Dear NWCS Families,

Welcome to the 2020-2021 school year! We hope that everyone has had a healthy, safe, and fun Summer. Hopefully all Chinese HW was done during this time as well… Remember to hand those into your teachers for raffle tickets!

This Fall, while we had hoped to return to school in person, we felt it was safer for our families and teachers to continue on-line, given that we are coming from so many different school districts. The good news is that we are fully prepared to do so, given the hard work that Principal Rick Chan, Vice Principal Francine Fang, teachers, staff and board members had put in last Spring. They really stepped up to the extraordinary challenge of figuring out how to transition our classes to on-line classes, and successfully implemented teaching remotely for all the language classes and some electives as well. A big THANK YOU to them for all their efforts and dedication!

In addition, over the summer we’ve been able to fine tune and increase our offerings for on-line electives. A reminder that this year, electives (apart from SAT prep) are included in your tuition. Please sign up for an elective! The following are the current electives offered:

ELECTIVES:

• Calligraphy – learn the skills to create beautiful and dynamic characters.
• Chess – learn Chinese and western chess, a great way to develop strategy skills.
• Chinese Knotting – learn how to tie decorative knots, parents welcome!
• Intro to Chinese Arts and Crafts – a fun way to learn Chinese culture!
• Martial Arts and Fitness (NEW) – great for getting a workout in for the kids!
• Origami – Learn how to fold fun projects. Highly recommended by my daughter who took it last year!
• SAT Prep – extra charge, but totally worth it if your child is gearing up for the SATs.
• Sewing (NEW) – learn how to sew fun crafts, with former teacher Terry Taylor.
• Yoga (NEW) –   for Students and Parents! ($100 for parents for 14 classes, or $10 per class drop in rate)

In addition to the above, starting week 2 we will be setting up a weekly community zoom hour for parents to sign in and catch up! Until we get back into school in person, we hope this community hour can offer parents a time to get together and chat. You just have to bring your own coffee and snacks! We are also working on how to hold our Chinese New Year celebration, raffle, and general assemblies. More to come on these events later in the year. Later on in the Fall we will also be evaluating to see if we can return to classes in person in the Spring. Please make sure to read your emails for updates on these and more topics.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: General Assembly Zoom Meeting

We will start on 9/12/20 with a ZOOM general assembly from 9-9:15am. After this, each student should sign into their respective classes. Please use this link for the general assembly.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84990147401?pwd=N0IvWWNFa294MnN2YkFKY3RjSmF3Zz09

Meeting ID: 849 9014 7401

Passcode: Ni Hao

In the meantime, please refer to the attachments for the following information:

• 2020-2021 Calendar
• Administration, staff, and board members’ contact information
• Emergency phone system sign up information

As usual, a weekly briefing email to all families will be sent out to keep you up to date with any information, e.g. school activities, updates, etc. If you do not receive this email by the start of week 2, please contact the registrar to verify your contact information. In addition, we have an emergency phone system set up, used only for last minute closures (power outages, internet issues). See attached for how to sign up.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions at any time, please feel free to reach out to any of the administration, staff or board members.

Looking forward to a wonderful school year!

Sincerely yours,

Rick Chan (Principal)

Francine Fang (Vice-Principal)

Weifang Lin, (Board Co-Chair)

David Strollo (Board Co-Chair)

NWCS Co-Chairperson, 2017-2021