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Felicity’s Message on Current Events

Felicity Families, 

We have been through some challenging times over the past three months, to say the least. Individually and as a community, we have been forced to re-examine ourselves and our country. Whether you have been deeply affected by current events or have noticed an increased level of stress, our thoughts are with you. We hope you have been kind to yourselves and patient with all  you interact with. Everyone is dealing with modern events in unique ways. We encourage discussions with your child or loved one about the importance of speaking openly and respectfully to others regarding race and systemic concerns visible in current events. Felicity firmly believes in the greatness of every single individual and that our institutions must share these values. As we open and develop our minds, we can elevate the spirits of individuals and as a nation. 

Felicity’s commitment to developing one’s morals and value system, giving back to the community, encouraging second chances and self-improvement is unbreakable. There is no time like the present to remind families and ourselves of this mission, as well as hold each other accountable to practice it each day. This can be a great opportunity to challenge yourself and your loved ones about having those difficult conversations and be willing to learn from each other. Please remember that Felicity will continue to be supportive and walk alongside you all during these uncertain times. 

Specifically, our school clinicians will happily answer any questions or provide access to resources to access mental health treatment or community assistance. Our school clinicians know that mental health may be affected in different ways based on individual experiences, whether it is school avoidance, increased signs of frustration or reminders of past trauma, we see you and we hear you. 

Lastly, we hope that you will take this chance to look at some important resources on how to speak with your loved ones openly about current events that may be impacting mental health, no matter what you or your loved one’s opinion may be:


Resources: 
-https://neaedjustice.org/black-lives-matter-school-resources/
-https://rogersbh.org/about-us/newsroom/blog/supporting-students-school-anxiety-during-covid-19
-https://www.nami.org/Your-Journey/Identity-and-Cultural-Dimensions/Black-African-American 

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Felicity Graduation 2020 Shoutouts!

Felicity had a record high count of graduated students for the 2019-2020 school year! Unfortunately, due to the COVID restrictions in place, our staff had to brainstorm how to honor our hard working students while still maintaining safety guidelines. We decided to collect staff volunteers and map our a driving route based on each of the graduating students in order to deliver a certificate of completion and customized Felicity lawn sign for each student.

Most importantly, we wanted to provide a shoutout to our high school graduates: Taylor Miller, Ani Shrestha, Max Salzmann and Schuyler Walker. A number of our high school graduates have expressed a desire to start online college courses or move forward in their working professions. Additionally, we also wanted to recognize of our eighth grade graduates and give a shoutout to the following students: Kevin Acevedo, Aiden Cruz, Brandon Molinari, Nick Pesce, Nora Serbe and Yousef Zmali.

Please see some of our featured graduate signs and students below:

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Online Learning Creativity

During online learning over the past few months, our staff has found lots of creative shortcuts to improve motivation, consistency and maintain hope to move forward in all of our students’ academics as well as keeping focused on future goals.

Specifically, one of our high school classrooms, featuring Mr. Luskin and Ms. Wright, have come up with some incentives for students including weekly prizes for students such as $10-15 giftcards for students who completed the most amount of assignments on Edgenuity by Friday. In fact, Mr. Luskin and Ms. Wright worked with one of our paraprofessionals, Mr. Townsend, on creating a newsletter to publish the names of the students who completed the most assignments for the week.

Additionally, students have been offered alternative assignments to complete safely in their homes such as starting a garden and documenting plant progress as science credit, an ice cream creation experiment with homemade materials for our middle school students created by Ms. Horowitz and Mr. Bolek, as well as a COVID time capsule project, presented by one of our clinicians, Mollie Swillum, to find a creative outlet to document this time in history.