For up to date details, please use this link to the school calendar on our website.

Information about the Nutrition Program here & links to the online cafe payments.

IACS Board of Trustees invites you to a special presentaton:

How Will the “Future of Work” Change the Future of Learning?

Monday, 11/18 at 6:30 p.m; IACS Room 145

At IACS, we hear all the time from alumni, admissions officers, and employers about how IACS graduates truly have a "leg up" for success beyond high school. Our student-centered, student-directed, project-based approach to education continues to be cutting edge, and something not readily found in traditional public school environments. However, in order to remain at the forefront of educational practice, we need to continuously update our understanding of the newest research in educational models and cross-check it against the future of work.

The IACS Board of Trustees is charged with ensuring we remain true to our charter, in which we pledge to prepare our students "for the 21-century". In anticipation of our charter renewal application this year, it seems to be a good time to celebrate what we do so well, but also to take a peek around the corner to ensure we understand how to best prepare our students for evolving workforce needs, skills, and practices.

As a first step in sparking conversation among our community members, the Board of Trustees will be hosting an educational futurist, Clare Bertrand, from Jobs for the Future (www.jff.org) to speak at our next Board meeting on 11/18. We invite you to join us to hear her presentation and ask any questions about new educational approaches.

Speaker Bio

Students enjoying the new fitness stations in Challenge class. Thank you to everyone who donated to the Annual Giving Campaign last year as those funds were used to help improve our outdoor spaces, including this fitness trail and a new outdoor yoga platform.

Special thanks to the facilities crew for their work this summer and fall to install them.

Reminder about Personal Device Policy

A reminder that fifth and sixth grade students are not allowed to use personal devices during the school day between 8-3 pm unless they have teacher permission. Students in seventh and eight grade may use personal devices during passing time and lunch. Often, we find that when students are violating the policy they are using their device to text home. Please work with your child to write down after school plans in their planner if they need reminders. We also sometimes find that students will text home if they aren’t feeling well or if they are having a bad day. We want to teach students to communicate with the adults at school. It’s important that students that do not feel well go to the health office to be assessed and dismissed, if needed. It is also important that we are helping students problem-solve with staff if they are having a bad day. Thank you for your support!

After School Art – Winter Session 8-week Winter Session registration is open!

Offered on Mondays or Thursdays from 3:00 – 4:30, the after school art program allows students access to a wide variety of materials and tools in the art room in order to create work of their choosing. The fee for the session is $60 and can be paid online.

The session begins Monday, January 6 and runs through Thursday, March 5. Please submit payment of $60 by Friday, December 20 to be registered. Email jshaby@innovationcharter.org with questions or to inquire about scholarships.

To register, please follow this link: Art After School Payment Form

Picking up Students

Middle School students are supervised until 3:05 when dismissal ends and need to be picked up by that time. If students are staying for extra help, please ensure that the student and family has made arrangements with the teacher in advance to say. If families are running late, they should make arrangements for after care program. Students are not allowed to wander around campus.

One note: students sometimes walk to local restaurants to get food on an early release, but the feedback has been that often they can be overwhelmed by many unsupervised students at the same time.

Eighth grade Transition

It is that time of year that eighth grade student and families are looking ahead to high school. If you missed our first open house, never fear…there is another one coming up on January 22nd from 6-8 pm.

For students applying to technical or private schools, please ensure that you ask teachers directly about letters of recommendation and provide at least 2 weeks notice.

Save the Date- Quality Night

Presenting at Quality Night is a promotion requirement. Fifth and seventh graders will present twice throughout the school year. Sixth and eighth graders will present in December and turn their focus to preparing for their gateway jury presentation in the spring. Family participation at Quality Night is essential in providing students individualized feedback about their work. Please do not hesitate to invite other guests (grandparents, aunts/uncles, neighbors, etc.) that are interested in supporting your child and seeing some examples of the project-based work IACS students do.

Mark your calendars:

Career Week at IACS

This week, IACS celebrated National Career Development Month with a series of guest speakers. We welcomed musicians, artists, engineers, and other professionals to speak with our students about their careers and offer advice to those who may be considering a similar path. We were especially excited to welcome back our alumni, including Andy Iovanna (’12), Adam Reilly (’12), and Ella McGaunn (’14). Students also spoke about career paths in advisory and took some personality and career assessments.

Feedback from Students regarding the presentation they visited:

Sergeant Manning: "What he said was very informal and I really enjoyed hearing what he had to say. I have been considering going into some form of law enforcement for the last few years so hearing what he said today gave me a very good perspective as to what it is like to work in that field. Some of the things he said really put things into perspective and I see the job in a different light.I’m grateful that I got a chance to hear what he had to say!" -Marina DiGiovanni

Music Panel: "It was really fun and informative getting to know the panel a lot better, and they provided me with a lot of qualitative information that I needed. After coming out of that, it gave me a clear objective to focus on in my future, and I am very grateful for that." – Tyler Donkoh-Halm

Yearbook

Just a reminder, Yearbooks are on sale! They are $35 until December 31, after which they will be $40. Please order and pay online at https://forms.diamondmindinc.com/iacs/hsyearbook. The online order form includes personalization options (i.e. your name and icons). The deadline for ordering is Friday, April 3, 2020. Senior photos, baby pictures, and parent pages are due no later than Friday, January 3, 2020.

More volunteers needed for Multicultural Night!

We are looking for more people to bring in a dish for Multicultural Night that will happen on Exhibition night: January 9th, 2020 at 5pm. The goal of this event to bring the community together in a fun and delicious way! Please fill out this form by December 10th to sign-up to bring a dish!

Donations for Winter Semi-Formal 2020!

This year’s Winter Semi-Formal is on January 24, 2020! The theme this year is going to be Rose Gold! Student Government is looking for some donations, we have a list below for some materials that we need. Please email student.gorvenment@innovationcharter.org if you are interested in donating. We appreciate all the help we could get!

Photos of the Owen DeLuca’s lettuce plants and Hope Coleman-Plourde’s sweet red pepper plants growing in the Derival Advisory. This indoor gardening activity is how we’re practicing our SEL theme of resilience and learning how to grow our own food. Owen’s lettuce was so sweet and crisp! We’ve set them up for another 2-3 harvests. We can see the peppers beginning to form in Hope’s plants!