We jumped into this school year feet first, and it's been quite a ride so far. We weren't totally sure what to expect with bringing all of our students back. It's been wonderful to see so many of our students throw themselves into their school work and school activities, though!

In fairness, we expect that some students might struggle with all the 'abnormal normal' - for some students it looks like anxiety, for some it is depression, for some it is an outward lashing out, for some it is internalized stress. For 18 or so months, the message has been stay away/stay apart/work independently! So it's been hard for some students who were encouraged to be on their own more to be put back into very full classrooms and expected to pick up school work like in the pre-COVID days. In short, students are dealing with the return to 'normal' in all sorts of ways.

If your student is struggling with internalizing their feelings, or is externalizing their feelings in ways you aren't sure how to manage or support, let us know. Reach out to your student's teachers, counselor or assistant principal - they are here to help. We've increased our capacity to support students this year with on campus counseling provided by Wellness Together, and this might be a good option for your student. Be in touch with us so we can continue to find ways to support your Zebra! You can connect with your student's counselor here.

My goal is to send this newsletter out monthly in order to keep families in the loop. I hope it is helpful. Please feel free to reach out to our team - we are here to help!

Best,

Jen Hladun

LHS Principal

Two recent emails to be sure to look at with your senior:

• Senior Meetings with Counselor-Important; sent on 9/17 at 2:45 pm

• Message from your Counselors - Senior Timeline; sent on 9/14 at 1:20 pm

Also, parents and students can keep an eye on the College & Career Schoology Page for information about college & career visits (in person and virtual); access it via: Schoology > Groups > College & Career

• Wed., 10/13 at 6 pm via Google Meet
• Wed., 12/18 at 6 pm - format TBD
• Wed., 2/23 at 6 pm - format TBD
• Wed., 4/27 at 6 pm - format TBD

One option you have is to set your notification settings in ParentSquare to receive emails in a "digest" at the end of each day. You will still receive all emergency notifications in the moment (those are serious emergency notifications and come out only in case of a true emergency). Most communications regarding school events, COVID, etc... would come out once a day. The school district has a ParentSquare FAQ section here. Below is some specific details about changing your notifications to "digest."

I am getting too many messages from ParentSquare, is it possible to receive less notifications?

You can customize your notification settings by going to your homepage and clicking on your name in the top right corner and selecting "My Account" from the drop down menu. On your account page, you can find your notification settings in the top right corner and click "Change This" to customize your notifications. If you are receiving too many notifications, try changing to our Digest setting where you will only receive one condensed message in the evening. Here is a help article on changing your notification settings.

We'll celebrate homecoming the week of October 4th:

Wednesday, October 6th (evening):

• Powderpuff Games

• Rally

• Girls Golf, Girls Tennis and Girls Volleyball are all playing at home!

• Non-school day
• Float prep during the day
• Football game at home v. Oakmont at 5 pm/7pm
• Special Homecoming half-time presentations!

• Dance in the stadium! The theme is Broadway!
• One thing to know now - no stiletto shoes allowed to avoid turf damage and broken ankles!!!
• More details about tickets will be coming soon.

• students are expected to wear a mask indoors - the mask must rest on the bridge of their nose and cover their nose and mouth. If your student does not wear their mask properly, they will be reminded, but if they are a close contact, they may not have the opportunity to be on modified quarantine and instead may be told to quarantine at home for 10 days. Thank you for your support to keep our community safe and healthy

• if your student is not feeling well, please just keep them home and call us for advice on sending them to school - we are here to help you navigate the system.

Symptoms consistent with COVID-19 include:

• Fever or chills
• Cough
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Fatigue
• Muscle or body aches
• Headache
• New loss of taste or smell
• Sore throat
• Congestion or runny nose
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhea

More information about our protocols for COVID can be found here - take a look at pages 16-19.

We can be reached from 7:30am-4pm at 916 645 6360 if you aren't sure if you should send your student to school and still have questions after reviewing the district's materials (linked above).

This trend has led a significant amount of damage - particularly to the boys restrooms at LHS. We have had dozens of soap dispensers broken or destroyed, soap sprayed on the floors and in the toilets, toilet seats broken, toilets covered in ketchup and hot sauce, smoke detectors and other wiring pulled from the ceiling, vape detectors pulled from the ceiling, items pulled off the walls (hand driers, paper towel dispensers, soap dispensers, etc...) leaving wiring and screws exposed and damaging tile/drywall, mirrors pulled from their frames and moved around the restroom and significant graffiti. This trend seemed to start in our restrooms, but we are honestly anxious that this trend may lead to damage to other spaces too - items being taken from classrooms, damage to fire extinguishers, etc... based on the trending videos on Tik Tok. We've already seen some potentially related activities in classrooms - entire boxes of masks going missing, calculators destroyed, shared classroom materials taken, etc...

This behavior is insanely frustrating and demoralizing and honestly, it's really annoying for the students who are trying to come to school, do their work, and just need to pee, but can't find an open or clean restroom.

Due to staffing challenges and our inability to manage all the restrooms at once, as well as the safety hazards this behavior has created (we've had staff get injured trying to clean up messes left in restrooms), we've closed down all of our boys bathrooms except for two - the library and the restroom in the 30s/40s portables by the quad. Even still, restrooms continue to be vandalized. To be transparent, we have had no damage to any of our girls restrooms that is beyond what we typically see.

We are offering financial rewards for information that leads us to identifying who is behind this behavior. There are school, financial and potentially law enforcement consequences for this behavior. It is destructive, dangerous and not the Zebra Way. If your student has any information about who is behind these activities in the restroom and/or in classrooms, we encourage them to share what they know via this anonymous tip line. We will investigate any legitimate notices we receive.

Thank you for your support to keep LHS a safe place to learn and have fun!