Dear Bella Families,
I wish I had the time to call each of you about the great interactions I have had with your children. They make me laugh and I love our older scholars’ questions. I had an Upper Elementary scholar ask me about my college experiences. I had a Lower Elementary scholar come up and say, “you look so much younger today.” That gave me a laugh for the day!
I have had the opportunity to speak with a couple of families and they encouraged me to share the following information with our Bella Community. I first would like to share that I do not like discussing funding. My focus is on educating our youth to the best of our ability. That being said, I will share with you the importance of Independent Study and funding.
Around two weeks before school started this year legislation was passed regarding Independent Study. Our lawmakers tried to take Distance Learning and Independent Study and blend the two without seeking guidance from educators. What was created was a very bulky and time-intensive protocol. The two weeks before school started our staff spent a great deal of time working with our auditor to develop a procedure that met all the legislative requirements.
Some of you who have had scholars on Independent Study might be wondering why it is so different for your scholar this year and this is the reason. We are still trying to make it an easier process for families and meet all the requirements.
To add to this change, legislation was also passed that assured traditional public schools would receive the same funding, ADA, that they received pre-covid. Charter schools were written out of this legislation. Our ADA is not protected. In a normal year, our ADA runs around 98%, which means around 2% of our students who are absent we do not get funding for. At this time our ADA is closer to 80%, which demonstrates the importance of Independent Study even if a scholar is only going to be gone for a day.
I know this is not the typical information I share in our newsletter and I want to thank the parents who believed it was important information for all to hear. If your scholar is put on quarantine or you know is going to miss a day please email IS@bellamentecharter.org with your scholars’ name, teacher, date to begin IS and date to end IS. As I mentioned before, for me this is not about funding, but about your scholar keeping up with their learning. If you have any questions feel free to email me at rmcquestion@bellamentecharter.org.
On a lighter note, our staff is participating in Leader in Me training this week. I look forward to seeing it implemented in each of our classrooms.
Click here for more information on Leader in Me.
We have Picture Day next week! It will be a free dress day. Some of our middle school scholars have requested to wear their masks during pictures. Please speak with your scholar about this and if you approve. For our Independent Study parents, we will be having a make-up day on Nov 2, 2021. More information to come about the make-up day.
As always, we at Bella want to thank you for your trust, patience, and kindness as we work together to make this a great year for all!
Enjoy life and stay safe and healthy!
Dr. McQuestion
Principal
Calendar events
- Friday, October 1st – Monday, October 15th – BMA Read-a-Thon – Details to follow
- Thursday, September 23rd- Minimum Day
- Friday, September 24th- Minimum Day
- Monday, September 27th- Late Start Monday
- Thursday, September 30th – Answers w/McQuestion 5pm English and 6pm Spanish
Meeting link: https://meet.google.com/ocr-pouq-day?hs=122&authuser=0 - Tuesday, October 12th 10:30 am DELAC Meeting
- Tuesday, October 12th 6:30 pm Board Meeting
- https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2247154794959486736
- Call In: (562) 247-8321 Audio Code: 760-593-481
- Friday, October 1st – Monday, October 15th – BMA Read-a-Thon – Details coming in separate email
- Thursday October 21st – Thursday October 28th – Scholastic Book Fair online – Details coming in separate email
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