Director's Letter April 25, 2025

Shelly Smith
Apr 27
4 min read

Dear ACA Community,

It was an exciting week with the sparkling new 25-26 Course Catalogs coming out and lots of sunshine! Our teaching staff really brought their A game with great class proposals…some tried and true, and some brand new! We appreciate the time and effort of everyone involved in building the schedule!

A hearty congratulations to two ACA students who were honored this past Wednesday evening by the Oregon City Optimist Club. The awards "to honor and celebrate service-oriented youth" were won by Emily Bowers and Yvette Ruiz Lara. Thanks to these two exemplary citizens for everything they contribute to ACA and the wider community! We are proud of you!

We’ve had good participation in the last four Friday State Test sessions. A reminder…next week (April 28 - May 2) there will be no on-site classes. We’ll be offering test sessions all week. These are still school days and home learning will be expected.

Good News…Mr. Holland’s 3 on 3 Middle/High Basketball Tournament is happening! Students will create their own three person teams with at least one player being a Middle Schooler. Sign up your team on the clipboard at Mr. Holland’s cubicle. The date of the showdown will be Tuesday, May 27th after school. Thank you, Mr. Holland, for making this happen!

Please give me another chance…last week I sent out the Spring Surveys with restricted links. I’m very sorry about that! All the links are correct now and open for responses. We rely on the longitudinal data for a variety of purposes and need to hear from everyone! Thank you for participating!

Students Grade K-2 LINK

Students Grade 3-5 LINK

Students Grade 6-8 LINK

Students High School LINK

Parents/Families of ACA Students LINK

ES/Teacher Survey LINK

Support Staff Survey LINK

ACA is hiring a Curriculum Room assistant to assist the Curriculum Manager in all tasks related to curriculum purchasing, storage, and distribution. Duties include inventory control, data-entry, word processing, filing, recording data, reporting data, and assisting teachers, students, and parents. The position will go live on our website on May 1as in ‘internal’ posting. We’re hoping to hire from within our wonderful community!

Thank you to Oregon City Together and Children’s Center for cosponsoring last night’s Angst film and talk with Dr. Crystal Collier. We had a great turnout, and families reported learning practical strategies for supporting their students! OC Together has invited our families to also join in a forum focusing on fentanyl awareness, hosted next week at OCPD. More details are available on their website: https://www.octogether.org/event/family-forum-on-fentanyl-and-other-drugs/.

ACA has partnered with Stronger Oregon to provide on-site school therapy/counseling services on Wednesdays. Services such as individual, family therapy, group therapy, skills training, case management and consultation are available. They additionally offer services via telehealth and at their community locations throughout Oregon. Services are charged to family insurance providers, however lack of insurance is not a barrier to accessing services. To be referred, families should talk to your ES.

A very important way to serve ACA is by joining our School Board. Please consider applying for a two year term. Here is the link to the APPLICATION. The deadline to apply is May 14th.

Gentle Rule Reminder: Please visit the Lost & Found area in the cafeteria and claim your items. The space is overflowing with nice things!

Happy School Volunteer Week with special thanks to all of our stellar ACA Volunteers, without whom our school would not be as phenomenal as it is. You are appreciated every day! Setting the bar high are our PTO officers Kate Hansen, Jana Holland, Lauree Ortman and Rachael Guenther who have brought an extra level of joy and fun this year. Thank you all for sharing your time and talents so generously!

And from the World’s Greatest PTO:

4/15-4/26 Spring BottleDrop Gives Drive

We receive an 20% extra match during this time.

• pick up a blue bag at school, fill with cans and bottles, drop off at a BottleDrop site

• visit our donation site to transfer from your own account or donate directly

5/5-5/8 Staff Appreciation

Help us celebrate the best teachers in the world! Here is our Signup and plan for the week

Pizza Pre-Orders

You can order on our online form or any time at the PTO desk. Cutoff is the Tuesday before each pizza Thursday.

5/28 4-8pm PTO Fundraiser @ Mike's Drive-In

25% of proceeds go to PTO! We are hoping to raise enough money for a new customized welcome mat.

Remember to check the calendar on our website often, AllianceCharterAcademy.org and don’t forget to log your Volunteer hours here Volunteer Time Log.

There are a lot of great flyers below, so keep scrolling for some nice events and opportunities!

Have a wonderful weekend, and thank you for being part of the ACA family!

Go Eagles,

Shelly Smith

ShellySmith@aca.k12.or.us

24-25 Executive Director

“The mission of Alliance Charter Academy is to nurture the innate curiosity of our students, ignite their passion for learning, and prepare them for lifelong success through personalized learning and the collaboration of school, family, and community.”