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This is a summary of what I shared with our
parents and staff at our fall Association Meeting
(similar to a church business meeting) about
what has been going on at the Academy since
the summer as well as what we are focusing on
this year:
One of the challenges we faced during the summer-especially
in today's economy-was enrollment. So some of
our parents worked with us on a recruitment
task force. The task force's main accomplishment
was creating an advertisement for television
that ran several times during the latter part
of the summer. We also created and distributed
a Family Exit Survey as well as a First Year
Family Survey. When families do decide not to
return, we really want to know the reason(s)
why, so that we can improve as a school. We
are always interested in the experience of first
year families, because we want to know if we
are communicating well enough. We do not want
families having any real surprises as the year
progresses.
There are usually no "silver bullets"
to improve enrollment, but it has been my experience
that if a school does its best to give students
the best possible educational experience, then
enrollment largely takes care of itself. Therefore,
we are seeking ways to improve that experience
for our students.
One thing we have done was to add a few more
activities that we thought would be good for
our students:
- Senior Breakfast (to be repeated!)
- 911 Observance (we planted a tree)
- Reading Celebration (ice cream party for students
who read at least five books this summer)
- National Geography Awareness Week
- Family Science Night
- Grandparent/VIP Day
- ACSI Maine Academic Day
- 6th Grade Graduation (this is new for us)
- Grades 10 and 11 College Trip
The major areas we will focus on this year include:
1. Curriculum Development: we have begun process
of aligning our curriculum with the Common Core
Standards beginning with math. Our first day
of teacher in-service was very productive as
we began to see how well our current math program
lines up with this important standard that most
states (and testing such as college board exams)
are now implementing.
To further strengthen our math program, the
Academy is now subscribing to IXL.com for grades
PK - 9. IXL is the Web's most comprehensive
math site, offering tons of fun, interactive
games & practice questions. It is an unbelievable
resource for students, teachers, and parents.
Parents will likely to see more changes in our
math program in the near future as we improve
our curriculum.
Another curriculum improvement is that we are
now offering eligible students the opportunity
get as many as 24 free credits through Northern
Maine Community College during their junior
and senior years.
2. Alumni Feedback: we will be setting up a
way to get systematic feedback from our alumni
to use to help us develop our curriculum. We
need to hear how we can better prepare students
for either higher education or careers.
3. Technology Plan: We are happy to have Barrett
Quint serving as our new system administrator.
He will be leading us in developing a new technology
plan to help guide us for the next 3-5 years.
We have four major tasks to accomplish in this
area this year:
1. We have to replace our grading/administrative
software program by the end of the year.
2. We have to move from Linux to the Windows
platform for our network and programs.
3. We will need to construct a new website we
which we can manage and update in-house.
4. We must research how other schools are integrating
technology with their programs and learn what
technological knowledge and skills our students
must have when they graduate from the Academy.
We will have to trust the Lord to provide the
finances for this major area of school life
but believe the end result for our students
will be worth the investment by far.
4. Student Spiritual Growth: Our year theme
is "transformation." We are emphasizing
the need and joy of becoming authentic disciples
of Jesus Christ. This was the emphasis in our
recent High School Retreat. On their own initiative,
junior high and high school students have started
their own prayer groups to meet one day each
week.
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