Superintendent's Office
Dear ACS Community,
Welcome back after a well-deserved break. I hope you had an enjoyable spring break with your friends and family. Only eight short weeks remain in the school year. The big event this week will be the friendship games. Middle school participants will travel on Tuesday and High School participants on Wednesday. I look forward to joining our community in supporting our Cougars in Santa Cruz this week.
Further on the horizon, we will celebrate Earth day and International day on Friday the 21st. Please be on the lookout for more details from each division. In addition, please mark your calendars for the general assembly and board elections scheduled for the evening of the 26th.
Following up on the success of our hot lunch delivery program, we also want to open up a delivery opportunity in the mornings for parents to drop off items for students. The details will work differently in each division, but the intent is to provide a window of time before 9 AM to accommodate infrequent cases in which students have forgotten to bring something very important to school.
You will also notice some changes to our security at our gate. To ensure high-quality personalized service, we have moved Yuri, who many of you know well, to daytime security duty. We have also completed a competitive process to identify a new security company, Trujillo, to provide security at night and for special events. We thank the police for their service providing temporary security in this time of transition. They will remain with us until the end of the month.
Finally, today we will be inaugurating a new communications format we call “ACS This Week”. At first, it will simply consolidate messages from the superintendent's office and each divisional principal in one place, as well as add a section of urgent action items. We will also send these urgent action items out via text message or What's App. We hope this provides a concise summary of the most critical items in a convenient format while providing a longer format to those who are interested. We promise to only ever include a handful of items as urgent actions. As time goes on, we have plans to expand and personalize the newsletter, sending you just the content that is relevant to you and your children. We are excited to develop this new platform.
Have a great week ahead, and all the best to our Cougars in Santa Cruz.
Yours,
Andrew
Urgent Action Items
ACS Calendar
- Mon – SS Spirit week
- Tue – All school Pep Rally
- Thu – SCCS FSG HS track, basket, chess, knowledge bowl
Elementary School
Dear Parents,
I hope you had a restful Spring Break and that both you and your child(ren) are ready for the 4th quarter.
I would like to kindly remind you to please fill out the International Day form, linked here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3gq-etWX4DvOwCcAcFt6F8Tm-VV6Ap_UhuhX-UklFqB7mmg/viewform?usp=sf_link
All ES students must participate in the International Day Parade, so filing in the form is necessary in order for the school to be prepared as to which countries will be represented. If you have already filled in the form, please disregard the message above.
I would also like to inform you of a new procedure for dropping off items your child(ren) forget after the school day has begun. The Senior Leadership Team has decided to permit the delivery of other important items that students may have forgotten at home (the usual suspects are devices, a range of academic materials, PE/athletic equipment, and the like). There are a couple of important details to share with you:
First, in order to minimize as much as possible disruptions to the instructional day, the delivery window will run from the start of the school day to 9:00 AM only. Parents will leave items in the same collection area currently used for lunch delivery. The school will not accept anything that is delivered after 9:00 AM (excluding lunches, of course.). Please inform your child's teacher, via Class Dojo, that you have dropped off the item and they will let your child know.
It will be the responsibility of the students to pick up items that have been left for them. There will be no deliveries to classrooms. Students can retrieve their items during the passing time between periods. However, teachers may permit students to pick up an item during the class period if it is essential to participate in the lesson.
Parents will be permitted to deliver items beginning on Monday, April 10.
With Gratitude -
Secondary School
Dear Parents,
I hope that you and your children had a wonderful break from school last week. It was a pleasure to see our students return this morning, looking refreshed and ready to enter this final, 8-week stretch of our academic year.
For my inaugural message on this new communications platform, I want to share with you some news regarding the delivery of personal items to school. Given the success of our process for allowing the delivery of lunches to students, the Senior Leadership Team has agreed to permit the delivery of important personal items that students may have forgotten at home. These items are those that facilitate students' learning, such as their devices, various academic materials, PE/athletic equipment, etc.
In order to keep things running smoothly, there are a few important details to bear in mind should you wish to deliver personal items to your child:
Second, it is solely the students' responsibility to pick up items that have been left for them (i.e. there will be no deliveries to classrooms). Students can retrieve their items during the passing time between Blocks 1 and 2. However, teachers may permit students to pick up an item during Block 1 if it is essential to participate in the lesson.
Finally, these deliveries will be permitted beginning Tuesday, April 11.
I hope that you all have a wonderful week!
Best wishes,
Steve Augeri