Director's Letter March 20

Dear ACA Community,

Let’s hear it for Spring Break! Whatever plans you have, I hope everyone enjoys their time off. Over the break, your Admin team will be working on next year’s calendar, budget, and early drafts of next year’s class schedule. The teaching staff has sent us some fun new course proposals for next year!

How much fun was the Staff vs Student Volleyball Tournament yesterday? Both teams had amazing games but the Students managed to pull out a 5 game to 3 game victory! To be fair, the Staff had one team with alternates and the Students had four teams to rotate through. Nevertheless, the Students won the day! Many thanks to Cadence, Aria, and Mrs. Gillespie for planning a great event. Looking forward to next year!

Last Wednesday March 12, there was a delightful K-5 event in the cafeteria. Lucas Nickerson, an ACA parent and amazing artist, came to show some of the paintings he used to illustrate his children's books and talk a little about them. His books are beautifully illustrated and mostly about animals doing funny things. Here is his website: https://lucasnickerson.com/ Our sincere thanks to Mr. Nickerson and to Mrs. Folger-Vent for organizing a really fun community gathering!

ACA parent Joy Dumolt facilitated a donation of dictionaries from the Clarkes Grange. Every third grade student will be gifted their own dictionary! Thank you Joy, for making this happen for our students!

ACA student artists have eight high school pieces entered in the 2025 Clackamas ESD Regional Art Show! The pieces will be available to see online and in person March 24-April 24 at this LINK or in person at the ESD office, 13455 SE 97th Avenue in Clackamas. Mrs. Hespen went above and beyond in selecting pieces (all amazing - tough decisions!) then framing and getting the art packed up for transport. Thank you to our artists for representing ACA so well and to Mrs. Hespen for making this opportunity available!

Hey Seniors!! The Yearbook Class needs your submissions of a Senior photo and an adorable baby picture by April 1st please! IIn addition, the Yearbook Class is looking for photos of families/students involved in their home studies and any photos of ACA events or classes that you would like to submit. Please send these to JanaHolland@aca.k12.or.us right away!

Great news from the World’s Best PTO: We hope everyone had fun reading and reaching their goals for the read-a-thon! Thank you so much to all who participated- you raised over $3,600!!! We will be announcing the top earner and reader when school returns, as well as distributing prizes. We are continuing to promote officer openings for next year, and will be voting in new officers at the beginning of April. We also have some specific roles available in a smaller capacity, which are in an attached flyer. Your ACA community thanks you for considering!

Our PTO President, Kate Hansen, made a second trip down to Salem to advocate for House Bill 3444 which would ensure public charter schools receive 95% of the State School Funds, allow charter school students to access local, state, and federal education dollars that are available to other public schools, and enable charter schools to qualify for transportation grants. The bill is gaining traction! Please follow the LINK to send a quick message to our legislators urging the House Committee on Education to hold a work session on HB 3444. Without a work session, the Bill will not move forward. Please spend a few minutes of your time advocating for our great school!

Don’t forget…ACA’s Oaks Park Day is booked for June 3 this year. Unlimited ride bracelets are $18 per person prepaid in the office. More details are on the flyer below. When bracelets run out, we will start a ‘wait list’ and try to get more bracelets so hopefully, everyone who would like to come will be able to.

State testing begins when we return from Spring Break. If you haven’t already, please check your student’s testing schedule and rsvp through the form provided. If you need to change your child’s scheduled sessions, you may choose a different time by answering ‘No’ to the question ‘My student is able to attend the assigned testing times’ then submitting alternate times. We have just a few more students to schedule!

Also, our Enrollment Information Meeting for the 25-26 school year will be held on Tuesday, April 1, at 6:00pm. Please help us spread the word to family, friends, and social media (flyer below). Our school integrates home schooling with community classes in a one-of-a-kind model. If you know of anyone who would be successful at ACA, share our website alliancecharteracademy.org and have them register for the meeting. Thanks for your help!

Leadership Club is fundraising for Prom by bringing back the wildly popular Pie-A-Teacher event. Enter your ticket into the raffle and hope to be selected to toss a pie! Tickets are only $1 each (4 for $3 and 8 for $5). If just $270 worth of additional tickets are sold, 11 staff members will be ‘Pied’. And if $740 additional tickets sell, someone will get to ‘Pie’ Mr. Lute!

Leadership Club has been busy, to say the least! They are planning a Spring Dance for April 18 from 6:00 to 8:30pm at ACA. No outside guests are allowed when dances include middle school students. Parents are encouraged to come as chaperones. It will be a great time!

A very important way to serve ACA is by joining our School Board. Please consider applying for a two year term. Here is the link to the APPLICATION. The deadline to apply is May 14th.

‘Gentle Rule Reminder’ is replaced with ‘Great Third Quarter’ this week! There has been increased turnout for Test Prep sessions and lots of high school students took advantage of Academic Recovery to keep the credits rolling in. Staff have been pouring into the students and supporting them in so many ways. Students are caring and collegial with each other. We are all fortunate to have such a sweet school!

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 Spring Break, 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.”