Westlake Weekly Podcast: Click HERE for this week’s Westlake Weekly Podcast.

Health and Safety Update: Families, we are excited to see all of our Explorers back on campus for full in-person learning this year! This week we are releasing the latest updates to our Westlake Charter Health and Safety Guidebook including updates to:

• On campus face covering requirements
• Spacing requirements for indoor activities
• Newly modified quarantining protocols
  

Click HERE for the guidebook. 

We will continue to update the guidebook next week with updates regarding arrival/dismissal, essential visitors/volunteers, community events, as well as updated FAQ. As your family looks through the guidebook, please be sure to send questions to [email protected]; we will respond to your email and use your questions to help populate our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of our Return to School page. 

Updates for August 1, 2021 

Distance Learning Replaced by Independent Study: The legislation that allowed WCS to provide distance learning last year ended on June 30, 2021.  The intention of the Legislature is that all students return to in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible. However, when students cannot attend in-person learning due to quarantining after being exposed to COVID-19 or testing positive for COVID-19, schools may provide short term independent study. Therefore, in the unfortunate case that a student must quarantine, WCS will work with the family to provide short-term independent studies. More information regarding this type of independent study will be provided as we get closer to the start of the school year.

COVID Testing Availability: We will continue to partner with NUSD to provide, free, optional COVID testing each week for students and staff. Furthermore, WCS will provide on campus rapid response testing for students by family request. Please look for information as we get closer to the first week of school. 

Vaccination Availability: We are asked by our partners at SCPH to strongly encourage all eligible students, staff, and essential visitors to get the COVID vaccination as our best protection against the spread of the virus. We will continue to partner with NUSD and SCPH to provide vaccination resources. Click HERE to obtain a vaccination through the CDPH MyTurn website and Click HERE to find the clinics offered by Natomas USD, or through your primary care physician.

Community Events:  We are excited about the opportunity to fully reopen school and feel confident that we will be able to create a safe school environment. However, the guidelines provide less clarity around large events such as Meet the Teacher and Back to School Night, as well as helping schools determine safe on campus essential visitor policies. These are just a few of the areas we are still working on with our partners. As more clarity is provided, we will continue to collaborate and communicate about these topics.

Class Lists, Find Your Classroom, and Meet the Teacher: We will release the class lists and student schedules on Friday, August 6th, so that you and your student can swing by during our open campus event on the evening of Monday, August 9th to find your classroom. By the time we launch our virtual Meet the Teacher event on Tuesday, August 10th,  we hope you will have your schedule, and know where your classrooms are so that our students are ready to head straight to class on the first day of school.

• Class Lists and Student Schedules – August 6th: Class lists and student schedules will be emailed home on Friday, August 6th at 4:30PM. We will also place a class list link on the website that will take you to homeroom/advisory lists. 
  
• Open Campus – Find Your Classroom Event – August 9th: Last year, parents were not able to help students find their classroom, so, we will open the campuses on Monday evening from 5 PM to 8PM, to allow you and your family to walk on campuses, and find your classroom door. This is an optional event, classrooms will be closed, but if you are excited to see campus, we want this option to be available to your family.

• Virtual Meet the Teacher: Your teacher will reach out to you via email on Friday, August 6th to introduce themselves to your family. This email will also invite you to sign up for an optional virtual Meet the Teacher on Tuesday, August 10th. Sign up times will stagger so that families with multiple students can attend more than one. 
  

School Supplies Donations: Each year Westlake Charter School purchases all the school supplies our students will need. You don’t need to go out and purchase anything. To help our school offset these costs, we ask for an optional $25 donation for each student. We promise, with our bulk educational discount, we can get a lot more for your student than they would get for the same price at even the best discount retail store. 

Click here to make your School Supplies donation today.

Field Lessons  Donations: Each year we schedule our field lessons and ask families to help with the costs through donations. This year, we are working with vendors to schedule field lessons, but we are not going to ask families to donate until we are 100% sure that the field lessons are happening. Donations are non-refundable, so we want to be as certain as we can that our families are getting their money’s worth. We will reach out to families as the school year progresses to update information regarding field lessons.

In case you missed it…

First Day of School: Our first day of school is Wednesday, August 11th. This will be an early release day for all students. See grade level first-day dismissal times below:

• Kindergarten:  11:30am for kindergarten conferences 8/11, 8/12, 8/13
  
• 1st-8th grades: 1:30pm
  
• 9th grade: 1:02pm

School Hours: We are looking forward to returning to campus with full school days! 

• Kindergarten: 8:30am to 2:45 pm; Wednesday 1:00pm 
  
• 1st-5th grades: 8:30am to 3:15pm; Wednesday 1:30pm
  
• 6th-8th grades: 8:15am to 3:15pm; Wednesday 1:30pm
  
• 9th grade: 8:00am to 3:37pm; Wednesday 1:02pm

K-8 BASE After School Program: Our BASE staff has spent the summer preparing for the upcoming school year and they can’t wait to see our Explorers! BASE will be open from 7:00am-8:00am and again after school until 6:00pm on school days and will accept drop-ins. Click HERE to register your child(ren) for the 2021-2022 school year. 

Email [email protected] with any questions. We have a solid, enthusiastic team and are looking for a few more rock stars to join our team. If you’re interested, email [email protected].

9th Grade Fall Athletics: Conditioning is underway for co-ed Cross Country, Boys Soccer, and Girls Volleyball. It’s not too late to participate. Click HERE to complete the Sports Interest Form. Coaches for Fall Sports will reach out with practice information. 

Back to School Shopping: We know many families are starting to think about Back to School shopping. We wanted to give a few guidelines to help: 

• School Supplies:   Each grade level has purchased all the school supplies that your students will need for the entire year. We get a great discount as a school, so we like to purchase everything in advance. Next week, we will share a link where families can donate $25 toward the purchased school supplies.
  
• Clothing:   Our detailed dress code will be included in our Family Handbook, but to get you started, here are a few details: 
  
  • K-8 Students: Our K-8 campus is a uniform campus. Students should wear collared shirts that are navy, light blue or white, as well as khaki or navy blue bottoms. 
    
  • 9th Grade Students: Our high school students will not wear a uniform. There will be a standard dress code for high school students.
    
• There will be tables set up in the drop off lane for a uniform exchange on August 9th and 10th. Please feel free to come by and drop off uniforms that no longer fit your Explorer and pick up some gently used ones in return!
  

WAVE Board Members: Please welcome the 2021/22 WAVE Board! Please feel free to reach out to any of us with questions, suggestions or just to say ”hi”! 

Amber Hustead-President – [email protected]

Rocio Owens-Vice President of Business Operations – [email protected]

Jess Wilson-Vice President of Parent Participation – [email protected]

Shari Kantor-Treasurer – [email protected]

Veronica Hernandez-Secretary – [email protected]

Save the Date: Please save the dates for our upcoming WAVE Meetings and Coffee Talks. Please click HERE to see the entire 2021/22 schedule. We hope to see you (virtually) at the first Coffee Talk on August 10th and the first WAVE Meeting on August 17th. 

WAVE Facebook Page: WAVE has a private Facebook page which is a fantastic resource for our families. The page is full of questions, ideas, pictures and more. Please click HERE to join the page.

Amazon Smile: If you happen to be shopping on Amazon please add Westlake Charter as your charitable organization (Amazon Smile). Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organization of your choice when you shop at smile.amazon.com. App purchases are now eligible for the donation as well! Thank you to Rocio Owens for putting together a short tutorial to help you add Westlake Charter as your charitable organization. 

Kudos: Our new High School space has received a complete transformation in just a few weeks. The inside has been painted, reorganized, decorated and filled with functional (and beautiful) furniture. The outside is unrecognizable! It is now a warm space full of pavers, plants, sitting areas, umbrellas and more. Thank you to every member of the Westlake Charter Staff and Community who contributed to this incredible learning space! We cannot wait for the incoming 9th graders to experience it!