Good evening prospective applicants,
You are receiving this email because I think you are applying to LASA. If you have changed your mind and no longer want to apply to LASA, please fill out this form so I can take you off my list.
If this is the first email you are getting from me, I recommend going to our LASA Application Updates page and reading Info Emails 1-3 before starting this one. I also apologize in advance; though I try my best, these emails tend to get long. Thank you for bearing with me.
As a quick recap, I am Jo Koerth, the principal’s secretary at LASA. It’s my job to make sure that your application has everything it needs, so you have the best possible chance to get into LASA. Even though I am doing this on top of my normal full time job, you are my priority this January (and February).
As always, the favors I ask from you to make my life easier are:
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Look for your own answers on our website (lasahighschool.org/apply) bef
ore you email LASAadmissions@ austinisd.org. Many questions are answered there. -
If you think you have missed an email from LASA, search all of your inboxes, and check your SPAM folder manually (spam won’t show up in a search!) before reaching out to me. Also ask everyone who has provided an email address to LASA to do the same thing!
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Read the Application Checklist to see what you need to complete your LASA Application. Before you upload something, read over the requirements for each item. It saves us all so much time if you get it right the first time.
Tonight, before I turn off my computer and head into the three day weekend, I will:
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Send a teacher recommendation status to everyone who hasn’t submitted their LASA Application yet. If a teacher recommendation shows as not submitted when you think it should be there can be any number of reasons for that. (Mostly, typos or missing student ID numbers for AISD students.) DO NOT email me about it. If your teacher says they have submitted the recommendation they are likely right and I will find it.
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Send an application status email to all students who have submitted their LASA Application. This will let you know if we are missing something, or if there are issues with what you submitted. If a teacher recommendation you think has been submitted shows as PENDING, feel free to email LASAadmissions@
austinisd.org. I will need your name, your teacher’s name, and any nickname they may have used for you.
If you get the application status email and there’s something missing, or something that didn’t open right, there is no need to worry. All the instructions are in the email. There are very few things that cannot be fixed at this point! The only thing I can really think of is if you’re not eligible to apply to LASA.
As a reminder, our eligibility requirements are:
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You are in 8th grade or above.
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You currently (and physically) live in AISD.
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No, not just Austin. AISD. You can look up your address here if you’re worried you might live out of district: https://www.
austinisd.org/school-finder -
No, you cannot just plan to move if you get in. We can’t even look at your application if you live out of district.
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PARENTS/GUARDIANS
In Enroll Austin, you do not need to upload report cards or test scores for LASA. The only things LASA asks you to upload are:
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Proof of Residence: Mortgage statement/Lease
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Parent ID: Driver’s License (make sure it isn’t expired!)
You can only upload one thing per category so if you want to upload several things, you have to combine them into one file.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Sat, 1/17 (that’s tomorrow!)
- Virtual Application Help Sessions by PFLASA (our parent organization)
- Virtual Enroll Austin Help by an AISD Enroll Austin specialist
Sign up for both is here: https://docs.google.com/
The ZOOM link will be sent out tonight, and then again tomorrow morning to everyone who signed up after the first email was sent out. This is sent by our parent organization.
Mon, 1/19
It may be MLK day, but it’s also the last day to request testing accommodations for the 1/24 CogAT. This is only for students who are already receiving testing accommodations. The request form is here: https://forms.gle/
Tue, 1/20
Our very last LASA Info Night. This one is virtual and also available in Spanish. You can find the link to the livestream on our website a little before 6:00 PM. This presentation is the same as previous Info Nights. You will hear from a LASA administrator and current LASA students.
Sat, 1/24
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CogAT admission test on campus. (Click for more info.)
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Note that only students are allowed in the school building!
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Find Your Fit Parent Panel (in the parent portable at LASA)
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In Person Enroll Austin Help (in the parent portable at LASA)
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This is the ONLY chance to get Enroll Austin help in person from an AISD Enroll Austin expert at LASA.
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Fri, 1/30
The deadline. All materials must be submitted by 11:59 PM in order for your application to be considered.
Now for some frequently asked questions.
DOES IT MATTER WHERE I UPLOAD THE UTILITY BILL AND THE MORTGAGE STATEMENT/LEASE AS LONG AS I UPLOAD THEM BOTH?
Ah, yes, actually. Please upload the utility bill to your LASA Application and the mortgage statement/lease to Enroll Austin. I need both but the utility bill is easier for me to work with when verifying the address and I have direct access to it via the LASA application versus Enroll Austin where access is more time consuming.
I NOTICED THAT IN ENROLL AUSTIN UNDER NEXT STEPS, THE STATUS UNDER LASA SAYS “NOT STARTED”. DO I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING?
Yes, and no. As long as you are following the LASA Checklist and providing us with the required items, you are good. The status has to be manually updated for each student by LASA (aka me) in one of the most time consuming manners possible. I will update this status if/when I have time. But please don’t worry. There are only three options:
Not Started - probably means I haven’t gotten around to updating it yet
Incomplete - you have done one or more application-y things outside of Enroll Austin, yay!
Complete - the application is complete, as in all pieces have been submitted
(If I am being really honest with you – and myself – you probably won’t see the last one until after the deadline.)
So basically, the thesis statement of this long ramble is: Please trust the application status emails (sent to students who have submitted their LASA Application) over the Enroll Austin status.
WHEN WILL I GET MY SHADOWING CONFIRMATION EMAIL?
These emails are sent 1-2 days before the shadowing date you picked. Normally during school hours. The date you requested will be your shadow date. Only exception is if you didn’t actually finish the LASA application first. (I do not send these; I have nothing to do with the shadowing process.)
WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN IT SAYS PROOF OF RESIDENCE IS “RECEIVED - Pending Verification” IN THE APPLICATION STATUS EMAIL?
Great question, I’d love to tell you! It means that, at the very least, you have submitted your family’s most recent utility bill and there are no obvious issues with it. Great job!
Now, I must verify the information. In order to do that, I need to look you up in Enroll Austin (so your parent/guardian must have submitted the program application there), check the mortgage statement/lease they uploaded, compare their name to their ID that they uploaded, and finally, manually look up your address to make sure it’s in district.
Phew!
As you can imagine, majority of y’all’s proof of residence will show as “RECEIVED - Pending Verification” for quite some time.
That’s it for me. I hope you enjoy the three day weekend and spend it doing something fun.
As a final reminder, this inbox is only monitored during school days. Any application issues you run into, there is no need to panic. We’ll figure it out next week.
Good luck!
/Jo Koerth
Principal’s Secretary and Friendly Neighborhood Admissions Collector at LASA
IMPORTANT LINKS
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Jo Koerth (she/her/hers)
LASA ADMISSIONS
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Administrative Assistant to Ms. Crescenzi
Liberal Arts and Science Academy
Phone: (512) 414-5272 ext 5-6663