Director's Letter February 14, 2025

Dear ACA Community,

Wishing you all a memorable, snowy Valentine’s Day! Or as an optional reason to celebrate, today is Oregon’s 166th birthday! One of my favorite ACA traditions is the Valentine bags in the cafeteria. Thank you, PTO, for making it happen again this year! The bags will be safely waiting for pickup next week when we are back in session.

Join Mr. Toth for a 30 minute interactive time of mathematical problem solving. In an effort to build practical applications in mathematics, Mr. Toth will be hosting a hands-on problem solving time for 3rd graders. Students will use everyday items like: packaged food, toys, popsicle sticks, graph paper and money to walk through the process of taking mathematical ideas from the concrete to abstraction. It’s going to be really fun and engaging! Please RSVP at davidtoth@aca.k12.or.us.

ACA’s Content Specialists have arranged some low key times for students to come in and get familiar with taking the Oregon standardized tests. Mr. Toth, Mrs. Edinger, Mrs. Carruthers and Mrs. B will be available to familiarize students grades 3-8 with the testing process, all in a comfortable and stress free environment. See the flyer below for dates and times, and thank you to our Specialist staff for this nice opportunity!

Here’s a request from Mrs. Hespen: If you ever eat pie, could you consider saving me the disposable pie pans for an art project? I could buy them new but I am committed to upcycling. They can be either the very flimsy ones like aluminum foil, or the sturdier ones like a premade crust comes in, but I only want them if they are blank or have designs like these pictured in the attached flyer. I can't use them if they are waffle-bottomed or have writing embossed on the bottom; those can just be recycled. I'll be collecting these through the end of the year.

If you have photos of your students in the snow, or enjoying any other activity that you would be comfortable submitting to our social media efforts, please send the photos to socialmedia@aca.k12.or.us We love to showcase ACA kids!

It's time to spread the word about ACA to families who would like to learn more about joining our sweet school for the 25-26 academic year. If you know someone who may like more information about our program, please share THIS LINK to register for our next Enrollment Meeting on Tuesday, February 18th at 6:00pm. If you use social media, feel free to grab the graphic attached below and share it. Full enrollment means more funding and more opportunities to offer great programs and classes!

For those of you who are interested in equitable funding for charter schools, please consider diving into the links below. Legislative session advocacy is critical for charter school funding this year, so ORC3S is hosting TWO opportunities for public charter school supporters to come to the Oregon State Capitol to talk with legislators! ORC3S is fighting for fair funding for public charter schools this session! Our bill, House Bill 3444, will ensure that public charter schools are able to receive their fair share of state school fund dollars. For more information on why this is so important, check out this FAQ on the current state of public charter school funding. Registration will be open to all public charter school advocates though there will be a limited capacity. Register for March 18th at this link https://www.orc3s.org/advocacy-days-2025

If you happen to have an SLR camera in good condition taking up space in a closet, please consider donating it to ACA’s wonderful Yearbook class.The students are limping along with inadequate camera equipment. A camera (or two) in good working order would be very appreciated!

Gentle Rule Reminder: ACA does not have snow days built into our calendar so anytime we have a weather closure, or a closure for any other reason, students are expected to still engage in at-home learning, which we label as Applied Learning Days. This is one of the reasons ACA’s last day of school is May 29th and Oregon City School District’s last day is June 11th. Yeah, pretty nice!

We’ve passed the halfway mark of our 24-25 school year and I want to thank all of the parents and students who have stepped up to help out at ACA. We still have a few small tasks for volunteers to pick up. Please consider volunteering in one of the following ways: General School Tasks Sign Up

And from our wonderful PTO:

NEXT WEEK: Virtual Book Fair and Read-A-Thon

Kick off the Read-A-Thon by stocking up at the PaperPie Virtual Book Fair! You can start shopping HERE and find displays around the school next week. Proceeds benefit the Language Arts dept. and the PTO. *please note: the link above is for direct shipping to your location for an additional fee. A free shipping option to ACA will be available soon.

Year 2 of the ACA PTO Read-A-Thon is almost here! K-5 students, watch for packets to be distributed from your ES soon. 6-12th grade students, packets will be available upon request from your ES, and can be found in places throughout the school starting on 2/18.

Funds raised will be used for school improvements and fun student activities. We can’t wait to hear about what you’ll be reading!

Pizza Pre-Orders

Please make sure to pre-order your pizza each week. We want to make sure we have enough pizza for everyone who wants some. You can order on our online form or at the PTO desk.

Remember to check the calendar on our website often, AllianceCharterAcademy.org and don’t forget to log your Volunteer hours here Volunteer Time Log.

Have a wonderful weekend, and thank you for being part of the ACA family!

Go Eagles,

Shelly Smith

ShellySmith@aca.k12.or.us

24-25 Executive Director

“Our mission is to personalize learning through a collaboration of family, community and school; to nurture the innate curiosity of all our students; to ignite their passion for learning; and to prepare them for lifelong success.”