White Oaks Weekly - January 22, 2023

January 22, 2023 IN THIS ISSUE Principal’s Message: Kindness Challenge Plus SCEF, District and Community News  IMPORTANT DATES Today 1/22: 21-Day Equity Challenge Begins, Bike Safety Fair Now through 1/28: San Carlos Week of the Family Events Now through 1/28: Family Backyard Fruit Donation Challenge Wed 2/1: Prospective Families Tour, 8:45 a.m. Fri 2/10: Bingo and Pizza night, 6 p.m.   PTA EVENTS SCSD 2022-23 Calendar   Principal’s Message Dear White Oaks families, White Oaks is excited to celebrate The Great Kindness Challenge next week on Jan. 23-27. The Great Kindness Challenge encourages students to do as many acts of kindness as possible throughout Kindness Week.  Students from pre-K through high school around the world observe Kindness Week in an effort to demonstrate the importance of treating others, and ourselves, with kindness. Our school communities will work to prove that kindness is a strength that is more powerful than bullying, meanness and intolerance.  By working together, we have the power to change the world for GOOD! All SCSD elementary schools will celebrate this week together and spread kindness throughout our community.   We have specific themes, spirit days, and challenges each day throughout the week. Please encourage your children to help make Kindness Week memorable and a worthy learning experience by dressing for the spirit days and challenge them to do each daily challenge.  Ask them what they did each day of Kindness Week and how it made them feel.   Parents, you can help reinforce kindness while at home by using the checklist on the The Great Kindness Challenge 2023 website, which also include many kindness activities. The Elementary Counselor website is another good resource.  Here are the activities planned for Kindness Week: Warmly, Leah Scholer Principal Kim Arasato School Counselor   PTA News Bingo and Pizza Family Event Save the Date for the White Oaks Bingo and Pizza night! It will be held on Friday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m. More details to come. Join us for the 21 Day Social and Racial Equity Challenge! Starting Sunday Jan. 22, join the White Oaks community members uniting to learn, grown and build community together. The 21-Day Equity Challenge is a powerful opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of how inequity and racism affect our lives and our community.  Click here to join us! Scroll to the bottom to see the Daily Calendar where you can find a daily link to an article or video to read or watch and reflect on. (Please disregard the October 2022 start date; we will be starting our 21 days on Jan. 22, 2023! A Chat Session will be scheduled after our challenge to discuss, with the date to be determined.) Welcome Prospective Families! Welcome to White Oaks School and thank you for your interest in attending our school in the 2023-2024 school year! This year's tour will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 1 from 8:45 a.m.-9:00 a.m. Please RSVP here. Volunteers Needed to Chair our Multi Cultural Arts Day We are looking for 2-3 volunteers to chair our Multi Cultural Arts Day this spring (date still to be determined). This event will take place during school hours, ideally on a Wednesday. We are looking to revamp the event this year so would like to get the ball rolling with a brainstorming session in the next few weeks. Please reach out to Sara Ting or Amy Kim if you are interested in getting involved!   SCEF News Here Comes Our Event Season! While we are always raising funds to meet our goal this year of $3.7 million (the suggested per student donation is $1,850, which includes funding for your PTA). We are swiftly moving into our robust event season. Please plan to attend, participate or volunteer–we are ALL SCEF! February 6-13 Summer Camps and Teacher Outings Auction Grab some great deals on local summer camps and fun outings with your child’s teacher. Mar. 10–21 Online Silent Auction Entertainment, getaways, dining, wine & spirits, sports, Taylor Swift tickets and more! Sunday, Mar. 12 Virtual Live Auction: Salute to Educators SCEF’s annual virtual gala featuring a live auction with Chad Carvey, Fund-A-Need, and a tribute to San Carlos educators. Saturday, May 6 Revel at Devil's Canyon Gather with friends to support our schools, and dance to the tunes of Mustache Harbor. Check out our website to donate and for more information.  Call for Auction Items Do you have access to a vacation home, sports tickets, fine wines, local restaurants or theater tickets? We depend on donations from local businesses and families to curate a fun and interesting auction for our community. Contact Christopher Kashap if you would like to help make our auction a success. Thank you!   District News Family Backyard Fruit Donation Challenge, Jan. 13-28 Let’s get ready to rumble! In partnership with San Carlos Week of the Family 2023, Each Green Corner is hosting a battle of the backyard fruit donations! It’s San Carlos North v. South to see which region can donate the most backyard produce (think citrus trees!). Region boundaries align with the Carlmont High/Tierra Linda Middle and Sequoia High/Central Middle school boundaries. EGC will donate a new fruit tree to each SCSD public schools in the winning region. All of the San Carlos community is encouraged to donate, whether you have a student at the schools or not. Donors can opt to harvest their fruit themselves and drop it off on Saturday, January 21 (9 a.m.-12 p.m.) at the Tierra Linda Middle School parking lot (750 Dartmouth Ave) or Saturday, January 28 (9 a.m.-12 p.m.) at the Central Middle School parking lot (757 Cedar Street) – OR – sign up to have volunteers harvest for you on those dates according to pre-arranged instructions regarding access, trees to harvest, and quantity. Donated produce will directly benefit Second Harvest of Silicon Valley and Samaritan House of San Mateo. Sign up to donate produce Sign up to help harvest on Saturday, Jan. 21 or Saturday, Jan. 28 May the most bountiful region win! ROPES Volunteers Needed We're searching for parents, staff, and members of the community to become panelists for ROPES presentations Mar. 7, 8 and/or 9. Sign up to become a member of our panelist group today! Select one or more days/times to volunteer: Tuesday, Mar. 7, 4:00-6:30 p.m. (in person) Wednesday, Mar. 8 2:30-5:30 p.m. (Zoom presentations and in person) Thursday, Mar. 9 6:00-8:30 p.m. (in person) The training session for all (new and seasoned) panelists will be Wednesday, Mar. 1 from 7:00-7:45 p.m. on Zoom. The training will be recorded and available on our website. Email for more information. What is ROPES? The Rite Of Passage ExperienceS program is an optional enrichment activity for students in SCSD. 4th, 6th, and 8th graders choose a self-directed project that incorporates the 21st-century learning skills of initiative, inquiry, creativity, communication, cooperation, and leadership. The students present their projects to a panel of community members to receive their rope, to be worn at 8th grade graduation.  It's Time To Register NEW Students for the 2023-24 School Year! If you have a student who will be NEW to the district next year, be sure to register them for school during our Priority Registration window, open now through Feb. 10.  Registration is ONLY for students who are not currently attending our schools; students who are in TK-8th grade now do not need to re-register. However, if your child is in one of our SCSD preschool classes, they do need to register as a new student. Mark your calendars for these key dates: Through Feb. 10: New Student Priority Registration. Wednesday, Feb. 1: Intradistrict Transfer Google Form opens for families who want to request a transfer to another school within SCSD, noon. Wednesday, Feb. 1: In-person tours for incoming TK/Kindergarten families. White Oaks 8:45-9:45 a.m.; Arundel, Brittan Acres, and Heather 4-4:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10: New student priority registration deadline, 4 p.m. Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page or email us at [email protected] if you have questions. Follow @scsdschools Follow the San Carlos School District on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for up-to-date info on events and issues.   Community News Winter Cooking Classes Join us as we provide junior chefs with the tools necessary to create, cook, and learn. Have your junior chef expand on their cooking knowledge as our curriculum covers nutrition, seasonal cooking, knife skills, the purpose of core ingredients and the many cultural aspects of food all while having a blast and making new friends. Every season has new recipes so sign up for multiple sessions whether you are a seasoned junior chef or it's your first time! Classes starting in January 2023 at Mariposa, Arundel, Brittan Acres, Heather & White Oaks. Visit our website for more information or to register today. San Carlos Week of the Family San Carlos Week of the Family is under way! Please take a look at all of the events the city has planned and consider participating. It’s a great way to spend time together as a family. Whether you choose to attend any activities, we hope you’ll set aside a little extra time to spend as a family throughout the week. Bike Safety Fair Is Today, Jan. 22 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Central Middle School blacktop: Come to this fun, Lego-themed bike safety event geared toward teaching K-8 youth safe riding skills, rules of the road, and basic bike maintenance, as well as pre-ride safety checks. Includes a riding practice course with learning stations, riding with our bike sheriffs, earning prizes through learning, and doughnuts. A professional bike mechanic will be onsite for minor repairs. Please register here. 1-4 p.m., San Carlos Library: Bring bikes in need of repair to the BikeMobile’s hands-on Bike Repair Clinic, where bikes are fixed while participants are taught how to repair, care for, and maintain them. All ages welcome; first-come, first-served. Legarza After School Enrichment Classes: All-Sports & STEAM All Sports Legarza is excited to announce sign-ups for our fun and fast-paced weekly sports class where our highly trained and experienced staff will introduce your child to a variety of sports and provide the opportunity to experience and explore!  Participants are separated by age and experience where each week our instructors will teach a new popular sport such as basketball, soccer, football, baseball/softball, ultimate frisbee, capture the flag, and kickball (among many other fun options). Arundel, Brittan Acres, Heather, & White Oaks: Jan. 11- Mar. 8 on Wednesdays from 12:45-1:45 p.m. Registration is now open-- read more and register here. STEAM After School Spring into S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) as we build, experiment, create and explore together. With different projects and activities coming home every week your child will enjoy a full session of fun. This is a hands-on class where we build toys, do experiments with catapults, and make artistic illusions to illustrate S.T.E.A.M. concepts like electrical circuits, magnetism, energy and the power of air. New projects every session from Fall to Winter to Spring! Arundel, Brittan Acres, Heather & White Oaks: Jan. 13 - Mar. 10 on Fridays from 2:45-3:45 p.m. Registration is now open, read more and register here. Parent Education Opportunities Ross W. Greene, PhD, renowned child psychologist and NYT bestselling author, explains how to cultivate better parent-child relationships in Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child or Teen (Jan. 31, online). On Feb. 9, we host Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell (pictured), the first female African American judge in Northern California, for a conversation on her debut book, Her Honor: My Life on the Bench ... (Feb. 9, online). Don’t miss it! NEW! What should parents know about the emerging cannabis industry? Lynn Silver, MD, MPH, Senior Advisor at the Public Health Institute (PHI), presents Health Impacts and Legalities of Cannabis Use in Youth (February 15, Online).   Visit the Parent Venture Series of Upcoming Events page for more information.    PTA CORNER Join the White Oaks PTA. Your membership matters and helps support programs and events for our students and teachers. REWARDS PROGRAMS Participate in our rewards programs and a percentage of your purchases will automatically be donated to the White Oaks PTA — at no cost to you! FOLLOW @WHITE OAKS Follow us on Facebook for up-to-date info on events and issues.