This week, Claremont Unified School District will mark Mental Health Matters Week. We'll talk about our mental health as how we think, feel and act, how we relate to others, and how we manage change, stress, and life situations. Our morning announcements and daily activities will build mental health awareness and promote strategies to support social and emotional learning.

Students may want to join in on the following:

Monday: For "Message Monday" students will be encouraged to share positive messages through art, quotes and self-affirmations.

Tuesday: On "Team Up Tuesday" students are encouraged to wear a shirt for their favorite sport as a reminder to team up with others to help, encourage, and support mental health for everyone.

Wednesday: During "Wellness Wednesday" students will talk about activities for wellness activities (such as deep breathing, stopping and stretching, listening to music, creating a piece of art, or walking outside).
Thursday: "Tye-dye Thursday" is all about wearing a variety of colors to show the range of emotions that we can experience and express in healthy ways.
Friday: We encourage everyone to wear GREEN to raise awareness of mental health.

Many wellness resources are available on this portion of the CUSD website. CUSD Wellness and Claremont High School Students will share their "Directing Change" Premier on Friday, May 21, 2021 from 7-8pm. The premier will showcase video submissions from CHS students and include a discussion with students and advisors who worked on these films. This premier highlights suicide prevention and parents should use caution showing this to children under 7th grade.

If you or someone you know is in need of support, CUSD has contracted with Care Solace, a referral service to identify mental health community resources. Care Solace will help connect students, parents and caregivers to mental health resources and provide you support until connection to a provider is complete. Those in need of support may contact Care Solace 24/7 at: Telephone: 888-515-0595, email weserve@caresolace.org, or access our district’s unique page: caresolace.com/claremontparents

To learn more about the signs and symptoms of mental health problems and resources for help, contact your student’s school, pediatrician, or go to https://www.eachmindmatters.org/

Thank you for adjusting to our new schedules. If you have questions about the daily schedule, please check in with your child's teacher. If you have questions about the routines for coming to and from school, contact us in the school office.

If your child is not able to attend school in-person, contact Norma via email nperez@cusd.claremont.edu. Please communicate with your child's teacher, as well. They can suggest how your child can complete assignments for the day.

MONDAY, MAY 17 All elementary students in the blended program move from a 2 to 4 day schedule (see above)

Thursday, May 27 Open House: This event cannot be held in person this year. Instead, we will share an "Open House" video with families on this date.

Monday, May 31 Memorial Day, No School

Friday, June 4 Student T-shirt designs are due (see below)

It’s hard to believe, but our year is coming to an end. Very soon, staff will be organizing students into next year's classroom groups. Decisions about class placement are based upon countless and often confidential variables. We know quite a bit about our students, and this knowledge guides us in setting up our classroom communities.

Families are welcome to add their insights to this process in what we call an Input Letter, a written statement with the family's observations about their child’s school-based relationships and response to various learning environments. We ask that your comments speak to your child. Do not request a classroom or teacher, as our placements are too complex to be able to honor narrow requests in that way. Focus on your child as a learner. This year's letters must be received no later than June 1 in order to ensure your comments are available for consideration.

This letter is not at all required! I can assure you that our staff is fully committed to creating classroom communities that will be supportive for all. Please complete the Family Input Letter and email it to me at astanger@cusd.claremont.edu.

We would like to get a head start on our Sycamore Gear design for the 2021/2022 school year. This year’s design will be student-created. We are hoping to have the designs submitted and voted on by students before the end of this school year so that the gear will be ready to purchase in the fall.

All students are invited to share their design idea. Submissions should represent our school and be wearable by any K-6 student. Because of the process and costs involved, designs must use ONLY 1 or 2 colors. Students may submit just one design, drawn on an 8.5X11 page, then scanned and emailed as a picture to thensley@cusd.claremont.edu no later than June 4, 2021. Please include the student’s name and the name of their teacher in the email but not on the drawing itself. The final design will be chosen by a student vote the week of June 7th. We look forward to seeing your designs!!