Letter from the MC Principal

Hello MC families,

We are excited about the start of the school year! On Monday of last week staff came together at our faculty retreat to reconnect and set our focus for the year. Some of our areas of focus this year include wrapping up the charter renewal process and continuing to work towards the goals in our strategic plan. More specifically, we will continue to focus on sticking to our constructivist roots and focusing on teaching big picture concepts over focusing purely on content details. We have seen success with this approach including the Middle Campus having the highest College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI) score in our history last year, and we plan to keep pushing ourselves as we continue to grow as a school.

The rest of the week teachers put in lots of hours between meetings, planning, and working on their rooms to be ready for your student’s arrival. It was great to see many of you during the Open House and Orientations yesterday and I look forward to seeing more of you as you drop off and pick up your students this week. Yesterday hopefully you picked up some information about Toddle, the new grade reporting and class communication website that we have moved to in place of ManageBac. Here are answers to some FAQ’s related to Toddle. For returning 7th and 8th grade families, ManageBac will be available until September 1st.

We will have an MYP Parent Information session on Thursday, September 11th at 6:30pm about Toddle so please look out for information about that in upcoming Courier letters. We encourage you to attend those sessions! Our Parent Information sessions are very helpful when it comes to getting information about IB, rubrics, and the ins and outs of academics at the Middle Campus.

Please note that we will be monitoring the heat this week as we deal with high temperatures. When students are able to be outside we will encourage them to play in the shade and take water breaks. We are also making the Media Center available for students who would like to stay inside for recess. We’ve taken this approach today and students have been able to play outside safely. We will continue to monitor the temperature this week, and when necessary we will pivot to indoor recess.

For those with students interested in fall sports (Cross Country, Volleyball, Flag Football, Flag Football Cheer and Ultimate Frisbee) here are some updates:

• You must have an updated sports physical to participate in any sports at ANCS. 
• There will be a Cross Country Interest Meeting on Monday 8/4 after school in the gym. The first practice will be 8/7 from 3:10-4pm. Practices will be on Mondays and Thursdays. 
• The Flag Football interest meeting will be on Monday 8/4 at 3:15pm in Coach D’s room. (Room 1)
• Tryout dates, times and locations for other Fall sports will be announced next week during Morning Meeting. 

I’ll close with a few reminders:

• As you know, we have moved to a no-distraction cell phone/smartwatch policy in which students will turn in their devices during Advisory, have them locked away and held in the Main Office until the end of the day.
  • If you need to relay a message to your student please call us at the school at 678-904-0051.
• Our first Morning Meeting open to parents will be on Monday, August 4th at 8:30am. Our Morning Meetings are during the first day of each week.
• Our building opens at 8:00 AM so do not drop your student off before then. From 8:00 – 8:25 we have morning recess.
• We dismiss at 3:10pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and we dismiss at 2:00pm on Wednesdays (so that starts tomorrow).
• After Care goes until 6:00pm and After Care will be available after school on the first day of school.
  • Office Hours DO NOT start until next week (beginning Monday, August 4th) and the schedule is as follows:
    • Mondays and Thursdays – I&S, L&L, PHE, and Spanish
    • Tuesdays and Thursdays – Arts, Design, Math, and Science
• If your student is going to be absent, whether they are sick or it’s a planned absence, you can report that to us via this link (Attendance Reporting Form 2025-2026). Do not send an email, please use the link.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to reach out.

Kind regards,

Mark

Mark Sanders

Mark Sanders began teaching at ANCS in 2011. Before coming to the school, Mr. Sanders worked in New York City. He spent three years teaching 7th and 8th grade mathematics at Middle School 50 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and two years at Harlem Village Academies teaching Geometry and Algebra 2/Trigonometry. He taught 8th grade Math/Science/Technology at ANCS for five years.