Volunteer Appreciation Reception

Wednesday, May 18th

8:00-8:30 am – Assembly

8:30-9:00 am – Reception

Artwork provided by APA elementary student, Parker Loosli, 2nd grade.

We just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone for our most successful sock drive ever!  Between all five campuses we collected 16,405 pair of socks!  That’s a lot of warm toes this winter! Our student councils were able to deliver the socks to the shelters and it was so inspiring to share the generosity of our APA family with families in need.

We put together a fabulous video about this event to share with all our students. You can view this video on our Ambassador Facebook page or the Ambassador Website at https://ambassadors.americanprep.org/videos/.  Thank you again for participating in this great APA tradition!

Dear Parents and Students,

We are so excited to be at the beginning of another amazing year at American Prep! We have been busy preparing our school to ensure a wonderful experience for your student(s) this year.

You will recall that at the end of last year, parents were invited to fill out a Parent Survey. We had a 3rd party collate all of those responses, and we spent significant time this summer reviewing our parent feedback. We have made several substantive changes as a result of your feedback. Thank you for your willingness to share your ideas and thoughts!

1. The Draper 2 facility has undergone some changes this summer! We have done some remodeling upstairs to create more classroom space for our additional students in our high school.

2. The soccer field has been financed and approvals and permits are in process!

3. We have had a lot of feedback regarding Reading University (RU). As a result, Reading University has been altered in several ways. We now will allow students to choose one book per term that is “off-list”. Also, students may count books read to them in all grades (with some stipulations for secondary students). We are also working to increase the books on the RU list (we’d love some volunteer parent readers!). RU lists are easily found on our new website, under each campus site.

4. Friday Casual Uniform Day – due to parent requests, we have brought back Friday Casual Day! Students may wear navy polos on Fridays and forego the ties. Staff also may wear collared shirts on Fridays without ties.

5. Homework loads – we have done quite a bit of reading, listening and consulting on this topic. We received a WIDE RANGE of parental input on this topic, from parents who feel their children could do more, to parents who feel their children are over-loaded. So we feel it is important to increase the opportunity parents have to report homework loads to the school staff so that we can adjust as needed based on real homework-load data. We have developed ways to record homework completion times on learning plans (elementary) and in planners (secondary). We have also asked secondary teachers to list how long they anticipate a homework assignment should take, along with the assignment itself, so students can begin to align their efforts to the expectation, and so parents and students can let teachers know if their estimates are inaccurate. We will continue to report back to parents on this topic as the year progresses.

6. We are still seeking to have access to 11950 South so that we can have a smoother carpool process, and so that we can move forward on seeking to build a high school. Legal proceedings have begun to gain that access, though the wheels of justice turn ever-so-slowly. Thank you for your patience.

Parents – it is our aim to make our school the best possible experience for your student(s)! Thank you for providing feedback and ideas to assist us in our efforts!

Come and support APA’s marvelous artists during the second annual APA District Art Show Friday from 5:00-8:00 and Saturday from 9:00-12:00 pm in main foyer. A panel of judges will award honors to the standout performances on Friday evening. This year we have included twice the amount of artwork as last year!

Parents please come to our Volunteer Appreciation Assembly this Wednesday, May 6th at 8:00 am.

This is for ALL parents who have volunteered in ANY way this year.

Please plan to come so that our students and staff can say “thank you”.

We are so excited to present the State of the School and share our standards and successes with you at our enrollment meetings!

Monday, April 20^th at 7:00 pm (Secondary emphasis)

Tuesday, April 21^st at 2:00 pm

Wednesday, April 22^nd at 7:00 pm (Elementary emphasis)

You must attend a meeting to receive your 2015-16 registration packet. Choose the date and time that works best for you. You need not attend more than one meeting even if you have secondary and elementary students. All registration materials are due on Friday, May 1^st. We will see you there!

Thank you Junior Golf Connection for helping us learn to golf during P.E.!

 

As is traditional at APA, we present a Builder of the Year Award to one student from each grade as well as some of our outstanding staff members and volunteers.  This is the most prestigious award within our APA community, and it’s difficult to select a recipient. As a community of builders, we see many examples of excellence in building from so many in our student body and staff.

The purpose of this assembly is to honor and celebrate the “builder” in each of us and most importantly the feelings of joy that come from showing care and concern every day.  We respect, admire, and appreciate each and every one of our students and staff for the effort they put forth. Thank you for the encouragement and support you give your students each day.

Congratulations to our 2015 Builders of Year!

Kindergarten – Adelyn Goudge

1st grade – Parker Loosli

2nd Grade – Kristin Nani

3rd Grade – Cayden Gillis

4th Grade – Skyler Anderson

5th Grade – Taitwoine Sanders

6th – Grade – Delilah Tanner

7^th Grade – Rishab Balakrishnan

8^th Grade – Abigail Hardy

9^th Grade – Paris Vaughn

High School – Acea Johnson

Teacher – Philippa Lieber

Instructor – Kerri Enniss

Secondary Teacher – Sara Ochs

Support Staff – Saren Fassbinder

Volunteer – Jori Thomas