January 25-29

Our 2nd cycle and 1st semester courses end on Friday, January 22nd.  The following week begins with a Superintendent’s Conference Day for staff on Monday, January 25th, so there is NO SCHOOL for any students. The remainder of this week is officially the State’s Regents Testing week. As explained in an earlier issue of The Vox, LACS is one of a select number of New York schools that has been granted an important testing waiver from the New York’s Department of Education - essentially allowing us to offer alternative assessments to all but one of the high school Regents exams.  LACS students are still required to take the ELA (English/Language-Arts) Regents exam. It is important to note that our middle school students are not exempt from any of the New York State standardized tests; however, this year all the testing for grades 6-8 will be administered later in the year, beginning with the English exams towards the end of April.

Although LACS is not administering many of the standardized tests the last week in January, the week in between semesters allows us the time to conduct our own teacher-generated assessments and exhibitions of final projects that fulfill portfolio requirements. The end of the week is reserved for the important family conferences we hold to go over evaluations with students and their families to review progress and learning goals, as well as create schedules for the 2nd semester.  Family Group Leaders will be contacting families directly to arrange conference times. Evaluations will be available online for review by Wednesday, January 27th and hard copies will be available at the family conference or can be mailed to homes by request.

On a practical front, what this will mean for our students at both the middle and high school levels will be that they do not have a regular schedule during this final week in January. For year-long classes it is more than likely students will have some work assigned to do at home. It is also likely that most students will be required to come into school for one or more scheduled assessments or presentations - as well as their scheduling and evaluation review conference with their parent-caregivers and Family Group Leader. While this is not a regular week of school, we ask that families do not schedule vacations during this week as it is important that students are available for these scheduled commitments. A special bus schedule will be running on Tuesday and Wednesday to get students to and from school (see bus time schedule below). The school’s cafe will be open and offering a limited menu for breakfast and lunch on these two days. Please feel free to contact the school at 274-2183 should you have any questions or concerns.

LACS State January Assessment-Exhibition Week Schedule
(Please note additional assessments or exhibitions may be added and information will be shared with students and families directly from teachers should this be the case for one of their courses).

Various Dates, Times & Locations
 Phys. Sci.-Math Presentations at ICSD elementary schools

Saturday, January 23rd
Senior Team Studies Interdisciplinary Project Presentations — All Day

Monday, January 25th
Superintendents Conference Day — NO SCHOOL
                                                
Tuesday, January 26th
Colonial America Living History Museum Exhibition — 9:05a-11:30a
Calculus I Final Exam — 9:30a-12:00p
High School English Arts Regents Exam (Grade 11) — 1:15p-4:15p

Wednesday, January 27th
Beg. Algebra-Geom.. Mid-Term Exam — 9:05a-12:00p
Interm. Algebra-Geom.. Mid-Term Exam — 9:05a-12:00p
Inquiry & Tools Exhibition — 9:30a-10:30a
Molecular Biology — 9:05a-10:30a/10:40a-12:00p
High School English Language Arts Regents Exam  (Grade 11) — 1:15p-4:15p
Practice ELA English Language Arts Regents Exam (Grade 10) — 1:15p-4:15p

Thursday & Friday January 28th & 29th
Evaluation & Scheduling Family Conference — Various Times by Appointment
Stop-Motion Animation Exhibition — All Day

Bus Schedule:

- A normal morning pick-up (for morning tests, etc.)
- A pick-up at 11:00-11:30 (for afternoon tests, etc.)
- A bus to take students home at 12:15am (after morning tests)
- A bus to take students home at 3:30pm
- A bus to take students home at 4:30pm (after afternoon tests)

Happy New Year!  - Joe