Bulletin April 7, 2017 Volume 36, #28
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| Calendar Update Reminder: Due to the snow day on March 31, school will be in session on April 17, Patriots Day.
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ACADEMY FOUNDERS
The Academy marked Founders Day on March 29, with gratitude for the vision, energy, and dedication of those six educators whose legacy we celebrate. Annually in May (May 2 this year), students, faculty and staff engage in a full day of service in area towns to honor this important component of their vision of our school as being of and for our broader community.
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR SPRING EXHIBITION, April 18 Join us on April 18th at 6:15 PM for our Spring Exhibition. Seventh grade students will exhibit their Climate Connections work, and 10th and 11th grade students will exhibit for their respective Modern World and American Studies courses. A fundraising dinner will precede the Spring Exhibition, beginning at 5:15. More details to follow regarding the menu and the sponsoring group.
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| Red Cross - Blood Drive, April 21The Red Cross returns to campus for the spring Blood Drive at The Academy! The Blood Drive will be held on Friday, April 21, from 1:00 to 6:00 PM. Students have begun bringing home donor forms, with the goal of every student finding at least one person to donate blood. Appointments can be made by filling out the donor form, or by calling the Main Office during regular business hours, or by visiting the Red Cross Blood Drive appointment page and entering our zip code. Baked goods for donors are also a high priority, so there are ways for everyone to lend a hand. We appreciate in advance your support of this important service event! Not only does collecting blood save lives, but with enough donations, also provides college scholarships for our seniors.
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GIRLS' NIGHT IN, April 22-23 (5 PM to 10 AM)
The Academy's senior women are bringing back the tradition of hosting a Girls’ Night In after a years-long hiatus! First established by alum Gracie Hall (2012), Girls’ Night In is an opportunity for all of the women at The Academy to get to know each other better, boost each other's self-esteem, and have tons of fun. Activities will include movies, a potluck dinner, games, and bonding exercises. Seniors and faculty will provide breakfast in the morning, and each student is responsible for bringing her own pajamas, toiletries, and sleeping bag/pillows. The event will be chaperoned by female Academy faculty and staff members, and all female Academy students are welcome. Attendees are requested to spend the night, but in recognition of the fact that conflicts are a part of life, individual students should talk with Mrs. BZ and/or Ms. Rizzi to make arrangements to participate without sleeping over.
Potluck dinner assignments are as follows:
- 7th and 8th grades: desserts
- 9th and 10th grades: snacks (chips, veggies & dip, fruit salad, cheese & crackers)
- 11th and 12th grades: main dishes
Students who plan to attend should RSVP to one of the senior girls. Please be in contact with Mrs. BZ or Zell Goleman with any questions.
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| Current Parent Participation in the Annual Fund is 24%
As we enter into the 4th quarter of our school and fiscal year, we'd like to thank the 24% of our current families who have supported The Academy financially with a gift to the Annual Fund. Thank you so very much. With others, you’re helping us to reach our Annual Fund goal of $200,000.
For the other 76% of our families who haven't yet given, please take the time to participate this year. These funds support the core of educating your student every day – scholarships, faculty salaries, supplies, and other operating costs.
Give online, send a check with your student, or deliver your gift in person at drop off or pick up, or even mail it to us! However you choose to send it, please do so before June 30th. For questions, please contact Carol Foote, Director of Development or call 413-339-4912 x117.
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| Network of Complementary Schools Report
Zev Lane ('20) shared some images and stories about his time at The Bush School (Seattle, WA) during spring break - an adventure made possible by The Academy's membership in The Network of Complementary Schools (those who visit this link may notice that The Network's website looks surprisingly familiar, as they have asked for member schools to send along photographs for their website redesign, and we appear to be one of the few who have yet to do so!).
Zev told us about staying with his host family, which included a host sister named Shira who also attends Bush, and reflected on the differences and similarities between Bush and The Academy. He also shared stories and photos from some outings that they took around Seattle, to places such as the Space Needle and the Museum of Pop Culture. In short, the community got a glimpse into the wonderful opportunity that The Network provides for our students to broaden their horizons by getting to experience a different school culture in a different corner of the country.
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| Paris Travelers Share Their Voyage
Vicariously live The Academy's 11-day Spring Break discovery trip to Paris by viewing their presentation. Thanks to Madame Valdez for organizing and chaperoning this adventure.
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| SPRING BREAK 2018 TRIP TO CHILE
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CLASS TRIPS, MAY 3-5
Each May all grades take multi-day field trips aligned with curriculum to further enhance student learning. Information about each trip is available by clicking the links below.
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SPORTS RECAP, Week of April 3On Wednesday, the Ultimate Frisbee season kicked off with the JV team's 15-3 loss against the Four Rivers Girls' Varsity Team. Sam Fisher, Will Draxler, and Patrick Osborne scored on passes from Solly Chase and Sam (2). The great team effort was led by Lila Goleman, Saraphina Forman, Tucker Boyd, Claire Grunberg and Ava Westburg.
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| Interested in carpooling to spring sports events or coordinating much-appreciated snacks for our athletes?
Here are the team email lists for each sport -- feel free to use them to be in touch with your fellow parents to best support our student athletes! jvultparents@charlemont.org msultparents@charlemont.org vultparents@charlemont.org laxparents@charlemont.org (includes Mohawk parents)
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| Hosting Opportunity for 2017-18
We will be welcoming a new sophomore boy from France in the coming year: Julen, 15. He is excited to follow in the footsteps of his brother Jon who spent last year at The Academy and loved it! Julen is interested in living with an Academy family. He loves fencing, swimming and playing the guitar. He has heard a lot of great things from his brother about The Academy and can’t wait to practice soccer, basketball and Utimate. If you would like to learn more about Julen, please read his engaging brief bio.
Julen will arrive in our area in mid-August and be with us until mid-June. There will be a monthly family stipend to help defray costs for room and board.
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| Grandparents and Family Friends Day
Friday April 28, 2017
Invitations were mailed last week inviting grandparents and family friends to explore the academic day with their Academy student and enjoy lunch, afternoon tea, and some special events, all on our beautiful campus. If you are unsure whether a certain individual might have received the invitation and you'd like for them to attend, please contact Steph Powers to check, add, or to RSVP. The RSVP date is April 17.
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| Call for High Tea Fare: Headmaster’s Tea for Grandparents and Family Friends Day
Rebekah Boyd (P'18, 19) is again organizing the details for the Headmaster's Tea on April 28, a signature afternoon event for grandparents and other guests. She requests donations of "high tea" fare — small bite cookies, petit fours, cream puffs, lady fingers, shortbread, chocolate covered strawberries, pound cake, candied almonds, etc. Items can be delivered that morning.
If you are able to offer such an item, please call (413-625-6260) or email Rebekah. Thank you!
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| Grove Season
Time to purchase a yearbook ad for your graduating senior - or your business!
It's that time - ad sales for our yearbook, The Grove, are underway. All students have been assigned an ad to sell.The sale of an ad generates a free yearbook for the selling student; students who do not sell an ad will be charged for the cost of their yearbook (approximately $15). Selling an ad, however helps to build community relationships with local businesses as well as to cover printing costs - students' participation in this goes beyond the benefit of a free yearbook.
Parents of the graduating class often purchase ad space to congratulate their seniors -- these ads count towards the free yearbook for the corresponding student. Parents who are business owners are also welcome to work with their student to purchase an ad. If you are interested in creating an ad for your senior or business, please review this link for details on sizes and specs, complete this ad contract and send it along with the ad to grove@charlemont.org, or send in a hard copy. Hard copies of ads or ad contracts, questions, and concerns can be directed to Nora Bates Zale.
The deadline for ad sales is April 28.
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CLASSROOM CLOSE-UPS
Students play a variation of the card game Spoons in Ms. Gouldreault's Algebra 1 class to practice polynomial vocabulary! In the original game you grab a spoon once you have all four cards of the same number. Our special decks of cards had polynomial expressions and vocabulary on them instead of numbers, and students had to create a set of four cards based on some mathematical characteristic to win.
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| Christy Knox's ceramics students' work ready to be fired
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| Students work on projects with Weaving instructor Fafnir Adamites
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| Social Justice Council Seeks Help from the Community
Liberation Library is a Chicago-based organization that distributes books to incarcerated youth. Through reading and relationships, the organization aims to “empower young people to change the criminal justice system.” Click here for their story.
Incarcerated youth at four detention centers have requested a variety of books that both reflect their own experiences and offer glimpses into the world beyond. You can find their Amazon wish list linked here.
The Social Justice Council’s goal is to purchase and donate 25 books from this list to the Liberation Library. Those interested in supporting this endeavor should make checks payable to The Academy at Charlemont with “Liberation Library” in the memo line. If you are interested in directing your contribution toward a specific book, please enclose a note with the title with your check .
Like the Liberation Library, the Social Justice Council believes that access to books and information is a right, not a privilege, and we thank you for your continued support for this and future efforts.
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BACKPACK SUPPLIES DRIVE RESUMES!
The Community Service Council continues to be grateful for the support to date for this project. Our current list of needs is as follows – please consider using this weekend to fulfill it: - 19 mini staplers (that take standard size staples)
- 20 staple removers
- 15 scissors (Fiskars makes a good pair of "student scissors" for ages 12 and up)
- 9 rulers
We are also still looking for 75 single subject notebooks and will be collecting them until we have reached the goal of 160 total. Thanks again!
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| | COMMUNITY INTEREST AND SAVE THE DATE INFO
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| CONGRESSIONAL ART COMPETITION - CALL FOR ENTRIES
“An Artistic Discovery” is the annual nationwide Congressional High School Art Competition, sponsored by the Congressional Arts Caucus and coordinated by Members of the United States House of Representatives in their districts. The winning entry from each participating district will be exhibited for a year in a remarkable display in a hallway of the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. You can view winning art from previous years here. “An Artistic Discovery” provides Members of Congress and the public the opportunity to encourage and recognize the rich artistic talents of young Americans at a time when local cultural organizations and arts-in-education programs are being curtailed.
Registration forms will be available soon, for entries no larger than 26” x 26”. Artwork must be ready for pickup by Monday, April 10, 2017. Please contact Andrae Green for more information or if you are interested in submitting an entry. As The Academy is in Congressman Neal’s district, all students may submit.
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HIKE FOR WHAT'S RIGHT, April
Please join 8th grader Saraphina F and others for the 3nd Annual "Hike for What's Right", a fund raising event to help bring safe drinking water to people around the globe. The hike starts at 10 AM on April 23 in the Mineral Hills Conservation Area. Click here for more details.
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| SPRING HIKE AND PICNIC FOR FAMILIES, MAY 13:
April Showers Bring May Flowers!
Academy families and friends, are invited to come together for an outing at the DAR State Forest in Goshen, MA Meet at 1-4PM at 78 Cape Street (on Route 112 near Route 9) to hike up to the fire tower with its gorgeous view, picnic on the campers' beach, and kayak on the lake. We'll finish up at 4PM. This event is hosted by 7th grade families, Marla BB and Ruby R, Cynthia P and Celeste D. For more information and to let us know to expect you, please call (413-296-0187) or email Marla.
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Update on Walking the Talk for Racial Justice Youth Conference, May 20We are pleased to announce that the keynote speaker for our Walking the Talk for Racial Justice Youth Conference will be Anika Nailah - writer, writing coach, cultural liberationist, and spoken word artist. She is the founder and former director of Books Of Hope, a Boston-based, youth literacy program. The conference aims to further educate area middle and high schoolers (and their associated adults) on a variety of contemporary topics impacting racial inequality. Co-sponsored by Greenfield Community College, the full day event will be held in the Dining Commons on their main campus on May 20. Any community members interesting in supporting this effort - including ideas for speakers and workshop leaders, contributions, etc. - should contact Nora Bates Zale. Watch the Bulletin for more details.
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| Save the Date - Final APC Meeting of the Year, and Work Bee, May 27
The last APC meeting of the year will be Saturday, May 27, 2017 in the morning. After the meeting, please plan to participate in our annual Spring Work Bee. This is always a great day, complete with coffee, treats and companionship while we paint, saw, weed and clean! Stay tuned for more details.
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