The 2013-2014 school year is about to close. Tomorrow night the class of 2014 will receive their diplomas and move on to the next stage of their lives. As is my custom, I am now reflecting back over what this year has brought. Here is MY brief survey:
1. Our enrollment increased steadily over the course of the year. We started below 300 and rose to a high of 320. We had an overall net growth of 45 students over this same point last year, almost a 16% growth for the year. The is the second consecutive year with substantial growth. Even now our enrollment for next year is almost even with where we began this year and we are getting calls about enrollment almost daily. This bodes well for next year's enrollment since we usually see a surge in the late summer days.
2. We began a new EC program which is now growing toward a full scale Special Education program. God has brought together a fantastic team of people to continue to grow this program to provide services to children who need special attention and help academically. ACS has made the commitment to fully invest in this because we believe this is God's plan for us.
3. We expanded our pre-school to add a 1 year old class. It has brought some new challenges but has been a true blessing to provide this service to several families.
4. We faced great weather challenges in the second semester, losing seven days to snowy/icy weather. We made up most of them (including using Memorial Day, which was a great mistake that I apologize for. It won't happen again!). Yet we still had very high achievement test scores.
5. We celebrated state championships in Choric Speaking and Girl's soccer and started our first ever shooting team that finished 15th out of 40 teams at the state shooting match.
6. We saw substantial spiritual growth among our student body and that is always cause for great rejoicing.
7. We sent out parents surveys at the end of the year. We had some very helpful comments and discovered that 98% of those who responded stated they were Satisfied to Extremely Satisfied. We are headed in the right direction. When it came to things like dress codes about an even number feel we are too strict as those who felt we weren't strict enough and that says we are probably about where we need to be, balanced!
8. We have been able to hire two of our recent graduates to serve on our faculty next year. These young men will bring energy and enthusiasm to our school. We are a unique Christian school ministry in that in our high school we will have more male faculty than female and this provides a great team of male mentors and role models for our young men.
To close, let me say that I am thankful to be a part of the ACS team. I am more excited about next year than I have ever been. We will have our new Elementary Principal, Kally Roberts, bringing new academic and spiritual focus and energy to that division. We have new families joining us who are excited to be a part of the ACS family. We are starting to breath that phrase "building program" as we see this growth continue. Satan has fought us along the way, but our God is greater and our God is stronger! This is HIS work!
Grace and peace to you!
