Sunday Howl 2.7.21 with Newsletter Volume 11
Newsletter Volume 11 here
Middle School (grades 6 and 7) Flavor and elective choices for Quarter 4 Middle school flavor and elective choices for quarter 4 is now available. An email was sent out to all middle school students on February 2. Please have your child follow the instructions to pick their flavors and electives. Deadline for choosing is on February 15th at 8:00 AM. If a student doesn’t pick flavors or electives they will automatically be placed in what is available. If there are any questions please contact Ms Boatman. Steps: 1) Make sure that you are logged in under your Explore Academy account 2) Open up the course catalog 3) Open up flavor form 4) Pick you flavors!!!! Spring Break: March 22 - 26th Please make a note of a change in the week of spring break. In order to coordinate with APS and Rio Rancho Spring break has been moved up by one week. The school calendar on the website now reflects this. Lunch Ordering: Beginning the week of January 1, the lunch link will open on Sundays and close on Wednesdays of each week, with pickup on Friday. Click here for the School lunch link: https://forms.gle/Kmxttpk15Dye5edGA The National School Lunch Program is being extended into the fall for all public schools. This means that school lunches are free at this time. Check the Howl each week for the link that provides the weekly lunch menu. These menus are posted a week in advance.
Place your order by Wednesday of each week for the following week using this link: https://forms.gle/Kmxttpk15Dye5edGA
Pick up weekly lunch order on Friday’s at the Explore Academy Masthead location.
If you live too far from Explore we are told that APS and RRPS are also offering seamless meals as long as your child is between 1 and 18 years of age. Parents/guardians can contact the school closest to them. Click here for the School lunch link: https://forms.gle/Kmxttpk15Dye5edGA Term 5 Grades: Term 5 grades will be posted in PowerSchool on Monday February 8th about 8am. They can be seen in the Grade History screen of the PowerSchool website (not the app). Any questions about grades should be directed to the teacher. Term 6 Schedules: Schedules for next term can be found in the PowerSchool website. Click “My Schedule”, then the Matrix tab. For the most part, 6th and 7th grade schedules are unchanged for Term 6. Grades 8 and above will need to review their schedule and use the room codes for Google Classroom as has been done in previous terms. Room codes will be posted on Monday at 1pm. Explore Academy Elementary For those interested in our proposed elementary grade level expansion, here is a video which outlines the model adjusted to the elementary grades. A letter of interest is open for students to "pre-apply" for our proposed K-5 program starting in the fall of 2021. We are seeking state approval in February and we need your support! Pre-applications will be converted to enrollment applications if the program is approved. Check out our website to learn more: www.explore.academy Letter of interest: https://forms.gle/fx1HSSWiJQmG3qSP9 Explore Academy K - 5 Program Overview video Student Application for Fall 2021 Below is the link for our application for next fall. Siblings of current students get priority over the lottery for the general public. Families will need to submit prior to the April lottery. https://forms.gle/fzmyycmwZ5CpaSW99 Student Intent to Return For current Explore Academy students who have not yet filled out the student intent to return, please do so on this link.
State Testing The state has applied to the federal government requesting a waiver of the 95% participation in state testing that is required by ESEA. They anticipate it will be approved, and thus have decided not to require state testing for all students. Any testing done at Explore would have to be in person at the school, likely for multiple days. It would also require our technology staff to have access to every device for any student who would test, leaving the student without a device for one or more days, in order to configure it with the right testing programs. For these reasons, we have decided that it would be unsafe to have in person digital testing this spring.
That said, we do value offering students to the chance to take state- and national-level standardized assessments, both to allow for high stakes test practice for college as well as to gather student achievement data to assist Explore Academy as we make adjustments to learning plans related to the pandemic. For these reasons, we will continue with the third round of the iMSSA English and math exams for grades 6-8 since they are done from home and do not require special programs to be configured on student devices. If there are any other tests that we are able to offer on site that are paper-based, we will email the students and parents from the eligible grade level(s) directly.