The Eagles' Nest October 23, 2023

We are coming to the end of the first quarter of this school year. As an educator/school leader who embraces being a reflective practitioner, I want to take advantage of the feedback I have received over the quarter to determine what we can do better. It is almost time for recruitment season for SY25, and getting better at what we do is a priority before we bring new families into the school community.

We have accomplished a lot so far: opening the school building, receiving a student body of approximately 70% new students, onboarding staff members that are almost 50% of our full-time educators, and navigating unanticipated delays in how we accomplish our work. I also recognize we still have some things to complete: entirely staffing the building, distributing devices to all students (coming soon!), and completing baseline data collection, to name a few. These are technical challenges that will be solved with time.

The more significant issue for me is a theme I have heard frequently from various stakeholders: communication. The quality and frequency of how things are communicated across our community is embraced by some but problematic for others. As communication is one of my top strengths and values, I must dig into this to see what it looks like on a granular level to implement improvement strategies. It is VITAL because communication is the thread that binds us to each other and ensures everyone is on the same page.

As such, a stakeholder communication survey will be distributed at the beginning of the second quarter. I am asking that everyone complete it and be as transparent and honest as possible to improve our work. I believe that by improving our communication, we can add that to the bedrock of our foundation and continue to build upon it to continue our work to provide a quality choice in public education.

I thank you in advance for your participation.

Monday, October 23rd, is our first day of Red Ribbon Week, a week where we celebrate healthy, drug-free kids. Our Positive Behavior Incentive Systems (PBIS) team and Counseling Department have partnered to present "EXCEL Spirit Week." We want to give ALL of our students, K-8, the opportunity to show their school spirit in celebration of positive behaviors this month and improvements in middle school behavior.

EXCEL families - we have had to adjust our fall assessment schedule. We have had to delay the launch of iReady assessments due to required district and state-level assessments with external due dates. The delay in the arrival of our Chromebooks and the need to reset passwords for ALL students has also impacted this rollout.

The good news is that the state-required KRA (Kgn.), DIBELS (K-2nd), OLSAT (3rd), and Reading Interest (6th-8th) are complete, and PSAT 8/9 will be administered tomorrow for all 8th graders. Please keep your eyes open for an updated schedule for iReady (although some classes and students have begun.) All assessment data will be shared with families once it is made available by the respective platforms. We thank you for your patience during this unprecedented delay and look forward to sharing the results soon.

KITCHEN UPDATE

The kitchen is up and running! Many thanks to the entire community who have made this process a big success!

FAMILY MARKET: NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Our next family market will be Thursday, November 2, 2023. Please see the flyer below for details.

BOCK ROAD SAFETY

This week, Dr. Marcus Newsome and Mr. George Henderson of National Christian Academy made a surprise visit with Principal Sothern to discuss traffic-calming measures in the wake of the tragedy that occurred on Wednesday morning. Although we are aware that progress is being made behind the scenes, it was their hope that a united voice from both schools and their respective stakeholders might expedite the process. Please listen out for more updates and opportunities to lend your voice to the call for safer measures on this busy thoroughfare.