September 18, 2021
We kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month on Wednesday, and we are looking forward to celebrating and highlighting the diversity of Hispanic cultures. We will be encouraging scholars to make connections between our mission statement's goals of creating globally minded individuals who seek to create a more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
Our goal of cultivating intercultural understanding and respect could not be more timely given that we are seeing an increase in peer conflict across grade levels. Some of these conflicts are arising in Google Chats, social media and text messaging. Others are occurring in the cafeteria and playground. We are asking parents to help mitigate these conflicts by monitoring devices at home and teaching/reminding scholars how to express frustration or hurt in an expected way for school. On the school's end, we are planning whole group presentations related to bullying, technology use, peer conflict and social emotional skills. We are also going to be working in small groups to provide Restorative Justice Circles and community building.
Like other schools across the country, we have been impacted by the devious licks challenge circulating on TikTok. As you can imagine, this has been a disruption to our school community and has taken time, energy and resources away from teaching and learning. We are asking for parents to talk to their scholars about this trend. We are thankful to several of our scholars who provided information about individuals who were responsible.
We have received complaints from neighbors that their driveways are being blocked during dismissal. While we cannot control the length of the car line, we can be aware of whether our car is blocking someone from exiting their home. We are asking for your assistance with this problem.
Have you completed your application for free and reduced lunch/textbook assistance? This must be completed every year. Here is the link https://family.titank12.com. We are one of the few states that charge families textbook fees, and this is an opportunity reduce those fees for qualifying families.
College Go Week kicks off this week and SBCSC is inviting families to Brown Community Learning Center on Thursday, September 23 from 5:30-7:00 pm. There will be free food, giveaways and entertainment. You will be able to meet college reps and 7th and 8th grade families will be able to sign up for 21st Century Scholars. I have included a flyer later in the newsletter.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Blessings,
Dr. Garcia
