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Welcome to November, Bear Creek Families!

Check out our November family newsletter HERE

Greetings, Bear Creek families,

It’s hard to believe, however November has arrived! While the weather continues to get colder and the brilliant fall colors are changing the scenery on our school grounds, the relationship building, academic progress, and community partnership we enjoy here at Bear Creek Remains constant. I am certainly thankful for the ability to work alongside the remarkable students, parents/caregivers, and staff at Bear Creek.

This is hard work and work that we cannot do alone. As always, we are beyond grateful for your support and partnership as we seek to refine and strengthen our practices in the unique model of school we embrace and love. Please continue to share your thoughts, challenges and successes. We are a mighty village.

Veterans Day Assembly Nov. 9th:
We are very proud to host a Veterans Day assembly at 9:15am in the Bear Creek Campus gym on Thursday, November 9th. Our wonderful music instructor, Elaine Hoffman, accompanied by the NFP Choir will host a performance for our students, staff and families. The assembly is open to families in each of our programs and we strongly encourage veterans from our learning community to join! As this performance is intended to celebrate and honor the men and women who have served in the armed forces, we would like to extend the invitation to attend the assembly to any active and former military service members in our community. Following the assembly, we will ask our veterans in attendance (along with their student(s) and family members) to join us in the library for coffee and refreshments. We hope to see our families and veterans on campus for the assembly on Thursday, November 9th!

Superintendent visit on Nov. 9th:
The 9th figures to be a busy day! Along with our Veterans Day assembly, we are excited to host Superintendent Michael Tolley for a tour of our campus and the opportunity to connect with our amazing students and staff. While Superintendent Tolley will visit each classroom and learning space, the most important parts of his visit will be a forum in which he sits and talks with students about their school experience. The forum is intended to bring student voices to the forefront by bringing a group of students together and engaging in a conversation centered on their thoughts for school/district improvement as well as sharing what is important to them about their experience at Bear Creek! It’s a powerful forum and I very much enjoy these opportunities for our district leadership to know our students and community. This past week, staff have submitted names of students they feel would be optimal candidates to engage in this forum. On Monday, we’ll notify families of students who have been selected to participate! Of course, if a family of a selected student shares that they would prefer that their child not join this session with Superintendent Tolley, that’s important to share as well.

Coffee with the principal:
Community voice is a theme this month! Open lines of communication and ongoing dialogue is an essential part of what we do at Bear Creek. To that end, I’m excited to offer ongoing, informal opportunities to connect with families to discuss whatever is on your mind! The first of these forums will take the shape of a “coffee with the principal” that we will host in the Bear Creek library from 9am-10am on Tuesday, November 7th.. As the same suggests, this will be an open forum to snag some coffee and a pastry while asking questions, sharing thoughts or chatting about any and all things Bear Creek. While the forum itself will be conversational in nature, I’ll be sure to bring my notes to capture questions or thoughts folks may have for further follow up. Additionally, I will offer ZOOM/virtual forums in the future for folks who are interested yet unable to attend an in-person conversation. Looking forward to connecting!

November promises to be a busy month of learning, growth and partnership as we strive to provide each of our students a dynamic educational experience. I look forward to the work ahead.

In partnership,

Brian Matthias
Principal
Northshore Networks/Northshore Family Partnership/Northshore Online Academy

Touchbase is up and running and ready for use!

Touchbase is a payment mechanism Northshore School District uses to collect monies for a variety of purposes (school fees, events such as 5th grade camp, etc.) It took a bit of time for Touchbase to onboard us, however it’s up and running and good to go. One of the most relevant uses for the tool would be the “device protection plan”. The plan would provide coverage for families to ensure they would not be on the hook should their district issued device be damaged. We had a number of families interested in this option, however with Touchbase still in the works, folks were asked to pause. I’m glad to share that the pause is no longer needed. Folks can access Touchbase by following the link here: Touchbase 

If you are in need of login information or support accessing the tool, please do not hesitate to email our front office and we would be happy to help.

I’m very happy to announce that school lunches will be available for students who eat on campus! Beginning this week, we will have cold lunches delivered to our campus each day for students who are interested in purchasing a school lunch. Much like in the comprehensive school program, students will have the ability to purchase a lunch using their student ID (we also have the ability to collect cash should this be the preferred option for families) Interested students can snag their lunch in the gym as their lunch period begins….As our students are on campus on different days and different times, we are still working on calibrating the amount of food to be delivered each day, however we’re excited to get this going! 

Interested families can take a look at the monthly menu and pricing options

When folks follow the link, they should select “Bear Creek” as the school. Following that, they should select the grade level listed under “Northshore Learning Options”. That page will detail the menu items each day as well as pricing information for lunch. Important to know, if your student does not know their student ID, we are very happy to help! We can always look that information up in real time. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions about lunch on campus.