Highlights & Action Items

Gala - Early Bird Tickets ON SALE NOW!
Virtual Coffee & Conversation- Jan. 23
Strategic Planning Community Day- Jan. 27
A conversation about book bans with Frank Strong- Jan. 29
Cooperative Middle School Dance (6th-8th Grades)- Feb. 3
Announcing Scholastic Art Award Winners!
Financial Aid helpline
BookFair- Feb. 12-18

Lucky 21- Spring Gala Tickets!

Join us at Fair Market on Sunday, April 7th at 5:30 PM for a night of fun, food, and friends — all in support of our wonderful GSA!
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Early Bird tickets for Lucky 21, GSA's 2024 Spring Gala, are on sale now through January 31st, after which prices will go up. So be sure to secure your tickets today!
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Everything is included in your ticket, including $5,000 in Casino Cash to be used throughout the night on Slots, BlackJack, Craps, Roulette, and Poker.
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GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

Virtual Coffee & Conversation- Jan. 23

Ms. Yacono is committed to providing another opportunity for our busy families to take advantage of her Open Door Policy. That is why she began offering a monthly evening Coffee & Conversation on Zoom from 7:00-8:00pm.

These are come-and-go and very informal. If you just want to jump on and share a short story or ask a quick question-- that's great! If you have a more in-depth (but still relevant to the whole school) question you'd like to discuss-- that's great too! If you have questions that pertain to your particular student, we still encourage you to set a meeting with Ms. Yacono.

This is the Zoom link for this event. It can also be found on ClassDojo.

Strategic Planning Community Day!

Community Strategic Design Day is NEXT WEEK, January 27th from 8:30 AM - 3:00 PM, and there’s still plenty of time to RSVP!

As an attendee, you will collaborate with other parents, alumni, faculty, and leadership to help shape the future of the Girls’ School of Austin. Click the link here to sign up!

We understand this is a substantial commitment from our parents, so we are also offering a day of free, on-campus child care during the event. From relaxing crafts to outdoor games to everything in between, our staff is hard at work planning a whole day of activities for the girls!

Thank you so much for your commitment to girls’ education and empowerment, and we’ll see you next Saturday!

Presentation and Conversation with Frank Strong

On January 29th, GSA will be hosting a Presentation and Conversation with Frank Strong. Frank is an English teacher and one of the creators of the anti-book ban movement, the Texas Freedom to Read Project. Texas Freedom to Read Project supports, connects and mobilizes parent and community member led initiatives fighting for student rights and against censorship and book bans in Texas.

This event is open to the whole GSA parent community. This is a fantastic opportunity to come together to learn about how others are combating recent book bans.

Check out the project here: https://www.txftrp.org/

PLEASE RSVP HERE

Cooperative Middle School Dance

GSA is excited to be joining other local independent Middle Schools for an upcoming cooperative dance hosted by Austin Jewish Academy. Students from AJA, St. Theresa’s, Hyde Park, St. Francis, GSA, and more have been invited to join. Here are the details:

When: February 3 from 7pm-9pm

Where: Shalom Austin JCC Campus

7300 Hart Ln, Austin, TX 78731

Who: 6th-8th grade students

Tickets are on sale now and close January 31st.

Big Art News!

We are thrilled to announce that eight of our talented GSA 7th and 8th grade students have won a total of 23 Regional Scholastic Art Awards for their artworks in Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Printmaking and Mixed Media. Almost 2,000 works from area High Schools and Middle Schools were adjudicated last weekend, with 300 awards. Congratulations to ALL our competitors--- it is a brave thing to put your art out there in the world, and we are so proud of you! We hope to have a show of our 7th and 8th Grade Independent Study work in March at GSA. Their art is remarkable!

The Scholastic exhibit and reception will be Sunday, Jan. 28th, 1-3pm, at St Stephen’s Scanlan Gallery. All are invited!

The awards are:

Gold Key

Josephine Herman (2)
Tiernan O'Keefe
Sophia Tames (2)

Silver Key

Zora Creed
Luella Fincher-McConnell
Josephine Herman
Tiernan O'Keefe
Sophia Tames (3)

Honorable Mention

Zora Creed
Emilia Furman (2)
Josephine Herman
Colette Kim (2)
Tiernan O'Keefe
Wynne Pirkey (2)
Anishka Ramanujam
Sophia Tames (3)

A Note from Community Brands: SSS Financial Aid Helpline

Community Brands is passionate about providing convenient and timely services to our families and school partners. To better serve our families as we move into the busy season, SSS has extended our Family Support hours to be open from 7 AM to 8 PM CT. The extended hours will run through Friday, April 19th, 2024.

Adding an additional hour of service in the morning and two additional hours of service in the evening will help families find more time to get the assistance they need with their Financial Aid application questions. This change does not impact Spanish Support or School Support hours which will still be available from 8 AM to 6 PM CT.

Toll-free: 1-800-344-8328
Hours: Mon–Fri, 7AM – 8PM Central Time
Effective Dates: January 8, 2024 - April 19, 2024

BookFair- February 12-18

In partnership with BookPeople, Austin’s local independent bookstore, we are hosting our annual BookFair benefiting the GSA community. During the week, not only will families have the opportunity to purchase books in-store and online, but at school, students will celebrate our collective passion for reading. We even plan to bring published authors onto campus to speak with our girls!

More details to come next week, including links to pre-order books for our author guests to autograph.