Volume 4 Issue 5 | November 2020

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE NOVEMBER 2020 HSC MEETING Minutes from past meetings and dates of upcoming meetings can be found here. The next HSC meeting is Monday, December 14th at 7:00 p.m. The next HSC Presidents Coffee is Wednesday, December 2nd at 10:00 a.m. Email us any time with questions or suggestions: president@leighhsc.org.

Highlights from Principal Kara Butler/Assistant Principal Crystal Adams Construction Updates New utilities are being installed and connected in the upgraded Main Office The new front walkway is in progress Parking lot charging stations are fully functional ADA compliant parking spots are under construction Learning Labs Santa Clara County currently allows small groups of students to attend on-site Learning Labs. Students who have struggled with attendance and grades have been invited to join these labs, which adhere to all County health guidelines. The Learning Lab teachers have reported positive feedback and outcomes for the 20-22 students currently attending the labs regularly. The Learning Labs will continue even as we move back into the purple tier of COVID precautions. Getting Ready for Finals Leigh administration and staff are aware that distance learning has posed some unique challenges for our students, and are taking that into account as we move towards Finals. Please make sure your student is taking advantage of tutorials and class time to prepare for the end of the semester.

Highlights from Teacher Representative Celeste Smiley Not many students are attending tutorials. Please come to tutorials! Tutorials continue to be underutilized. Instead, students are emailing questions to their teachers that are not easily answered through an email. Please ask your student to reserve email for quick requests/questions and attend a tutorial session for anything more detailed (e.g. help/clarification of an assignment, issue with grade, missing assignments, absences, etc). There are approximately 165 of them, and 1 of us, so we would really appreciate an increase in tutorial usage. Link to full tutorial schedule is here. Read Ms. Smiley's full report for more great information on classes, clubs and CHSTA. Two Leigh students Dinhe Calamateos-Abarca and Michaela Sampas were selected to have their artwork displayed in large format (8' x 12') in downtown San Jose for the next two years. A virtual ceremony is being organized with the students presenting videos of them discussing their work.

Highlights from Student Leadership In November we celebrated Dia de Los Muertes and Diwali (Festival of Lights). We also continued our efforts in our campus-wide anti-bullying campaign. We are finalizing preparations for LGBTQ+ Awareness Celebration Week right after the Thanksgiving Break. We have established a new LHS Podcast Commission and are excited to share new productions with the student and parent communities as they become available. Finally, the ASB is preparing for finals and strategizing how to support our student body with resources for study habits and stress management.

Highlights from CUHSD School Board President Kalen Gallagher The district is working with the County on a daily and weekly basis to make plans that will best serve our community. There are 11 districts in our County, and we are all working together, and staying abreast of decisions and actions of other districts around the U.S. The most recent survey that was sent to all students about preferences for the Spring has been completed, and the district is continuing to gather feedback from members of the staff and administration. There will be a special School Board meeting on December 1 at 6:00 p.m. where the Board will review Dr. Bravo's recommendation for a phased return to school for Spring Semester (Jan-June). Full report here. The meeting will be live streamed here. If you have comments or questions, you can reach out to Kalen directly at kgallagher@cuhsd.org

STAYING UP TO DATE ON DISTANCE LEARNING & REOPENING PLANS Read Dr. Bravo's recommendation to the Board for a phased return to school for Spring Semester (Jan-June). Read his full report on the phased return. Attend the next CUHSD Board Meeting on December 1 at 6:00pm. Dr. Bravo's recommendation will be discussed at this meeting. To make a public comment or to learn more about the meeting, go here. View recordings of past District Board meetings and livestreams of future board meetings here. Read email updates from our District Superintendent, Dr Bravo. Copies of his emails are available here. View results from past surveys here. View the latest information on the District Website. Follow CUHSD on social media @mycuhsd on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  

SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS & TUTORS NEEDED If you are licensed to act as a substitute teacher, please consider applying for a position with the district at the following URL: https://www.applitrack.com/cuhsd/onlineapp/default.aspx?AppliTrackJobID=197&ref= Tutors are needed for our Support Hubs/Learning Labs. Apply here: https://www.applitrack.com/cuhsd/onlineapp/default.aspx?Category=Tutors

WE LOVE OUR TEACHERS & STAFF!  The HSC Staff Appreciation team and parent volunteers provided November/Thanksgiving treats for Leigh teachers and staff, including pumpkin-scented candles, individual pies, thankfulness banners, and more!

SEND AN EMAIL OF THANKS TO OUR TEACHERS AND STAFF

Our teachers and staff are going above and beyond to support and care for our students during this incredibly stressful time. We all know how lovely it is to receive a note of appreciation in our inbox. During this season of thanks, we encourage you to send an email to your child's teachers and to staff members you want to thank. Please also encourage your students to send a note of thanks - it means a lot to a teacher to hear from a student. You can send an email from your Canvas account. You can also email directly from your personal email account. Staff emails are typically the <first letter of first name><last name>@cuhsd.org. For example, Ms. Celeste Smiley's email is csmiley@cuhsd.org. Teachers and Staff names are listed on the school website and you can also send emails directly to teachers and staff from this page.

THANK YOU TO VOLUNTEERS FOR CLUB SUPPORT To date, 15 parents have volunteered as speakers for our student clubs, including medical and mental health professionals, physical trainers, history experts, and police officers (at this time, all speaker presentations will be held via Zoom). If you are interested in becoming a speaker, sign up using this Google Form. Please consider sharing your expertise and insights with our students!  Read our FAQ for more details. For additional questions, contact Anne Haro, HSC Parent Coordinator for this program: clubsupport@leighhsc.org

THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS

Thank you to everyone who has already donated to our Annual Giving Drive! We are just over 91% of the way towards our $30K goal! Your donations are making an impact and ensure that we can support important programs for our students. It takes a Village… this is YOUR Village! Thank you for making a difference at Leigh! 

Questions, please contact our Treasurer, Amy Hogg, at treasurer@leighhsc.org

Thank you for making a difference! Your support matters and is greatly appreciated!

ANONYMOUS DONORS MAKE A BIG IMPACT AT LEIGH Our Leigh community would like to say a very sincere thank you to two Leigh families who have made incredibly generous donations to the Home and School Club. We are excited to share that we have been gifted the following large donations: $24,000 via a stock donation $17,350 via a donation & corporate match The HSC, Mrs. Butler and the donors are working together to ensure the funds are used in the most impactful way. Stay tuned as we build out plans for these donations.

HOME & SCHOOL CLUB FINANCIAL UPDATE Since our last newsletter update, the following programs/activities were funded using our Annual Giving donations: Staff Grants ‐ $303 in registration fees for two Science Olympiad Teams Staff Grants ‐ $581 for Robotics Supplies 

CORPORATE DONORS NEEDED TO SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM Mental wellness is the foundation of social emotional learning and is critical for our students to be able to thrive in today’s challenging environments. To give our Leigh students the much-needed tools needed to learn about mental wellness, the Home and School Club has purchased the HAERT Program for the 2020-21 school year. This program consists of short videos (5-15mins) and accompanying handouts focused on helping students develop skills and strategies to manage stress. To date, the program has been rolled out to Freshman and sophomores during PE. What do we need from parents? If your company offers grants/donations to nonprofits, we’re asking for your support to secure corporate funding to help offset the program cost. If you need assistance, the HAERT Program team has volunteered to help with your request process. Any amount is appreciated - up to the allowable amount offered by your company. Please reach out to HSC parent, Debbie Byorum, at haertfundraising@leighhsc.org. She can provide additional information and will connect you with the HAERT team.

ARE YOU SHOPPING FOR THE HOLIDAYS? EARN FREE MONEY FOR LEIGH... Shopping on Amazon?  Please use Amazon Smile and a % of your purchase comes back to Leigh. Shop at smile.amazon.com/ch/77-0199809 or with AmazonSmile ON in the app. Thank you for supporting Leigh Home and School Club and continuing to generate donations! To date we have received $429 through this program. Thank you to everyone who has used the Amazon link when purchasing! Shopping at Sports Basement? On your next visit to Sports Basement, register as a Basementeer and select Leigh High School as your beneficiary. Basementeer's receive 10% off every item every day, and 10% of your purchase is donated back to Leigh Shopping at Office Depot? When you check out, let the cashier know that you want to support Leigh High School. Leigh will receive 5% of your purchase amount. 

MEASURE L (PARCEL TAX) UPDATE Thank you to our Leigh community for your support of the Measure L campaign. We are so grateful for all you did over the past few weeks to help us spread the message and encourage people to vote yes. Unfortunately, the measure did not get enough votes. We reached 61.8% support and needed 66.7% to pass. A breakdown of the results by precinct can be found here if you are interested in the details. This means, sadly, that our CUHSD budget will likely be affected next year. It also means we need to campaign again in 2022 - this time for a new parcel tax as the current one will have expired. Again, thank you all for sharing the message with your your neighbors, friends and family, and urging people to vote yes. Let's work together to ensure the parcel tax passes in 2022!

SOME HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR OUR STUDENTS AT LEIGH Please encourage your students to use these fantastic resources provided by our Leigh staff: TUTORIALS continue to be underutilized. Teachers are being inundated with emails, but very few students are showing up to tutorials! These opportunities are the best way to get questions answered quickly and personally. The link to the full tutorial schedule is here. COUNSELOR Canvas Courses have been set up for Seniors and Juniors, and will soon be set up for Sophomores and Freshmen. Encourage your student to check out the recording of their grade-specific Counselor Presentation, as well as additional resources for their grade level throughout the year.  ACADEMIC TUTORING: Students can be paired up with a tutor for many subject areas. This is a great way to get 1:1 tutoring. It is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 2:10 - 2:40 pm https://cuhsd.zoom.us/j/94702204986 Meeting ID: 947 0220 4986 Passcode: 361793

CANVAS SUPPORT FOR PARENTS CANVAS is our powerful new Learning Management System that supports online learning and teaching. There are many bells and whistles built into the system, and they can be hard to discover. To that end, we have put together some resources on our website to help you get through the learning curve and embrace all the goodness that CANVAS can offer.

SOME HELPFUL WAYS TO STAY CONNECTED WITH LEIGH The Stay Connected page on our website is a very useful resource for parents. It includes information on how to access the following: Principal's Weekly Bulletin Student Daily Bulletin Social Media for Leigh, CUHSD and HSC Websites for Leigh, CUHSD and HSC Leigh Technology Platforms (Canvas, Aries, Navience, Remind) College & Career Center

Leigh High School Home and School Club is an all volunteer 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Tax ID # is 77-0199809. All donations are tax-deductible.