Thursday night we welcome James Albright, the principal at Alice Deal Middle School, for the annual Home and School Association sponsored Welcome to Deal Night. Mr. Albright will be here at the school for a presentation on the program at Alice Deal Middle School along with some of his teachers.

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Please Read:

DCPS Attendance Protocol

1) The Office of Youth Engagement now identifies students who accrue 10 unexcused absences as "chronically truant."

2) Students must be referred to court once they have reached 15 unexcused absences.

3) Students must be at school 80% of the entire school day in order to be considered "present".

Reminder

The only excusable reasons for a student's late arrival and/or absence from school are:

Illness or medical cause (a doctor's note is needed for 5 or more absences)
Medical or dental appointment
Death in the student's immediate family
Summoned to attend in judicial proceeding
Religious holiday
Lawful exclusion or expulsion from school
Failure of DC to provide transportation
Emergency or circumstances approved by LEA

In order to be acknowledged as "excused" the student must provide a note to the attendance counselor (written or electronically) from the parent and/or guardian citing at least one of the reasons listed above.

If you have any questions please contact the office and ask to speak to Ms. Bright, or email her.

Mark Your Calendar

November 19 (Tuesday)

Dialogue with Council Member David Catania

Chevy Chase Community Center, 7:30 p.m.

November 21 (Thursday)

HSA General Meeting 6:30 p.m.

Pre-Meeting Dinner, 6:00 p.m

November 25 (Monday)

2nd Grade American Indian Museum, 9:00 a.m.

November 26 (Tuesday)

Lafayette Tour (9:00 a.m.)

November 28-29 (Thursday-Friday)

No School -- Thanksgiving Break

See full school calendar

From the HSA

Gayle Moseley & Hope Scheller, co-presidents

As we quickly approach all of the fall/winter holidays, and the end of the calendar year, here are the top 10 things on our minds this week.

10.....more days to donate to Lafayette's mustache growing

Movember team

9......days until Hanukkah begins

8......days until Thanksgiving Break-Gobble! Gobble!

7......days until the Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast-Yum!

6......days until the 2nd grade American Indian Museum-Not to be missed!

5......weeks until the beginning of Winter Break

4......months until the Spring "Havana Nights" annual auction party

3......performances left of Jerome Robbins' "West Side Story" � la Wilson's Theater Arts

2......and a half weeks until the wonderful annual benefit "Coats & Cocktails"

1......HSA General Meeting, this Thursday@6:00pm-hope you can join us!

Have a great week!

-- Hope & Gayle

See HSA board members

Join the HSA

Dialogue with Councilmember Catania

TONIGHT!!!! Tuesday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m.

Chevy Chase Community Center

5601 Connecticut Avenue, NW

The Chevy Chase Citizens Association and the Lafayette HSA are co-sponsoring a meeting featuring a discussion about Education in DC with At-large DC Councilmember David Catania, chair of the council's Education Committee.

Community members will have the opportunity to hear from and ask questions of Councilmember Catania about education issues that impact the Chevy Chase community, such as the Deputy Mayor of Education Abigail Smith's initiative to review and recommend any changes to DC Public Schools' student assignment and school boundary policies and practices, including the feeder relationships between schools, such as Lafayette's with Deal Middle School, student and school achievement measurements, a unified lottery for enrollment at traditional and charter schools, and college tuition assistance. All are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be served.

Attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to contribute to the Community Center's food drive to benefit the Capital Area Food Bank. We hope you can join us for this important event to learn about and share your views on education issues in DC.

Quick Drop-off

The quick drop-off on Northampton Street is available

each morning from 8:30-8:45 a.m. To relieve congestion on Northampton, and hopefully make the whole process quicker and smoother, please follow the following guidelines.

Please travel west (from 33rd St toward Broad Branch) on Northampton in order to pull up in the drop-off zone
The drop off zone is a "Kiss & Ride", please have your child sit on the passenger side of the car so that they can exit easily to the sidewalk
Please pull your car all the way to the cone at the front of the line so that as many cars as possible can drop off at one time
If you need to park and exit your car to assist your children, please do not park in the drop off zone. Park your car legally on one of the streets surrounding the school and assist and walk your children from there.
If possible, drop older kids on 33rd Street and have them walk across the field to the school, avoiding the drop off zone madness completely.

We also need your help to keep the drop-off line moving! We've assigned each grade a month, so if you haven't already, please visit the sign up page today.

Parents Need to Sign In

A reminder to parents. . . When visiting Lafayette during the school day, parents MUST sign in at the security desk in the Great Hall. This is for the safety of the students and teachers and ensures that school staff knows who's in the building. Parents are not permitted in the hallways unless they are signed in and there for a specific, scheduled purpose (volunteering in the classroom, meeting with a teacher). We know it's fun to peek in and see your child, or try to grab the teacher for one quick question, but having parents in the classroom hallway areas during the school day is distracting to both students and teachers. Please help our teachers by following procedure and take a minute to sign in with our friendly security guard. If you need to get a message, lunch, or anything else to your child or teacher, please stop by the office and Ms. Bright can help you via the most appropriate method. Thank you!

Survey Results Are In

We want to thank everyone who participated in the After-School
survey image Enrichment Survey! The purpose of the survey was to help us understand how to meet the needs of our community when it comes to the enrichment offered after school. Based upon the results of the survey the HSA is planning on taking a more active role managing after-school enrichment, and is putting together a plan for after the first of the year that will solve the following:

The increase in cost to enrichment providers since DCPS is now enforcing rental fees for use of our school building.
Ensuring programs that were unable to run at our school this fall, or that are hesitant to return, will be able to return and offer their program in the future.
Miscommunication and scheduling difficulties

We look forward to putting all the information gathered to good use, and to improve the after-school enrichment offerings at our school.

Student Council News: Election Results are In! Fundraisers Underway

Hello parents and students. I have three exciting things to tell you about today. The first one is the amazing election we had 2 weeks ago. I am proud to announce that this year's student council president is Doug Cohen. Our Vice President of the student council is Daisy Blumenthal. Our Secretary of the student council is Weston Duncan. And the most exciting part is that we have a tie for the Treasurer. It has been a very long time since we have had a tie for any part of the student body. Our two Treasurers are Jonathan Morris and Rhone Resch (AKA RJ).

The second important thing is that a terrible tragedy has happened in the Philippines. There was a typhoon that knocked out a lot of things. In many places, buildings and homes have been crushed; it was a very bad storm. It might be the worst natural disaster we have ever seen in a long time. For those of you who don't know what a typhoon is, it is a very big windstorm like a tornado or a hurricane. So, the student council will be raising money to help the victims of the storm.

And, last but not least is raising money to give a homeless person a Thanksgiving dinner. Have you ever seen somebody on the streets with no food? Well, we are collecting money to help those people have a nice Thanksgiving dinner. You are not obligated to bring in money, but we would appreciate it if you bring at least $1.98 because that buys a needy person in DC a Thanksgiving dinner. There is a big jar for collections in the Great Hall or you may send money in the envelope that your student will be bringing home. Thanks so much!

That concludes my article for the Tuesday Bulletin.

Bye!

Weston Duncan

Havana Nights Auction Update

The Auction website is ready! Although the auction catalog won't be ready for several months, the auction website is up and ready for business. Whether you are interested in donating an item or purchasing a catalog shout-out, or simply donating cash to sponsor this fun event, you can visit the website today, or as often as you like, over the next couple of months.

We Need You!

We are still looking for a few brave volunteers to help us out by soliciting items for the online auction. If you would like to help out in one of the following categories, please email Mary Jaffe, our Auction Solicitation Chair.

For the Kids
Cheers
DC is Unique
Out on the Town
Getaways
Sports & Fitness

Decorators Wanted

Would you like to help transform the school for the night of the auction party? Email Brooke Evans to get involved in planning this fabulous party.

DCPS Progress

Today is another great day for DCPS. We received the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and students in DC made tremendous growth, significantly outpacing every other state and the nation as a whole! NAEP, known as the Nation's Report Card, tests 4th and 8th grade students in math and reading and is widely regarded as the gold-standard in assessments as it is externally administered, monitored and scored every two years. NAEP is the only assessment that truly allows states to compare ourselves across the entire country in an apples-to-apples way. Click here for more information from DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson.

HSA Nominating Committee

This is a great way to get involved in the future of the HSA. We are in need of three or more parents who would like to be on the HSA Nominating Committee. These individuals help find nominees for the HSA Board positions for next school year. They let interested people know what the responsibilities of the positions are and what they need to do in order to be a candidate (we'll give you all the information you'll need). Time commitment for this job is really only a couple of hours a week and your responsibilities are over once candidates are finalized in early April. If interested, please contact Gayle Moseley or Hope Scheller.

Buy a WLES Shout Out

Have a custom message read to your child during the morning announcements. It is a great way to say "Happy Birthday," "Good Luck" or just send a fun message to your child at the beginning of the school day. Print and fill out this form, place it and a payment of $15 (checks made out to Lafayette HSA) in the WLES Shout Out box in the Great Hall. Announcements and payment must be received at least seven days prior to the announcement date. Please contact Eden Burgess for more information.

Community
Community Notices

Order Potomac Pizza Delivery on Wednesday 11/20 between 4 and 9pm and help support our LAFAYETTE HSA! Order $15 minimum and MENTION LAFAYETTE and our HSA will receive 20% of the sales proceeds. Potomac Pizza-Chevy Chase,19 Wisconsin Cir., Chevy Chase, MD 20815 Phone: 301.951.1127

Christmas Pageant. Do your children want to participate in a Christmas Pageant on Christmas Eve? Does your family want to watch a pageant? Email Liz McReady for more information.

Fencing Opportunity. With soccer season finished, is your child looking for a fun, new activity? Try fencing! Capital Fencing Academy in North Bethesda has rolling admission for its beginner classes on Saturdays and Mondays. To find our more about our fencing fun, visit us on Facebook (Capital Fencing Academy). To learn more about our program & register for our New Musketeer class, visit www.capfencing.com or call 301-291-5045.

Girl Scout Troop 6113 is collecting items from the following list for the The Red Cross at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. There will be a box in the Great Hall to collect donations. If you would like to donate a high value item please contact Laura Scalzo. Please note, for patient safety, all items must be NEW & UNUSED.

ELECTRONICS: IPad,IPod Touch, Kindle Fire, XBOX w/ Kinect Playstation 3 (PS3)

NEW RELEASE DVD Movies NEW RELEASE games for the Xbox 360, Wii, PS3 XBOX 360 Controllers PS3 Controllers

CLOTHING ITEMS S-XL sizes, black, grey, navy blue only:

Sweatshirts (zip-up "Hoodies"); Open bottom sweatpants (non-cinch bottoms); Men's running/trail/walking shoes (Sizes 9-12 including half sizes); Plain cotton t-shirts (not white) Plain Athletic Shorts (nylon workout shorts, black only); White socks; Boxers/Boxer Briefs (various colors); Windbreakers/Coats; Flip-Flops/Shower Shoes; Cotton Beanies (hats) Gloves

CANTEEN/WELCOME ITEMS:

Bottled Water, Individually packaged chips, cookies, crackers, granola bars, fruit cups etc

GIFT CARDS:

Visa MasterCard iTunes Giant/Safeway Target International Phone Cards. Recommend major brand (AT&T/Sprint/Verizon) of 300+ min.

TOILETRIES (for men & women) NO HOTEL ITEMS please! :

Deodorant Men's Shaving Cream/Gel Chap Stick, nail clippers (big and small) Full sized body wash, shampoo, conditioner, unscented lotion Toothbrushes Toothpaste Travel Size: Mouthwash, Baby Power, Q-Tips, Kleenex

OTHER:

Pillows (Travel Size), Pillow Cases, Rolling Duffel bags, Plain black backpacks Word Search and Crossword Puzzle books, Pens/Pencils;Coloring Books/Crayons Puzzles (500 pieces or more, unopened) Models (all levels: cars, planes, military vehicles, etc).

Thank You Lafayette Sponsors!

These organizations support Lafayette through a generous annual donation- please support them!

Learn more about becoming a Lafayette sponsor.

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