Category: Weekly Updates

Last week, our school nutrition team received word that their program had been selected for a 2018 “Golden Radish Award”, an award given annually by the Georgia Department of Education, Georgia Department of Agriculture, Georgia Department of Public Health, the UGA Cooperative Extension, and Georgia Organics for “extraordinary work in farm to school”.  The ANCS…

Now that we are just about a month into the new school year, students and families are beginning to hear about programs and groups available to students at ANCS outside of “regular” school hours.  A range of enrichment classes, clubs, and other extracurricular activities enhances the learning students do in the classroom with their teachers…

Last night the Southface board of directors held their regular meeting at ANCS.  Southface supports nonprofits like ANCS in understanding, designing, and implementing projects that promote responsible resource use.  Over the past 9 years, ANCS has been fortunate to have been awarded three different grants from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s “Grants to Green”…

Right before the start of each new school year, all of our ANCS teachers and staff gather at a site away from school for a retreat to begin building community and thinking about our work ahead with students and families.  At the opening of this year’s retreat at Sweetwater Creek State Park, I shared some…

Come Thursday afternoon, ANCS students will begin their summer break, and while I hope all of our students get an opportunity to spend time outside playing and exploring, go to camps, and maybe even do some traveling, the summer also provides lots of time for reading.  In addition to all the books students might read…

As we near the end of the school year, I’ve seen and heard many parents giving thanks to their children’s teachers, showing appreciation for the work they’ve done to help students grow academically and socially over the past 9 months.  Working with the teachers and staff here at ANCS, I know they are very much deserving…

As you’ve seen and heard by now, this week kicks off our final push towards this year’s goal for the ANCS “Gather and Grow Fund”, looking to raise $20,000 in the month of May to keep us on track for our annual goal of $125,000.  A letter I sent home to all families goes into…

Ask any teacher, and she or he will tell you one of their favorite parts of the job is when an old student comes back to visit.  Seeing former students–how they’ve grown, what they’re doing–is rewarding in a profession in which the results often take time to be seen and realized, and knowing that students…

Starting tomorrow, all ANCS students in grades 3-8 will begin taking this year’s Georgia Milestones tests.  These tests are taken by all public school students in Georgia as required by state and federal law, and there’s significant attention and weight given to the results of them.  In my opinion, this overemphasis on scores from a…

One of the clearest ways to see what an organization values is to look at its budget.  How does it allocate its resources?  What gets the most money? What gets left out and why? The process of setting ANCS’s budget each year–which our board’s finance and operations committee is doing right now for next school…