December 14, 2011

Greetings Alpharetta High School parents:

It is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the first semester for the 2011-2012 school year. What a joy it has been to serve as your principal this year! Thank you for your continued support of me; I look forward to the new year and all that 2012 has to bring for our students and our community.

            I am sending this communication to you in order to inform you of some important information that your child will be receiving during a ten minute homeroom tomorrow, Thursday, December 15. All students will receive their second semester class schedules, and many students will be receiving their PSAT reports and/or their GHSGWT reports. Please be sure to review the attachment for details, and please discuss the information and documents with your child tomorrow evening.

            I also want to remind parents that next week includes final exams for first semester. Exams will take place on Tuesday, December 20 for 1^st and 2^nd period classes, Wednesday, December 21 for 3^rd and 4^th period classes, and Thursday, December 22 for 5^th and 6^th period classes. Please note that our school hours are adjusted on exam days. The school day will begin as usual at 8:35 a.m. but will end at 12:45 p.m. for an early dismissal. Buses will begin leaving our campus at 1:00 p.m. Students will be able to purchase a sack lunch each day during exams if they choose to come to the cafeteria before leaving campus. We look forward to our students being able to share all that they have learned this semester through their performance on their final exams. Please remember to thank your child’s teachers and counselors for all of their hard work this semester.

Again, parents, thank you for all of your support. Please remember to review the attachment and please enjoy the holidays with your family. I look forward to seeing you all again in the new year. Go Raiders!

Sincerely,

Shannon N. Kersey

Shannon N. Kersey

Principal

Alpharetta High School

Attachments:

December 14th Principal's Letter	222 Kb
PSAT Addendum	20 Kb

PSAT Addendum to December Letter

On Thursday, December 15, all students will report to their advisement teacher after 2^nd period for a 10-minute homeroom to receive important information:

1. 1)All students will receive a copy of their second semester schedule. Please know that every effort to be accurate was made in scheduling your student into the appropriate classes. We ask that you and your student review the proposed schedule carefully. You and your student may complete the “Request for Schedule Change” form that can be found outside Suites 1310, 1320 and 1330 as well as on the school’s website. The form requires a parent’s signature and must be submitted to the student’s counselor by Thursday, January 19, 2012.

1. 2)All juniors who took the Georgia High School Graduation Writing Test (GHSGWT) in September will receive their test results. Also, all seniors who took a Georgia High School Graduation subject test will receive their test results.

1. 3)All juniors, sophomores, and freshman will be receiving their PSAT/NMSQT Paper Score Reports from the October 2011 administration. Included with the score report are directions for logging onto My College Quickstart. This service, provided by the College Board, provides students the opportunity to:Top of Form

• See their scores and their projected SAT score
• Review questions they got wrong - and why
• Practice for the SAT with hundreds of practice questions
• Save college searches
• Take a personality test to find majors and careers

In order for you to sign up for this service, you will need your student’s online access code, which is printed on the PSAT/NMSQT paper score report. This code is only valid during the month of December, so sign up as soon as you can to create your account and begin using the features of My College Quickstart.

Parents and students are also encouraged to go to the following website in order to review a video that assists students with reading the report and using My College Quickstart.

http://www.collegeboard.com/html/demo

Parents, please know that AHS will conduct a PSAT night on Thursday, January 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium in order to help parents and students better understand their PSAT score reports and how to interpret them. A representative from the Princeton Review will be here on January 12 to assist parents and students with understanding the score report.   We hope you will consider joining us at this event. If you plan to attend, please be sure to keep and bring your child’s score report (that students are receiving on December 15) with you.

Thank you in advance for reviewing all of this important information with your child.

Attachments:

PSAT Addendum

20 Kb

(Original with letterhead available as an attachment below.)

October 27, 2011

Dear Parents:

It has come to my attention that many AHS parents are hearing rumors concerning fights at our school this week, and I want to share some facts so you will have the correct information and be reassured that Alpharetta High School continues to be a safe school for our students.

While we recently did have a fight between a few students that received some attention, I want to assure you that student fighting is not a normal occurrence in our school. This particular altercation has received more attention because some students photographed the location of the incident with their cell phones and shared the images through social media.

As you can imagine, this has led to some concerns among students and parents about the safety of our school. I want to assure you that Alpharetta High School is a safe school, and that the level of student altercations we experience is minimal. While we absolutely do not condone fighting or any disruptive behavior – and do take any and all appropriate disciplinary action to discourage it – we recognize that the teenage years are when many students learn conflict management and how to manage their emotions. Therefore, our school has several popular clubs that aim to foster positive relationships among students, such as SAS (Students Among Students), SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), The Friends Club, and the Raider Ambassadors, to name only a few.

Unfortunately, sometimes students still make poor choices in how to resolve peer to peer conflict, which is why our practice at AHS is to have administrators and teachers assigned to supervise students in the morning, during lunch and during afternoon dismissal. Additionally, please know that during every class change we have teachers and administrators positioned throughout the school to ensure that students move through the hallways and to their classes in an organized and calm manner. When disruptions occur, we handle them immediately.

Coincidentally, this week our school just concluded participation in a “School Quality Review,” a two-day visit by a panel of external school improvement experts who examine our school intensively to determine our school’s strengths and the areas in which we can improve. I am very pleased to share that the School Quality Review team specifically commented in their draft report that Alpharetta High School has a positive climate and that students are extremely well behaved, respectful and exhibit mature behavior and attitudes to each other and to the faculty and staff.  

Thank you for your continued support of our school, and please feel free to contact me or anyone on the administrative team with any concern involving your student or our school. I truly appreciate you reaching out to me with your questions.

Sincerely,

Shannon N. Kersey

Shannon N. Kersey
Principal

Attachments:

October_27_Principal_Letter.pdf

39 Kb

Greetings Alpharetta High School students and parents:

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year!  It was such a pleasure to meet and greet so many of you last week during our Information Day.  Thank you for your support and for your role in making this day a wonderful success.  I have received much positive feedback and certainly welcome any additional feedback students and parents would like to offer.

I look forward to welcoming over 2300 students to Alpharetta High School tomorrow morning.  The school day begins at 8:35 a.m. and ends at 3:45 p.m.  The teachers and staff have worked extremely hard to ensure our students have an excellent first day.  Students will report to their advisement period Monday through Wednesday this week before 1^st period for a 30 minute advisement that begins at 8:35 a.m.  During advisement this week, students will have an opportunity to purchase a locker, return PTSA membership information, and return the required, notarized residency affidavit if that document has not yet been turned in to the front office.  Also, during advisement, students will receive their most updated class schedule and receive important documents such as emergency cards and the student Code of Conduct.  Parents will need to review, sign and return the important paperwork that students receive during advisement. 

Important to note for both students and parents are a few new procedures that will be in place this year to ensure all of our students are being properly supervised and to ensure our building remains safe and secure throughout the school day.  Specifically, in the mornings before 8:23 a.m., all students will be asked to remain on the lower level of the building in the cafeteria, media center, or patio unless the student is with a teacher in a teacher’s classroom. Essentially, students will no longer be able to hang out in the hallways on the main floor or top floor of the building in the mornings before school.  We will have a bell ring at 8:23 a.m. that will communicate to students they can move toward their advisement class or 1^st period class. Additionally, at 8:35 a.m., when school begins, we will be locking all of the exterior doors of the school. All students and visitors arriving to school after the school day begins at 8:35 a.m. will need to enter the school through the main doors at the front of the school. 

I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow, Monday, August 15.  I am confident that this will be one of the best years yet for Alpharetta High School!

Sincerely,

Shannon N. Kersey

Shannon N. Kersey

Principal

Alpharetta High School

Attachments:

August 14_Principal_Letter.pdf

50 Kb