Imagine Families,
August has been an exciting month as we embark on year 10 at IC Imagine! All our Kingfishers have collaborated to DIVE into the new school year. Our faculty and students are working hard to ensure we are embodying the values: Do Everything Safely, I am a Leader, Value, and Engage.
We hosted our first Imagine Parent Organization (IPO) meeting and Parent University on Monday evening and are grateful for the show of support from so many parents. If you missed this first event, consider attending the next one on Monday, October 23.
We have exciting plans for this fall and are looking forward to seeing you all here on campus, whether it is to cheer on our Kingfisher athlete, see students perform or engage with another event.
The Fine Arts 5K is on Saturday, September 9 starting at 9:00 am. As you know, we believe the Fine Arts are an integral part of our comprehensive curriculum. Fine Arts education is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skills as well as improvements in motivation, confidence, and collaboration. Register to run or volunteer at this fun event that supports all of our Fine Arts programs.
Plans are underway for our annual Fall Festival, scheduled for Friday, October 20 from 5-7 pm. This is a wonderful community-building event for our school. Highlights include games, music, food, and fun! More information will be shared this fall about ways to pre-purchase tickets. Volunteers are vitally important for this event and opportunities will be posted on Volunteer Tracker.
If you have an Upper School student who needs community service hours, the Fine Arts 5K and Fall Festival provide two opportunities here at school for your students to participate and earn hours.
September 15 - October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. We will use this time to recognize the achievements and contributions of Hispanic American champions who have inspired others to achieve success.
Thank you to everyone for your positive attitudes and for following procedures during arrival and dismissal. We need your help to ensure everyone can be in class on time. School starts at 8:00 am and we move hundreds of cars through our car line each day. Students must be in class at 8:00 am in order to be considered on time. To be in class by 8:00 am, you will need to enter our property by about 7:40 am as it takes about fifteen minutes to move through our line at its busiest. This allows a five-minute buffer for students to arrive in their classroom.
As you may have seen in the Asheville Citizen Times or heard on WLOS, we have approval from the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment to move forward with athletic fields. This is the next step in realizing our dream of a comprehensive K-12 campus. This approval allows us to understand the funding required to complete this project. The Kingfisher Athletics Complex will be a long-term goal and you will begin to hear from us about how you can help identify and procure funds to complete this project.
This time of year is when we launch the Imagine Fund. This is our annual effort to raise funds for our beloved school. As a charter school, we operate with significantly less funding than traditional public schools and the Imagine Fund is how we bridge that gap. In honor of our 10th year, we are setting a challenge - commit to donating $10/month. If every family donated $10/month that would add about $96,000 to our annual operating budget! Consider making that monthly commitment to your child’s education.
Lastly, as we look forward to Labor Day, remember Tuesday, September 5 is a Faculty Work Day. There will be no school for students on Monday, September 4, and Tuesday, September 5. If you are going on a trip and will pass by a College Campus, think about taking your child to visit, even if it's just a walk or lunch. It is never too early to begin talking about and exposing your child to college campuses.
Warmly,
Jenn Townley