Letter from the MC Principal
Welcome back MC families.
It was great to see the kids this morning. There were lots of smiling faces as students reconnected with friends and with their teachers. I hope you all had wonderful and relaxing breaks. We are looking forward to having a great second semester to close out the school year.
I also hope that everyone who was sick recovered nicely during the break. Students who were out may have some summative work that they need to make up. Teachers will connect with those students and they will come up with plans for making up this work, whether that takes place in class (since lots of kids were out there will be several opportunities to make things up in class) or during Office Hours. Office Hours will be by appointment this week as teachers wrap up end of semester grading and narrative report writing. We typically cancel Office Hours this first week back while teachers wrap up this work, but if teachers need to meet with students this week to make up work they will do so by appointment.
End of semester reports will be published in Toddle in mid-January. I will send out an email to let parents know when these reports are available. If you have not been reviewing your student’s grades via Toddle, I encourage you to do so. There’s some great information on this topic in my Courier letter from before Winter Break (12/16/25).
Finally, I’ll close with some reminders related to dismissal, After Care, and Office Hours, because we have been having some issues with students not being where they are supposed to be after school. We dismiss at 3:10pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and at 2:00pm on Wednesdays. If students are being picked up in a car we have a car line for that – we dismiss the whole school in about 7 minutes so people don’t have to wait long.
We give families a 15 minute grace period after dismissal for picking up their students. Staff members wait with students who have not yet been picked up, but at 3:25pm we send students in to After Care. After Care costs $20/day. We understand that these fees can add up when people are running late, however if cost is an issue please come and talk to us so we can come up with solutions. Unfortunately, we sometimes have students hanging around on campus and avoiding adults in hopes of avoiding this charge and that creates a conflict that we’d prefer to avoid.
For students who are staying after school for Office Hours, Office Hours take place after school from dismissal to 4:00pm according to the following subject area schedule:
- Mondays and Thursdays – I&S, L&L, PHE, and Spanish
- Tuesdays and Thursdays – Arts, Design, Math, and Science
We will be moving to a process of students signing into and out of Office Hours with the teachers that they are seeing AND signing into and out of Pickleball club so that we can keep a record of where students are. Students can walk home after Office Hours. Students who are getting picked up that are not picked up by 4:10 will be enrolled in after care. We’ve had several students trying to avoid After Care and hanging around the building so we want to tighten this up and get on the same page with parents regarding dismissal.
As always if you have any questions 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.
