Dear ACS Families,

We have reached the end of October, and I am very pleased that we have been able to keep Covid at bay. To date, we have had 12 confirmed cases since the beginning of school: 3 in Elementary; 3 in Middle School; 4 in High School; 2 staff/faculty. There are no active cases as of today.

With this positive news, I am happy to report that we are steadily introducing more of the normal activities that enrich the student experience at ACS. Here are just a few that have already occurred over the past couple of weeks:

An intramural soccer tournament for high school students
A Tiny Desk Concert (with an audience!) featuring student performers
An alumni/student/faculty volleyball tournament
A Farmers' Market on Rabbit Field

And our Spooky Lane Halloween event scheduled for Saturday, October 30. All of these have been fun community events, and we hope to do even more as the year progresses.

I have two more important updates:

Parent Committee [PC] Elections

Last week, Director of Admissions Najwa Zabad and I met with Imad El Achkar who is charge of Private Sector in the Ministry of Education. He informed us that the Ministry of Education is now requiring a minimum of 15 members of ACS's Parents Committee [PC]. Moreover, since our current number of PC members is below the required minimum threshold, we have to hold elections for all 15 PC positions—in effect, to start over again.

For those of you who are new to ACS and/or Lebanon, the Parents Committee is required by law, and requirements and protocols are determined by the Ministry of Education. The primary roles of the Parents Committee are what you would expect of parents' organizations at other schools your children may have attended:

Parent input and representation to the administration and faculty on matters of importance to the parents and students.
Supporting and assisting school activities, such as student-led community service, parent school education, recognition of faculty and staff, and activities which build school spirit and community.
Strengthening the sense of community among all ACS parents.
Joining conversations with school leadership about longer term strategic priorities.

To be eligible to join the PC, your children must have started at ACS in the 2019/20 school year or earlier. Ideally, we will have one representative for each grade level in the school.

We will be sending a formal announcement out about PC elections on Monday, which will include information and link to the PC application.

New Teacher Classroom Visits

One challenge that all teachers have when moving to a new school is adjusting to the culture, expectations, and pedagogy of that school. The learning curve can be quite steep in the first few months, but usually teachers are able to make adjustments quite quickly and smoothly.

In an effort to help our new faculty with their transition to ACS, the principals and I have been observing our new teachers and providing constructive feedback. In fact, I have just completed my observations of all new faculty in middle and high school divisions. I'll be moving to Elementary and Early Childhood next.

I have been encouraged by our teachers' willingness to reflect on and embrace this feedback.

Sincerely,