Our wonderful PFLASA Study Groups tutors are available to provide support for preparation during finals week for students who feel they may benefit from it.
It’s time for one of the teachers’ favorite events! Every year before Thanksgiving, PFLASA collects pies and thank you notes to give to teachers and staff (including the afternoon bus drivers, the janitorial staff and admin). Everyone gets a pie! But to pull this off we need a lot of pies and volunteers. If you can, please donate pies or sign up to help.
We would like to recognize and congratulate the amazing artists who participated and excelled in this year’s Reflections Art Program. The theme this year was Accepting imperfection and we had a decent response from LASA and hope to grow this program even larger next fall!!! Here are the LASA artists for this year who will be receiving awards at their upcoming recognition luncheon. Thank you for being a part of this wonderful part of LASA and ACPTA programs. Our fantastic artists are:
Vinson Ratcliffgardy
Janani Easwar
Sierra Kumar
Amelia Ratcliffgardy
Grant Ratcliffgardy
Vivian Prather
Sanvi Paranjape
Gargi Pandey
Tiernan O’Keefe
Thank you for all of your hard work, and we’ll see you at the recognition luncheon!
Reflections Committee for LASA
Our first topic was the Project Graduation Auction which by now has ended. Perhaps you were among the lucky bidders? It was a great effort by the Class of 2025 and a preview of the work ahead for the other classes. We also covered our Giving Thanks Pie event and signups, which gets its own post here in the Raptor. Please read and donate, and if you can’t donate a pie, kindly write a note of appreciation. Those notes mean a lot to teachers.
Our Great Gatherings Fundraiser announced two events coming up soon. An All-Class Fiesta on December 12th and Class of 2025 Craft Beer Showcase on January 11th. Thanks to the hosts and the attendees for supporting our seniors. We also had an update from Grants, the Raising Healthy Raptors chair, and PTSA. I have plans for a post from Grants as an end-of-semester summary of all the things we’ve been able to do with your donated dollars!
After we adjourned, we had an update from Principal Crescenzi. These are always interesting, but this one talked about AP Research and their first semester project into the history of Johnston High School. For those of you who don’t know, our building opened as Johnston High School before becoming Eastside Memorial and now LASA. As part of this discussion, Ms. Crescenzi shared that for years, she’s been asked about the “Disco Ram” (the Ram was the Johnston mascot), but she had no idea what they were talking about. In an exciting development, the team found a picture of the “Disco Ram,” and perhaps someday this image can be incorporated into LASA. For those of you interested, the research is being posted (and updated) on the LASA site.
Our next and only December meeting is December 6th. As we wrap down the semester, I’m planning to have a light agenda and then open the meeting up for socializing and questions. Freshmen parents–come ask about finals! As always, everyone at LASA is a member of PFLASA and is welcome to attend.
Wishing you a restful Fall Break and Happy Thanksgiving
-Ellen Stewart-Klein, PFLASA President
We thank you and appreciate your contributions towards providing a safe and sober Project Graduation celebration for these soon-to-be graduates! We are about 2/3 of the way to our goal, and we can’t thank you enough! We do have a few items that didn’t sell, so we will extend the auction for those items through Sunday, November 24, ending at 8pm. We always welcome donations towards our efforts. You can hit THE EASY BUTTON to make a contribution.
Click HERE to bid in the extended auction.
You or your student can pick up winning items* between 7:30-8:30 am Thursday and Friday outside the doors to the school office between the office and counselor’s offices. Thanks again!
* not responsible for lost or damaged items. No alcohol is allowed on campus, so we will make special arrangements for those items.
At a recent PFLASA meeting, there was a discussion about academic dishonesty. One of the many factors brought up was the discrepancy between the relatively high percentage of students who have observed academic dishonesty and the relatively low percentage of students who go on to report the acts they observed, even though students know that cheating is “wrong.”
Here is an interesting, open-access study in the June 2024 edition of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology entitled “Don’t be a rat: An investigation of the taboo against reporting other students for cheating.” Take a deep dive or a more superficial read of the introduction and discussion sections to get further insight into some of the nuanced reasons for the lack of reporting. It might then be interesting to ask your child for their experiences, dilemmas, and personal thoughts on this issue, which hopefully will give you some ideas about how to best support them.
Hello,
Did you miss me last week or do you want less info from me? This year is an experiment where I’m trying to be more informative and transparent. I also realize my posts are long. If you have strong feelings either way, feel free to drop me an email at president@pflasa.org. I can change directions in the new year if warranted.
Our next meeting is this Friday, Oct 15, at 8:15 am in the PFLASA Portable. Join us, we have coffee and tea! You can leave at anytime, and we rarely draft anyone into service. This leads to my next point- volunteering! One of the ways that PFLASA operates so efficiently is the work of our wonderful volunteers. And we really do have opportunities for everyone. Evenings, weekends, fully remote, appreciation, recruiting, etc. If you are interested, write me at the email above, and we can find something for you.
Or if you really want to save us money block out one day between May 5–9 or May 12-16 so that you can volunteer during AP Testing. Why am I talking about May in November? April and May are our busiest times of year, and nothing requires more volunteers than administering the insane number of AP tests this school offers. To further complicate things, we can’t have parent volunteers on a day your child is testing which really limits the number of Junior parents who can volunteer. But using parent volunteers over paid proctors is a huge cost savings.
What have PFLASA’s magnificent volunteers been up to lately? If you are under a rock, the Project Graduation auction is in full swing and goes through the weekend until 8 pm Monday 11/18. Please shop and support our seniors and our community. Next, LASA’s recruiting season has begun and PFLASA was present at the first and second LASA info nights. And the Great Gatherings have begun with more parents signing up to host, check out the store on pflasa.org to find events to socialize.
Finally sign ups should be going out soon for donations and volunteers for the Thanksgiving Pie Event. PFLASA asks for donations of pies (any kind that doesn’t need refrigeration), store-bought or homemade, any size. And then on one of the last days before Thanksgiving break, we ask for volunteers to stock our pie giveaway room and staff come by to pick out their pie. This event is a huge hit with the whole school staff.
Regards,
Ellen Stewart-Klein, PFLASA President
PFLASA’s Raising Healthy Raptors Committee would like to pass on this open invitation from a group of LASA parents:
“PFLASA parents have formed a discussion group to discover ways to better support kids who are experiencing social anxiety and other forms of emotional distress related to the challenges of attending LASA. We’d like to invite to anyone who might feel their child is currently or beginning to confront these issues to join us – especially as we approach the upcoming Thanksgiving break and the dreaded “Wall.” We are scheduling our next Zoom follow-up and would love to see you there!”
If you are a parent/ adult caregiver and would like to be connected to this group, please send an email to the Raising Healthy Raptors Committee at wellness@pflasa.org.
I’ve been trying to explain some of our LASA traditions to those who are new. But today I want to briefly discuss something not unique to LASA but incredibly important.
Statistics show that graduation night is the most dangerous night of a high school senior’s life. Drugs, alcohol, and impaired drivers are a recipe for disaster. In the late 70’s, a community in Maine after losing multiple new graduates decided to fight this problem. They created what is now called “Project Graduation,” a nationwide effort to provide an alternative and safe haven to protect our kids and our larger communities.
LASA’s Project Graduation is a drug- and alcohol-free lock-in party held at the East Communities YMCA on the eve of graduation. The Senior Class safely commemorate their achievements with activities, food, and entertainment until the sun comes up.
Now as you can imagine such a party isn’t cheap. Senior Parents fundraise to support Project Graduation through the auction. The Auction starts this Sunday, November 3rd and will be promoted through all our channels. Bidding is not limited to the LASA community except for certain LASA experiences. Please look for the auction link in Sunday’s Principal’s Message and consider bidding on any item of interest. If you happen to see something that you think a friend, family member, or acquaintance you just met at Starbucks would like then please LET THEM KNOW!
Pay it forward underclasses your time is coming. But also consider this a donation to keeping our seniors and our entire community safe. If you know a family whose life was tragically changed by a drunk driver, then you know what I’m talking about.
Gratefully, Ellen Stewart-Klein, PFLASA President
Parents of Class of ’28,
Please join us on Friday, November 8th, 2024 from 6pm-9pm for an evening of cocktails, mocktails, and a twist of creativity as we make new friends and learn the art of balloon modeling!
Light appetizers will be served to keep you fueled for all the fun!
Location: W, Central (btw Mopac, I-35, 183 and 71), North of the River (address provided in a pdf with your receipt).