Grauer Literary Society Meeting: Wednesday
The November meeting of the Grauer Literary Society will be on Zoom this Wednesday, November 18, at Noon. The book that will be discussed is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. All current parents, alumni parents, and Grauer community members are welcome to join - just email Sheila Wirick to be added to the mailing list.
Virtual Music Café Night: Thursday
The Music Department will be presenting Virtual Music Café Night this Thursday, November 19, featuring more than 50 student musicians.The event will start at 5:00pm with live music from the Period 5 and Period 6 Music classes, followed by a half-hour of pre-recorded videos, and finishing out with live music from the Advanced Music class. We will be livestreaming the event on YouTube so you can watch it at home, and we'll send out an email blast to all students and parents with details on how to access the event online. Our student musicians and artists always appreciate having an enthusiastic audience from our Grauer community!
No School: Thanksgiving Holiday Vacation
Please note that The Grauer School will be closed next Wednesday, November 25-Friday, November 27 due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Additionally, please note that out of an abundance of caution to protect the health of our Grauer community, we will be hosting classes virtually from Monday, November 30-Friday, December 4. Best wishes for a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday to all.
Buy Your Yearbook
Grauer students - click here to order your yearbook now for $55. The price will go up to $65 in December. You can get free personalization (a $6 value) if you submit a drawing of a teacher to yearbook@grauerschool.com.
Attendance Line
Is your child going to be absent? Please contact Tracy Ahrens, our Attendance Officer, in our Main Office prior to 9:00am to let us know that your child will be absent for the day. Tracy can be reached via our Attendance Line at (760) 944-6777 or by e-mail at tracyahrens@grauerschool.com. Also, if you need to arrive late due to an appointment or leave early, we request that parents call or e-mail Tracy to let her know so that she can excuse each student accordingly. Thank you, we appreciate your helping us account for our students daily.
CALENDAR
View the 2020-2021 Grauer Academic Calendar Overview: Click here
View the Grauer Public Calendar on our website: Click here
Add the Grauer Public Google Calendar to your calendar system: Click here
Wednesday, November 18
~ Grauer Literary Society Meeting, Noon (Zoom) Thursday, November 19
~ Discover Grauer Admissions Tour, 9:00am (Only Virtual Tours available, please RSVP to attend)
~ The Visual and Performing Arts Department Presents: High School Café Night, 5:00pm (Live Stream) Friday, November 20
~ Even Friday (2,4,5,6) Wednesday, November 25-Friday, November 27
~ No School (Thanksgiving Holiday Vacation) Monday, November 30-Friday, December 4
~ Virtual, e-Learning Week (see Principal’s Column) Tuesday, December 1
~ On Campus COVID-19 Testing for Faculty, Staff, and Students (more information to come soon)
~ Parent Association Meeting, 9:30am (Zoom) Friday, December 4
~ Mastery Learning Day
Upcoming Events
Virtual Founder's Day & Grandfriends Celebration: November 24
The Grauer School celebrates its roots each November with a luncheon that honors Grandparents and Grandfriends and also pays tribute to the founding of our school. This year, we will celebrate together, virtually! On Tuesday, November 24, families will receive a private video link of speeches, musical performances and student tours. We encourage you to view this together as a family over the holiday break and share with those grandfriends who are not local.
Our students have also been writing gratitude cards this week, which will go home with them next Tuesday. Our hope is that these will either be delivered or mailed to the grandfriends over the break. Parents, don't forget to ask your student about these! Additionally, we will have decorated succulent pumpkins for families to take home on Tuesday, November 24, courtesy of the Parent Association.
We are thankful for our incredible students and families here at Grauer. Whether near or far, we hope you will enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with your family.
Activism Showcase: Entries Due November 24
The Grauer Visual Arts Department invites students to submit their artwork to include in an Activism Showcase, and entries are due by Tuesday, November 24. The goal of this showcase is to get people thinking about pressing issues. Your piece must somehow represent/connect to a current political, social, environmental, or other cause. It is up to you how broad or specific you want to be, just pick a cause that you care about or want to explore. All pieces of art are welcome, including traditional, digital, literary, or performing art piece. You can submit as many pieces as you like. For more information, click here or use the QR code to visit the website created by Ava I. '21 and Grace W. '21.
Choice Lunch: New Lunch Program at Grauer
The Grauer School has contracted with a new hot lunch service called Choice Lunch. Parents can view menus and order lunches through their website after creating an account. To learn more, click here to view an information brochure from Choice Lunch, and click here to create an account and sign up for lunch deliveries. Lunch is delivered through contact-free delivery, where the service delivers the lunch in a box with the student's name and we have a person passing the lunches out by the Justice Center every day. If you have any questions, click here to view contact information for Choice Lunch or contact Tracy Ahrens at tracyahrens@grauerschool.com.
Weekly Columns
Principal's Desk
Holidays and COVID-19
As you have all read by now, San Diego County has moved back into the purple tier. Gratefully, The Grauer School may remain open; however, with the increase in positive COVID-19 cases, we all need to stay especially vigilant in order to protect ourselves, our families, and our community. As we recognize that many of our students and families will still be traveling and/or are still hosting small, socially-distanced family gatherings, out of an abundance of caution, our Leadership Team has made the decision to host all classes virtually via Zoom for the week of Monday, November 30-Friday, December 4. As Friday, December 4 is a Mastery Learning Day, teachers will communicate directly with individual students, inviting students that would benefit from additional one-on-one attention to campus to work on owed work and upgrades.
We are planning to conduct another round of COVID-19 Testing for faculty, staff, and students on Tuesday, December 1 and are in the final stages of confirming the logistics of this new testing. Please watch for an e-blast with more information.
The San Diego County Department of Public Health has recently released guidance for traveling out of state and for the Thanksgiving and Winter Holidays. In an effort to disseminate this information to a wide audience, they have requested that we share these guidelines with our school community.
Travel Advisory
As COVID-19 cases continue to increase across the country, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a travel advisory last week urging visitors entering the state or returning home from travel out-of-state to self-quarantine to slow the spread of the virus. This travel advisory urges against non-essential out-of-state travel and asks people to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving from another state or country and encourages residents to stay local.
Guidance for Thanksgiving
To minimize the spread of COVID-19 and keep families safe during Thanksgiving, the County of San Diego offers guidance for common activities. You may read more here:
COVID Testing for Students
The Grauer School is collaborating with the County of San Diego’s Office of Education and Office of Public Health to offer COVID testing for students in grades K-12 at county and state testing sites. The closest testing sites to The Grauer School are:
St. Leo Mission Church in Solana Beach
California State University, San Marcos
Here is more information about County-sponsored testing for students in grades K-12 should you desire a quick COVID test.
Youth and caregivers covered by Kaiser Permanente should consult with their pediatrician or physician provider directly, or through www.kp.org.
Thank you, we appreciate all that you are doing to help keep our Grauer community safe.
Deans' View
One Thing At A Time - A Challenge
Last week, I had an incredibly pleasant conversation with Dr. Grauer after expressing my concern that I hadn’t seen him in a while. After sharing the attributes of what we each consider our spirit birds, with his trademark enthusiasm, Dr. Grauer described the focus he had brought to a project he was working on, accounting for what I perceived as his absence. He was positively giddy about getting to really “dial in” on that one thing.
This got me to thinking, when was the last time any of us did just one thing? And really did only that one thing, not going through the motions while your mind was in a million places?
If you’re like me, multitasking has become an unfortunate way of life. A podcast I enjoy had a guest that said the first step in reclaiming space for joy was to pick one thing you enjoyed, and do just that for a single minute. The guest went on to share that he started with the simple act of drinking his morning coffee.
As such, I would love to challenge us all to find one thing to do for the rest of this month - and it can be anything that brings us happiness - to be our monotask: that thing we do that is the only thing we’re doing while engaged with it. While focusing on all the details of the experience, let the singularity of it be a luxury.
After all the hard work this semester, we certainly deserve it! If you have questions, the Dean Team is always available to help.
Middle school is one of the most difficult times in kids’ lives, because there is nothing more important than being accepted and included. Guest columnist Dr. Tricia Valeski writes about the real connections that are made in middle school at The Grauer School, and why it continues to be "an oasis of heartfelt education".
Grauer High School & Middle School Sports On behalf of the Athletic Department at The Grauer School, we want to assure you we are doing everything in our power to continue moving forward with sports for our athletes while still following and obeying all state and county health protocols. Due to the lack of clarity from our state in regards to sports, it has been and continues to be a waiting game, and for that, I sincerely apologize and promise you that I am doing my best to gather and disseminate information out to all interested parties. For Middle School sports at Grauer, we are waiting for a position from the governing board to determine what will be allowed for sports this year. Once we hear their position, we intend to mirror that plan at The Grauer School.
In the meantime and moving forward, here is a list of CIF sports that our partner school, Horizon Prep, has full intentions of offering this year and that are open and available to all Grauer School students if the State gives us the green light.
Fall/Winter CIF Sports: Starts December 12. This season will include Boys/Girls Cross Country, Boys/Girls Volleyball, and 8-Man Football.
Spring CIF Sports: Starts March 13. This season will include Boys/Girls Basketball, Boys/Girls Track & Field, and Girls Sand Volleyball. Boys/Girls Golf, Boys/Girls Tennis will start in February.
If you are planning to participate in any High School CIF sports this school year, please take a moment to click the link below and fill out the sports interest survey by Horizon Prep for the 2020-2021 school year. Your response is needed by this Wednesday, November 18.
If you would like to be added to the Grauer Garden email roster in order to receive all the notices of upcoming events, please email Stephanie Murphy.
Last Week in the Garden
Thank you to all the parents who joined us for the citrus tree care lesson last Tuesday! It was a beautiful day and we learned lots about how to take care of our Valencia Orange tree. We completed some fairly major pruning and irrigation upgrades, as well as learned about pests and, very importantly, fertilization, which starts with testing the pH of the soil. After testing the pH, we discovered the soil was not within the optimal range for growing citrus. Incorrect pH prohibits plants from absorbing nutrients, so we treated the soil with sulfur to bring down the pH to a more favorable range for citrus, which will allow the roots to more freely absorb nutrients. This lovely tree will be looking amazing come Spring!
We will continue this week to work on the fruit trees, including pruning, placing proper irrigation, and fertilizing to guarantee a bountiful harvest next year. The veggie beds are in transition for fall and winter production. Some await their fate, while some have been planted with lettuce, kale, beets, and radishes. The pansies transferred quite well and are blooming away, which will make Michaelangelary the turtle very happy. We have more seedlings to plant this week, so help on Tuesday and Thursday mornings is greatly needed and appreciated!
Coming Up in the Garden
Please join us for another session of Apple Tree Care on Tuesday, November 24 at 9:15am. We will be applying what we learned during the class on November 17. Please meet us at the apple tree outside the Computer Lab in Room 139.
Also, we are unveiling a very special "First Thursday" monthly series of classes on Holistic Health. Beginning Thursday, December 3 at 9:15am, and occurring every Thursday through the school year, Kelle will be leading these lessons, each week teaching about different subjects. Our first lesson will be about Holistic Health, in general. These sessions will be held in the garden as weather permits, and we hope you can join us.
Events & Activities at The Grauer School
Annual Fund Thank You - Way Better Together!
We are overjoyed at the expressions of gratitude coming in through our Annual Fund. We don’t have to tell you: there’s never been another year like this one and we hope there’ll never be another. Life has plans we never dreamed of. But we are getting each other through, dreaming bigger than ever.
Thank you to all families, teachers, board members, and friends who contributed to this year's Annual Fund. While the public phase of the Annual Fund has officially ended, donations are still coming in - it's not too late to support Grauer!
During the past month, our Grauer Families have come together to raise just over $75,000 toward the Annual Fund. Can we reach $100,000? What's even more, some of us have opted to contribute to our Access to Grauer Tuition Assistance Endowment Fund in lieu of the Annual Fund, with a commitment of $85,000! Nothing, absolutely nothing, secures our future in this community quite like endowment.
When times are hard, our leaders show up. Amidst challenging times, your dedication enables Grauer to continue the transformational work we do. Our students really do mean the world to us, as they do to you. With time, treasure, and talent, and every trick in the book, we will keep them engaged, connected and safe.
We're better together, exactly what the world needs from us these days,
Dr. Stuart Grauer and Lindsay Zickler
Grauer Teams Compete in Mathematical Modeling Contest
From Peter Mannisto, Math Teacher and Mathematical Modeling Advisor:
From November 4 to 17, Grauer high schoolers participated in the 23rd annual High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM). In this competition, students work in teams of four to solve a problem of real-world mathematical significance. They then explain their methods and results in a paper which is submitted to judges for evaluation. This is the fourth consecutive year that we have fielded teams for this contest, and for the first time, we had three teams competing!! The teams were as follows:
Team #1: Amanda C. '21, Ava I. '21, Isabella F. '21, Thalia M. '21
Team #2: Erik H. '21, Kevin M. '21, Gabriel S. '21, Jason W. '21
Team #3: Joshua B. '22, Lourdes F. '22, Gage G. '22, Abby M. '22
The teams could choose from 2 different problems, as in previous years. Two teams (Erik/Kevin/Gabriel/Jason and Joshua/Lourdes/Gage/Abby) chose to solve a problem asking students to develop a ranking system for best summer jobs for a high schooler in Summer 2021 - click here to read the problem description. This ranking system would take into account certain aspects of a student's preferences (and perhaps other variables - it was up to the teams to decide which variables were relevant) and use those preferences to generate a ranked list of summer employment recommendations. The other team (Amanda/Ava/Isabella/Thalia) chose to solve a problem asking students to develop a plan for efficiently allocating funds for biodiversity conservation in Florida - click here to read the problem description. As usual, both problems are clearly interesting, practical problems and well worth thinking about!
All three teams put in at least 2 full days of work as a team, together with extensive time on weeknights and weekends to get their papers finished. All the teams deserved congratulations and kudos for a job well done! Judging for this competition will be finalized sometime in January.
English 8: Character Development Activities
From Jillian Bourdon and Brian Dugan, English 8 Teachers:
As part of the English 8 unit reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding, students have been asked to pay close attention to character development throughout the novel. Students have been detectives for several chapters, writing down quotes and observations about assigned characters. In today's activity, students worked in groups where they collaborated and pooled their observations to create a total of six character sketches. These sketches, which were done on large pieces of paper, consisted of a physical drawing of the character, gleaned from descriptions in the novel, and also included references to the character's background, personality characteristics, and relationship to other characters in the novel. Since Lord of the Flies relies on the unique personality of its characters in order to move the plot forward, through this assignment students are demonstrating their understanding of their characters' internal desires and motivations and how these impact the unfolding of the story.
Physical Science: Chemical Reactions
From Patricia Young, Physical Science Teacher:
8th Grade Physical Science students have been learning about chemical reactions. In their lab this week, 8th graders asked the question: "How can I tell if a chemical reaction occurs?"
When mixing eight different chemical combinations that resulted in double replacement reactions, students looked for classic clues of a chemical reaction including color change, temperature change, the formation of a precipitate, and the production of a gas. Students reported that their unexpected highlights from the lab included the formation of precipitate and the unexpected bubbles from gas formation.
Physics Class: Catapults
Physics students in Morgan Brown's class have been learning about projectile motion. Student teams created catapults using simple materials, and then they used their catapults to launch ping pong balls so they could experimentally observe projectile motion and see how the forces of gravity and air resistance act on the ball. They were tasked with seeing which catapult design and technique could launch their ping pong balls the farthest, as well as which could hit a target most consistently. The impressive catapult created by the team of Selah S. '21, Jason W. '21, and Erik H. '21 did the best in both categories, although it required the students to stand on the sides of the catapult when launching it, using their weight to counterbalance the force of the launch. The students who were on Zoom conducted their own catapult experiments at home and communicated their results to the class.
Grauer Surf Team Competition
From Brian Dugan, Surf Team and Surf PE Coach:
With the cancellation of the second Scholastic Surf Series (SSS) contest, The Grauer School Surf Team organized a bit of friendly competition amongst themselves at George's Beach in Cardiff this past Saturday, November 14. Surf Team Captains Case C. '21 and Erik H. '21 worked with Brian Dugan to design a format that would allow pairs to surf against one another in shortboard, longboard, and finless divisions. Just like the normal team vs. team competition with SSS, surfers earned points for their two-person teams based on their placement at the end of each heat.
The team scored fun waves all morning long and every heat was action-packed. After running all the heats, Brian and assistant coach Danny Dean tallied the point totals, which showed only a small margin separating the top teams. Arthur P. '23 and Erik H. '21 tied with Sage S. '23 and Sophia H. '22 for second place, while Kevin M. '21 and Embry R. '23 took home first place and $25 gift cards to The Broken Yolk! Congrats to all of our surfers on a successful competition!
2020 Grauer Volunteer of the Year - Akemi Dyer
Congratulations to Akemi Dyer, our Parent Association President, and Mom of Eli (9th grade) and Mia (8th grade), for being chosen by The Grauer School as our "Volunteer of the Year"! This recognition honors Akemi for the countless hours she has dedicated to making The Grauer School's Parent Association a tremendous success. She is always willing to help with a smile, whether it is leading our Grandfriend's Day celebration, organizing family socials or even hosting all-class events to keep our students connected. Thank you, Akemi! We are grateful for your leadership.
Akemi will be recognized by the North County Philanthropy Council this Thursday, November 19, alongside 93 other dedicated individuals who give their time, talent and treasure to enhance our community. To view a list of all nominees and to register to view the broadcast celebration taking place at 3:00pm, click here.
High School ASB Presents Sumo Minecraft Tournament
From Jaden F. '22, ASB Tournament Coordinator:
On Friday, November 13, the High School ASB hosted a Minecraft Sumo Tournament event. The ASB created a private room on Minecraft to host the tournament. During each of the competition rounds, two players were put on a small platform and then they fought to push the other person off the platform, similar to sumo wrestling. There were two competitions with two different winners - congratulations to Julien W. '26 and Erin W. '25 for being the winners! The ASB would like to thank all of the students who participated in this fun event, and give special thanks to Tom Hopper for helping the ASB run the tournament.
From Shelley Boniwell, Associate Director of Counseling:
College Representatives Visiting The Grauer School on Zoom
Representatives from a number of colleges and universities will be meeting with interested Grauer students on Zoom, with the final virtual representative meeting on November 23 with Colorado State University. All students are welcome to attend the informational meetings and learn about the colleges and universities. Please click here to view the entire list of representatives and schools meeting with Grauer students in a speadsheet, or click here to view the Grauer Counseling Google calendar.
Community Service
From Jessi Brown, Humanitarian Service Coordinator:
Looking for ways to volunteer during the school year, either in person or virtually? Remember that you have a great resource right at your fingertips. Log into your MobileServe account, click on "EVENTS" in the side menu bar, and then click on "DISCOVER." You can enter keywords or just enter your location to find opportunities close to you. This is a great way to discover opportunities that are perfect for you!
Community Resource Center: Board Games & Puzzles Needed by November 30
The Grauer School Parent Association has partnered with the Community Resource Center to help serve the community during the pandemic. We are seeking new family board games or puzzles suitable for the entire family. No toys, please.
For Grauer students, each donation will count for 30 minutes of community service (maximum of 1 hour), and you should take a photo of your donation and upload it to your MobileServe account. There is a bin at the top of Tolerance Gateway entrance and also in Meyer Hall for you to drop off your donations now through November 30.
Collect Trash with Clean Swell App
Students are invited to join a global movement to keep beaches, waterways and the ocean trash free. Head out to your favorite beach and use the Clean Swell app to easily record each item of trash you collect, and then share your effort with family and friends. With Clean Swell, simply “Start Collecting” trash wherever you are around the world and the data you collect will instantaneously upload to Ocean Conservancy’s global ocean trash database. This data delivers a global snapshot of ocean trash which is very helpful to researchers and policy-makers. You can check out your cleanup history, so you can see the impact you’ve had on making our ocean a cleaner and healthier ecosystem. Click here to learn more, and be sure to record your community service hours on MobileServe.
Middle School Fridays
From Patricia Young, Middle School Fridays Coordinator:
Middle School Friday activities are optional. Each week, we plan to offer several opportunities, whether they are on-campus or remote via Zoom. The activities for this Friday are:
Roller Skating with Mimi Robinson at 1:00-2:00pm on the basketball court. Mimi has several pairs of roller skates that she can loan to students, and she encourages students to bring your own roller skates if you have them.
Neighborhood Walk with Peter Mannisto at 1:00-2:00pm, meet at the Tolerance Gateway. Participants are encouraged to bring water and wear shoes appropriate for walking.
The photos below show Middle School Friday activities on November 13, with Tori Faxon and Liam Murphy hosting a very popular Dungeons and Dragons session on the Justice Center roof, along with guest Dungeon Master John Joseph H. '23.
Student Spotlight
Parents, please let us know if your child is doing something newsworthy so we can congratulate them in our Student Spotlight section! Please send submissions to newsletter@grauerschool.com.
Grauer Student Volunteer
Shockwave High School Robotics team member Ethan D. '23 has been volunteering every Saturday to help refurbish computers at Computers 2 Kids, as an outreach and community service opportunity to help others in the community. Qualcomm is hosting a month-long #DigitalGiveBack technology donation drive with Computer 2 Kids through December 1, in order to help students in San Diego County who do not have the equipment necessary to participate in online classes. This drive encourages community members to donate any used or unused personal devices to be distributed among students in the region who need them most - click here to learn more about this program.
Computers 2 Kids accepts all working and nonworking electronics, and you can view a complete list of items they accept by clicking on the link above. If any Grauer families or community members would like to donate your old or unneeded equipment to this cause, you can drop off the equipment with Liam Murphy in Grauer's Computer Lab in Room 139, and then Ethan will deliver it to the Computers 2 Kids organization.
Happy Birthday!
Kendall B. '24 - November 19
Mia C. '26 - November 19
Gage G. '22 - November 21
