Whitney Young Weekly - October 23, 2022

O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 2 2

Congratulations to the Girls varsity volleyball team for winning the City Championship last week!

Is there any coordination among faculty regarding scheduling and number of tests and quizzes? Over the course of 8 school days -- during homecoming week and the Jewish holidays -- my sophomore had 13 tests and quizzes.

First let me say, it would be impossible to coordinate such a schedule among the faculty. It appears that this situation is an anomaly with homecoming and Jewish holidays being so close together. Since we are beginning the second quarter, I will encourage our faculty to reset and remind students best practices in study habits and test preparation. I encourage students to utilize the resources available at Whitney Young (student planner, Math and Writing Centers, Enrichment, etc.) and continue to communicate regularly with their teachers about their needs. As a college prep program, assessments must be expected. Let's all continue to work together to provide the support to ensure student success.

I used to receive weekly emails from Google Classroom for my kid last year, but not since the start of this school year. How can I get the weekly updates again?

I have to admit, I am not well versed in Google Classroom. I suggest reaching out to the individual teacher to make that adjustment for you.

When we receive emails regarding unexcused absences, it doesn't say the specific day. It makes it quite difficult to fix the absence if we don't know what it's for.

Aspen is an invaluable tool for students to access grade and attendance information. Parents have access to the same information through the Parent Portal. If any parent needs access to the Parent Portal, please contact the main office as soon as possible. We need parents to report all student absences as soon as possible. Unexcused absence emails are bulk sent making students aware they have an absence. This email is received after multiple attempts to get it cleared. Detentions are assigned by Ms. Bottari, Assistant Principal, for any unexcused absences. Students and parents can access the Whitney Young Attendance Policy here.

I have heard other schools had chocolate fountains and slushy machines at their Homecoming. We had some candy bars, water, soda and chips. Can we change this?

Student Council coordinates all activities associated with Homecoming. Please reach out to your class representative with your suggestions for updates or additional concession requests.

Mr. Harris is soliciting questions for the Whitney Young Weekly. He will select and answer questions each week. Note: By submitting your question, you agree that the question and answer will be published and sent to the whole school community. Not all questions will be able to be answered/published. Due to the popularity of Harris' Huddle, questions may take at least four weeks to be published. If you have an immediate concern, please contact the Main Office during regular school hours at (773) 534-7500.

Submit Your Question or Comment Here

Managing Student Attendance with E-Absence

An exciting new feature is coming to the Aspen Parent Portal that will allow parents and guardians to submit and track student absences electronically. The new E-Absence feature will be available to the Aspen Parent Portal users at the beginning of the second quarter on October 24, 2022. If you need access to the Aspen Parent Portal contact the Main Office at 773-534-7500.

Steps to reporting E-Absences:

The E-Absence feature is designed for optimal experience on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet.

Log in to Aspen Parent Portal to see the student’s past absences. If using a mobile device sign-in to the Parent Portal Mobile View.
Click the Menu Icon on the left side of the screen.
Click on Forms.
Click on (+) icon to access the student’s unexcused absences.
Select the reason and provide an explanation.
Submit the request.

After the request is submitted, Aspen sends parent/guardian an email notifying them their request was received and they will receive another email when their request is approved or denied.

Halloween Guidelines

Halloween may be celebrated on Monday October 31, 2022. When celebrating keep these things in mind:

No masks, face-coverings, hoods or items concealing your face may be worn.
Faculty/staff/students must be able to be identified. Head coverings must be appropriate to the costume.
No costumes that identify with race, gender, religious, or hate groups. Costumes that are considered culturally insensitive are not acceptable.
Any make-up, face painting, beards, mustaches, teeth, eyeglasses that are worn cannot obscure your identity. Again, you must be easily identified.
Costume accessories cannot include any item that could be viewed as a weapon. Some examples would include: guns, knives, baseball bats, bullet belts, chains, etc. These and other accessories of this kind are inappropriate and prohibited.
Students must consult with each classroom teacher PRIOR to Halloween concerning that teacher’s policy about wearing costumes in his or her classroom. If costumes are not allowed by that teacher, the student must comply with that policy.
Have fun and balance this with the concept that this is on a regular school day. The wearing of costumes is a privilege that can be revoked. Our hope is that we will not have to hold any disciplinary conferences regarding inappropriate costumes.

If there are any questions or concerns about costume attire, please do not hesitate to see Mrs. Davis, Student Support Director in 3C/4C between Gold/Green House. Also, read about the City of Chicago guidelines here.

Join us for our last overnight college visit for the semester! November 10-11, 2022. We will visit Indiana University Bloomington, Butler University and Purdue University. Cost includes coach bus transportation, hotel stay, all meals, and exposure to three outstanding universities! Also available: Nov 3 - DePaul University, Nov 16 - Grand Valley State (new date). Permission slips are available in the Counseling Suite and on the Junior/Senior Google Classroom pages.

WEDNESDAY we will have a presentation from the California Institute of Technology at 11:45am in the Library Cinema. THURSDAY join us in the Library Cinema during Enrichment for a presentation from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Finally, join us virtually on Friday during Advisory to hear from American University, Colgate University, Northwestern University and St. John’s College.

Civil Rights Scholars Program Recipient

Congratulations to Malachi Neely. He is one of thirty students selected to participate in the Civil Rights Scholars Program through the Office of Student Protections and Title IX. Malachi was selected for his dedication to creating positive change, inclusion and a sense of belonging at Whitney M. Young.

Study Abroad Scholarship Opportunities

AFS implements three scholarship programs of the U.S. Department of State. Please find an overview of each program and a link to the program websites, where you can learn about eligibility, application timelines, and more, on the AFS-USA website. The links are below. Whitney Young currently has one AFS student from Italy. We have welcomed many students over the past years and we also have had students from Whitney Young study abroad. If you are interested, please check out the following links. There are some fast-approaching deadlines (NSLI-Y is November 4). Also reach out to Ms. Risa Turner (rturner18@cps.edu), our school contact for hosting students and for study abroad. Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study YES Abroad. National Security Language Initiative for Youth NSLI-Y. Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange CBYX.

Halloween is a day to dress up and embrace the spooky. But there’s nothing scarier than a Halloween costume that hurts others. To keep the holiday fun and festive, follow our tips for choosing a costume:

Avoid costumes that stereotype a race or group. Cultures shouldn’t be used for dress up, and these costumes rely on stereotypes that hurt real people.
If you dress up as someone with a different skin tone than you, don’t darken or change your skin color with makeup. Although it might seem harmless, changing your skin color for costumes comes with a long and harmful history. Think of other ways to portray this person or character besides makeup.
If it’s mean spirited, don’t wear it. Does your costume seem like it’s going to be hurtful or mock others? When in doubt, choose something else - get creative instead of offensive with your costume.

Click here to visit the DEI Committee Website for more information on how to choose a respectful costume.

Winter Sport Registration

Attention All Winter Sport Athletes! Registration is now Open! All Winter Sports Athletes must register prior to participating! This includes tryouts, and Yes you must re-submit all forms even if you played a fall sport! To register click here. Please check our website for up to date tryout information.

Esports Top 4 Finish at Valorant LAN

Whitney Young's Esports team finished their Valorant season with JV in first place! Varsity qualified for the single elimination playoffs, and got 4th place at the in person LAN finals at Northern Illinois University. We are very proud of our Valorant team for such a successful season.

Morning Safety and Security Volunteers Needed

Morning drop off is going well but we need volunteers to continue to make this run smoothly. We are calling on our Whitney Young community to sign up and help guide traffic at the school. The time commitment would be from 7:15am - 8:15am, Mondays - Fridays, when school is in session. If you're already dropping off your kids, in the morning, please consider staying for an hour to help out. Sign up for a day, or two, or more! VOLUNTEER HERE!

19 Students Selected for ILMEA District Festival

Congratulations to the Whitney Young student musicians who completed a rigorous audition process and were selected to the 2022 ILMEA District 1 music groups. They will meet on November 19th at Elmhurst University with the other selected students from around Chicago and the suburbs to rehearse with college conductors and present a concert of challenging repertoire. The top seated musicians from this day will then qualify for the All-State music groups. Extra congrats to Senior Larry Ling, who earned the concertmaster seat (1st chair, first violin) in the District Orchestra.

Fall Grants are Open

Friends of Whitney Young is proud to OPEN our Fall Grant Cycle and will remain open until Friday, November 11th. Whitney Young sponsored clubs, teams, classes, and departments are in full swing so we are anticipating a large number of grant requests in this cycle. As a result, we will be unable to extend the deadline --- this is your opportunity to get your applications IN! To apply, visit the FoWY website and submit your requests for consideration.

Community Service Project Survey

Under a nonprofit organization, a group is developing a website library with videos. This community service project is dedicated to translating forms in order to combat the language barrier that prevents lots of people from utilizing helpful programs. These include local programs and government forms. We're in search for more material to translate-- if you have any ideas, however small, we would greatly appreciate your feedback. Please use this survey to share your thoughts!