Please read this important update from Mr. Walden on returning to school:
ACS Families,
As always, I pray that you all are recovering well. I know that there are varying degrees of damage and hardships with some of us facing a long term recovery. God is good and I know that we will all be just fine. It is certainly a time for the ACS family to Be Strong!
I met with the admin team to discuss our progress and return to campus. Following are some pertinent details and a proposed return schedule.
The major campus damage was to the maintenance building, a maintenance truck and the football concession stand. Other damage includes awnings ripped up and blown away, trees down, and fence damage. We have had crews cleaning up all of the trees and metal in order to make the campus safe, particularly around the playground and other student occupied areas.
A remediation company has spent several hours on both campuses today to address water and structural damage. They will be replacing carpet, sheetrock and any other material that needs replacing. We have 2 roofing companies coming in to work on all of the roofs and any leaks campus wide. Two weeks ago we had the “C” building roof worked on and had already scheduled this for the “A” building. The roof at Furys Ferry was completely redone last week and the contractor is returning to check everything and finish the shingle portion. Once all of this is complete, we should not have any roof issues at either campus.
The remediation company will bring in an Industrial Hygienist for campus air quality and other appropriate testing as a follow up to the water damage.
Additional contractors will be repairing any physical damage that has occurred such as holes in roofs or wall damage.
We are also looking at areas around each building to determine what ground needs to be regraded or have improved drainage installed to prevent water intrusion on an ongoing basis. Fortunately, this appears to be a minimal issue.
With all of this work going on and our desire to keep everyone safe during school hours, there will be classroom moves. We will spend tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday determining the best locations and physically making those moves.
We will move our homecoming game tentatively to October 18 and set a new date for the dance. Other athletic games will be postponed or, in some cases, cancelled. We know that giving the students back some normalcy goes a long way towards healing and want to do as much as possible. Spirit week will still occur.
We will also postpone grandparents day, elementary parent-teacher conferences, standardized testing, and other scheduled events. We will communicate new dates and times as we are able. The Christian College Fair will go on as scheduled but possibly moved to a different location.
The proposed schedule for next week is:
1. Faculty and Staff return Monday from 9-2 to move furniture and make ready classrooms.
2. Faculty, Staff and High School Students return Tuesday. Students will have a chance to connect with their classmates and teachers, discuss the plans for the week and eat lunch at the school. The hours for high school students will be 10-2.
3. Everyone will return to both campuses on Wednesday, October 9 for normal school hours and the same for Thursday and Friday.
Please bear with us as this is subject to change based on power being connected at Baston Rd. Additionally, we do not want to put anyone in danger. If your student drives and it is not safe for them to come to the campus, please do not feel obligated to send them.
Fortis Esse!
Les Walden, M.Ed.
Head of Schools