Hello AAE Families:

I hope that all of you are well and have had a great Thanksgiving Holiday. I'm hoping you were find some level of rest, relaxation and connection over these past few days. I know that many members of our community work in retail sales, so its also very likely that many of you have been busy these past few days, as the holiday shopping season gets into full swing.

I have a couple of very important announcements and reminders for AAE parents this week. Please review:

1.) Breakfast Service

• You may be aware that we serve grab & go breakfast to all interested AAE students each morning at no cost.
• Due to large numbers, we have decided to move daily breakfast service from our main atrium to the AAE cafeteria.
• This certainly requires some logistics and students need to be ready for a change tomorrow.
• Starting tomorrow, students may enter through either the main River Street doors or may enter through the doors by the nurse's office hallway.
• Once students have received their breakfast, we ask that as many high school students as can please exit the cafeteria and go directly up the C stairwell to avoid congestion in the "long hallway" by the courtyard.

2.) Q2 Progress Reports

Students Quarter 2 Progress Report grades will be pulled this Friday. We will have these ready to send home to you early next week and before parent conferences.

3.) Parent Conferences

AAE Parent Conferences are coming up! We will have early release days on Wednesday, December 11, Thursday, December 12 and Friday, December 13. Conferences will be available by appointment during the following times:

• Wednesday, December 11 - 11:30 AM – 3:15 PM
• Thursday, December 12 - 11:40 AM – 3:10 PM AND 5:00 – 6:45 PM

Please sign up for conferences with your child's teachers at: https://www.myconferencetime.com/aae/

4.) Field Trip permissions (repeat from last two weeks but making sure you see it):

Since the start of this school year, we have moved away from allowing any late field trip permissions to be granted. Our protocol is that field trips must be fully signed off on by guardians two weeks prior to the trip departing. The reasons for this are many - we need time to ensure that student medicines and prescriptions are fully authorized by doctors and pharmacists; we need to ensure that the locations we will be visiting are fully prepared and have a precise head count of students and chaperones prior to the trip departing. There are other factors as well, including making sure that field trips are properly paid for and that we have identified enough chaperones. I recognize that sometimes we can all forget to do things, but I'm afraid that we cannot allow any further late permissions to be accepted. Thank you for understanding and I apologize if this negatively impacts your AAE student.

If we can be of assistance, please call our main office at (860) 243-0857 or email aaemainoffice@crec.org. If you would like to email the whole AAE administrative team, you can email aaeadminteam@crec.org. You can also feel free to email us individually.

Thank you - Its going to be a great week at AAE!

Mr. Johnson

Wednesday December 11th, Thursday December 12th and Friday December 13th will be half days with 11:00 dismissals.

Family conferences will be held on Wednesday December 11th from 11:30-3:30 and on Thursday December 12th from 11:40-3:10 and 5:00-6:45. To sign up for conferences please use the link below.

There will be no school from Monday 12/23 - Wednesday 1/1/2025. School will resume Thursday 1/2. We will also have school on Friday, January 3, 2025.

Parent Portal accounts were set up by the PowerSchool team in mid-August, and emails were sent to families with account login credentials. If you are having trouble accessing your Parent Portal account, please email aaemainoffice@crec.org or call the school at 860-247-0857. We need direct communication from parents who are seeking assistance.

Field trips are starting up again! Permission slips are available to be completed in the parent portal, and must be completed by the due date. In the portal, click on the Forms heading on the left hand side, and you will see available field trip forms. If you are having trouble accessing your Parent Portal account, please email aaemainoffice@crec.org or call the school at 860-247-0857.

We will only have one day, Thursday, each week for after school clubs. All after school clubs will be on Thursdays after school until 4:30 pm. * We know some students want to do more than one club. Students who want to do more than one club must make individual arrangements with all the club advisors involved.

Parents/Guardians must fill out the sign-up form before their student stays after school! Free Snack and Free Late Bus Transportation will be provided.

** Drama Club Sign-ups will be done later (December or January) and may require auditions for some parts.

*** Tutoring is not a club - sign-ups for tutoring will be done separately.

**** Fan Club is done separately - sign-up is done directly with Mr. Narcisse.

***** Sign-ups for Advisory activities (done on Wednesday mornings during first period) are done directly with the teacher offering the activity. Advisory includes Student Council, GSA - Gender Student Alliance, SBAT - Student Based Advocacy Team and more.

Important Notes:

1 - Additional Clubs may be added in the future.

2 - Clubs with low enrollment may be cancelled.

3 - This form limits each account to one submission.

If you have more than one student, you can use a second account or contact Mr. Copeland at cocopeland@crec.org

Club sign-up link is: https://forms.gle/o3A2JD6Wumrk95FCA

Winter Sports starts this week. Girls basketball starts tomorrow and the bus will leave promptly at 2:15 to International. Boys basketball and indoor track starts Thursday.

Boys Basketball tryouts are on Friday, you must be academically and medically eligible to participate.

Eligibility: Student eligibility will be notified through Final Forms. This will be determined by if a recent physical is turned in, grades are a 2.2 or higher, no Fs and does not have an outstanding status with the uniforms. All students signed up for sports will find out eligibility within the next week.

This week we will have parents meeting. They will be recorded and should be viewed before the first game.

Please pay attention to physical dates as students can lose eligibility once the physical expires.

Sign up for the Girls Basketball Team! This will be led by coach Dhana Tulloch Reid and will be co-oping with International. Coach Ari will be coaching as well.

Basketball: It is highly recommended that students start conditioning now. Coach Narcisse will be running open gym sessions throughout the month, and it is highly recommended that both the boys and the girls take advantage of this.

Winter Sports start dates:

Monday, December 2

Girls Basketball starts @ AIS

Tuesday December 3

Wednesday December 4

Thursday December 5

Boys Basketball starts

Indoor Track Starts

6:30pm Indoor Track Parents meeting

Friday December 6

Boys basketball tryouts

Saturday December 6

2pm boys basketball parents meeting

We are excited to build a strong, comprehensive middle school, school counseling program. We know that the middle school years can be difficult, but also a time of unprecedented growth and excitement. As school counselors, we work with all students and their families to help navigate this time. Your child will often see us in the classroom leading lessons, checking in with them or their friends, or in the hallway and cafeteria to say hi. We cover topics like conflict resolution, advocating for self and others, goal setting, college and career aspirations, time management, organization, in short many of the skills that aren’t a discrete skill for a job, but necessary to get the job done! We also are a great resource for you and your child if they are struggling academically or with a teacher and if they have concerns about themselves or their friends.

In the meantime, as you and your child get back into the routine of school please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or concerns. While we are rarely in our office (we like to be where your kids are!) we will always get back to you in a timely fashion. The best way to ensure this is to email us. Even if you’d like a phone call, email us with some times you’re available and we’ll do our best to not to play phone tag with you.

Jen Skitromo & Hannah Kaizer

jskitromo@crec.org;

hkaizer@crec.org

Meet the Counselors.pdf

• The 2025-2026 FAFSA is now available and can be accessed at www.studentaid.gov . Students can log in with the FSA ID they created in Senior Seminar classes. Parents will also need to create a separate FSA ID to complete their portion of the FAFSA. Additional info can be found at https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/fafsa-support

• Some colleges require that students complete the CSS Profile as well. On this page, https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatinginstitutions.aspx, you will find the colleges who require this form, and a link on the page to learn more. If your college requires it, you MUST complete it to be considered for financial aid.

• Students can now log into their College Board accounts on www.collegeboard.org to view Fall 2024 SAT scores

• Students who would like to submit SAT scores to colleges must do so directly through College Board by logging onto their account on www.collegeboard.org

• Congratulations to our senior class! 97% of AAE seniors applied to at least one 4 year college on Application Fee Free Day on November 1st!!

Grade 10/11:

• Students can now log into their College Board accounts on www.collegeboard.org to view Fall 2024 PSAT scores

• Counselors onboarded 10th and 11th grade students into the new college/career planning platform, SchooLinks. Please ask your student to log into the program and show you what they have done. We strongly encourage parents to connect with your students on a regular basis in order to use this new platform in the best way possible. Students should also show you the High School Counseling Schoology page and the folders they have access to.

Grade 9:

• Counselors onboarded 9th grade students into the new college/career planning platform, SchooLinks. Please ask your student to log into the program and show you what they have done. We strongly encourage parents to connect with your students on a regular basis in order to use this new platform in the best way possible. Students should also show you the High School Counseling Schoology page and the folders they have access to.

Families can now apply for energy assistance from the comfort of their home by clicking the provided link. Don’t delay—winter is coming, and help is available! Act now to ensure your home stays warm this season.

Good afternoon parents,

The SNAP health portal is a communication platform that allows for sharing information with your child's school nurse as well as the ability to have access to your child's health information.

If you would like your child to receive Tylenol and Motrin while at school, this portal allows parents to give written permission to the school nurse.

Attached are instructions of how to create your account.

Thank you.

SNAP Health Portal.pdf