A few highlights from National Lutheran Schools Week

MRS. BINKLEY, LOWER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL UPDATE

We are so blessed to be a part of a Christian community where we can not only share God’s word but celebrate it! National Lutheran Schools Week has been fun and spiritually fulfilling as we have discussed with our students what it means to run the race set before us with ENDURANCE.

Our students have a regular Bible time each and every day that allows them to learn and grow spiritually as the Word of God fills their hearts and minds. This week we have focused on Hebrews 12: 1-3. This scripture encourages us to focuses our eyes on Jesus as we walk through life’s ups and downs and persevere. We relate this to the challenges of learning, relationships, and life and how we do not do this alone.

We also had the privilege of supporting the Lutheran Pacific Southwest District affected by the California fires with our Buckets of Love. It has been great to see our students bringing in coins from their piggy banks and loving others as God has loved us. Each and every one of you are important to our community and we are thankful that God is the center of all we do.

DR. LUNARDI, UPPER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL UPDATE

As we head into our 4th week of the second semester, I’m reminded of how quickly time flies by. James 4:14 says that our time “appears for a little while and then vanishes”. This reminder motivates me and all of us at Upper Campus to do everything possible to make the most of the time we have with each of our students every day. More specifically, we realize the urgency with which we are called to share the Gospel with every student. As Paul wrote to the Romans (10:14): 

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?”

For us at HCLA, this mission goes beyond our daily Bible classes, morning Advisory time, and weekly Chapels and extends to the way we approach all that we do. For this ‘24-25 school year, our staff has been reading and learning from On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom (Smith, 2018). The focus of the book is how our faith can and should inform all that we do in the classroom, regardless of content area. This week, as we join with almost 2000 Lutheran schools around the country in celebration of National Lutheran Schools Week, we have enjoyed special daily devotionals, faith-based theme days, service learning field trips, and a Powderpuff basketball game.

I had the opportunity this past week to meet with our Senior Class Advisors to plan some end-of-year events for our seniors, further reminding me of how short our time with each student is. In roughly 14 weeks, our time with our seniors in an official capacity will come to an end. For our other high school and middle school students, while the journey to graduation may seem long, we know that it will truly vanish quickly. With that in mind, as Ephesians 5 teaches, let us all make the most of every opportunity and all the time that we have together.

OUR ADMISSIONS HAS BECOME VERY COMPETITIVE AND SOUGHT AFTER.  

We are still accepting a few applications for 4th grade and 5th grade as well as 9th - 12th.  All other grades are full and we have begun wait lists.  Families still interested would need to put their name on the interest list to be considered should any spots become available. 

At this time last year we had 370 students enrolled - we currently have 463 students enrolled with 77 applications still in processing.

Due to the growth with the addition of our new Lower School building:
we had the largest number of Kindergartners moving up to 1st Grade
Largest number of 5th Graders moving up to 6th Grade
and the largest number of 8th graders moving up to 9th Grade

We are excited to invite our grandparents on campus.  

Upper Campus 10:30 February 11th - RSVP HERE by February 7 for Upper Campus so we can accommodate for space limitations

Lower Campus February 12th (VPK- 2nd) Teachers will send rsvp info

9:00 - 10:00am KP & K

10:30 - 11:30am VPK

12:00 -1:00pm 1st

1:30 - 2:30pm 2nd

Lower Campus February 13th (3 - 5th) Teachers will send rsvp info

9:00 - 10:00am 3rd

11:30 - 12:30pm 4th

1:30 - 2:30pm 5th

Our students love this special time with their grandparents!

HOW to view your TUITION/ BILLING breakdown on FACTS

1. Login to your Family Portal account

2. Select Financial (on the left)

3. Select Financial Home (on the right)

   • From here you can view your current balance and any past due balances on the account

4. You can then select View Details (in the middle of the page) for a more in depth look.

   • This is where you can see your payment schedule, transaction history, itemized balances, charge descriptions, etc.

💻UPPER CAMPUS FAMILIES:  Please review our FAQs for common questions regarding the our 1:1 School Managed Chromebooks 💻

REGISTER NOW! February 22 Volleyball Clinic

🏀🏈⚽📣⚾🏐

EXCITING NEWS:  We will have several Athletic Camps throughOUt the summer.  Flyer and registration information will be shared next week.  

Daddy Daughter Dance Helpers - Setup, During and Clean-up.  

It takes a lot to make the Daddy Daughter Dance magical for our little girls and their Dads.

From setup, to check-in and serving to clean up we need as much help as we can get. Please take a look at the sign-up genius, link below and see of you are able to help out any where. Even if you can only give a small amount of time every little bit helps. Many hands make light work. Thank you so much for even considering to help. If you have any questions regarding helping out please email lowerPALS@thehcla.org

Daddy Daughter Dance Helpers Sign-up

RESURRECTION CHURCH IS SPONSORING A GAME NIGHT FEBRUARY 1.  THIS "FUN FOR ALL" EVENT WILL HELP SUPPORT THEIR MISSION TRIP TO GUATEMALA IN MARCH. There will be board games, card games, and dice games, even hopscotch! Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids 5-12, and kids under 5 are free! Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Food and drinks will be available for an additional price

January 27 - 31 NATIONAL LUTHERAN SCHOOLS WEEK

We will be celebrating our heritage and foundation along with more than 1,800 other preschools, elementary schools and high schools. This is an opportunity to proclaim and celebrate God’s work among us in schools of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.  We thank God for the opportunity to provide excellent academic preparation for the children we serve. We are grateful for the opportunity to share Jesus’ amazing love with children and their families.  Lutheran schools are amazing incubators for faithful witness of God’s love for us through Christ by teachers and students alike.  We have dress up days, service opportunities, relevant chapel messages and FUN! Mr. Blake Wright, our Director of Spiritual Life, will be sharing information next week about giving to some organizations we are partnering with.  This is a perfect way for us to help those around us while SHINING in a dark and broken world.  We will be giving to the PACIFIC SOUTHWEST LCMS DISTRICT to help those affected by the fires in California as well as Redeeming Life Ministries in Sanford.

Lower School Dress Up Days

Monday: Dress up as your favorite Bible Character.

Friday: Dress up like you are running a race.

Upper School Dress Up Days

Monday: Show your Faith

God tells us to be strong in the faith, to not back down when our faith is challenged, to learn and grow in our faith to be closer to God. For this dress-up day, don’t be afraid to show the love of Christ in how you dress. Want to wear your Sunday Best? Go for it. Want to dress as a Light of the World? Go for it. Show the love of Christ in how you dress and be proud of your faith.

Tuesday: Opposites Day

Taking something negative and turning it into a positive is a super-power. God shows us this multiple times throughout the Bible, showing us a person you’d never think would be able to accomplish anything and giving them the ability to achieve God’s perfect plan. For this dress-up day, you and a partner will dress up as opposites. Think light and dark, happy and sad, something positive and something negative. This will remind us of how God takes us out of our darkness and sadness and gives us His light and life, changing us from one to another.

Friday: Parts of a Whole Day

We are all united under the banner of Christ, being members of His church, together. For this dress-up day, you and some friends will dress as parts of something whole. Want to be a s’more? Have you and your friends be a marshmallow, a piece of chocolate, and a graham cracker. Want to be a forest? Dress as trees and wildlife.

All outfits for all days should follow Dress Code rules as found in the Handbook, that includes length, coverage, and material of the clothing. Hats are allowed provided they are taken off in class and placed out of the way. Shoes should still follow dress code.

Directory - Please note that we will activate a school family directory next school year.  When filling out your re-enrollment, please check your settings pertaining to the family directory.  There are options for which information you would like listed in the directory.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLASS:  Parents, we are looking for business owners and entrepreneurs to share their knowledge with our students at HCLA.  Our Entrepreneurship class starts in January 2025 and we are in need of guest speakers.  Our students greatly benefit from your experience and insight, as they will be creating businesses of their own from scratch this spring.  If you are willing to volunteer, please reach out to Mr. Cleavenger dcleavenger@thehcla.org.    Thank you for your support!

Please join us in prayer for our nation on Monday!  May it be peaceful, quiet and Godly!

Great job ladies carrying on with the road clean up.  We love your spirit to volunteer on MLK day!  We look forward to future volunteer events to get families involved in the community!

MRS. CINDY MOON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | JANUARY 10 UPDATE

Dear HCLA Families,

Happy New Year!  We welcomed back our students this week with excitement and anticipation for what lies ahead in 2025 and the 2nd semester of this school year.  As we continue to celebrate our 25th school year anniversary, we are reminded of God’s love and faithfulness as we reflect on the outstanding accomplishments and progress of our students in and outside of the classroom! 

There is always something extraordinary happening at HCLA, and our students and teachers are the reason for it.  The personal achievements of our students, as well as the ones we accomplished as a school, are all things of which we can be proud. 

Servant leaders: Since September collectively our student body has engaged in hundreds  of hours of community service with 100 % participation in local outreach! In addition, students of all ages are stepping up to lead as Cru-Greeters, chapel leaders, mentors, and more! 

Achievements:  Our students continue to show outstanding growth and high marks on our MAP standardized test scores while our most recent High School PSAT and SAT scores reflected growth!  We had an 1100 average among our Seniors who took the SAT with the high score being 1300.  The high score of our Junior Class was 1230.  We are excited to start seeing college acceptances for the class of 2025 and looking forward to their bright futures! 

Competition: Middle and High School Thespian Troupes have earned top recognition at districts with several qualifying for state competition.  Our  athletic teams remain competitive with hopes to go on to state basketball again this school year. Our  band and vocal department will soon participate in the —FLGA State Music Festival! 

A high percentage of students at both campuses are involved in the growing number of extracurricular programs offered while maintaining focus, engagement and high grades in our accelerated curriculum and class offerings.  

As we usher in a new year and 2nd semester of school - we are grateful for the support of our families.  Re Enrollment starts next week and we anticipate our highest enrollment ever at HCLA for the 2025-2026 school year!   At HCLA, we remain committed to serving the whole child in a safe and loving environment with a focus on loving God first, loving others and instilling the love for learning. 

Peace and blessings,

Cindy Moon

The Boys and Girls Club sent a few photos with some of the gifts we provided!  It is great to be a blessing!