Here we go!
I’m excited to start the 2023-2024 school year. Graduating our inaugural class is going to be the culminating activity to all the hard work from our students, parents, teachers, and staff.
As we start the year, I’d like to reflect on the unique nature of our school and what an audacious undertaking this is. We are truly developing innovative leaders for a dynamic world.
As we started preplanning this year, I was privileged to get to know one of the most talented and enthusiastic staff I have ever been fortunate enough to work with. Something special happens when you get intelligent and passionate educators together who have a shared vision to give your students an authentic education that will prepare them for the world they enter. All we have left to do is get your students back in the building to show the world what can happen when we align our efforts to make students active agents in an educational environment that embraces their passions and pushes them to be the best students they can be.
I’ll jump down from my soapbox for now, but trust me when I say this will be the best year at IA yet.
I want to touch on a few practical issues before the year starts. Transportation and Lunch.
Transportation
We have sent you all an email with the times the buses stop times for our feeder schools. Please pay attention to these times and be patient with our transportation department. These folks work very hard to get our students to and from school, but they are still dealing with a personnel shortage, so there might be some changes as they get up and running. I encourage you to read the post on transportation and carpool. Here are a few highlights that bear repeating.
Parking in the Parking Deck:
The city has asked us to not park in the parking deck across the street from the school. That deck is designed to support the downtown business district. They have been incredible partners for us, with the mayor meeting with our students, city departments partnering with the school for student support, and many important ways. We would like to be good neighbors and partners for the city. Please do NOT park in the deck. If there is a financial need for on campus parking, please reach out to me, and we can help.
Carpool Options:
Ms. Lundy, Mr. Quraishy, and Ms. Browning have done great work in developing a system that gets all of our students off campus in under twenty minutes. Please be patient and wait in the carpool line. Do not skip lines or come up the bus lane to pick up students. These situations cause an unsafe environment for dismissal.
Students are not allowed to enter the teacher parking lot in the front of the school at dismissal. Please do not ask them to meet you there, as it could result in a discipline consequence for them.
Walkers heading towards Alpharetta:
When our walkers leave campus, many head to downtown Alpharetta. When students cross the street at the intersection of School Street and Teasley, there is a lot of congestion which is not a safe place to cross. We are requiring students to leave campus at the cross walk at the intersection of Milton Avenue and Teasley Street.
Parking on Teasley and School Drive:
I had a great conversation with the HOA for the Georgian this summer (I think we might even get some volunteers from our discussion). They are concerned about cars that are parking in their entrance. When cars park here, it creates a blind one lane entrance that can be dangerous for their residence and our students. Please do not park in their entrance or in their neighborhood, since the parking and streets are narrow.
Lunch
In an effort to ensure that our students still have the opportunities to engage in extracurricular activities during the school day, which is necessary since our students come from a large geographic area, we are keeping two lunch periods. While this is definitely going to create some confusion the first few weeks, the benefit is worth it. However, it’s important that you talk to your students about the lunch line. Our lunch periods are almost double the length of lunch periods at most other high schools, so there is plenty of time to eat. Last year, we had multiple students snapped pictures of long lines to parents to say they couldn’t eat. They didn’t mention to the understandably concerned parents that those lines dwindled after the first ten minutes of the period.
Please remind your kids that the lunch lines are open throughout the period, so if the line is full, they can come back in ten minutes and the line will be gone.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday!
Scott Kent