Jennifer Ketring

K-12 December E-Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWS & UPDATES

  • Hometown Holidays
  • Oddfellows Toy Drive
  • K8 & High School Family Forums
  • Redwood Coast Education Foundation Grants
  • Family Handbook
  • Mark Your Calendar

Hometown Holidays

Our High School students will be participating in this year’s Hometown Holidays on Main Street in Point Arena on Saturday, December 11. They will be in front of the theater from 1:00 – 5:00 with candles, baked goods and fresh greenery. We are asking high school families to contribute to the bake sale by dropping off baked goods at the school this Friday, December 10 or at our Hometown Holidays table in town on Saturday, December 11 at 1:00.

Funds from the day will help support a student-led school beautification project and the Catalina Environmental Leadership Program. It should be a festive day, be sure to stop by!

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Jennifer Ketring

K-8 November E-Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWS & UPDATES

Teacher Feature: Ms. Tresla

Welcome to our 4-5’s and 6-8’s ELA and Social Studies classroom! It was wonderful to have our students back into our school building this Fall. The initial awkwardness of reuniting after a long separation soon fell away and back to the business of reading, writing and learning.

Our 4-5’s have written a number of poignant and often humorous reflections on our writing prompts such as “Who is someone (no restrictions; alive or dead, real or not) you would like to meet?” All of us have been working on our keyboarding skills with a typing learning program and are typing up some of our own writings for print. Our class reading is a historical fiction book set in the Sonoma Valley in the year leading up to the Bear Flag Revolt. This puts us in close proximity to the history of CA that we are learning in class. All the students have selected the biography book they will be reading for the written report due shortly before our winter break. Also, they will be doing a presentation of their biographical choice. I am looking forward to seeing those.

Our 6-8’s class began this year reading the book Flush. Written by Carl Hiaasen and set in the Florida Keys it mixes engaging characters, adventure and misadventure and a focus on pollution, both legal and illegal, damaging the life in our ecosystems. We followed that up with a researched essay assignment addressing an environmental issue. In our Social Studies class we have been learning the back stories of the peoples from the North American, European and African continents at their point of confluence on the North American continent 400 years ago. Now we have pinpointed “the story” to the 13 British Colonies and the aftereffects of the French and Indian War. Wrapping up these last weeks before Winter Break students will be preparing a researched inquiry paper, (either a scientific or historical inquiry) along with a visual presentation of their findings and/or conclusions. Once again I am looking forward to reading those.

The 4th-8th graders recently spent their outdoor learning day together at the Gualala Regional Point Park. They discussed the art of Andy Goldsworthy & created their own nature-based pieces.

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Jennifer Ketring

K-12 November E-Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWS & UPDATES

  • High School Kayak Field Study: November 14
  • K8 Playground
  • COVID Vaccines: MCOE Town Hall & RCMS Survey
  • School Van Fundraiser
  • Family Volunteer Hours
  • Mark Your Calendar

High School Kayak Field Study: Sign Up!

Arena Cove
Sunday, November 14
10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Middle school students went kayaking with North Pacific Adventure in September. This month our high school students are invited to participate in a guided kayaking trip at the Arena Cove. Interested students should contact Nathan or Jen to sign up (waivers are available at the school and will be sent home with students).

ACORN Partners in Education is hosting these kayaking trips as part of their environmental stewardship program, Students Protecting the Coast.

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Jennifer Ketring

High School October E-Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWS & UPDATES

Indigenous Peoples’ Day was a success. We had great student participation with some of our K-8 students as well as PAHS and Arena classes joining us for the day. We would like to thank all of our guests and participants in this engaging, interactive day that reminds us that Indigenous culture is still here and relevant today. We would like to do this event annually and build on this by offering more workshops with hands-on projects and more interactive events, including a cultural potluck with food.

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Jennifer Ketring

K-8 October E-Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWS & UPDATES

A Note from our K8 Director

Hello Everyone,

It has been great to get a chance to talk with so many of you during our Parent/Teacher Conference week. If you were unable to make your scheduled time, please be sure to reach out to your child’s teacher to schedule a new meeting time. Parent/Teacher Conferences are a great time to hear about your child’s progress and to set goals for the rest of the year. We will have Student-Led Conferences in the spring where students will share samples of their work and tell you about their class.

On Friday, October 29th our school will have our annual Harvest Party at 1:00 p.m. We will have fun activities and snacks for everyone to enjoy. Students are welcome to wear costumes to school, and we will have a photo booth set up to capture some of the fun. Please leave any toy weapons at home. Please let us know if you are able to provide healthy treats/snacks for our harvest party, or if you would like to lead an activity!

Happy fall everyone. Stay safe and healthy. I will be looking forward to the rain.

-Mr. Todd

Some of our recent outdoor learning days included a middle school kayaking trip at the Arena Cove and the 2nd-3rd graders returned to Windy Hollow Farm. A new van will help us continue to offer and grow these outdoor programs!

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Jennifer Ketring

K-12 October E-Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWS & UPDATES

  • Indigenous Peoples’ Day
  • College & Careers Forum
  • K8 Picture Day
  • COVID Testing & Pre-Registration
  • School Van Fundraiser
  • Mark Your Calendar

Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Last year our Governance Council adopted a resolution to formally recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day each year on the 2nd Monday in October. On Monday, October 11 our High School is hosting activities to honor and recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The schedule is still being finalized but will include Pomo hand games, drumming, basket weaving and more. We will share the final schedule with all families and students via email – keep an eye out!

Our K-8 students will have the day off school but ALL families are invited to participate in the High School activities on October 11. We will be hosting a special all-school meeting at the K-8 site on Wednesday, October 6 to highlight Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Ms. Bernardo, our High School English teacher, put together the following list of Young Adult Books & Poetry Collections by Indigenous Authors (she purchased individual copies for checking out at the High School):

  • Apple in the Middle, Dawn Quigley
  • The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline
  • Hearts Unbroken, Cynthia Leitich Smith
  • Rain is Not My Indian Name, Cynthia Leitich Smith
  • When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, Edited by Joy Harjo
  • #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women, Edited by Lisa Charleyboy & Mary Beth Leatherdale
  • Give me Some Truth, Eric Gansworth

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Jennifer Ketring

High School September E-Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWS & UPDATES

  • Catalina Environmental Leadership Program
  • Coastal Cleanup
  • College & Careers Forum
  • Mark Your Calendar

A Note from our High School Director


Just a note to say…Thank you to all of our students, families and teachers! We appreciate all that you do and are very grateful for everyone’s active participation in returning to in-person classes after 18 months of distance learning. Congratulations on making it the distance and staying the course over the past month to successfully re-open the school and provide a safe learning environment for everyone.

We also would like to say a big thank you to Arena Elementary for donating a new kiln to the Pacific Community Charter High School! We look forward to collaborating on future ceramic projects.

Each month I will be doing a “Teacher Feature” in our school newsletter. This month I am excited to welcome Ms. Susan Bernardo as our new English teacher. She is settling in nicely with our team of teachers and student body and our students are off to a good start in her English classes. They are writing everyday in journals, and have been working on a unit in Celtic mythology learning about the role of the bard and storytelling. Next up they will be learning about illuminated manuscripts, and then they will move on to Beowulf. She’s gradually ramping up the level of difficulty in the AP class with more in-depth writing projects, and will be launching into the official AP curriculum this month. Small class sizes in creative writing class allow her to personalize the curriculum — they’re doing some group writing prompts and lessons on inspiration in general and working on individual creative writing projects of their own choosing with her guidance and feedback. Last week, Mark Gross, the facilitator for the KGUA Writers’ Group, came in and led a session on their community writing prompts project, and encouraged students to submit their work to the radio. Some of our students will be featured on the radio throughout the series!

Stay safe & stay tuned next month for more teacher features and classroom updates.

Thanks,
Michele Taylor-Jones, Director

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Jennifer Ketring

K-8 September E-Newlsetter

Happy Autumn everyone!

The school year has gotten off to a strong start, and everyone is beginning to settle into our new routines as we all relearn how to be in-person in school everyday. Thank you to everyone for your patience and support as we have gotten this new year off the ground. It is going to be an amazing year.

Please remember that if your child is sick it is very important that they stay home, and if they are exhibiting Covid symptoms they should get tested right away. Our full Covid-19 policy is on our website. Please don’t hesitate to call the school if you have any questions.

We are excited to announce that we have launched our Afterschool Reading Club from 2:15-3:15 for our 1st-4rd grade students and our STEAM Club from 3:30-5:00 for our 3rd-8th grade students. Please let your child’s teacher know if you would like them to participate in either of these programs.

Each class has begun to roll out our outdoor learning days. Your child’s teacher will let you know when and where their class will be going each week. Please let us know if you are available to help with transportation.

I look forward to seeing all of you at our Back-to-School Family Forum next Wednesday, September 22nd from 6pm-7pm. This will be a great time to ask questions, see what your child has been accomplishing, and to sign up for volunteer opportunities. In order to keep everyone safer, we are going to skip our traditional potluck meal and have the beginning of the meeting outdoors. Afterwards, families will have a chance to visit their child’s classroom and have conversations with their teacher.

Lastly, I wanted to remind everyone that there is no school on October 11th in order to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Please use this day to recognize the Indigenous People who have stewarded this land continuously for thousands of years.

Thank you for everything you do. Please let me know if you have questions and concerns. Take care everyone. PEACE!

-Todd Orenick, K8 Director

The Kindergarten-1st grade class has started their outdoor days at Windy Hollow Farm where they are establishing a routine of story time, nature journaling, hiking, and climbing.

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