10 January 2020

Le Journal




from the Head of school

#FixTheGlitch-Rally in Jefferson City


Dear Parents and Friends of Académie Lafayette, 

I hope you had a restful winter break and a fun holiday season with the children. We are very excited to welcome them back to school.

Our kids in Missouri charter s chools aren't being treated fairly. We are working to do
something about it, and we need your help. A loophole in the law treats charter school students differently when it comes to education funding. Every student who attends our school receives approximately $1,100 less per year for her or his education than a student who attends the local school district. That is not equal, and it's not fair for our students.

The loophole in the law gets a little complicated, but basically it goes like this. Local taxpayers pay property taxes and sometimes sales taxes for public education. The students in the traditional public schools receive the actual amount from those taxes. But the charter public school students-our students-receive less, and sometimes a lot less. Our students get the local tax amounts calculated in 2005 and obviously the amount of taxes generated 15 years ago is much less than the amount paid today. This glitch in school funding is hurting our schools and hurting our students.

This funding glitch is not because of any effort to make Missouri's school funding unfair and it can easily be fixed by the legislature.  The most important people in our public schools are our children, and I urge you to support a change in state law to close the loophole that treats some of our children as less important. Tell your state representative and state senator to help us #FixTheGlitch-visit them, call them and join us on January 22 as we rally for funding fairness at the Missouri State Capitol. Visit mocharterschools.org/fix-the-glitch to for more information and to RSVP for the Rally.

Thank you for your continued support, 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Elimane Mbengue
Head of School

From the principals 

Parent Principal Coffees

Dear Académie Lafayette Parents,

Please join us for our Parent-Principal coffees! 
  • Oak coffee: Tuesday, January 14, 7:30-8:30 am
  • Cherry coffee: Wednesday, January 15 , 8-9 am 
  • Armour coffee: Thursday, January 16, 7:30-8:30 am
We hope you can stop by for coffee and good conversation with school leadership.

Merci!

Leslie Houfaidi, Maritza Paul, Heather Royce
Building Principals


  

In This Edition:


calendar

Upcoming Events

January 13
Board Meeting, 
Armour 6 pm

January 16
Armour Parent-Principal Coffee, 7:30-8:30 am
January 14
Oak Parent-Principal Coffee
7:30-8:30 am

January 20
NO SCHOOL 
Martin Luther King, Jr.  Day
January 15
Cherry Parent-Principal Coffee, 8-9 am

January 22
Armour Choir Concert,
Oak, 6-7 pm

Access the 2019-20 school calendars by clicking here


INFO SHARING

Board of Directors NoticeBoard

The Académie Lafayette Board of Directors will meet on January 13, 2020 at 6:30 pm at Armour. Click  here to read the agenda.

INFO SHARING

Attention All Sixth Grade Parents!Casual

The Armour campus was so impressed with the sixth grades participation in Spirt Week's "Color Clash" that we are giving them their very own Casual Day. This will take place on Friday, January 17th.

Ms. McCreary

INFO SHARING

6th Grade Student Council DanceDance

The 6th grade student council is hosting their annual dance on Friday, January 31st from 6:30 to 8:30 in the Armour cafeteria.  The theme is "Once Upon a Sixth Grade Dance" and will feature Disney decorations and music. Costumes are optional.  If you are interested in chaperoning, please sign up here.

In order to attend, sixth graders need to bring a permission slip and $5 to their homeroom teacher by Friday, January 24th.  If this is a hardship for your family in anyway, email Mme. Seely at [email protected]. Your student is still more than welcome to attend the dance.  We will use the $5 contributions to purchase food and decorations. However, more food and decorations only make things more fun so feel free to sign up below to donate extras.  If you decide to contribute food, just send it directly to the dance. Please send decorations with your students to school in advance of the dance. Have them bring it to Ms. Seely's office. 


INFO SHARING

MS Concert InformationConcert

All middle school students should report to the Oak gym between 5:30 and 5:45 pm on 1/22/20. The concert will start at 6 pm. 8th graders should wear their class hoodies and uniform bottoms. 6th and 7th graders should be in uniform as well. When parking around the Oak campus, please be mindful of neighbor driveways and only use marked parking spots. 

INFO SHARING

Oak Uniform ClosetUCloset

Attention Oak parents, The Oak uniform closet is full of good stuff! Please come and take advantage of this free service to you. Lots of khaki pants skirts including some plaid items with lots of outerwear and polos.

Donations always accepted and you're welcome to leave it at the front desk or on the donation shelf in the closet.

INFO SHARING

AL Scripps BeeSpellingB

The Oak campus will be holding our school-wide spelling bee on Monday, January 13 at 10:15 in the auditorium. 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students competed in their homerooms and the winners will compete to see who will represent Académie Lafayette in the regional Jackson/Clay county bee. The winner of the Jackson/Clay bee represents the KC metro area at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. 



Speaking of bees... Middle school students competed last month in the preliminary round of the school's National Geographic Bee. Our top ten qualifiers will compete at the end of the month for the chance to attend Missouri's State Geo Bee. Stay tuned for more details about our final bee. 


INFO SHARING

AL Pre-K Seats available for 2020-2021 PreK

AL Parents and students with Emmanuel staff volunteering for the AL Day of Service on July, 20th, 2019.
We are excited to announce a new partnership through the Kansas City Pre-K Cooperative to offer Académie Lafayette families that qualify for free and reduced lunch the opportunity to apply for a limited number of free pre-K seats for 2020-2021 school year. This classroom will be off site at the newly constructed Emmanuel Family and Child Development Center. 

The Kansas City Pre-K Cooperative seeks to:
* Maximize access to high quality free pre-K slots for children and families, positioning all students for success throughout their educational journeys.
* Improve the vertical alignment between early education and elementary schooling.
* Collaborate with a broad array of community organizations and service providers currently operating in Kansas City to provide comprehensive services for students and families.

Emmanuel Family and Child Development Center has been serving the urban core community of Kansas City, MO since 1986. Located at 2416 Swope Parkway KCMO 64130. Transportation is available for pick up and drop off. Our partnership with Emmanuel includes weekly French classes with AL French Preschool teacher on site. The new facilities will be opening February 1st, 2020. Click here to see the new construction from the start.


The AL pre-K requirements are: child must be age 4 prior to September 1st, 2020, live within the KCPS school district boundaries, and qualify for free and reduced lunch . If you do not qualify for free and reduced lunch or do not meet age requirements and are still interested please contact Robyn King for more information on other seats available at Emmanuel including reduced rates.

To apply for an AL pre-K seat fill out an application on the site SchooAppKC. Please note there are a limited amount of seats available and all current AL siblings will not be guaranteed a seat. If there are more sibling applicants than there are seats available, seats will be given in accordance with our lottery process.  You will be asked to provide Free and Reduced Lunch verification to be included in the lottery. 

For more information, if you would like to apply, or interested in any pre-K seat at Emmanuel please contact Robyn King ( [email protected] , 816-702-9221) to fill out required documents and set up an orientation. Pre-K students can start as soon as the application process is complete. 

INFO SHARING

Dear Parents: If you have a child entering kindergarten in the fall of 2020, now is the  time to apply. The process will take you less than one minute! 

To be fair and transparent with all prospective families, we want to be able to tell them how many seats are available and how many seats will be taken by siblings. Your help is essential. Please fill out an application for your kindergarten sibling today. 

The deadline to apply is Monday, March 2nd, 2020. Sibling applications received after this deadline will be placed on the waiting list. 

Questions? Call Robyn King at  816-888-8934.

After you fill out your child's application, tell your friends and neighbors 
with an incoming kindergartener to do the same.

INFO SHARING

Trivia NightTriviaNight

Get your trivia on at the PTO's annual AL Trivia Night on Saturday, January 25 at the Foundation Event Space. This year's theme is children's literature. Prizes will be awarded for the best-themed table! Individual tickets and tables for 8 available are on sale now. Get all the details and your tickets at  ALTriviaNight.com .

INFO SHARING

Student Art Competition Art 

The Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center is excited about the Nature in Your Neighborhood Art Competition coming up at the Discovery Center!
Please click here for the upcoming event flyer, including all the rules for participants and details regarding submission of artwork. This is an activity for classroom teachers, students and families. It would make a great after-Christmas activity! Artwork must be submitted by Feb. 15.  All artwork will be on display March 3 through April 25 at the Discovery Center. The top three winners in each age category of the art competition will be announced at a special evening event at the Discovery Center on April 7th!  
  

INFO SHARING

AL Graduate Update Alumni

AL graduate Mikhala Lantz-Simmons, M.A. and her husband Mohammad Rasoulipour published the children's book Can You See Me? with Andrews McMeel Universal. Available locally at Rainy Day Books and wherever books are sold. Click here for more information.





INFO SHARING

Help us #FixTheGlitch!Fix



RESEARCH MEDICAL CENTER, BROOKSIDE CAMPUS, IS A PROUD SPONSOR OF ACADEMIE LAFAYETTEResearch



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Oak Street Campus
6903 Oak Street
Kansas City, MO 64113
816-361-7735

Cherry Street Campus
3421 Cherry Street
Kansas City, MO 64109
816-888-7400

www.academielafayette.org