DECEMBER NEWSLETTER

(Please scroll below or visit FOAEA Website for additional info)

• December 3 - School Site Council/DLAC meeting
• December 10 - Board of Trustees Meeting
• December 15 - Wintermarkt
• December 23 - January 10 - No School, Winter Break

Join us Sunday, December 15 for our annual Wintermarkt, a German Holiday Fair, at the Albert Einstein Middle School campus!

Like a traditional German Wintermarkt, the event will be held at dusk with twinkling lights, fabulous vendors (mostly our students) selling jewelry, crafts and goodies, delicious food, and a Biergarten serving beer and traditional German Holiday wine. The evening will also include live music and festive entertainment.

When: Sunday, December 15 from 4-7pm
Where: AEA Middle School Campus, 458 26th St, San Diego, CA 92102

Entry is free! It’s a great way to celebrate the holiday season and support the students that are excited to be vendors. The MS band will also be performing.

We hope you can join us to celebrate the magic of the holiday season.

In honor of Giving Tuesday, there are many ways to help support our students and our community. You can choose which FoAEA project you would like to fund.

Sometimes people have a soft spot for certain programs and projects. It might be to help sponsor school supplies, show teacher appreciation, support our school's community events, or fund special equipment for the classrooms.

If you would like to select a particular project to fund or send a general donation our way, we are grateful for your willingness to give!

Interested in learning about ways you can help support the teachers, students and our community? We have a number of fun activities planned for this school year and it can only be done with the help of our amazing volunteers.

We also have a couple open board positions and other supporting roles that are open that include:

• Vice president (board position)
• Cultural lead (board position)
• Events support
• Treasurer assistant
• Food sale lead
• Fundraising committee

To learn more about FoAEA volunteer opportunities, please reach out to president@foaea.org. There are a variety of ways to help and we look forward to hearing from you!

Let's "Fall into Reading" and get the students reading over the Thanksgiving and Holiday break! Elementary students are encouraged to record how much they read during the two school breaks. We will have a school wide goal of 300,000 minutes to reach. Let's get the kids reading or listening to audiobooks to participate in this challenge!

When the school wide goal is reached after winter break, every student gets a free book at the Spring Book Fair! Reading logs will be sent home before both Thanksgiving and Winter break. Please have your child turn in the reading log after each break.

We are also collecting donations to stock the library with audio books. Every dollar raised will go directly to buying new audio books for the library.

Need some gift ideas for the holidays? Go to artsonia.com and order your student's amazing artwork on fun items! Twenty percent of your purchase goes back to our school and helps funds the supplies for the art classes. New to Artsonia? Ask your student's teacher for the unique art ID so you can see your student's artwork.

Check out the great gift ideas that your loved ones would really enjoy!

The AEA Board of Trustees meets generally once a month, on the second Tuesday. The open (public) session takes place at 458 26th St. San Diego, CA 92104.

If you would like to participate in the “PUBLIC COMMENT” section of the board meeting, please submit a Public Comment Request Form.

You will have the option to speak live when it is your turn to speak or you may enter your comments in the request form and it will be read to the board members. Speakers are requested to:

• limit their remarks to not more than 3 minutes;
• appoint a spokesperson if the concern is a group concern;
• supplement verbal presentation with written reports, if necessary or desired;
• focus their comments on issues and not individuals.

The next upcoming Board of Trustees meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 10 at the Middle School and starts at 6pm in person or via ZOOM.

We all have to shop for food! And if you shop at Ralphs, Food4Less or Kroger, please sign up for the community contributions and help raise money for our students! It's super easy and every little bit will help make a difference!

Here's the process:

1. Log in to your Ralphs/Food4Less/Kroger account

2. Click on "My Account"

3. Click on "Community Contributions"

4. Search for "Friends of Albert Einstein Academies"

5. Click the blue button to enroll.

Shop & help your parent teacher organization! Please share this with grandparents or other family members that shop at these stores. They don't have to live in San Diego.

*Friends of Albert Einstein Academies (FoAEA) is an all-volunteer non-profit organization committed to cultivating a positive community for the enrichment of all students who attend our AEA Charter Schools. We are parents and legal guardians of current students, along with teachers and staff, who work together to promote student enrichment, support teachers and staff, and strengthen our larger AEA community.

For those newer to AEA, the elementary school PE coaches, and several parent volunteers help manage the running club every morning. It's a free morning enrichment program that promotes exercise and a healthy lifestyle for our students. Donations to Friends of AEA fund Running Club cards and the Student Laptracker service.

Running club is available for all K-5 students in the morning before classes start. TK runs from 8:35-8:45 when the playground is clear. Every student is given their own running club card with a personalized QR code to start the year. After each lap run, parent volunteers scan the cards to track individual, class, and school mileage. Student cards should stay clipped on their backpacks throughout the year and should only be removed for Running Club. Previous year's cards can be kept as backup cards. Contact the PE coaches for any questions about running club cards.

Students can begin running laps at 7:50 am, shortly after the main school gates open. At about 8:08 am, the students head off to their classrooms. The schedule for running club is as follows:

- Monday/Wednesday/Friday (K-2nd Grade)

- Tuesday/Thursday (3-5th Grade)

- Tuesday/Thursday (TK from 8:35-8:45 am)

The students run laps that are 1/12 of a mile. Once a student runs 120 laps, students earn a foot charm. The PE coaches post the leaderboard for each grade so students can see the top runners for each grade. Those who finish the year at the top of the leaderboard get recognized with a giant foot token and a certificate. Guitar charms can also be earned at the annual Rock-n-Run-a-Thon in the spring.

This year, we are switching from Room Parents to Grade Level parents at the elementary school. This will allow for coordination and community throughout the entire grade level that can continue as kids get new class assignments each year.

We currently have 2-3 parents per grade to lead with the following responsibilities:

• Teacher appreciation (learn about teacher preferences, encourage parents to bring gifts for teacher birthdays, holidays and end of the school year - there will be no class funds or collective giving this year)
• STAW: Each grade will help host a day during staff and teacher appreciation week in early May.
• Grade community building (host small grade level events, e.g. in the park next to school for kids & parents to get to know each other).

Please look for communication from your grade level parents! If you haven't received an email yet, please reach out to our Room Parent Coordinator at esroomparent@foaea.org. There's a good chance that the email might be in your junk mail!

Thanks to the incredible generosity of our AEA community through the fundraising efforts, Friendsgiving has already funded the following this school year:

• A speaker for Frau Claudia’s music program
• Two class sets of books for 4th grade
• Stools and a mailbox sorter for the 3rd grade
• Whiteboards for the 2nd grade

We want to thank our fellow families, teachers, staff, administrators, and other members of our community for making this past 2023-2024 school year a huge success. We are pleased to provide you with our annual report on last year’s progress towards our organizational goals. In the report you can learn about how we raised our funds and how we supported our students, teachers, staff and community.

2023-2024 Annual Report in English

2023-2024 Annual Report in Spanish

2023-2024 Annual Report in German

We are so lucky to have German interns in the classrooms with our students every year. These young educators come from German and work in your students' classrooms, supporting AEA's teachers, exposing the kids to a different culture, and adding so much more to our community. Without hosts (planned in advance!), AEA can not bring these valuable, wonderful people into your students' classrooms.

How does it work? Host families provide the following:

• A private room
• Three meals per day
• Transportation to and from the host school, occasional rides
• Integration into the family and community

Time-frame: 1st semester and/or 2nd semester 2025-2026 school year

If you would like to host a German intern in 2025, please reach out to Frau Goldman at kgoldman@aeacs.org. It's a wonderful opportunity for your family to have the German language and culture in your home and helps support our students and their learning.

A variety of off-campus after school enrichment programs are available and currently enrolling students. Please contact these instructors directly to learn more about the classes and costs. These are all located walking distance from the elementary school and parents will not need to take their students to the classes.

• Coach Craig - Soccer and Mixed Sports

• Fernweh Collective - Enrichment Programs in German, Spanish and English

• Kinderwerkstatt - Natur&Technik (STEM activities in German)
• Yoga Rascals

The start of the school year can bring lots of questions for parents. This file gives many resources that will hopefully help you find what you are looking for.

DESKTOP: Click on the link, and the calendar will automatically be added and integrated to your calendar. You can easily add/remove this calendar by checking/unchecking the box under "Other Calendars" section.

PHONE: Click on the link. You may need to go to settings in your calendar app, and check the box labeled "FoAEA Calendar" and then select "Sync". From there you can check/uncheck the FoAEA Calendar Box to choose your view settings.

LINK FOR GOOGLE CALENDAR

LINK FOR ICAL

FoAEA has curated a Business Directory so that we can support our community!

If you would like your business added to our directory, please contact communications@foaea.org

OPPORTUNITIES TO ENGAGE!

School Site Council

What is the School Site Council (SSC)?

• Stakeholder group of parents, teachers, other staff, and administration from both AEA schools

• Established by California Education Code for all schools that utilize Title I funding

• Charged with improving academic achievement through the compliant and efficient use of selected funds, which are intended to help ensure all students meet state academic standards

Who Should Attend AEA SSC meetings and Why?

Monthly SSC meetings are open to everyone. We value input from parents, families, students, teachers, staff, and community members. We know it takes a village and your ideas, questions, and input can make a big difference for our students!

Click here for more information & to RSVP to the next Meeting

• The committee’s role is to advise the district on programs and services for English Learners, otherwise known as “multilingual” students.
• DELAC provides a meeting place where information is shared regarding programs, new initiatives and other current issues of importance to the education of multilingual students.
  
• We provide guidance and input to the Board of Trustees, SSC, and staff on the needs of Multilingual Learners who are learning English.

Meetings

They meet to discuss, evaluate, and advocate for improved learning opportunities and increased academic success for these students.

• October 1, 2024
• October 29, 2024
• December 3, 2024
• February 4, 2025
• March 4, 2025
• May 13, 2025

Click here to get involved and learn more about DELAC

Friends of Albert Einstein Academies (FoAEA) is an all-volunteer non-profit organization committed to cultivating a positive community for the enrichment of all students who attend our AEA Charter Schools. We are parents and legal guardians of current students, along with teachers and staff, who work together to promote student enrichment, support teachers and staff, and strengthen our larger AEA community.

To learn more, visit us at www.foaea.org!

President – Vanessa Cirannek president@foaea.org

Vice President – Vanessa Klein vicepresident@foaea.org

Treasurer – Rosalie Henke treasurer@foaea.org

Secretary – Lisa Walter-Thomas secretary@foaea.org

Communications – Christine Roche communications@foaea.org

Events Coordinator – Amanda Rowe events@foaea.org

Elementary Room Parent Coordinator - Randall Ulyate esroomparent@foaea.org

Fundraising - OPEN

Cultural Lead – OPEN

Supporting Members

Volunteer Coordinator - Lorine Wilcox volunteer_coordinator@foaea.org

Webmaster - Steffi Wolf webmaster@foaea.org

The FoAEA newsletter and website are updated regularly. You can save this link to your browser favorites as the newsletter is an easy way to stay informed. Please check back frequently.

Looking to join other volunteers within our awesome school community? We appreciate every bit of help and participation! Reach out to our volunteer coordinator at volunteer_coordinator@foaea.org.

Want to assist in art, science, running club or other classroom opportunities? On campus volunteers must complete the AEA Volunteer Packet and connect with your teachers. To check on the status of your Volunteer Packet (your approval), contact support@aeacs.org.

Please share the newsletter with your school friends and we will see you all at the next event!

Instagram: @friends_of_aea
Email: communications@foaea.org

Website: www.foaea.org
Location: 3035 Ash Street, San Diego, CA, USA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/foaea