Harker: Two Common Ground Events in January

Dear Harker Families:

I am excited to announce that The Harker School is hosting two Common Ground events this January.

•	Wednesday, Jan. 16 is a Pop-Up event about vaping and substance abuse among teens.

•	Wednesday, Jan. 30 is a presentation titled “Changing Bodies, Changing Times,” with Justine Fonte.

Common Ground Pop-Up events are intended to share information about topics in which parents have expressed interest at Common Ground schools. The Jan. 16 presenter, Dr. Danielle Ramo, is a clinical psychologist, director of research operations at Hopelab Foundation, and adjunct professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco, with expertise in adolescent and young adult substance abuse. Her research program focuses on using digital tools to understand and address risky substance use and emotional well-being in teens. Visit this page for information about Dr. Ramo.

(There is another Pop-Up event on Tuesday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. at Menlo School, titled “The Gap Year Advantage.” This is a panel discussion moderated by Julie Lythcott-Haims, former dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising at Stanford University. Visit this page for information about this Pop-Up.)

On the morning of Jan. 30, Harker will host Common Ground’s third presentation of the year, titled “Changing Bodies, Changing Times: Sex Ed 101 for Parents of Tweens & Younger,” with Justine Fonte. In this session, the core principles and foundational concepts of the sexuality education field most relevant to tweens and younger will be addressed: body agency, identities and healthy relationships. Ms. Fonte is the director of health and wellness at The Dalton School, a prestigious independent school in New York City, where she teaches health and sex-positive programs for students, parents and faculty. She will discuss the skills children and teens need to develop healthy relationships in today’s world. She will offer practical advice on raising digitally connected kids with the changing dynamics of relationships and technology’s impact on them. She will also discuss the importance of talking frankly with our kids about the psychological and social impact of pornography. There will also be other presentations at Nueva and Woodside Priory Schools. Visit this page for more about Ms. Fonte.

Harker’s Common Ground parent representatives will also host a Community Connect event on Thursday, Jan. 31 at 8:15 a.m. in the multipurpose room at the middle school campus (3800 Blackford Ave). They will lead a roundtable discussion that will help Harker parents share insights with and learn from fellow Harker parents about topics addressed during these January sessions. For more information, please keep your eye out for an addition communication from Teré Aceves, director of volunteer programs for grades 6-12.

All presentations are free to Harker parents and the parents of any other Common Ground member school. No RSVP is necessary.

To further support our parents, we have parenting resources on our portal. You will find resources on time management, social emotional learning, and parenting in general, and we will continue to add content to this site during the year.

I wish you and your family a wonderful 2019 and hope to see many of you at one of the presentations we are hosting this month.

Jennifer Gargano
Assistant Head of School, Academic Affairs