IC Imagine Public Charter School

Today, we feel comfortable sharing with you a tentative start date of Monday, October 28th for students. Please understand this plan could change, we are relying on many details to come together to make this happen. Remember, we have two big areas of concern to address to get school open; water and staffing. Based on information from City and County officials, it seems likely that water service with non-potable water will return to the school building within days. They are currently working from the Eastern part of the county towards the Western part of the county where our school is located. As a reminder, municipal water will be under a boil advisory and we must have potable (drinking) water available for consumption for all staff and students in order to open. For our school, this means we will need to provide potable water for approximately 1400 people per day. In collaboration with city and county officials, other charter schools and local school districts, potable water delivery will begin to all schools this week with enough water to open for 1/2 days. We continue to assess our staff’s readiness to return to school. We believe that area daycares will resume operations as water returns, though that is a detail we cannot control. We know there are various news organizations reporting possible half day schedules. While we are collaborating with other schools, we will be creating our own abbreviated schedule that aligns with our typical dismissal schedules. We have not made a determination about our schedule as of today. Based on our planning to date, we do not know if we will be able to resume athletics, extra-curricular activities, or ASCEND the week of October 28th. A full reopening plan takes time, and we aren’t in a position yet to answer those questions. Please take the time to complete the survey in your email about our return to school and instructional time as we work together to return to school.

This Wednesday come to a Read Aloud event at The Whale in West Asheville!

Hello Imagine, We wanted to make you aware of an art event that Mr. Barton is going to be hosting with Cheap Joe's. It will be this coming Monday from 10am-2. They're going to be making a collaborative work of art to support the community, students can make a personal piece of art and help to assemble art supply kits for other young people in WNC who have been impacted by this terrible event. All are welcome and Mr. Barton said he'd love to see you. If you aren't able to make it Monday there will be many other opportunities in the near future. If you would like to help Mr. Barton share art and art supplies with our community please send him an email. Cheap Joe's is located at 829 Riverside Dr. Asheville

We are thrilled to announce that we have made contact with all of our families and ALL of our students are safe and accounted for! As a reminder this is what we know we need in place to reopen school: 1. Water, potable and non-potable (4500 gallons per day), including fire suppression capabilities 1.We continue to work through water solutions with local officials and a contractor. We believe we will be able to give a more detailed update about our plans for an alternative water solution next week once materials have arrived onsite. We know that until municipal water is restored, if we are able to resource an alternative water plan, we will have to institute a “Fire Watch” in place of having a pressurized sprinkler system. Next week, as we formalize those procedures we will begin to ask for volunteers to man this. It will take three people to do this for the duration of time that our building is occupied. We will be counting on our families to provide this resource for us! 2. Staff in a position to come to work each day, including those with young children having stable childcare We are currently assessing our staff’s readiness to return to work. Additionally, we will be sending a survey to understand family and staff preferences about returning to school and future calendar changes. As the results of this survey come in, we will begin to share plans about a timeline to return to school.

After the recent flooding from Hurricane Helene, our mental health team has put together resources to support our students' emotional well-being. Use the link below to learn more. https://www.icimagine.org/article/1809891

Click the link below for more information about college applications. https://www.icimagine.org/article/1809886

In our commitment to keep you informed, we will communicate with you as frequently as we can throughout this process. We appreciate the many ideas that you have shared with us; however, please know that we have reached a point where we can no longer respond to individual emails concerning water initiatives or school reopening strategies. All information we have will be shared in these school-wide updates. As we begin to focus on the future, we would like to share our insights on what is necessary to reopen the school successfully. 1-Water, potable and non-potable, including fire suppression capabilities 2-Staff who are in a position to come to work each day, including those with young children having stable childcare We are actively working to understand possible solutions to provide water at our building until municipal water can be restored in cooperation with local officials and contractors. There are many items that must be navigated in the background; this is not a simple process. Interested to know how much water we use on average per month at IC Imagine? 83,000 gallons! Student Status Update Only 11 students are not accounted for at this time. Thank you to all of you who are supporting this effort. State Officials Update We heard more about their efforts in yesterday's meeting with state officials and representatives. Local Officials Update We attended a meeting today with County Officials. They are working with all district and charter schools to determine the best path forward to get schools open. We are grateful for their support and collaboration through this recovery. We will be meeting with them regularly until schools are open again. Communication Flow You are going to start seeing more communication from varying departments at school in hopes of offering support and answers in different areas. We are so grateful that you all are part of the IC Imagine Community. Please know that we are spending our days working to safely open school as quickly as possible.

Apollo Flame@ 1025 Brevard Road, Asheville, NC 28806 will be handing out free pizza from 11-2 for anyone that needs a meal today. One of our Imagine Families has helped organize!

Imagine Families, We wanted to reach out to you all in an effort to stay connected. We do not have an updated timeline to share with you all, other than to reiterate we need water service in order to safely open school. We want to send our love to all of you. We understand that many of you are facing devastating circumstances, some have chosen to evacuate until water and power are restored and many others are out helping those they can each day. As a native of Asheville, I have always known the resiliency of this community. We want to assure you that we will be here and ready to open school as soon as we are able. We know from past experience that getting schools open is a crucial step in the recovery process. At this time, we are working through accounting for all of our students. We are using the responses to the Imagine Helene Family Update Form and are starting to make phone calls to those we have not heard from yet. If you have information about any of our families, please give us those updates by using the form. We are anxious to account for everyone and know that all 1,249 of our students are safe and accounted for. As part of this process we will be working to help connect families with the resources they need during this difficult time. Updates from the Finance Office We are planning to refund payments for all October lunch orders and payments for canceled field trips. We are hopeful that this is helpful to your family in some small way. It is our goal to have everything that needs to be refunded to families returned by the end of the day on 10/15. Canceled October field trips include: 3rd Grade- 10/11 Appalachian Learning Center 4th grade- 10/11 Diana Wortham Kindergarten- 10/14 Apple Orchard 2nd Grade- 10/22 Arboretum Until we can get back to school, ASCEND will not be operating. Accordingly, no one has been charged ASCEND fees for October and will not be charged until the program can resume. We will update ASCEND families as we have more information about ASCEND resuming. Questions about refunds, field trips, or lunch orders should be directed to finance@icimagine.org.

You can order November lunch now until October 15th. Please be aware that the November lunches will begin the week of 10/28. https://www.icimagine.org/page/lunches

Imagine Families, We know the last few days have been devastating and that you all are busy with recovery for yourselves and your homes. We wish with all of our hearts that we were sending an email about a great first day back from Fall Break instead of working to ensure you all are safe. We are providing an update based on the information we currently have. Staff update We are happy to report we have accounted for all faculty and they are safe. Accounting for families We are anxious to account for our families. We know this will be difficult due to connectivity issues. If you are able, please fill out this simple form (available in email and on website) to let us know if your family is safe. If you know another family is safe, please feel free to complete the form on their behalf. Contact with NCDPI DPI made contact with local Charters today. They are in the beginning stages of understanding our situation and offering support. Contact with Local Officials We have reached out to the local government officials, but have not had anyone reach out to us yet. Reality of school opening At this time we do not have a timeline for reopening school. We are without water and power at the building at this time. As we begin to get support, answers and secure the infrastructure necessary to open, we will communicate timelines. We will give you ample notice before the opening of school. We are committed to communicating throughout this recovery process. It is our hope that each of you are safe and are focused on caring for your families and loved ones. IC Imagine

Students with AB-Tech classes: please see AB-Tech for information. On Sunday 9/29 they had posted that AB-Tech was closed until further notice.

IC Imagine will be closed for the entire week: Monday, September 30- Friday, October 4th. We hope you all continue to stay safe. As the emergency response in our community continues we will stay in touch about a timeline for safely reopening school.

What's happening at IC Imagine! #calendar #lookahead #icimagine #icimaginek12

IC Imagine is closed and will remain closed until further notice.

Kingfisher Mentor Connections is a mentoring program at IC Imagine that fosters a supportive student environment. It pairs upper school students with middle school students and middle school students with lower school students to promote relationships across grades. Selected mentors will meet with their mentees four times a week to provide support and build camaraderie. #icikingfishers #icimaginek12 #icimaginepubliccharterschool

Last week our 6th graders went to the Barrier Islands. The students engaged in various activities to deepen their understanding of the coastal ecosystem. Go Kingfisher! #icimagine #icimaginepubliccharterschool #icimiddleschool #middleschool #icikingfishers

Save the date for Spirit Week! #icimagine #icimaginepupliccharter school #icispiritweek #icimaginek12

The Dive show is back! #icilowerschool #icidiveshow #lowerschool #icimagine #icimaginepubliccharterschool #icimaginek12

Save the Date, hosted by April Vernau 11th & 12th Grade Guidance Counselor #icimagine #iciupperschool #upperschool #icimaginek12 #icimaginepubliccharterschool