Thanks for coming to our first parent association meeting.  After parent association announcements, I used the time to give an overview our our academic and social/emotional skill development priorities.  We also discussed a few of the new changes to the middle school and program.  I am particularly excited about our new advisory program and the practice that students will receive in intra-personal, interpersonal and decision making skills.  I will be writing an ONCampus article about this program, and we have Rush Sabistan Frank, an expert on advisory programs, coming to one of our future meetings so you will here more about this program as the year moves forward.  We also discussed changes to our discipline/infraction system.  The long and short is that we discipline because we care and want students to grow from the decisions each makes.  To make this sytem effective we will need parent support so that students know that we are working together during these more challenging moments.  The new program will be rolled out to students this Friday at our town meeting and emphasizes reflection as well as making the situation better/right.  As you might imagine there are increasing consequences if students are repeatedly unkind or break rules.  I have added a few slides at the end of the presentation to give you a few details.  I will also be writing in the future about how helping kids learn from mistakes can be a powerful tool for parents and the school.  

I have attached the slides from the meeting here so that you will get a feel for the many topics covered.  I will also continue to host Open Door Mornings this year.  These are intended to be an opportunity for parents to set up a 20 minute meeting with me.  Students grow the most when home and school communicates well together, and these sessions are a good chance fur us to chat about your son/daughter, our program or to simply get to know one-another a bit better.  The first Open Door Morning is Friday, October 4.  Should you like to set up a time to chat with me, please emal Fran Clark, the Middle School administrative assistant at fran.clark@coloradoacademy.org.

We are truly enjoying the start of school and look forward to seeing you at Back to School Night on Thursday, September 5.  A light dinner will be served at 6:15 in the dining hall and the program will begin at 6:40.  See you there.

Best,
Bill