Fund Chair is Tasiah LeConte

Tasiah has an executive board who assists in reaching the goals of the fund.

Fundraising Goal: $100,000.00 per year for post magnet grant art sustainability

Major Fundraising Events

Free Dress Fridays

Holiday Tree/Wreath Sale

Altadena's Got Talent

Capital Campaign

Middle School Annual Fund

Our Annual Fund Chair is Felicia Lee

Felicia has an executive board who assists in reaching the goals of the fund.

Fundraising Goal: $100,000.00 per year for arts and French program sustainability

Major Fundraising Events

Silent Auction @ Altadena Country Club on February, 25, 2022!

Capital Campaign

My vision as your principal is that all elementary families will buy tickets and attend the Eliot Gala at the Altadena Country Club and all proceeds will go to Eliot's annual fund to support our arts and French programs and in turn, all Eliot families will participate in Altadena's holiday tree and wreath fundraiser with all proceeds going to support Altadena's arts sustainability plan.

When we work together, all our children benefit!

A big thank you to our parent and community leaders for coming together to make our fundraising efforts successful!

As you know, PUSD was running low on testing kits. We expect this situation to be resolved shortly. Please read below how testing will work on both campuses, when we have enough kits.

What kind of COVID-19 test is given?

The COVID-19 test is a nasal swab PCR test that the students can self-administer under the supervision of a PUSD nurse. Testing materials are provided by Valencia Lab and results will be received within 24-48 hours.

Who will be tested?

Students with informed consent will be tested. Any interested staff can be tested.

How can parents give informed consent?

Parents can provide informed consent through two ways:

• Register through the online platform: https://home.color.com/covid/sign-up/start?partner=cdph094
• Complete the hard copy registration forms in English or Spanish which will be provided for you by the COVID-19 Response Team.

What do parents and staff need to do prior to testing?

We encourage parents and staff to register with the COLOR system prior to arriving for testing, however, the Color system currently is available only in English. Therefore, we will provide hard copies of an informed consent form in English and Spanish at the registration table. If the student or staff member has tested with PUSD before, they will not have to register again.

To register for COVID-19 testing, please use this link:

https://home.color.com/covid/sign-up/start?partner=cdph094

The COVID-19 Response Team will also bring posters of the QR code that connects directly to the testing link.

When does the COVID-19 Response Team come to my school?

Multiple COVID-19 Response Team members are organized to go to each school one time per week. As resources increase, teams will begin to go to each site for more than one scheduled visit.

The schedule to begin on August 30 is as follows:

• Mondays, 7:45-11:00: Marshall, PHS, Muir, Blair
• Tuesdays, 7:45-3:30: Altadena, Field, Washington ES, Norma Coombs, Focus Point
• Wednesdays, 7:45-3:30: Longfellow, Don Benito, Washington MS. Willard/PALS/CIS Jackson, McKinley ES
• Thursdays, 7:45 - 3:30: Webster, Sierra Madre ES, Madison, San Rafael, McKinley MS
• Friday: 7:45-3:30: Eliot, Sierra Madre MS, Hamilton, Cleveland, Rose City

How will testing be conducted during school hours
More information on this procedure will come to you.

What happens if a student is in quarantine or isolation?

If a student is in isolation, then they are confirmed positive and do not need to test for 3 months after they received their lab-confirmed positive result

If a student is in quarantine, then they need to test off-site. They can:

• Test with their medical provider
• Make an appointment with the PUSD Primary Care Clinic at 351 S. Hudson Ave. by calling 626-396-3600 xt 88180.
• Participate in the drive-through clinic on Mondays at 351 S. Hudson Ave. in the south parking lot, enter on Oak Knoll.

When will the student or staff member receive their results?

Results will come in 24-48 hours.

Will Incentives be given to students for participating?

Yes, we will be providing students with various incentives for their participation in the testing program.

https://home.color.com/covid/sign-up/start?partner=cdph094

If you or your child are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, do not come to school for testing. Stay home. You can come to the PUSD Primary Care Clinic at 351 S. Hudson Ave. Please call 626-396-3600 xt 88180 for an appointment.

Individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 3 months, recovered, and are not showing any symptoms, are not recommended to test.

Dear Families,

As you may be aware the Delta variant, coupled with the fact that children under age 12 cannot yet be vaccinated, has put us all on high alert to ensure our safety practices are as robust as possible alongside the desire to get students back to school in person.

This fall we will continue with most of the safety protocols we had in place last spring.

• Masks are mandatory for all staff and students
• Purposeful hand washing and sanitizing
• Air purifiers in all classrooms
• Ventilation maximized by keeping doors open, as often as possible
• Maintaining 3 feet of social distancing whenever possible
• Having students eat outside, weather permitting
• Daily self health screening of students and staff
• Care room for isolating any student or staff member with symptoms of any kind
• 10 day quarantine for any person who tests positive
• Siblings of any positive cases must also remain home and in quarantine
• Weekly testing for staff and students (optional at this point)
• Campus COVID Safety Teams are still in place and will continue to meet virtually
• Families will be notified if they have been exposed to a positive case at school

Vaccinations

We are now able to mandate vaccinations for our employees. PUSD is working on the plan to ensure all employees are vaccinated.

Class Sizes

This is the one change from last spring. We will not limit class sizes, beyond the mandated ratios in K-5 classrooms.

Will my child be safe?

This is the #1 question principals are getting right now. The answer is, no one can say with 100% certainty that no one will get sick when we come back in person. However, all district employees that I know, who have children attending PUSD schools, are sending their students back to in person school. PUSD is committed to keeping all students and families safe. If the variant proves to be a threat to public health, I am confident PUSD will be ready to shut down in person school and pivot back to an online delivery model.

With that being said, every family must make their own decision about what's best for their child.

Independent Study

Independent Study run through our CIS school, is a viable option for those who need to keep their children at home. Government funds will not allow for specialty programs such as, IB, AP and DLIP to be offered in this format. However, PUSD is committed to hearing parents' concerns. If you are considering independent study but have questions about specialty programs, please fill out the interest form and book a consultation with the CIS team. They may be able to offer you a solution that is not ideal, but palpable until you are able to send your child/ren back to school in person.

If you would like to set up a conference or have more information, please see the attached PDF at the end of this newsletter.

As always, if you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out. We are all in this together and we all want what's best for our students.

Respectfully,

Dr. Scheckel, Principal

If you are an elementary family, you received a hard copy of this handbook in the mail in June. If you are a middle school family, please take a look at this digital copy: Altadena Eliot Arts Magnet Academy Family Handbook

The Eliot specific information is not yet complete, but I wanted to make sure you had something before next week.

We will continue to update the calendar of events and other pertinent information this week. This is a live document so added information will be updated automatically.

Before leaving home all students, employees and parents must conduct a self check. Ask yourself these questions:

• Do I have a fever?

• Do I have a cough?

• Am I experiencing shortness of breath or difficulty breathing?

• Am I experiencing any other symptoms?

• Have I been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 14 days?

• In the last two weeks, have I been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19?

If you respond "yes" to any of the questions, you must stay home and it is recommended that you contact your primary care physician for further medical advice. If you have a fever with cough or shortness of breath, you are urged to contact your primary care physician as these symptoms may be attributed to COVID-19. To protect others, stay home, wear a facemask when you seek medical care and follow the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Home Isolation Instructions. For more detailed symptom self-checker visit the Los Angeles County Public Health Department’s COVID-19 Symptom page.

October

● 10/1 Fall Picture Day PreK and 3-5

● 10/1 Eliot Parent Connect @ 5:30pm via Google Meet

● 10/6 National Walk to School Day

● 10/7 AAM Virtual School Tour at 9am

● 10/7 Eliot Behind the Scenes in person Tour at 6pm

● 10/7-10/8 CogAT testing begins for all 3rd graders and 4 and 5 graders new to PUSD

● 10/12 Elementary SSC @ 3pm and joint PTA meeting @5:45pm

● 10/13 Cougar Values Awards Assembly @ 8am on the playground

● 10/14 Joint ELAC Meeting @ 6:30 pm for both campuses

● 10/15 Elementary Parent Teacher Conference Day, Pupil Free, Virtual conferences for parents will be scheduled

● 10/19-10/20 Eliot Yearbook Photo days

● 10/21 Great California Shakeout Earthquake Drill @ 10:21 am both campuses

● 10/21 Reflections Art Contest Celebration

● 10/21 Cafe con Scheckel virtually at 8:15 am

● 10/22 Free Dress Friday at the elementary campus

● 10/25 - 10/29 Red Ribbon Week!

● 10/28 - Middle School Fall Play

●10/29 Book-O-Ween celebration at the elementary campus, Costume fun day a the elementary campus and Movie Night and Holiday tree and wreath sale kickoff!

Email: scheckel.benita@pusd.us
Website: https://www.pusd.us/Page/9
Location: 743 East Calaveras Street, Altadena, CA 91001, United States
Phone: 626-396-5650
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/altadenacougars/
Twitter: @altadenaES