A Starter Guide for New Families

While the Blackbaud Portal is going to be your main communications hub moving forward, this can be a resource to help you get on track for a joyful and successful school year. 

Probably your most important Live Oak communications platform to get familiar with is what we call the “Portal”. It’s our internal system that will essentially serve as your hub of information for virtually all things Live Oak. We encourage you to check the Portal regularly to stay up-to-date on school happenings. 

You should already have login credentials to access the Portal – they would be the same username and password that you used to login to Tuition Management upon completing your admission agreement in March. If you have not yet, you will use this link to login to the Portal; go ahead and bookmark that since you will be using it a lot. 

Once you are logged in you should see some different menus:

Featured News: When you first log in you will likely see the featured news section by default. Important action items and time-sensitive news will be posted here for easy visibility. 

Your child(ren)’s academic information: In the upper left of your page you will see your child(ren’s) name. Click on that to see an overview of their classes, day-to-day schedule, links to class pages, and other academic information. 

Resources: These are the collection of resource tiles that will contain valuable information about specific areas of the school. You will find important overviews of processes and procedures, links to extracurricular content, information about volunteering and happenings around the PGA (Parent Guardian Association), and more. 

News: The recent activity section will contain news items and updates from the school. We try to post items internally on this news feed that supplement or mirror the information that goes out in the weekly newsletter (sent out every Thursday evening). 

Calendar: The Portal calendar serves as the official school calendar. Any changes to event dates, times, locations, etc. will be reflected on this calendar. 

If you have not yet, please try to login to the Portal and let us know if you have any problems accessing your account. Reach out to Edie Alejandre, edie_alejandre@liveoaksf.org with any issues related to Portal access. 

This year we will continue using the Pikmykid app for drop-off and pick-up procedures. Incoming families, please review the “Pikmykid” resource tile on the Portal for an overview of the process. 

The first step will be to download and register on the Pikmykid app. Prior to the start of the school year you will receive placards that contain your child(ren)’s student ID numbers; you will keep these in your car to facilitate the pick-up process with Live Oak staff. More detailed instructions as to the pick-up/drop-off process are outlined on the Pikmykid resource board. 

Please reach out to Janeth Guiterriez Moreno, janeth_gutierrezmoreno@liveoaksf.org if you need assistance with the Pikmykid app or have questions about the pick-up/drop-off process. 

All school forms will be completed digitally within the Portal. 

New incoming families – please login to the Portal where you will see a yellow notification banner. Click on the notification and you will see the Annual Form that you can click on and complete digitally. There will be no need to print and submit the form unless you would like to print a copy for your own records. 

Please contact Edie Alejandre, edie_alejandre@liveoaksf.org or Janeth Gutierrez Moreno, janeth_gutierrezmoreno@liveoaksf.org with any questions about the forms. 

The Extended Care program includes Morning Care, Afternoon Care, Study Hall, Roots & Branches, and clubs. In addition, there are drama and sports programs available to students in grades 6-8 (at no extra charge). You can read all about the various activities in more depth on the Extended Care resource tile on the Portal; that’s also where you will sign up for Extended Care programs. 

Day to day we offer an engaging Extended Care program open to all students before school from 7:30 to 8:10am and after school from 2:45 to 6pm. You can plan ahead for your child(ren) to attend Extended Care or drop-in as needed. Extended Care is even available on early release days, during professional days, Parent/Guardian Conferences and more. Billing is handled through the Tuition Management portion of the Portal and reflects Extended Care usage from the previous month. All Extended Care fees – including those for Holiday Care and Roots & Branches – are adjusted for families participating in our Adjusted Tuition Program.   

We group our Extended Care participants by grade: K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. Students taking part in Extended Care before or after school will have a range of activities at their disposal, from quiet study or reading time to after-school clubs like Table Tennis Club, Dungeons & Dragons, or Lego Robotics Club. Clubs are always open for anyone to join at any time providing your child tons of options and flexibility to explore various interests.

The activities offered in Roots & Branches are special interest courses taught by qualified instructors for an additional fee. Courses run every trimester for eight to ten-week sessions, three days a week, and each class meets once a week. Families can sign up for new courses at the beginning of each trimester through the Extended Care resource tile on the Portal. We offered some really fun classes this past year: Makers Club: Tinkering, Chess Wizards, Taekwondo, STEAM with Moonshot Labs, private music lessons, Budding Chefs cooking club, and so much more!

Use the school calendar on the Portal to see when Holiday Care will/will not be available by clicking on a holiday date and taking note of the description for the event which indicates Holiday Care availability. Reach out to our Extended Care staff, extendedcare@liveoaksf.org with any questions you have about the programs we offer. 

One of Live Oak’s long-standing community-building traditions is Groves. Groves are mini communities within the school that include two students from each grade K-8 and 2-3 adult staff members. They provide opportunities for younger students to get comfortable around older students in a smaller, more relaxed, positive environment. They help build relationships between students and staff members who may not be in the classrooms regularly. And they give older students the chance to be mentors for the up-and-coming generations. 

Groves typically meet one Friday per month and feature interactive activities like theme-based roundtable sharing, games, engaging mini projects and more. For example, one Friday this past spring Groves worked together to make a section of a paper chain with environmental tips for Earth Day. They are one of our favorite ways for all students to get to know each other and for each individual to feel a sense of belonging at Live Oak. Students and staff remain in the same Grove for the duration of their time at Live Oak, further deepening those important relationships.   

Your child(ren) will find out which Grove they are in once school starts in August so be on the lookout for that!

Read the welcome from incoming PGA Co-Chair Sam Hong 

Volunteer opportunities are varied and allow for degrees of commitment that make sense for each person. Any and all involvement is valued and critical to our school. Soon you will see the PGA resource tile as well as the Volunteer tile among your resource tiles on the Portal; both will help outline the process for volunteering. 

A critical part of the PGA includes Class Representatives for each grade level. Class reps are liaisons between the PGA/teachers and the rest of the class community by helping amplify key messages and news like upcoming events and volunteer opportunities specific to each grade (think field trip chaperone sign-ups or invitations for parents to come to see their student’s work in the classrooms!). Your reps are likely to reach out to the class in August, shortly before the start of the school year.

Some of the volunteer opportunities that are always needed include helping serve lunch in the Grand Hall, supporting students in the library, or bringing the family out on a weekend morning to help keep the Potrero Hill Learning Garden at Jackson Park growing strong. In addition to these, there are needs for field trip chaperones, support to community service events like Family Service Night, or various opportunities to help pack support kits for families of Family House and our other community partners. Live Oak parents and guardians also work with the administration to organize parent enrichment events so that Live Oak parents, like Live Oak students, are always on a learning journey. Furthermore, the admissions office is always looking for families to serve as liaisons during tours and open houses for prospective families. 

 

Even something as simple as your attendance at PGA meetings is valuable. The PGA typically hosts monthly meetings over the course of the year (in-person, as well as over Zoom) to provide updates on events, volunteer opportunities, etc.

We hope you’ll start thinking about areas where your interests, background, and time can help support Live Oak’s learners. 

One of the ways we aim to support continued student learning is through practical summer homework assignments. Students entering grades 3-8 have summer assignments provided by the teachers at each grade level. The assignments are the same regardless of which teacher or section your child ends up in come the fall. The intent of this work is to serve as a bridge building on the concepts learned in the previous grade while preparing for a successful entry into the next. Many of our incoming students are entering kindergarten and grades K-2 are not expected to do summer homework, but taking a quick look at these assignments helps give you an idea what to expect in the years to come.

If you have any questions about the summer assignments, the best place to start is by reaching out to the respective division heads: Tanya Susoev (tanya_susoev@liveoaksf.org) for grades 5-8 and Victoria Ladew (victoria_ladew@liveoaksf.org) for grades K-4. 

Our librarian Johnny Galang also puts together comprehensive summer reading lists for our students at every grade level. These titles are great ways to find something new and exciting to capture your imagination over the summer. Happy reading!   

We know there is a lot of information to process when joining a new school environment. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions. We invite you to refer to the "Who Do I Ask? Who Do I Tell?" document above to find the appropriate contact for your question. If you cannot find the right person on that list, please contact our new Director of Enrollment Management and Admissions Maurice Hill Jr., maurice_hill@liveoaksf.org who can help point you in the right direction with any needs or concerns that may arise. We are happy to have you at Live Oak!