Good afternoon!! Next week starts the 2023-2024 school year, and the Lake Zurich, High School staff, is thrilled to get started. There has been a lot of work going preparing for students! I hope you have a wonderful weekend and if you need anything, please reach out. Have a great day!

New Topics

-Upcoming Important Dates

-Fall Needs Assessment

-Attendance Information

-Schedules for First Day

-Vaping Sensors

-Therapy Dog

-Safety Week

-Spiritwear Volunteer Opportunities

-Spiritwear Sales

Previous Topics

-Synergy Information

-Freshman Orientation

-SAT Suite of Assessment Information (August 30th Assessment Date)

August 14th-Freshman Orientation (See message below)

August 14th-Freshman Parent Night 7 PM in PAC (See message below)

August 15th-First Day of Student Attendance

August 18th-Back to School Assembly & Senior Class Panoramic Picture

August 25th-Bear BBQ (During Lunch Periods-Students and Staff Only)

August 28th-SAT Presentation Night 7:00 PM in PAC

August 30th-Asynchronous Learning for Seniors (Seniors do not come into school on this day)

August 30th-Horizon PSAT/SAT Assessment Date for 9th, 10th, and 11th Grade Students

August 30th-Curriculum Night 6:30 PM at Lake Zurich High School

As we have done in years past, we will be collecting information from students on August 18, 2023 regarding social-emotional and other related needs. This information will be used to plan for any additional supports for students, as well as for parent collaboration on student needs.

This process should only take a few minutes, will be administered during a class period, and will be minimally disruptive to your student’s school day. Students and families may view the items from the needs assessment HERE. If you do not wish for your student to participate in the needs assessment, please contact Ms. Cara Obrochta (Assistant Principal for Student Services, cara.obrochta@lz95.org).

As we prepare to start the school year, it is important that students and families establish regular routines to maximize student attendance to school. Students are expected to be at school daily, and with enough time to navigate to their first period class on time.

Please note that for students who struggle to maintain regular attendance, parents/families will receive additional communication, conference requests, and other interventions to support regular school attendance - in accordance with state law. At the high school level, this may involve one or more of the following:

-having students attend Office Hours to make up work missed due to tardy behaviors or unexcused absences,

-assignment to after school interventions (i.e., staying for a period of time after Office Hours), and

-not being able to make up formative work missed for credit due to attendance concerns.

Parents/guardians and students can find more information regarding attendance in the Parent-Student Handbook.

Minor changes are still being made to the schedules, mostly classroom locations. Please check your schedule after 4 PM on Monday for the most updated schedule. To access the schedule, log in to ParentVue and click on the CLASS SCHEDULE tab (located on the left side of your screen).

During the 22-23 school year, vaping sensors were trialed at Lake Zurich High School in select bathrooms - and were found to be effective in assisting administrators to identify substance use behaviors taking place at school. At the conclusion of last school year, vaping sensors were installed in all bathrooms and locker room areas at LZHS - which will be activated as we prepare to welcome students back in August.

These sensors will help our administrative team identify areas where vaping activities are taking place, allow for a swift response to areas affected, and will allow for intervention with student(s) found to be engaging in substance use behaviors. Parents/guardians will be notified, in the event that their student is identified as engaging in substance use behaviors (i.e., possession, use during the school day), consistent with the Parent-Student Handbook and Board Policy.

Families may access additional information about what to expect if a sensor is activated HERE. Please be sure to discuss this information with your student(s), as we all work together to create a safe, healthy learning community at Lake Zurich High School.

This year, as many of you know, students and staff will have access to the therapy dog (Nova) again. The dog will be in school multiple days of the week and will primarily be located in the Student Services Office. This support will allow students who wish an opportunity to practice self-awareness and self-management skills during the school day.

We will ensure that the District’s Guidelines for Using Animals in School Facilities are followed, school grounds are appropriately cleaned following the therapy dog visits, and that the dog’s handler understands all procedures for meeting the dog’s needs during visits. No student or staff member will be made responsible for meeting any of the dog’s needs (i.e., access to water, bathrooming needs) at any point during the visits.

It is our hope that this is one more opportunity to meet the SEL needs of our students, to provide students a positive experience at school, and to help students be successful. As always, please let me know if you have questions.

We are excited to kick off the 23-24 school year with Safety Week, beginning August 14th. This week will include messaging about creating safe, healthy school communities. During this week, students will engage in learning around the following topics:

• The Standard Response Protocol (SRP), our emergency response protocol used to address safety concerns

• Safe2Help, our new anonymous reporting tool for safety concerns

• Collective responsibility for school safety (i.e., it takes all of us working together to maximize feelings of safety in the school community)

• Key information about more significant behaviors (i.e., drugs on campus, physical altercations) and related consequences/supports that will be put in place for students

• NOTE: Families can expect to receive a copy of materials related to student behaviors following the presentation for their reference and information

Families who want to learn more about the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) and the “I Love U Guys” Foundation may access information via the foundation’s website HERE. Please note that students will NOT be engaging in any drills associated with the SRP during Safety Week, and families will receive separate notifications in advance of scheduled lockdown drills for the school year.

Effective the 23-24 school year, District 95 has partnered with Safe2Help Illinois, a statewide school safety program. This will replace the current District 95 See Something, Say Something tool. Safe2Help Illinois features a 24/7 helpline (1-844-4-SAFEIL), free mobile app, and dedicated website. A QR code will be available on the back of students' ID cards in grades 6-12 for easy access to the reporting tool. Families who want to learn more about Safe2Help can visit the website at www.Safe2Helpil.com.

Thank you in advance for your partnership as we approach the start of the school year; it takes all of us working together to create safe school communities!

As you know, we have changed over to a new student information system (Synergy) for the current school year. As a reminder, parents/guardians can access the ParentVUE portal through the district website (under Parents → ParentVUE). Similarly, students can access their portal under Students (StudentVUE; this app will also be pushed out on all student iPads).

Parents and students can access resources about the new system (i.e., navigation tools, different features of Synergy) through the Tech Support page of the district website, under Synergy Resources. Anyone in need of technical support may contact support@lz95.net.

Please note that Home Access has a tentative end date of August 31st, 2023. Parents and students should only access information via ParentVUE and StudentVUE systems thereafter for information.

Freshman orientation is going to be on August 14th. There will also be a Freshman parent night the same evening. We have lots of information to share with students and parents and are excited to welcome you to the Lake Zurich High School community. Please click here for more details about Freshman orientation.

For the 2023-2024 school year, we are moving towards a new assessment plan concerning the SAT Suite of Assessments. Please click here for information about the new assessment plan and the assessments' specific dates.