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

Health and safety: Please see our Health and Safety Guidebook and our COVID Dashboard on the Return to Schools website.  

• The COVID-19 case rate posted on the Sacramento County Public Health Dashboard, and on the Westlake Charter on campus cases dashboard have each shown a slight rise during this past week. We continue to be grateful for our families following the health and safety protocols and encourage all students and staff to stay home when they are experiencing symptoms. 

COVID-19 Vaccine Approval for children ages 5-11: On Friday October 29, 2021, the FDA approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for children ages 5-11.  The FDA Press Release can be found HERE.  While there are additional approvals required before the vaccine can be made available in California, our partners at Sacramento County Public Health (SCPH) anticipate vaccination clinics will be available soon.  As we have more information from SCPH on clinic locations, we will communicate them to our families.

Visitors on Campus/Spectators: Spectators are welcome to join us for ASLive and High School athletics games! When coming for a game:

• Enter campus through the main gate by the flagpole no earlier than 3:20.
• Follow the Everest signs to the gym.
• Wear your mask properly at all times while indoors.
• BASE and Enrichment pick up: Please wait outside the smaller gate by the administration building when picking up your Explorers from BASE or an enrichment class. Staff will bring students to the gate for dismissal after they have been checked out from BASE or when their enrichment class is over; please do not enter campus to pick up students.

Rumors and Bully Prevention: October is National Bully Prevention Month, and one of the best ways to create a safe campus is by ensuring communication between school and home. During this month we helped our students learn that their words and actions have power!

Students can: 

• Create an inclusive community
• Show Empathy
• And be an upstander!

This work is not only important for students to understand, but for our parent community as well. If your student shares information with you about experiences that make them uncomfortable at school, please share that with our teachers, our counselors, or our administration. No issue is too small. We want to hear from families to learn how we can support our students. We also need communications from our families so that we are able to share what we already know about these situations – sometimes we can help families determine the difference between an on campus issue and a rumor that is just going around based on some partial truth. Westlake is a safe school in part because of the partnership of our families – so thank you families for continuing to collaborate with our school to keep our students safe. 

K-8 Parent Teacher Conferences: Parent Teacher Conferences will be held November 15th-19th.  Canyon Creek, our online scheduler, will go live to all families on November 1st. These conferences will be  virtual.  Please use these links to schedule your parent teacher conference.

• CLICK HERE for the online scheduler
• CLICK HERE for the parent directions

Veterans Day/BASE CLOSED: School and BASE will be closed on Thursday, November 11th in observance of Veterans Day. 

BASE Camps over Break: Families, we want to hear from you: are you interested in sending your Explorer(s) to BASE over the upcoming school breaks–Thanksgiving break or winter break? If so, please CLICK HERE to let us know. Your responses will help us decide if we offer camps and what they will look like.

Walktober Winners: Congratulations to the following classes for winning a class prize: Weiner, Clemmer, Bains, Hubbard, Poole (2), Lee and Aguilar. Well done! Special thanks to Mrs. Bains, Mrs. Callau, Mrs. Clemmer, Mrs. Harold-Jones, Mrs. Hubbard, Mr. Mallove, Mrs. Sanchez and Mrs. Weiner for joining our Walking School Bus this month!
Substitute Teaching Positions – Update: If you’ve taken college-level coursework in Reading, Writing and Mathematics – even if you have yet to earn a degree – you might be eligible to substitute teach.  CLICK HERE if  you are willing to get paid as a Substitute Teacher for a day or even part of a day.  Let us know you are interested and we will work with you through the process.  Thank you!

In case you missed it…

Weekly Surveillance Testing  After School: It’s not too late to participate in the weekly surveillance testing for students. CLICK HERE to pre-register your student. Testing takes place on Wednesdays – at the high school from 1:00-1:30PM and at the K-8 from 1:30-2:00 PM. Email [email protected] with any questions. 

Sacramento Regional Transit (SacRT) Fare-Free transit program: Sacramento Regional Transit (SacRT) is offering free transportation to all students who attend a school within the city of Sacramento from October 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. The card will allow your student to ride for free on the entire SacRT network. This includes SacRT buses, light rail, and SmaRT Ride microtransit service. The program is available all day, any day of the week, and all year during regular SacRT service hours. Cards will go home with students next week. 

School Supplies Donations: Thank you, families for your support! Every student has the pencils, folders, chromebooks, pens and supplies they need thanks to your support. We are 60% of our goal for school supply donations with our Kindergarten families leading the way at 100% of their grade level goal. CLICK HERE to make your School Supplies donation today.

COVID Symptoms: If your student has any COVID-19 symptoms, please keep them home until they are symptom free for 24 hours. Symptoms include: Fever over 100.4, sore throat, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, muscle/body aches, cough, difficulty breathing, loss of taste or smell. If your student has any of those symptoms, please keep them home until they are symptom-free for 24 hours and email [email protected] to report their absence. 

Monthly WAVE Meeting: Once a month we host a parent/guardian meeting to discuss community building activities, fundraising, events, and so much more. If you are interested in learning more about WAVE or finding out how to get involved, this is a great opportunity to ask questions and learn more about our fantastic parent group. Please join us on Tuesday, November 2nd at 6:30pm by CLICKING HERE. A copy of the meeting agenda can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Community Events Survey: Explorer families, we need to hear from you! We are starting to plan some family events and we want to make sure there is something for every single family. Please CLICK HERE to fill out this brief survey to let us know what your family would enjoy. Thank you! 

Volunteer Opportunities Increasing: We are so excited to see volunteer opportunities increasing. We currently need help with Lost & Found, Community Events, Staff Appreciation, International Festival and Olympic Triathlon. Volunteer coaches have started coming onto campus for after school sports and our after school clubs will recruit leads soon. The Walking School Bus is in need of volunteers to walk students to campus from Burberry Park in the mornings as well. Please reach out to [email protected] with your availability and interests so we can find a great volunteer opportunity for you! 

Kudos: Thank you to the incredible parent volunteers who have made our Walking School Bus safe, fun and efficient. These volunteers are Ron Tapping, Melony Harris, Meaza Gebramariam, Rebecca Montes and Dawit Shibru. Their generous contribution not only helps our students start the day off positively but also benefits our community by reducing congestion and air pollution. Thank you!